Stone, Image, Body. Constructing the Memory of saint Dionysius in Regensburg

In 1049, the monastic community of Saint Emmeram in Regensburg discovered within its abbey church the entire body of St Dionysius, the patron saint of Gallia, allegedly translated in the ninth century from the abbey of Saint-Denis, near Paris. This article explores the construction of the institutional memory related to the body of St Dionysius at Regensburg, focusing on how the artefacts held in the treasury of the abbey – invested with new meanings and functions not originally intended by their creators – became active agents in establishing meaningful networks of commemoration. Furthermore, the inventio of the sacred body was followed by the construction of a new portal. The effigies of St Emmeram (patron saint of the church), Christ, and St Dionysius are accompanied by complex inscriptions, analysed here in relation to the manuscripts once held in the monastic library. By considering the interaction between script and image, this article assesses how the portal mirrored the sacred topography of the site, and how the inscriptions, with their emphasis on the substance and the physical presence of the reliefs, comment upon their own nature, agency, and matter.