Saint CAEDMON, moine et poète

Monument à la mémoire de Cædmon, 1898, cimetière de l'église Sainte-Marie à Whitby

Saint Caedmon, père de la poésie anglo-saxonne (+ 670)

Mort en 670. Saint Bede (25 mai) rapporta la vie de Caedmon, le vacher de l'abbaye de Whitby, qui bien que grossier et non-instruit, par la puissance de Dieu, dans ses dernières années, se mit à la chanson et deviendra le père de la poésie anglaise. Certains disent qu'il était très vieux lorsqu'il découvrit son don. La légende veut que durant des années, à cause de sa timidité, il était honteux de son incapacité de prendre son tour de chant dans les occasions festives, qu'il se dérobait et allait se cacher. "Dès lors, étant parfois à des fêtes, lorsque tous étaient d'accord pour l'amour du chant de chanter à tour de rôle, à peine voyait-il la harpe l'approcher qu'il se levait de table et rentrait chez lui."

Une nuit, cependant, alors qu'il avait quitté la fête et trouvé refuge dans l'étable, il entendit une voix lui dire : 'Chante, Caedmon. Chante Moi une chanson.' Caedmon bégaia : 'Je ne sais pas chanter.' 'Mais tu chanteras,' répliqua la voix. 'Que vais-je chanter?' demanda Caedmon, surpris. La voix répondit : 'Chante le début des choses créées.' Et à ce moment-là, Caedmon, tentant de chanter, s'aperçut que sa langue hésitante avait été libérée.

Au matin il se rappella des mots de sa chanson et, y ajoutant des versets, il se présenta à l'abbesse Hilda (17 novembre), à qui il raconta son étrange histoire. Il lui chanta la chanson qu'il avait chantée durant la nuit, et elle et tous ceux qui l'entendirent furent émerveillés, et reconnurent "que la grâce céleste lui avait été conférée par le Seigneur."

Il devint frère convers, et, toujours à la grande abbaye de Whitby, ses compagnons moines lui enseignèrent les vérités de la Bible; et lui les transforma en poésie "si douce à entendre que ses maîtres devinrent ses auditeurs."

"Il chantait", dit Bède, "la Création du monde, les origines de l'homme, et l'histoire d'Israël, l'Incarnation, la Passion et la Résurrection du Christ, et l'enseignement des Apôtres." Ce premier Anglo-Saxon auteur de poésie religieuse paraphrasa ainsi toute l'Ecriture Sainte, et bien que "d'autres après lui s'efforcèrent de composer des poèmes religieux, personne ne parvint à l'égaler, car il n'avait pas appris la poésie grâce à des hommes mais par Dieu."

Il serait mort en état de sainteté et de parfaite charité envers tous, ayant montré qu'il savait que sa vie était arrivée à son terme, bien qu'il ne fut pas gravement malade. Il demanda à être emmené à l'infirmerie et à recevoir la sainte Communion. Avec l'Époux en sa main, il regarda autour de lui et demanda si quelqu'un avait quelque grief contre lui. La réponse étant que nul n'en avait, il dit alors "Moi aussi j'ai l'esprit en paix avec tous les serviteurs de Dieu," il consomma la Communion, se signa de la Croix, se coucha et s'endormit, ne se relevant plus en ce monde.

La poésie de Caedmon est un exemple remarquable de la puissance de la Bible à stimuler l'imagination et à réveiller le génie naturel. C'est ainsi que Caedmon apporta au petit peuple l'énergie et le réalisme des Écritures, qui, entrant profondément dans la vie de la nation, n'a jamais cessé au cours des siècles de ravigorer et d'inspirer la culture du monde anglophone. Bien que seules 9 lignes d'une de ses hymnes, "Rêve du Crucifix," qui aurait été composée en songe, aient survécu, il est appelé 'Père de la poésie sacrée anglaise'. Sa fête est toujours célébrée à Whitby.


Nu we sculon herigean     heofonrices weard,
meotodes meahte     ond his modgeþanc,
weorc wuldorfæder,     swa he wundra gehwæs,   
ece drihten,     or onstealde.
He ærest sceop      eorðan bearnum
heofon to hrofe,     halig scyppend;
þa middangeard     moncynnes weard
ece drihten,     æfter teode
firum foldan,     frea ælmihtig.

A présent il nous faut louer le Gardien des Cieux,
la puissance du Seigneur et Sa providence,
l'oeuvre du Glorieux Père; car Lui,
Dieu Éternel, a fait toutes merveilles,
Lui, le Saint Créateur, a d'abord façonné
le Ciel comme toit pour les fils des hommes.
Ensuite le Gardien de l'Humanité a orné
cette basse terre, le monde des hommes,
Lui l'Éternel Seigneur, le Roi Tout-puissant.


Paraphrase latine de l'hymne de saint Caedmon, par saint Bede le Vénérable:

Nunc laudare debemus     auctorem regni caelestis
potentiam Creatoris,     et consilium illius
facta Patris gloriae:     quomodo ille,
cum sit aeternus Deus     omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit;
qui primo     filiis hominum
caelum pro culmine tecti
dehinc terram     custos humani generis
omnipotens     creavit.

source : BEDE'S STORY OF CAEDMON,  text and facing translation

Versets religieux saxons. Au 19ième siècle, les morceaux épars de la Croix Ruthwell furent déterrés et réassemblés. La croix, qui fait près de 6m de haut, comportait, en plus de magnifiques images, une longue inscription en latin et en runes (lettres runniques), connue sous le nom de Rêve du Saint Crucifix. La tête de la croix porte les mots, "Caedmon m'a fait(e)", qui est similaire au "Caedmon a fait cette chanson", qui se trouve dans les plus anciens manuscrits. Il appert que les plus célèbres des poèmes anglo-saxons ont été composés par saint Caedmon.

http://www.dumfriesmuseum.demon.co.uk/ruthwellcross.html
http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/english/britain/anglo-saxon/RUTHWELL/ruthwell.html

"Rood and Ruthwell:
"Le Poème et la Croix"
http://www.flsouthern.edu/eng/abruce/rood/home.htm

"The Dream of the Rood" (le rêve du crucifix)
Une traduction versifiée en anglais, par Douglas B. Killings:
http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/oe/rood-trans.html

"The Dream of the Rood", en Anglo-Saxon:
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a2.5.html

HILDA ET CAEDMON: 'THE DREAM OF THE ROOD'
LE PLUS ANCIEN POEME ANGLAIS :
http://www.umilta.net/hilda.html

Poésie attribuée à saint Caedmon:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Junius/

Caedmon, poète anglo-saxon du VII^e siècle. Son nom se trouve auusi écrit Cedmon. On sait seulement de lui qu'il entra, déjà âgé, au monastère de Streanesbalch (Whitby) après 658, et qu'il mourut entre 670 et 680. On lui attribue des paraphrases métriques du Vieux Testament en langue anglo-saxonne, dont il existe encore quelques fragments, et le poème intitulé le Songe de Caedmon (Cœdmon's Dream). 

L'authenticité de ces poésies a été fortement mise en doute; on a même prétendu, non sans apparence de raison, que le paysan illettré Caedmon, tel que nous le représente l'Histoire ecclésiastique de Bède,n'avait jamais existé, du moins sous ce nom dont l'étymologie semble être hébraïque (Kadmôn = oriental, ancien), et nullement saxonne. L'opinion qui paraît se rapprocher le plus de la vérité est que Caedmon serait une forme du gallois Cadfan (catu = bataille;  Caedwalla), et que le moine et poète populaire de la Northumbrie , était d'origine celtique. 

On lui a aussi attribué The Dream of the Holy Rood (le Songe de la Verge divine), dont on a trouvé un fragment gravé en caractères runiques sur une croix de pierre dans le Dumfriesshire. Les paraphrases de la Bible qui portent le nom de Caedmon se trouvent dans un manuscrit du Xe siècle, de la bibliothèque bodléienne, reproduit en fac-similé dans l'Archaeologia, t. XXIV (1832). On n'y reconnaft le texte original de Caedmon que dans un assez long fragment de la Genèse , lequel présente tant de ressemblances avec un autre poème anglo-saxon intitulé Heliand qu'on pourrait attribuer aussi ce dernier au moine northumbrien.

Il semble que Milton ait fait son profit de ces morceaux en plusieurs endroits de son Paradis perdu . La première édition de Caedmon a été donnée par Junius en 1655 (Amsterdam). Par la suite, Thorpe l'a édité de nouveau pour la Société des archéologues de Londres (1832). Citons encore l'édition en 2 vol. de K. W. Bouterwek (Elberfeld, 1849-51), et celle de C. W. Grein dans sa Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie (Goettingue, 1857), dont il se publie une réimpression. Caedmon compte au nombre des saints de l'église anglaise. (B.-H. G.).

SOURCE : http://www.cosmovisions.com/Caedmon.htm

Saint Caedmon

Also known as

• Cædmon
• Cadfan
• Cedmon

Memorial

• 11 February

Profile

A layman cowherd, in his later years he came to work with animals at the double monastery of Whitby. One night in 657 he received a vision which commanded him to glorify God with hymns, and which gave him the poetic skills to do so. As he was illiterate, the brothers would read the Bible to Caedmon, and he would repeat it back to them as poetry. With the encouragement of Saint Hilda, Whitby’s abbess, he became a Columban lay brother. First known poet of vernacular English. His story was recorded by Saint Bede. Miracles attributed to his intercession.

Born

• in the British Isles
• may have been Celtic

Died

• c.670 at Whitby, Yorkshire North Riding, England of natural causes
• probably buried at Whitby

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Representation

• cattle
• harp
• dove
• music

SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-caedmon/

Caedmon (AC)

Died 670. Saint Bede recorded the life of Caedmon, the cowherd of Whitby Abbey, who though rough and untutored, by some strange power, in his later years broke into song and became the father of English poetry. Some say he was quite old when he first exercised his gift. The legend is that for years he was so ashamed of his inability, on account of his shyness, to take his turn in singing on festive occasions that he would steal away and hide himself. 'Wherefore, being sometimes at feasts, when all agreed for glee's sake to sing in turn, he no sooner saw the harp come towards him than he rose from the board and turned homewards.'

One night, however, when he had left the feast and had taken refuge in the stable, he heard a voice saying: 'Sing, Caedmon. Sing some song to Me.' Caedmon stammered in reply: 'I cannot sing.' 'But you shall sing,' replied the voice. 'What shall I sing?' Caedmon asked in wonder. The voice answered: 'Sing the beginning of created things.' And Caedmon, in that moment, attempting to sing, found his stammering tongue had been loosened.

In the morning he recalled the words of his song and, adding other verses to it, appeared before the Abbess Hilda, to whom he related his strange story. He sang to her the song he had sung in the night, and she and all who heard were amazed, and agreed 'that heavenly grace had been conferred upon him by the Lord.'

He became a lay-brother and, still in the great abbey of Whitby, was taught by his fellow monks the truths of the Bible; these he turned into poetry 'so sweet to the ear that his teachers became his hearers.' 'He sang,' says Bede, 'of the creation of the world, the origin of man, and the history of Israel, of the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ, and the teaching of the Apostles.' This first Anglo-Saxon writer of religious poetry covered with his paraphrases the whole field of Scripture, and though 'others after him strove to compose religious poems, none could vie with him, for he learned the art of poetry not from men, but from God.'

He is said to have died in holiness and perfect charity to all, after showing that he knew his life was at an end, although he was not seriously ill.

It was a remarkable instance of the power of the Bible to stimulate the imagination and awaken natural genius. Thus, Caedmon brought to the common people the energy and realism of the Scriptures, which, entering deeply into the life of the nation, have never ceased through all the centuries to invigorate and inspire the culture of the English-speaking world. Though only nine lines of one of his hymns, Dream of the Road, said to have been composed in a dream, survives, he is called the 'Father of English Sacred Poetry.' His feast is still celebrated at Whitby (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill).

St. Caedmon

Author of Biblical Poems in Anglo-Saxon, date of birth unknown; died between 670 and 680. While Caedmon's part in the authorship of the so-called Caedmonian poems has been steadily narrowed by modern scholarship, the events in the life of this gifted religious poet are definitively established by the painstaking Bede, who lived in the nearby monastery of Wearmouth in the following generation. Bede tells us (Hist. Eccles., Bk. IV, ch. xxiv) that Caedmon, whose name is perhaps Celtic (Bradley), or a Hebrew or Chaldaic pseudonym (Palgrave, Cook), was at first attached as a labourer to the double monastery of Whitby (Streoneshalh), founded in 657 by St. Hilda, a friend of St. Aidan. (See AIDAN.) One night, when the servants of the monastery were gathered about the table for good-fellowship, and the harp was passed from hand to hand, Caedmon, knowing nothing of poetry, left the company for shame, as he had often done, and retired to the stable, as he was assigned that night to the care of the draught cattle. As he slept, there stood by him in vision one who called him by name, and bade him sing. "I cannot sing, and therefore I left the feast." "Sing to me, however, sing of Creation." Thereupon Caedmon began to sing in praise of God verses which he had never heard before. Of these verses, called Caedmon's hymn, Bede gives the Latin equivalent, the Alfredian translation of Bede gives a West-Saxon poetic version, and one manuscript of Bede appends a Northumbrian poetic version, perhaps the very words of Caedmon. In the morning Caedmon recited his story and his verses to Hilda and the learned men of the monastery, and all agreed that he had received a Divine gift. Caedmon, having further shown his gift by turning into excellent verse some sacred stories recited to him, yielded to the exhortation of Hilda that he take the monastic habit. He was taught the whole series of sacred history, and then, like a clean animal ruminating, turned it into sweet verse. His poems treated of Genesis, Exodus, and stories from other books of the Old Testament, the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the teaching of the Apostles, the Last Judgment, Hell and Heaven. Bede ends his narrative with an account of Caedmon's holy death. According to William of Malmesbury, writing 1125, he was probably buried at Whithy, and his sanctity was attested by many miracles. His canonization was probably popular rather than formal.

The Caedmonian poems, found in a unique tenth-century manuscript, now in the Bodleian Library, were first published and ascribed to Caedmon in 1655 by Francis Junius (du Jon), a friend of Milton, and librarian to the Earl of Arundel. The manuscript consists of poems on Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and a group of poems in a different hand, now called collectively "Christ and Satan", and containing the Fall of the Angels, the Descent into Hell, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Last Judgment, and the Temptation in the Wilderness. The tendency among Anglo-Saxon scholars has been to deny the Caedmonian authorship of most of these poems, except part of the "Genesis", called A, and parts of the "Christ and Satan". In 1875 Professor Sievers advanced the theory, on grounds of metre, language, and style, that the part of the "Genesis" called B, ll. 235-370, and ll. 421-851, an evident interpolation, was merely a translation and recension of a lost Old Saxon "Genesis" poem of the ninth century, whose extant New Testament part is known as the "Heliand". Old Saxon is the Old Low German dialect of the continental Saxons, who were converted in part from England. The Sievers theory, whose history is one of the brilliant episodes of modern philology, was established in 1894 by the discovery of fragments of an Old Saxon "Genesis". (Parallel passages in Cook and Tinker.)

Bede tells us that many English writers of sacred verse had imitated Caedmon, but that none had equalled him. The literary value of parts of the Caedmonian poems is undoubtedly of a high order. The Bible stories are not merely paraphrased, but have been brooded upon by the poet until developed into a vivid picture, with touches drawn from the English life and landscape about him. The story of the flight of Israel resounds with the tread of armies and the excitement of camp and battle. The "Genesis" and the "Christ and Satan" have the glow of dramatic life, and the character of Satan is sharply delineated. The poems, whether we say they are Caedmon's or of the school of Caedmon, mark a worthy beginning of the long and noble line of English sacred poetry.

Sources

BROOKE, Early English Literature (London, 1892); MORLEY, English Writers (London, 1888), I; KER, Dark Ages (New York, 1904); HAZLITT-WARTON, History of English Poetry (London, 1873); AZARIAS, Old English Thought (New York, 1879); LINGARD, Anglo-Saxon Church (London, 1852); TURNER, History of the Anglo-Saxons (London, 1803); TEN BRINK, English Literature (New York, 1882), I; IDEM, Geschichte der enlgischen Litteratur (Strasburg, 1899), 98 and app.; KÖRTING, Grundriss der englischen Litteratur (Münster, 1905); WöLCKER, Grundriss zur Geschichte der angelsächsischen Litt.; IDEM, Caedmon u. Milton, Anglia, IV, 40; MONTALEMBERT, Monks of the West (Edinburgh, 1861); Acta Sanctorum, 11 Feb.; SIEVERS, Der Heliand und die angelsächsische Genesis (Halle, 1875); PLUMMER, Hist. Eccl. Gentis Anglor. Bedae (Oxford, 1896); GREIN-WöLCKER, Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie (Kassel, 1894); MILLER, O. E. Version of Bede, with tr. (London, 1890), 95, 96; THORPE, Caedmon's Metrical Paraphrase, etc., with Eng. Tr. (London, 1832); COOK AND TINKER, Translations from Old English (Boston, 1902); PALGRAVE in Archaeologia, XXIV, 341; COOK, Publications Modern Language Association, VI, 9; STEVENS in The Acadamy, 21 Oct., 1876; GURTEEN, Caedmon, Dante, and Milton (New York, 1896); ZANGMEISTER AND BRAUNE, Neue Heidelberger Jahrbücher (1894), IV, 205; HOLTHAUSEN, Altsächsisches Elementarbuch (Heidelberg, May, 1900).

Crowne, J. Vincent. "St. Caedmon." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 11 Feb. 2017 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03131c.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Matthew Reak.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03131c.htm

Voir aussi ; http://www.heorot.dk/bede-caedmon.html