ABSTRACT
The Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis, like so many others mentioned in Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks, began as a funerary chapel in a Gallo-Roman cemetery. Gregory makes only oblique references to the abbey, not because it was lacking in interest, on the contrary, because under royal patronage and as the burial place of Merovingian royalty from the sixth century,1 it was becoming a serious rival to his own church and shrine of St Martin. The growth of Saint-Denis is of great importance to both the history of architecture and the liturgy. St Denis, or Dionysius, was one of the missionary bishops Gregory refers to as the ‘Seven Bishops’. He became the first Bishop of Paris, and was martyred in the middle of the third century. Gregory’s occasional references to the Church of Saint-Denis are very negative, including an oath sworn over the altar and grave of the saint that resulted in swords drawn at the very tomb of the saint and the church being spattered with blood. The men were nobles at the court of King Chilperic, an evil tyrant, according to Gregory.2 This particular contribution to the reputation of the patron, Chilperic, was surely intended to reflect on the reputation of the shrine, which was already rising in status relative to Saint-Martin in Tours.
