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The Abbey of La Trinité in Vendôme, France and the Cult of the Holy Tear: An Exploration of a Multi-Sensory Devotional Experience

Millet, Histoire de la Sainte-Larme (1633), ed. Charles Métais (Avignon, 1891), Description of the Vendôme Coffret, pp. 44-45

Description of the Vendôme Coffer, pages 44-45

Le dernier et cinquième vase qui contient tous les aultres est un petit coffre qui a environ un pied de longueur, demy pied de largeur et envrion 4 poulces de hauteur. Il est de boys, mais tout couvert de lames d’or sauf le dessoubz qui est d’argent, et le couvercle dans lequel est enchassé un iaspe en ovale, aux 4 coings de ce couvercle sont gravées les figures d’Abraham, Melchisedech, Moyse et Aaron. Ce coffret est porté sur quatre petitz lyons de cuivre doré. Ses quatre coings sont gravés et cizelez fort artificiellement, et enrichis de deux rangs de perles et pierreries enchassées en or.

Il est enrichi de toutes partz de plusieurs images en relief fort antiques, soubz lesquels images y a diverses inscriptions, lesquelles je passe soubz silence pour parler de celles qui se voient à l’un des boutz du coffre. La se voit représenté en bosse la figure d’un œil humain aupres du naturel, enchassé en or, environné d’un cercle de petites pierreries. Cest œil peut à mon advis représenter l’œil de notre Sauveur Jesus Christ, duquel coula la précieuse Larme, laquelle nous gardons, ou bien le (p. 45) recours qu’ont à la mesme Saincte-Larme ceux qui sont travaillez du mal des yeux. Au dessus de cest œil sont ces mots HENRICO NIKERUS DAT, et au dessoubs HEINRICUS REX, NIKERUS EPISCOPUS. Desquelles paroles on ne scauroit recueillir aultre scens, sinon que quelque evesque nomme Nikerus donna iadis ce coffret au Roy Henry premier (du temps duquel fut fondé le monastere de la S. Trinité de Vendosme), pour y mettre quel-ques reliques, et que le roy le donna depuis y mettre la Saincte-Larme, et voulut que le nom de l’evesque qui luy en avoit faict présent y demeurast gravé avec le sien. Cela ne se peut entendre d’aucun aultre roy Henry que de celuy la, veu que depuis son trespas iusques au regne de Henry second, il y a invervalle de 486. Et il est manifeste que ce coffre est beaucoup plus antique que le règne de ce second Henry qui ne commenca que l’an 1547.

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The final and fifth vase which contains all the others is a small chest which is around a foot in length, a half-foot in width and around 4 poulces in height. It is [made] of wood, but entirely covered with plaques of gold except for underneath which is silver, and the cover in which is contained a jasper oval [and] on the four corners are engraved the figures of Abraham, Melchizedek, Moses and Aaron. This coffer is carried on four small lions in gilded copper. Its four corners are very artificially etched and carved, and decorated with two rows of pearls and stones encased in gold.

It is decorated on all parts with several images in relief [which are] quite old, beneath which images there are diverse inscriptions, which I pass under in silence for speaking of those which are seen on one of the ends of the coffer. There is seen represented in bosse the figure of a human eye close to nature, encased in gold, surrounded by a circle of small stones. This eye can, in my opinion, represent the eye of our Savior Jesus Christ, from whom flowed the precious Tear, the same Holy Tear which we keep as much for those who suffer aliments of the eyes. Above this eye are these words NITKER GIVES [THIS] TO HENRY, and below HENRY KING, NITKER BISHOP. From which words we don't know to gather another meaning, other than some bishop named Nikter gave long ago this chest to the King Henry the first (from the time in which the monastery of the Holy Trinity of Vendôme was founded), for placing there a few relics, and that the king gave it since the Holy Tear was placed there, et he wanted that the name of the bishop who had given it to him carved with his own. This cannot be understood [to mean] any king Henry other than of this one, seeing that since his death until the reign of Henry the second, there is an interval of 486 [years]. And it is obvious that this chest is much more ancient than the reign of this second Henry which only began in the year 1547.

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The Vendôme Coffret: A Portable Altar-turned-Reliquary of the Holy Tear
The appearance of the Vendôme coffret is known through a single visual source and a small group of Early Modern textual sources. In 1700, the Benedictine scholar Jean Mabillon (1632–1707) published a reply to a polemic written by Jean-Baptiste Thiers (1632–1703) disparaging the Holy Tear and its cult. In the book, Mabillon described the Holy Tear and the reliquaries at La Trinité, including the Vendôme coffret (on page 52). He also included a fold-out page featuring an engraving depicting the portable altar in five views, one from each side, except for the underside:

The views on the foldout show a chest-shaped coffret. The Benedictine monk Simon-Germain Millet described the coffret, including its dimensions: one foot long, one half foot wide and “4 poulces” [inches] high. The nineteenth-century antiquarian Achille de Rochambeau put these dimensions in modern measurements: thirty-five centimeters long, seventeen centimeters wide and ten centimeters high.

The chest-shaped coffret originally was made to be a portable altar. This type includes the portable altar, called a Kästenaltar features stone (mensa) on the top side and a wooden chest below that serves as the stipes, recalling a sepulcher. According to the Early Modern descriptions, plaques of gold (de boys, mais tout couvert avec lames d’or) covered the portable altar’s wooden core, and silver made up the underside. Pearls and gemstones fastened in gold borders encrusted the side panels. Gilded copper (cuivre d’oré) lions support each corner.

The top of the portable altar was made of gold or copper foil, with figures, identified by inscriptions. A pointed oval marked out by double lines circumscribes an empty field, which delineates the altar stone. Millet claimed the altar stone was jasper, but the monk Lanthenas identified the material as red porphyry with white specks.

The inscriptions identify the Old Testament figures that prefigure the Christian Mass. Abraham (sacrificing Isaac) and Melchizedek appear in the top corners separated by an altar with a chalice. On the left Abraham sacrifices Isaac in obedience to God; on the right, Melchizedek, king and high priest of Jerusalem, offers bread and wine to Abraham. Moses and Aaron fame the bottom corners. Between the upper and lower register, the decorative pattern of scrolled vines divides the upper and lower registers. These Old Testament figures that prefigure the Christian Mass frequently appear on portable altars.

The inscription along the bottom edge reads: HEINRICO NITKERUS DAT (Nitker gives [this] to Henry). Lanthenas observed that the inscription was incised on gold foil and attached to the portable altar with an iron nail.

The color altar stone of the Vendôme coffret may have appeared like the altar stone of the Gertrude portable altar at the Cleveland Museum of Art:

Supporting the mensa, the sepulcher portion of the portable altar adds to the object’s sumptuous quality. The lower part of the engraving shows two long sides with borders encrusted with gemstones and pearls surrounding the golden panels with figures fashioned “in relief,” (plusieurs images en relief fort antiques).

One long side featured the four greater prophets, identified by inscriptions above them: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Below their feet, a second inscription reads: ASPICE LAETA TUOS FELIX FRIGISINSA PATRONOS (Freising, look with joy at your patrons). The Paschal Lamb appeared in the center beneath with an inscription “Agnus Dei” above it.

The other long side featured four saints identified by inscriptions appearing along the object’s upper edge: St. Tertulinus, St. Corbinianus, St. Maurice, and St. George. The inscription on the lower edge reads: BIS DUO SYNMISTAE TUA PANDUNUNT TEMPORA CHRISTE (O Christ, four of your holy ministers recount your mortal life). The central medallion encircled a bird with open wings. This motif also appears on the ninth-century Ciborium of Arnulf. Mabillon identified it as an eagle; Lanthenas called it specifically an eagle of the Empire (L’aigle de l’Empire).

However, such a motif would neither match the medallion of the Agnus Dei on the opposite side, nor the portable altar’s overarching Christoloigcal theme. The motif at the center of the eagle’s body appears to be an open book. A Christological interpretation of the eagle would be as the symbol of the evangelist John, the opening of whose Gospel describes Christ as the logos.

The two short sides continued the Christological themes of the medallions. On the right side of the page, the Maiestas Domini, Christ appeared as ruler of the world, enthroned on a rainbow within a gem-encrusted mandorla. He held an orb with one hand and blessed with another.
The other short side had highly unusual imagery. An eye encircled by gemstones likely reflected the coffer’s later purpose as a reliquary for the Holy Tear. Millet described the eye as “en bosse” encased in gold and “after nature,” but Lanthenas described it as an enamel, and Mabillon further suggested that it was a weeping eye (oeil plourant) inserted behind a piece of crystal. One indication that this eye was not original to the eleventh-century gold work is that Lanthenas critiqued the workmanship, saying it was of poor quality: “the other collateral face [is] enriched with an eye without beauty for its figure, its enamel and its stones. It has no character.” (Aux quatre coins du coffre sont representez des yeux, qui semblent y avoir esté ajoûtez.) Lanthenas likely picked up on both the technical skills of workmanship displayed on the short side, as well as the difference in craftsmanship to the other parts of the coffer. For this reason, scholars agree that the eye is a later addition to the portable altar.Along the bottom edge, the inscription reads: HEINRICUS REX NITKERUS EPS (Henry king, Nitker bishop). The inscription may have been embossed in gold, using a similar technique that appears on the Arnulf Ciborium, created in Metz or Rheims, c. 890, and currently located in Munich in the Schatzkammer of the Residenzmuseum.
Simon-Germain Millet, Histoire de la Sainte-Larme de Vendome, 1633 (ed. by Charles Métais, Avignon, 1891)
One of the most important primary sources for understanding the cult of the Holy Tear at La Trinité is the first-hand account written around 1633 by the Maurist monk Simon-Germain Millet. Histoire de la Sainte-Larme de Vendôme (click to see full text) was published in 1891 by Charles Métais based on an original manuscript recounting the history of the abbey. Millet gives valuable information about the legend of the Holy Tear, the Holy Tear relic. His account of the portable altar-turned-reliquary, called in our study the Vendôme coffret, as well as of the shrine of the Holy Tear is particularly important because Millet was in residence at the abbey before its archives were destroyed in 1793.

The chapters are supplemented by commentary from Charles Métais, a nineteenth-century archivist and local historian and priest from Chartres. He was involved in several diocesan archives, including the archives of La Trinité.