Saint-Vigor-le-Grand No. 1 / Abbaye Saint-Vigor-le-Grand / Saint-Vigor-le-Grand / Vigeur

Enlart (1902) mentions a font from Saint-Vigor (St-Vigeur, near Bayeux?), "curieuse cuve en marbre rouge [...] au musée de Bayeux" which he describes as among the oldest in France. The font may have originally been at the monastery of Saint-Vigeur-le-Grand, near Bayeux, which was founded by Saint Vigor, who became bishop of Bayeux in 513 A.D. (Farmer, 1987). Our on-site inspection visit to the old priory led us to the small chapel of the priory church where we were shown the red fragment [cf. Image]. This fragment is covered in dark red/ochre paint but the unpainted areas at the back show that it is probably a calcareous limestone. A mathematical reconstruction based on the measurements of the fragment would probably render a basin of 60-80 cm in inside diameter and an octagonal exterior measuring 130 cm diagonally across approximately. The current height of the fragment is 40-45 cm, probably as tall as it ever was. The drain is via a wide central hole (10 cm in diameter) and there are 3-4 steps leading down to it from the upper rim of the basin. This step shape of the inner well of the basin is not rare in the area and there are ar least two other fonts whose basins offer similar characteristics. As with all other claims to Merovinigian pedigree assigned to fonts in France, this one, claimed by some to go back to Saint-Vigor himself (6th cent.), deserves to be taken with a good dose of skepticism. That said, however, the general shape could indicate that this was originally a sunken font, not too different from the ones found in early baptisteries of the southeast area of France, the type into which a baptzand would descend, stand, and receive the waters of baptism. The entry by Lucien Musset in the Dictionnaire des églises... (1966- ) informs that this red-marble font was broken during the Revolution and that, at the time [i.e., ca. 1966] it was divided between the museum of the Antiquaires de Normandie in Caen and the Trédor at the cathedral of Bayeux.