ABSTRACT
The Carolingian monastery at Conques acquired by theft the relics of Sainte-Foy in 866 and placed them in a wooden statue covered in gold revetment and gems. This is the earliest extant AQ AQ: Is this what you mean?sculpture in the round in the Latin West. In the course of the eleventh century, the monastery invested in art in order to promote the cult of Sainte-Foy; it commissioned the Book of Miracles (Liber miraculorum sanctae Fidis) of the patron saint; composed new music for the feast (The Office of Sainte-Foy); and built a magnificent Romanesque church decorated with monumental narrative reliefs. The metaphor of the shell (conca in Latin) applies to the ecclesiastical building, the golden statue, and the valley of Ouche; all are vessels containing the invisible energy (virtus in Latin) of the Holy Spirit made perceptible. The metaphor of the shell has a special valence at Conques because the site carries the name Conc[h]as, meaning “shell.” This chapter explores the conca through the medieval concept of locus (topos) as a place/container conjoining the terrestrial and the celestial, matter and spirit. The analysis casts a wide net involving the eleventh century music for the Office of Sainte-Foy, the relief sculpture and gold statue, the texts of the Liber miraculorum, architectural inscriptions, and the natural environment at Conques. The methodology includes the reading of text-painting in the melodies (the understanding that the melodic form seeks to express the semantics of the poem); iconographic analysis; Begriffsgeschichte of terms such as locus and topos; and an engagement with chiasm in the music, poetry, and images. The conclusion recognizes that conca as locus conjoins human and divine, making the metaphysical––the pearl/margarita-Christ––sensorially perceptible. This in-gathering of invisible energy (virtus in Latin) elicits from the faithful love for and fear from the divine.
