DOI article:
Svanberg, Jan: The legend of Saint Stanislaus and King Boleslaus on the 12th century font in Tride, Sweden
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20618#0037
7. King Boleslaus orders the killing of Bishop Stanislaus, who already has a martyr’s halo. Engraving from 1727
of a stone relief, now lost, in the monastery of St. Yincent in Olbin, Poland (after Świechowski 1979)
would be sitting with his sword drawn in order to grant
permission for a cult. And why would a saint from far-
off Switzerland and the regions along the upper Rhine
who was never canonised appear on a baptismal font
in Scania? To this ąuestion no satisfactoiy answer has
been provided by Eriksson.25
In Roosval’s interpretation, the inconsistencies are
fewer and less crucial, but attention must nevertheless
be drawn to them. Why is Stanislaus not wearing bish-
op’s robes in what he describes as the first scene (see
2-,T. Eriksson, Trydefunten och Regnum, Ale. Historisk Tidskrift
for Sk&neland 1969: 1, pp. 1-23.
ill. 2), when he raises the corpse, as he does in the next
scene (see ill. 3) when he leads the dead man into the
court? Could the explanation be that the bishop did not
wear his pontificals in a graveyard? If so, this would fol-
low an unknown early version of the legend. However,
according to the legend that emerged in the middle of
the 13th century, Stanislaus touched the dead man with
the crosier that formed part of his regalia in order to
raise him. Or does the following scene show his investi-
ture, with the ceremony about to conclude as he ac-
cepts his crosier from the hands of the king? In the llth
century, the German Emperor had given the King of
Poland special permission to invest bishops. This, how-
33
of a stone relief, now lost, in the monastery of St. Yincent in Olbin, Poland (after Świechowski 1979)
would be sitting with his sword drawn in order to grant
permission for a cult. And why would a saint from far-
off Switzerland and the regions along the upper Rhine
who was never canonised appear on a baptismal font
in Scania? To this ąuestion no satisfactoiy answer has
been provided by Eriksson.25
In Roosval’s interpretation, the inconsistencies are
fewer and less crucial, but attention must nevertheless
be drawn to them. Why is Stanislaus not wearing bish-
op’s robes in what he describes as the first scene (see
2-,T. Eriksson, Trydefunten och Regnum, Ale. Historisk Tidskrift
for Sk&neland 1969: 1, pp. 1-23.
ill. 2), when he raises the corpse, as he does in the next
scene (see ill. 3) when he leads the dead man into the
court? Could the explanation be that the bishop did not
wear his pontificals in a graveyard? If so, this would fol-
low an unknown early version of the legend. However,
according to the legend that emerged in the middle of
the 13th century, Stanislaus touched the dead man with
the crosier that formed part of his regalia in order to
raise him. Or does the following scene show his investi-
ture, with the ceremony about to conclude as he ac-
cepts his crosier from the hands of the king? In the llth
century, the German Emperor had given the King of
Poland special permission to invest bishops. This, how-
33