University of Virginia Library

II.1.8

PRESBYTERY

HIGH ALTAR: ST. MARY AND ST. GALL

Raised as it is by seven steps above the level of the transept,
the presbytery with its high altar dominates the entire
Church. The liturgical pre-eminence of this part of the
building is emphasized by a hexameter in capitalis rustica:

The "holy structures" are the high altar of the Church,
dedicated jointly to St. Mary and St. Gall (altare sc̄ē mariae &
scī galli) and the tomb of the holy body (sacrophagū scī

[ILLUSTRATION]

89. MEROVINGIAN CARVED STONE

POITIERS, MUSÉE DU BAPTISTÈRE, FRANCE

[photo: Photomecaniques]

The stone may have come from the
church of Notre-Dame l'Ancienne.

[ILLUSTRATION]

90. MARBLE SLAB WITH CROSS
& SIX-LOBED ROSETTES (8TH CENT.)
LUCCA, MUSED DI VILLA GRININI

Associated with the cross, as in many
Syrian, North African and Visigothic slabs
of earlier periods, the six-lobed rosette
probably retained its original meaning as a
symbol of light overcoming evil forces allied
with darkness. In the Middle Ages the
symbol went underground.

[after Arte Lombarda, suppl. vol. 9:1]

[ILLUSTRATION]

92. HEX SIGNS

On Pennsylvania Dutch barns, they often are several feet in diameter

[after Sloane, 1954, 67]

[ILLUSTRATION]

91. SIX-LOBED ROSETTE IN MASONRY OF
MONASTIC BARN (1211-1227) PARCAY-MESLAY, FRANCE

[photo: Horn]

The rosette was cut into masonry or timber work of many medieval
tithe barns as a spell to ward off harm to livestock or harvest.

corporis) which on the Plan is located immediately behind
the altar.

The joint patrocinium of Mary and St. Gall has its
explanation in the fact that Mary was the patron of the
original oratory of St. Gall. The deeds of the Monastery
disclose how in the course of the eighth century the name
of St. Gall began to be associated with that of Mary with
increasing frequency until it eventually replaced it entirely
and became the local place name (coenobium sancti Galli, or
sancti Galloni).[56] The altar is raised on a plinth, a distinction
not accorded any other altars in the Church. We must
expect it to have been surmounted by a canopy. A capitulary
issued by Charlemagne in 789 directs that altars should
be surmounted by such superstructures (Ut super altaria
teguria fiant vel laquearia).[57] An ancient symbol of the
celestial dome and hence, by implication, of universal
rulership, this motif had been transmitted from the Roman

gods (fig. 102.A)[59] to the Roman emperor, as he rose into the
rank of the gods (fig. 102.B),[60] and from the emperor to Christ
as Christ acquired the status of a Roman state god. It was
no lesser person than Constantine the Great who set a
conspicuous precedent for this transmission of celestial
prerogatives to the new God of Heaven when he adorned the
high altar of the latter's prime apostle with a pedimented
canopy richly revetted with silver and gold, in the Church
of St. Peter's in Rome (fig. 104).[61]

WALL BENCHES

Wall benches lined both sides of the fore choir and
continued into the round of the apse. The monks faced
each other vultus contra vultum from either side of the
altar, except for those who sat in the curving parts of the
apse, and faced the altar westward. The abbot presumably
sat at the apex of the apse and had a counterpart in the
choir master, who occupied a position of comparable
centrality in the middle of the crossing square. The layout
of the benches discloses that crossing and presbytery—
despite their different levels—formed liturgically a unitary
space; and a count of the sitting places available for the
monks in the areas screened off for their exclusive use in the
eastern parts of the Church suggests that when the entire
community participated at a common service, even the
benches in the transept arms were occupied by monks
attending the service,[62] . On the north side "an upper
entrance leads into the library above the crypt" (introitus
in bibliothecā sup criptā superius). The qualifying adjective
"upper" implies the existence of a "lower" entrance, which
must have made the library accessible from the Scriptorium
below it. The prototype for the raised platform of the
presbytery and the apse of the Church of the Plan of St. Gall
was the raised presbytery that Pope Gregory the Great had
installed in Old St. Peter's in Rome between 594 and 604
(fig. 104) by lifting the pavement of the new choir 5 feet
above the original floor of the church and establishing
below this platform a crypt that incorporated directly
beneath the new altar the old shrine of St. Peter, which
before this alteration had been exposed to view.[63]

TOMB OF ST. GALL AND ITS RELATION
TO THE CRYPT

There has been considerable discussion on whether the
tomb of St. Gall should be interpreted as standing in the
presbytery above, or in the crypt below it; and whether, if in
the crypt, it should be thought of as standing behind or
underneath the altar.[64] It should be remarked that on the
Plan the tomb is entered on the east side of the altar, and
that the plurality of "holy structures" referred to in the
affixed hexameter as "shining above the crypt" should
lead one to think that the sarcophagus stood in the upper
sanctuary.

Despite these facts, it has generally been assumed that
the tomb of St. Gall was meant to stand in the crypt underneath
the presbytery, and for good reason, since it was the
desire to find appropriate protection for the relics, in the
first place, that had led to the invention of crypts. The
proper solution to this puzzle may have been found by
Willis when he speculated, "It is not impossible that
although the real sepulchre of the saint was in the confessionary
or crypt below, a monument to his honour may
have been erected above the altar."[65] That such a double-storied
structure actually existed in St. Gall is suggested by
two tales reported in the Miracles of St. Gall. One of these
tales speaks of a cripple who was taken by his friends to the
memoriam B. Galli and daily "laid close to the sepulcher in
the crypt" (cottidie juxta sepulchrum in crypta collocatus).
Another tale mentions "a lamp which burned nightly
before the upper altar and tomb and which also threw some
light through a small window upon the altar of the crypt"
(lumen quod ante superius altare et tumbam ardebat per
quandam fenestrum radios suos ad altare infra cryptam
positum dirigebat).[66] Some further information concerning
the topographical relation of tomb and altar at St. Gall can

[ILLUSTRATION]

93. PLAN OF ST. GALL. NAVE AND AISLES OF CHURCH

In the axis of the nave, west to east: baptismal font, altar of SS John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, altar of the Saviour at the Holy
Cross, ambo; and midway between the two latter, two crucial inscriptions designating the nave as 40 feet wide, and each aisle, 20 feet wide.

In the north aisle, west to east: altars of SS Lucia and Cecilia, The Holy Innocents, SS Martin and Stephen. In the south aisle: SS Agatha and
Agnes, St. Sebastian, SS Mauritius and Lawrence.

be extracted from the Life of St. Gall. The author of this
work informs us that on his death at Arbon, October 16,
about the year 646, the body of the Saint was taken to his
oratory at St. Gall and buried in a grave dug between the
altar and the wall.[67] Forty years later, his sepulcher was
violated by plunderers who mistook the coffin for a treasure
chest, but Boso, Bishop of Constance, replaced the coffin
"housing the relics of the sacred body, in a worthy sarcophagus
between the altar and the wall, erecting over it a
memorial structure congruent with the merits of the God-chosen."[68]
The chronicles of St. Gall report no further
translation of the Saint, and from this fact, as Willis concluded
correctly, it has to be inferred that the location of
the tomb remained the same, even in Gozbert's church.[69]
Nowhere in any contemporary allusions to the sepulcher of
the Saint, is the tomb reported to stand underneath the altar.