At the origins of St Nicholas’ cult in France

ST NICHOLAS 69 NEWS th July 52014 ANGERS 1016, P OITIERS 1047 2014 $W WKH RULJLQV RI 6W 1LFKRODV¶ FXOW LQ France ..LL FULK NERRA THE VIOLENT PILGRIM Among the most characteristic figures of the Middle Agehas to be mentionedFulk III Nerra (Black Falcon),who brought the little duchy of Anjou toward national ambitions, that would have become the basis for the international successes of the Angevin Dynasty. Inhis personality merged asincere religious pietyand an ambition for the sake of which he wasready to any violence.Almost 300 years nd afterwards one of his a descendants, Charles the 2of Anjou, would have been WKH JUHDWHVW EHQHIDFWRU RI 6W 1LFKRODV¶in Bari.But was he, Fulk Nerra, Basilica who, \HDUV EHIRUH WKH 6W 1LFKRODV¶ WUDQVODWLRn to Bari,³PHW´ 6W Nicholas and built a monastery in his honor i n Angers. Angers, France: The new 6W 1LFKRODV¶ Abbey 1 FOLK III NERRA DUKE of ANJOU (970-1040) BETWEEN WARS AND PILGRIMAGES PELLEGRINAGGI Notalways devotion and piety goes together with meekness and sweetness. Man is a contradictory being who often unites in himselfvery different and by no means reconcilable aspects.