Reconciling Disturbed Sacred Space: The Ordo for ‘reconciling an altar where a murder has been committed’ in the Sacramentary of Gellone in its cultural context

Abstract

Gregory of Tours speaks several times about violence committed in churches, but almost never tells us what this meant for the conception of the space of a church. We know there existed a ritual of reconciliation for an altar that had been defiled by bloodshed in the eighth century when it was recorded in the Sacramentary of Gellone. This text will be the focus of this article and its examination sheds more light on the meaning and significance of this specific rite, its origin and comparable rituals in the Mediterranean world of the early Middle Ages.