Philibert de la Mare's anecdote about Kristina visiting the Abbey of Saint Victor while passing through Marseille, July 1656

Source:

Mélanges de M. Philibert Delamare, conseiller au parlement de Dijon, commencez en 1673 et copiez sur le ms. original; views 121 to 122, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9057283t/f121.item

The anecdote:

720.

La Reyne Christine de Suede passant a Marseille on lui montra en l'abbaye de S:t Victor les Corps des Sept dormans, Et Comme elle eut demandé au grand prieur qui lui montroit ces reliques, qu'est ce que ces Saints auoient Fait depuis leur reveil. Jl repondoit qu'ils estoient morts peu de tems aprez, «Jls firent bien de mourir» dit elle, «Car ils n'estoient plus à la mode.»

With modernised spelling:

720.

La reine Christine de Suède passant à Marseille, on lui montra en l'abbaye de Saint-Victor les corps des sept dormants; et comme elle eut demandé au grand prieur, qui lui montrait ces reliques, qu'est ce que ces saints avaient fait depuis leur réveil, il répondait qu'ils étaient morts peu de temps après. «Ils firent bien de mourir», dit-elle, «car ils n'étaient plus à la mode.»

Swedish translation (my own):

720.

När drottning Kristina av Sverige passerade genom Marseille, visades hon liken av de sju sovarna i klostret Helige Viktor; och när hon frågade storprioren, som visade henne dessa reliker, vad dessa helgon hade gjort sedan deras uppvaknande, svarade han att de dog kort därefter. »De gjorde bra att dö«, sade hon, »för de inte längre var på modet.«

English translation (my own):

720.

When Queen Kristina of Sweden passed through Marseille, she was shown the bodies of the Seven Sleepers in the Abbey of Saint Victor; and as she asked the grand prior, who showed her these relics, what these saints had done since their awakening, he replied that they died shortly after. "They did well to die", she said, "because they were no longer in fashion."

Above: Kristina.

Above: The entrance to the church of the Abbey of Saint Victor. Photo courtesy of Abderitestatos at Wikimedia Commons, taken April 23, 2007.

Above: The interior of the church. Photo courtesy of K.Weise at Wikimedia Commons, taken August 11, 2017.

Above: The Seven Sleepers. From a copy of Legenda Aurea, Paris, XIVth, by Jeanne and Richard de Montbaston.

Note: The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, also known in Islam as the Companions of the Cave, is a late antique Christian and later also Islamic legend. The Christian version is about a group of young men who went into hiding inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus (now Selçuk in Turkey's İzmir Province) in around the year 250 A.D. to escape Roman persecutions of Christians and emerged from the cave many years later. The version told in the Qur'an appears in verses 9 to 26 in chapter 18 of Sura 18.