Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

Commune in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

Commune

Basilica of Mary Magdalene, begun 1295.

Coat of arms

Location of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

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Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

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Coordinates: 43°27′12″N 5°51′41″E﻿ / ﻿43.4532°N 5.8614°E﻿ / 43.4532; 5.8614
Country| France
Region| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Department| Var
Arrondissement| Brignoles
Canton| Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume
Intercommunality| CA Provence Verte
Government

• Mayor (2020-2026) | Alain Decanis[1]

Area

| 64.13 km2 (24.76 sq mi)
Population

(2022)[2]

| 17,691
• Density| 280/km2 (710/sq mi)
Time zone| UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)| UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code|

83116 /83470

Elevation| 261–778 m (856–2,552 ft)
(avg. 520 m or 1,710 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ maksimɛ̃ la sɛ̃t bom]; Occitan: Sant Maissemin de la Santa Bauma) is a commune in the southeastern French department of Var, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Located 40 km (25 mi) east of Aix-en-Provence, the town lies at the foot of the Sainte-Baume mountains. Baume or bama is the Provençal equivalent of cave. The town's basilica is dedicated to Mary Magdalene.

## History

[edit]

The Roman Villa Lata, remains of which have been identified beneath Place Malherbe in the centre of the town, was one among numerous agricultural working Roman villas in the plain that was traversed by the via Aurelia. The Abbey of Saint Victor at Marseille had dependencies in the neighborhood: Saint-Maximin, Saint-Jean, Saint-Mitre, Sainte-Marie. The Romanesque parish church dedicated to Saint Maximin of Trier was demolished in the final stages of constructing the basilica.

In the 12th century, Berenguer Ramon I, Count of Provence, established Saint-Maximin as a town uniquely under his care. In 1246, following the death of Raymond IV Berenger, Provence passed through his younger daughter to Charles d'Anjou, brother of Louis IX of France and sometime king of Sicily. The tenuous Anjou presence at Saint-Maximin was fiercely contested by the seigneurs of Baux among other local leaders.

The French baritone Louis Gassier (1820–1871) was born in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.

## The cultus of Mary Magdalene

[edit]

The little town was transformed by the well-published discovery on 12 December 1279, in the crypt of Saint-Maximin, of a sarcophagus that was proclaimed to be the tomb of Mary Magdalene, signaled by miracles[3] and by the ensuing pilgrim-drawing cult of Mary Magdalene and Saint Maximin, that was assiduously cultivated by Charles II of Anjou, King of Naples. He founded the massive Gothic Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene [fr] in 1295 with the blessing of Boniface VIII, who placed it under the new teaching order of Dominicans.

The founding tradition held that relics of Mary Magdalene were preserved here, and not at Vézelay,[4] and that she, her brother Lazarus, and a certain Maximinus fled the Holy Land by a miraculous boat with neither rudder nor sail[5] and landed at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, in the Camargue near Arles. Maximinus is venerated as St Maximin, a name shared by the 3rd-century Maximin of Trier and the 1st-century martyr, Maximinus of Aix, whom medieval legend conflated with the later Maximin; the conflated Maximin was added in the discussed medieval period to earlier lists of the Seventy Disciples.

After landing in the Camargue, Mary Magdalene came to Marseille and converted the local people. Later in life, according to the founding legend, she retired to a cave in the Sainte-Baume mountains. She was buried in Saint-Maximin, which was not a place of pilgrimage in early times, though there is a Gallo-Roman crypt under the basilica. Sarcophagi are shown, of St Maximin, Ste. Marcella, Ste. Suzanne and St. Sidoine (Sidonius) as well as the reliquary, which is said to hold the remains of Mary Magdalene. Genetic testing of some of the hairs in the reliquary confirmed that it was the hair of a woman of possible Jewish ancestry, but do not confirm the identity of the source of the hair.[6]

Construction of the basilica began in 1295. The crypt was complete when the church was consecrated in 1316. In it were installed a fourth-century Gallo-Roman funerary monument and four marble sarcophagi, whose bas-reliefs permit a Christian identification.

The Black Death in 1348, which killed half the local population, interrupted the building campaign. It was not taken up again until 1404, and the sixth bay of the nave complete by 1412. Work continued until 1532, when it was decided to leave the basilica without a finished west front or portal or bell towers, features that it lacks to this day. The plan has a main apse flanked by two subsidiary apses. Its great aisled nave is without transept. The nave is flanked by sixteen chapels in the side-aisles.

## Geography

[edit]

### Climate

[edit]

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa). The average annual temperature in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume is 13.7 °C (56.7 °F). The average annual rainfall is 765.3 mm (30.13 in) with November as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 23.0 °C (73.4 °F), and lowest in January, at around 5.9 °C (42.6 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume was 42.5 °C (108.5 °F) on 28 June 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −15.2 °C (4.6 °F) on 12 February 2012.

Climate data for Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume (1991−2020 normals, extremes 2006−present)

Month  | Jan  | Feb  | Mar  | Apr  | May  | Jun  | Jul  | Aug  | Sep  | Oct  | Nov  | Dec  | Year
Record high °C (°F)  | 23.1
(73.6)  | 22.6
(72.7)  | 25.6
(78.1)  | 29.4
(84.9)  | 33.5
(92.3)  | 42.5
(108.5)  | 39.6
(103.3)  | 40.0
(104.0)  | 33.7
(92.7)  | 31.0
(87.8)  | 22.6
(72.7)  | 23.2
(73.8)  | 42.5
(108.5)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)  | 11.3
(52.3)  | 12.4
(54.3)  | 15.8
(60.4)  | 19.5
(67.1)  | 23.2
(73.8)  | 28.2
(82.8)  | 31.6
(88.9)  | 31.0
(87.8)  | 26.4
(79.5)  | 21.1
(70.0)  | 15.2
(59.4)  | 11.9
(53.4)  | 20.6
(69.1)
Daily mean °C (°F)  | 5.9
(42.6)  | 6.3
(43.3)  | 9.1
(48.4)  | 12.4
(54.3)  | 15.9
(60.6)  | 20.2
(68.4)  | 23.0
(73.4)  | 22.3
(72.1)  | 18.6
(65.5)  | 14.5
(58.1)  | 9.7
(49.5)  | 6.4
(43.5)  | 13.7
(56.7)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)  | 0.4
(32.7)  | 0.2
(32.4)  | 2.4
(36.3)  | 5.2
(41.4)  | 8.6
(47.5)  | 12.2
(54.0)  | 14.4
(57.9)  | 13.7
(56.7)  | 10.8
(51.4)  | 7.9
(46.2)  | 4.2
(39.6)  | 0.9
(33.6)  | 6.7
(44.1)
Record low °C (°F)  | −10.4
(13.3)  | −15.2
(4.6)  | −7.6
(18.3)  | −7.0
(19.4)  | −0.7
(30.7)  | 3.4
(38.1)  | 6.6
(43.9)  | 5.0
(41.0)  | 0.9
(33.6)  | −3.9
(25.0)  | −8.6
(16.5)  | −9.7
(14.5)  | −15.2
(4.6)
Average precipitation mm (inches)  | 62.3
(2.45)  | 49.6
(1.95)  | 57.7
(2.27)  | 66.5
(2.62)  | 70.8
(2.79)  | 47.8
(1.88)  | 21.5
(0.85)  | 28.8
(1.13)  | 59.5
(2.34)  | 101.0
(3.98)  | 130.6
(5.14)  | 69.2
(2.72)  | 765.3
(30.13)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 6.4  | 6.7  | 6.4  | 7.7  | 6.9  | 4.7  | 2.5  | 2.7  | 4.2  | 6.1  | 8.0  | 6.5  | 68.7
Source: Météo-France[7]

## Gallery

[edit]

* Basilica: interior

* Basilica: altar

* Basilica: organ

* Basilica: Sarcophagus of the Holy Innocents (4th century)

## Population

[edit]

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

|

Historical populationYear| Pop.| ±% p.a.

|
|

1968 | 3,180| —
1975 | 4,013| +3.38%
1982 | 5,511| +4.64%
1990 | 9,594| +7.18%
1999 | 12,402| +2.89%
2007 | 14,142| +1.65%
2012 | 14,734| +0.82%
2017 | 16,433| +2.21%
Source: INSEE[8]

## Administration

[edit]

List of mayors of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume (partial):

2020-present: Alain Decanis
2017-2020: Horace Lanfranchi
2014-2017: Christine Lanfranchi-Dorgal (UMP)
2008-2014: Alain Penal (UMP)
2001-2008: Gabriel Rinaudo (RPR)
1995-2001: Horace Lanfranchi (RPR)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
2. ^ "Populations de référence 2022" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 19 December 2024.
3. ^ The Dominican Bernard Gui, claimed in his chronicle, written early in the following century, that a sweet spicy fragrance emanated from the sarcophagus' contents, and that a green shoot was found to be growing from the Magdalen's tongue. (Jansen 2000)
4. ^ Other alleged burial places are at Ephesus (now in Turkey) and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, whence, it is said, her remains were later removed to Europe.
5. ^ For the literary topos in hagiography of the miraculous boat, compare the legends of Mac Cuill and the voyages of Hui-Corra and The Voyage of Máel Dúin, and in religious legend Brendan of Clonfert, Saint Tathan who was carried to Britain in a rudderless boat, the three Irishmen carried to King Alfred in an oarless boat (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, year 891), the birth of Saint Kentigern, all instanced by Hares-Stryker, 1993. Celidoine is set adrift in a rudderless boat in the Estoire de Saint Graal. The translation of Saint James the Great in a rudderless boat to Hispania might be added. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk-literature; a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, mediaeval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends. Rev. ed.. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press) 1955-58
6. ^ Lucotte, Gérard (December 2016). "The Mitochondrial DNA Mitotype of Sainte Marie-Madeleine" (PDF). International Journal of Sciences. 5 (12): 10–19\. doi:10.18483/ijSci.1167. ISSN 2305-3925.
7. ^ "Fiche Climatologique Statistiques 1991-2020 et records" (PDF) (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
8. ^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE

## Further reading

[edit]

* Katherine Ludwig Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages (Princeton University Press) 2000.
* Hares-Stryker, Carolyn, 1993. "Adrift on the seven seas: the medieval topos of exile at sea", Florilegium 12 (on-line text; pdf file)

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.

* Official website (in French)
* Website about Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume (in French)
* History of the basilica with special reference to its organ (musiqueorguequebec.ca, in French)

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