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104-643: Rocamadour ( French pronunciation: [ʁɔkamaduʁ] ; Rocamador in Occitan ) is a commune in the Lot department in southwestern France . It lies in the former province of Quercy . It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association. Rocamadour has attracted visitors for its setting in a gorge above a tributary of the River Dordogne and especially for its historical monuments and its sanctuary of

208-646: A Counter-Reformation renewal of venerable imagery, though banning some of the more fanciful medieval iconographies. Veneration of the Virgin Mary flourished, in practice and in imagery, and new shrines, such as in Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore , were built for Medieval miraculous icons as part of this trend. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church : The Christian veneration of images

312-440: A monkey park, respectively) and also hosts an annual cheese festival. Outdoor activities and hot air ballooning are popular among visitors. The site's gravity-defying churches and Black Madonna statue remain a spiritual draw for both Catholic pilgrims and for visitors who practice earth-based or New Age religions, being drawn to stories of Rocamadour's "strange energies" and pre-Christian origins. A legend supposed to explain

416-420: A murti is a representation of a divinity, made usually of stone, wood, or metal, which serves as a means through which a divinity may be worshiped. Hindus consider a murti worthy of serving as a focus of divine worship only after the divine is invoked in it for the purpose of offering worship. The depiction of the divinity must reflect the gestures and proportions outlined in religious tradition. In Jainism ,

520-553: A common origin (see Occitano-Romance languages ). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such as Guerau de Cabrera , Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany, Huguet de Mataplana , Raimon Vidal de Besalú, Cerverí de Girona , Formit de Perpinhan, and Jofre de Foixà wrote in Occitan. At

624-643: A consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism ; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; - ch - in place of - it -), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/ ; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval - ll -). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there

728-419: A dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people. Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping. Cult image The term idol is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship, while idolatry is the worship of an "idol" as though it were God . The use of images in

832-401: A divine origin. The Book of Isaiah gave classic expression to the paradox inherent in the worship of cult images: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. Judaism emphatically forbids idolatry, and considers it one of the gravest sins . Judaism is aniconic , meaning any physical depiction of God whatsoever

936-691: A habitat in the Bronze Age . The vestiges are deposited in the museum at Cabrerets and at the town hall in Rocamadour. During the Iron Age , the Cadurques people arrived from middle Germany. In the eighth century BC., they colonised the current Lot department, using their iron weapons. The remains of a village, in the Salvate valley near Couzou , were found during work. An oppidum perched on

1040-459: A huge range of smaller images, many kept in the homes of ordinary people. The very large stone images around the exteriors of temples were usually representations of the pharaoh as himself or "as" a deity, and many other images gave deities the features of the current royal family. Ancient Greek temples and Roman temples normally contained a cult image in the cella . The cella in Greek temples

1144-399: A little later. This account, like most other similar legends, does not make its first appearance till long after the age in which the chief actors are deemed to have lived. The name of Amadour occurs in no document previous to the compilation of his Acts, which on careful examination and on an application of the rules of the cursus to the text cannot be judged older than the 12th century. It

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1248-746: A part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups: According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group. Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct. A sociolect of the Gascon dialect spoken by Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Gascony . It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of Hebrew loanwords. It went extinct after World War 2 with

1352-540: A second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language , which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon . In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona 's boroughs unified). Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in

1456-542: A single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on a particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects. According to

1560-491: A small chapel was built in a shelter of the cliff at a place called Rupis Amatoris , at the limit of the territories of the Benedictine abbeys of Saint-Martin at Tulle and Saint-Pierre at Marcilhac-sur-Célé . In 1112, Eble de Turenne, Abbot of Tulle settled in Rocamadour. In 1119, the first donation was made by Eudes, Comte de la Marche. In 1148, a first miracle was announced. The location began to attract pilgrims to

1664-634: A sword was wedged into a crevice and secured by a chain. According to local legend it was a copy of Durandal , the sword wielded by the hero Roland , which he hurled from him after the Battle of Roncevaux Pass to prevent its falling into the hands of the Saracens , and which came to rest in Rocamadour. The sword was reported stolen from the cliff face in June 2024. The interior walls of the church of St Sauveur are covered with paintings and inscriptions recalling

1768-476: A unitary language, as it lacks an official written standard . Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages , Franco-Provençal , Astur-Leonese , and Aragonese ), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to

1872-625: A written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on the burning of borough San Nicolas from 1258, while the History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant from Toulouse . Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from

1976-410: Is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is". There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects. Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups: Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups: In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as

2080-631: Is a Romance language spoken in Southern France , Monaco , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran in Catalonia ; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . It is also spoken in Calabria ( Southern Italy ) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese ). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as

2184-464: Is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility . Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but

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2288-672: Is at the heart of the Parc naturel régional des Causses du Quercy  [ de ; fr ] , a regional nature park. Rocamadour is located 36 km NNE of Cahors by road, on the right bank of the Alzou . Rocamadour can be reached by car from the A20 autoroute , or by train: Gare de Rocamadour-Padirac on the Brive-la-Gaillarde–Toulouse (via Capdenac) railway . Rocamadour is served by two regional airports that provide easy access to

2392-487: Is disallowed; this likewise applies to cult images. The prohibition of idols within Judaism is so severe that numerous stipulations exist which are beyond simply concerning their use: Jews cannot eat anything offered to an idol as a libation , cannot move openly in places where idols are present, and cannot interact with idol worshippers within certain timeframes of idolatrous festivals or gatherings. As time progressed and

2496-496: Is mentioned in Michel Houellebecq 's book Soumission (2015). Occitan language Italy Occitan ( English: / ˈ ɒ k s ɪ t ən , - t æ n , - t ɑː n / ; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta] ), also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal ,

2600-486: Is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype", and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it". The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration", not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward

2704-501: Is now well established that Saint Martial , Amadour's contemporary in the legend, lived in the 3rd not the 1st century, and Rome has never included him among the members of the Apostolic College . The mention, therefore, of St Martial in the "Acts of St Amadour" would alone suffice, even if other proof were wanting, to prove them doubtful. The untrustworthiness of the legend has led some recent authors to suggest that Amadour

2808-404: Is often confined to the relatively small images, typically in gold, that lived in the naos in the inner sanctuary of Egyptian temples dedicated to that god (except when taken on ceremonial outings, say to visit their spouse). These images usually showed the god in their sacred barque or boat; none of them survive. Only the priests were allowed access to the inner sanctuary. There was also

2912-413: Is the other native language. Up to seven million people in France understand the language, whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921. In 1860 , Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s and fewer than 7% in 1993. Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being

3016-467: Is worthier and better suited for romances and pastourelles ; but [the language] from Limousin is of greater value for writing poems and cançons and sirventés ; and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority. The term Provençal , though implying a reference to

3120-527: The òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Old Catalan and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc ( òc ). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latin sic , "thus [it is], [it

3224-640: The Romance of Flamenca (13th century), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel e Betó (12th or 13th century), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11th century) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th century). Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours ( trobadors ) and trobairitz : At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. It

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3328-569: The Ancient Near East seems typically to have been similar to that of the ancient Egyptian religion , about which we are the best-informed. Temples housed a cult image, and there were large numbers of other images. The ancient Hebrew religion was or became an exception, rejecting cult images despite developing monotheism ; the connection between this and the Atenism that Akhenaten tried to impose on Egypt has been much discussed. In

3432-479: The Blessed Virgin Mary , which for centuries, dating back to the turn of the 12th century, has attracted historical and anonymous pilgrims from many countries, among them kings, bishops and nobles (including Henry II of England , Simon de Montfort , Blanche of Castile and Saint Louis IX of France , Saint Dominic and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux , among other illustrious figures). The town below

3536-595: The Gascon language ) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran ). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be

3640-633: The Historical Buddha , and other buddhas and bodhisattvas became important in many schools of Buddhist art , and have mostly remained so. The attitude of the devotee towards the image is highly complicated and variable in Buddhism, depending on the particular tradition, and the degree of training in Buddhist thought of the individual. The dharma wheel is an image that used for worship in Buddhism. The Dharma represents and symbolizes all of

3744-544: The Palatine Chapel, Aachen was probably a decisive moment, leading to the widespread use of monumental reliefs on churches, and later large statues. Many Christians believed that idols were not merely idle statues, but that they are inhabited by demons who could exercise influence through the idol. By destroying idols, converted Christians believed to deprave devils of their earthly and material dwelling. The Libri Carolini , an eighth-century work composed at

3848-690: The Statue of Zeus at Olympia , and Phidias 's Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon in Athens, both colossal statues now completely lost. Fragments of two chryselephantine statues from Delphi have been excavated. The acrolith was another composite form, this time a cost-saving one with a wooden body. A xoanon was a primitive and symbolic wooden image, perhaps comparable to the Hindu lingam ; many of these were retained and revered for their antiquity. Many of

3952-606: The Tirthankaras ("ford-maker") represent the true goal of all human beings. Their qualities are worshipped by the Jains. Images depicting any of the twenty four Tirthankaras are placed in the Jain temples . There is no belief that the image itself is other than a representation of the being it represents. The Tirthankaras cannot respond to such veneration, but that it can function as a meditative aid. Although most veneration takes

4056-468: The UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal, Auvergnat , Limousin and Languedocien) are considered severely endangered , whereas the remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered definitely endangered . The name Occitan comes from the term lenga d'òc ("language of òc "), òc being the Occitan word for yes. While

4160-582: The Val d'Aran cited c.  1000 ), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349). While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese , both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south to Zaragoza , Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that

4264-590: The Virgin Mary . The 12th-century book Livre des Miracles written by a monk from the sanctuary illustrates that Rocamadour had already become famous as a place of pilgrimage. In 1159, Henry II of England , husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine , came to Rocamadour to thank the Virgin for her healing. The statue of the Black Madonna dates from the 12th century. Géraud d'Escorailles (abbot from 1152 to 1188) built

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4368-611: The art of Amarna , Aten is represented only as the sun-disk, with rays emanating from it, sometimes ending in hands, and temples to Aten (e.g. the Great Temple of the Aten in Amarna ) were open courts with no roof, that the Sun might be worshipped directly as it traveled across the sky. Cult images were a common presence in ancient Egypt, and still are in modern-day Kemetism . The term

4472-525: The conquest of Mecca in the year 630. In the aftermath, Muhammad did three things. Firstly, with his companions he visited the Kaaba and literally threw out the idols and destroyed them, thus removing the signs of Jahiliyyah from the Kaaba. Secondly, he ordered the construction of a mosque around the Kaaba, the first Masjid al-Haram after the birth of Islam . Thirdly, in a magnanimous manner, Muhammad pardoned all those who had taken up arms against him. With

4576-454: The cult image at the centre of the site, a wooden Black Madonna reputed to have been carved by Saint Amator (Amadour) himself. The small Benedictine community continued to use the small twelfth-century church of Saint-Michel, above and to the side. Below, the pilgrimage church opens onto a terrace where pilgrims could assemble, called the Plateau of St Michel. In the cliff face above,

4680-542: The founding legend , Rocamadour is named after the founder of the ancient sanctuary, Saint Amator , identified with the Biblical Zaccheus , the tax collector of Jericho mentioned in Luke 19:1-10, and the husband of St. Veronica , who wiped Jesus' face on the way to Calvary . Driven out of Palestine by persecution, St. Amadour and St. Veronica embarked in a frail skiff and, guided by an angel , landed on

4784-703: The Black Virgin) after a pilgrimage to the shrine. Rocamadour inspired 20th-century Latin American novelists Julio Cortázar and Giannina Brashi who lived in France for some time and wrote in Spanish about immigrants, expatriates, and tourists. In Cortazar's opus " Hopscotch ", the sad heroine La Maga has a baby boy named Rocamadour who dies in his sleep. The dead baby Rocamadour is also a character in Giannina Braschi's novel "Yo-Yo Boing!". Rocamadour

4888-716: The Dordogne Valley. The Aéroport Brive Vallée de la Dordogne (BVE) is located only a few kilometres from many of the region's star attractions whilst the Aéroport Bergerac Dordogne Périgord (EGC) is situated just 6 km south of Bergerac. The territory of the commune of Rocamadour includes several hamlets: L'Hospitalet, Les Alix, Blanat, Mas de Douze, Fouysselaze, Magès, La Fage, La Gardelle, Chez Langle, La Vitalie, Mayrinhac-le-Francal. The ancient forms of Rocamadour are Rocamador from 968, Rupis Amatoris in 1186 . According to Dauzat ,

4992-468: The Greek statues well-known from Roman marble copies were originally temple cult images, which in some cases, such as the Apollo Barberini , can be credibly identified. A very few actual originals survive, for example the bronze Piraeus Athena (2.35 metres high, including a helmet). In Greek and Roman mythology , a " palladium " was an image of great antiquity on which the safety of a city

5096-613: The Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in Nice , who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew. All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French,

5200-608: The Kaaba, in the process being charged tithes . This helped the Meccan merchants to incur substantial wealth, as well as ensuring a fruitful atmosphere for trade and intertribal relations in relative peace. Muhammad 's preaching incurred the wrath of the pagan merchants, causing them to revolt against him. The opposition to his teachings grew so volatile that Muhammad and his followers were forced to flee Mecca to Medina for protection, leading to armed conflict and triggering many battles that were won and lost, which finally culminated in

5304-587: The Notre-Dame chapel which was rebuilt in 1479 by Denys de Bar, Bishop of Tulle. Subsequently, during the French Wars of Religion , the iconoclastic passage of Protestant mercenaries in 1562 caused the destruction of religious buildings and their relics. The canons describe, in a petition to Pope Pius IV in 1563, the damage caused: "They have, oh pain! all trashed; they burned and looted its statues and paintings, its bells, its ornaments and jewels, all that

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5408-457: The chamber, but Hindu temple architecture typically allows the image to be seen by worshippers in the mandapa connected to it (entry to this, and the whole temple, may also be restricted in various ways). Hinduism allows for many forms of worship and therefore it neither prescribes nor proscribes worship of images ( murti ). In Hinduism, murti usually means an image that expresses a Divine Spirit ( murta ). Meaning literally "embodiment",

5512-452: The cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or, for that matter, in a home), and is likely to only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and, of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha ), seldom use

5616-588: The coast of Aquitaine , where they met Bishop St. Martial , another disciple of Christ who was preaching the Gospel in the south-west of Gaul . After journeying to Rome , where he witnessed the martyrdoms of St Peter and St Paul , Amadour, having returned to France, on the death of his spouse, withdrew to a wild spot in Quercy where he built a chapel in honour of the Blessed Virgin , near which he died

5720-835: The command of Charlemagne in response to the Second Council of Nicaea , set out what remains the Catholic position on the veneration of images, giving them a similar but slightly less significant place than in Eastern Orthodoxy. The 16th-century Reformation engendered spates of destruction of images, especially in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries (the Beeldenstorm ), and France. Destruction of three-dimensional images

5824-493: The completion of the buildings. The castle was protected by three towers, a wide moat and numerous lookouts. In 1317, the monks left Rocamadour. The site was then administered by a chapter of canons appointed by the bishop. In the fourteenth century, a cooling climate, famines , epidemics like the Black Death ravaged Europe. In 1427, reconstruction was started, but without financial or human resources. A huge rock crushed

5928-588: The complex of monastic buildings and pilgrimage churches , traditionally dependent on the pilgrimage site and now on the tourist trade, lies near the river on the lowest slopes; it gives its name to Rocamadour , a small goat 's-milk cheese that was awarded AOC status in 1996. Rocamadour is located in the Lot department in the far north of the Occitanie region. Close to Périgord and the Dordogne valley, Rocamadour

6032-517: The degree of veneration or worship which is thought by opponents to be given to them. The word idol entered Middle English in the 13th century from Old French idole adapted in Ecclesiastical Latin from the Greek eidolon ("appearance", extended in later usage to "mental image, apparition, phantom") a diminutive of eidos ("form"). Plato and the Platonists employed the Greek word eidos to signify perfect immutable " forms ". One can, of course, regard such an eidos as having

6136-409: The destruction of the idols and the construction of the Masjid al-Haram, a new era was ushered in, facilitating the rise of Islam . The garbhagriha or inner shrine of a Hindu temple contains an image of the deity. This may take the form of an elaborate statue, but a symbolic lingam is also very common, and sometimes a yoni or other symbolic form. Normally only the priests are allowed to enter

6240-435: The early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from San Sebastian to the river Bidasoa , where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. a Béarnese dialect of Gascon. Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia and Pasaia maintained close ties with Bayonne . Though it

6344-586: The end of the 11th century, the Franks , as they were called at the time, started to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvalles , settling in various locations in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted them by the Navarrese kings . They settled in large groups, forming ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, in Pamplona , Sangüesa , and Estella-Lizarra , among others. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with

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6448-423: The form of a statue of the deity, typically roughly life-size, but in some cases many times life-size, in marble or bronze, or in the specially prestigious form of a Chryselephantine statue using ivory plaques for the visible parts of the body and gold for the clothes, around a wooden framework. Most cult statues are anthropromorphic and take human shape. The most famous Greek cult images were of this type, including

6552-405: The form of prayers, hymns and recitations, the idol is sometimes ritually bathed, and often has offerings made to it; there are eight kinds of offering representing the eight types of karmas as per Jainism. This form of reverence is not a central tenet of the faith. Very early Buddhism avoided representations of the Buddha, who was represented by symbols or an empty space . Later large images of

6656-416: The geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which other Romance languages are used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language. Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and the Balearic Islands is closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and

6760-414: The heights of the Alzou valley, downstream from Tournefeuille, is perhaps linked to the fight of the Gauls against the Roman troops during the Gallic war. The three levels of the village of Rocamadour date from the Middle Ages and reflect the three orders of medieval society: the knights above, linked to religious clerics in the middle and the lay workers down near the river. Documents mention that in 1105

6864-623: The idol depends on the school of Buddhism that you belong to. Buddhist idols that originate from Theravada Buddhism are commonly slim, and majestic. Buddhist idols that originate from Mahayana Buddhism are usually thicker, with a more dignified and nonchalant face. Buddhist idols that originate from Vajrayana Buddhism usually have a more exaggerated posture, and usually show the Buddha / Bodhisattva performing hand Mudras . In Shinto , cult images are called shintai . The earliest historical examples of these were natural objects such as stones, waterfalls, trees or mountains, like Mount Fuji , while

6968-476: The image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is. Towards the end of the pre-Islamic era in the Arabian city of Mecca , an era otherwise known by the Muslims as جاهلية, or al-Jahiliyah , the pagan or pre-Islamic merchants of Mecca controlled the sacred Kaaba , thereby regulating control over it and, in turn, over the city itself. The local tribes of the Arabian peninsula came to this centre of commerce to place their idols in

7072-476: The language at the beginning of the 13th century by Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Besalú(n) in his Razós de trobar : La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. The French language

7176-409: The language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes , which means northerners ). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders. Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of

7280-422: The language. Following the pattern of language shift , most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists ) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas ), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in

7384-408: The larger collection of dialects grouped under the name langues d'oïl ) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during the French Revolution , in which diversity of language was considered a threat. In 1903, the four Gospels ( "Lis Evangèli" , i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation

7488-515: The last speakers being elderly Jews in Bayonne . About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French. Judeo-Provençal was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in Provence . The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century. The least attested of

7592-772: The latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal . One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin: De ista hora in antea non decebrà Ermengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio Girberga ne Raimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone ... no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà  ... nec societatem non aurà , si per castellum recuperare non o fa , et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo lo tornarà , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus l'en comonrà . Carolingian litanies ( c.  780 ), though

7696-664: The leader sang in Latin , were answered to in Old Occitan by the people ( Ora pro nos ; Tu lo juva ). Other famous pieces include the Boecis , a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired by Boethius 's The Consolation of Philosophy ; the Waldensian La nobla leyczon (dated 1100), Cançó de Santa Fe ( c.  1054 –1076),

7800-498: The mid-nineteenth century, owing to the zeal and activity of the bishops of Cahors , it seems to have revived. Rocamadour is classed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as part of the St James' Way pilgrimage route. In her book-length poem, Solitude , Vita Sackville-West uses Rocamadour in her dedication, as site and setting for inspiration. The composer Francis Poulenc wrote in 1936 Litanies à la Vierge Noire (Litanies to

7904-415: The modern Occitan-speaking area. After Frédéric Mistral 's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. According to Joseph Anglade , a philologist and specialist of medieval literature who helped impose the then archaic term Occitan as the standard name, the word Lemosin was first used to designate

8008-422: The negative sense: for example, "Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept." ("You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven."). The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 as occitanus , a crossing of oc and aquitanus ( Aquitanian ). For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal , after the names of two regions lying within

8112-584: The north in the Bas Limousin . The buildings of Rocamadour ( from ròca , cliff and saint Amador ) rise in stages up the side of a cliff on the right bank of the Alzou, which runs between rocky walls 120 metres (390 ft) in height. Flights of steps ascend from the lower town to the churches, a group of massive buildings half-way up the cliff. The chief of them is the pilgrimage church of Notre Dame (rebuilt in its present configuration from 1479), containing

8216-537: The officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran. Across history, the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ), Languedocien ( Lengadocian ), Gascon , in addition to Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) later have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , Occitan does not have

8320-401: The origin of this pilgrimage has given rise to controversies between critical and traditional schools, especially in recent times. A vehicle by which the legend was disseminated and pilgrims drawn to the site was The Miracles of Our Lady of Rocamadour , written ca. 1172, an example of the miracula , or books of collected miracles, which had such a wide audience in the Middle Ages. According to

8424-484: The other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects: The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels ; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga- ; uvular ⟨r⟩ ; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before

8528-573: The pilgrimages of celebrated people. The subterranean church of St Amadour (1166) extends beneath St Sauveur and contains relics of the saint. On the summit of the cliff stands the château built in the Middle Ages to defend the sanctuaries. Rocamadour and its many caves already housed people in the Paleolithic as shown in the cave drawings of the Grotte des Merveilles . The Grotte de Linars cave and its porch served as an underground necropolis and

8632-413: The place was named the castling of Saint Amadour. In 1618, on a map of the diocese of Cahors by Jean Tarde, the name of Roquemadour appeared. The locality L'Hospitalet, overlooking Rocamadour, has a name from espitalet which meant small hospital and has Latin origin hospitalis . This reception centre was founded in 1095 by Dame Hélène de Castelnau. Rocamadour was a dependency of the abbey of Tulle to

8736-549: The predominantly Basque -speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century. Written administrative records were in a koiné based on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Evidence survives of

8840-662: The province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language. The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people in France , Italy , Spain and Monaco . In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian , which

8944-517: The region of Provence , historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the old Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis and even Aquitaine ". The term first came into fashion in Italy . Currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using

9048-417: The religious buildings, financed by donations from visitors. The works were finished at the end of the 12th century. In 1166, excavation for a grave in front of the entrance to the chapel of the Virgin uncovered an intact body, presented as that of Saint Amadour . Rocamadour had found its saint. At least four stories, more or less tinged with legend, presented Saint Amadour as being close to Jesus . (The body

9152-823: The religious traditions which the Jews were exposed to diversified, what was considered "idolatry" was subject to some debate. In the Mishnah and Talmud , idolatry is defined as worshipping a graven image through the actions of both typical idol worshippers, and through actions customarily reserved for worship of the Jewish God in the Temple in Jerusalem , such as prostrating , sacrificing animals , offering incense , or sprinkling animal blood on altars. Kissing, embracing, or "honoring" an idol, while not considered idolatry per se ,

9256-452: The teachings of the Buddha. The Dharma is a wheel or circle, that maintains different qualities that are meant to be essential to the Buddhist religion. Typically, the wheel shows the eight step path that Buddhists follow to reach Nirvana. The symbol is a wheel in order to show the flow of life: Buddhists believe in reincarnation, so life moves in a circle and does not end in death. The build of

9360-632: The term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc in writing. In his De vulgari eloquentia , he wrote in Latin, "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("for some say òc , others sì , yet others say oïl "), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages that were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes",

9464-412: The toponym comes from the name of a saint, Amator . According to Gaston Bazalgues, the toponym Rocamadour is a medieval form which originates from Rocamajor . Roca pointed to a rock shelter and major spoke of its importance. This name would have been Christianized from 1166 with the invention of the false hagiotoponym Saint Amadour or Saint Amateur. In 1473, according to the monograph of Edmond Albe,

9568-488: The treasure of Notre-Dame since the 12th century. The site was again looted during the French Revolution . Since the early 20th century, Rocamadour has become more of a tourist destination than a pilgrimage center, although pilgrimage continues and remains important. Rocamadour's environs are now marked by several animal parks, including Le Rocher des Aigles and Le Forêt des Singes (a bird of prey park and

9672-487: Was an unknown hermit or possibly St. Amator , Bishop of Auxerre , but this is mere hypothesis, without any historical basis. The origin of the sanctuary of Rocamadour, lost in antiquity, is thus set down along with fabulous traditions which cannot bear up to sound criticism. After the religious manifestations of the Middle Ages , Rocamadour, as a result of war and the French Revolution , had become almost deserted. In

9776-508: Was burned during the French Wars of Religion and today only fragments of bone remain, on view in the crypt of Saint-Amadour.) In 1211, the pontifical legate during the Albigensian Crusade , Arnaud Amalric , came to spend the winter in Rocamadour. In addition, in 1291, Pope Nicholas IV granted three bulls and forty day indulgences for site visitors. The end of the 13th century saw the height of Rocamadour's influence and

9880-444: Was done], etc.", such as Spanish sí , Eastern Lombard sé , Italian sì , or Portuguese sim . In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi , akin to òc , which is sometimes used at the end of yes–no questions and also in higher register as a positive response. French uses si to answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in

9984-484: Was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated by World War I , when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. Because

10088-594: Was highly controversial for centuries, and in Eastern Orthodoxy the controversy lingered until it re-erupted in the Byzantine Iconoclasm of the 8th and 9th centuries. Religious monumental sculpture remained foreign to Orthodoxy. In the West, resistance to idolatry delayed the introduction of sculpted images for centuries until the time of Charlemagne , whose placing of a life-size crucifix in

10192-474: Was in the center, while it was located in the back of Roman temples. Access to the cella varied, but apart from the priests, at the least some of the general worshippers could access the cella some of the time, though sacrifices to the deity were normally made on altars outside in the temple precinct ( temenos in Greek). Some cult images were easy to see, and were major tourist attractions. The image normally took

10296-562: Was necessary for divine worship ... ". The relics were desecrated and destroyed, including the body of Saint Amadour. According to witnesses, the Protestant Captain Jean Bessonia broke it with the smith's hammer, saying: "I am going to break you, since you did not want to burn". Captains Bessonie and Duras would draw, for the benefit of the Prince of Condé's army, the sum of 20,000 pounds from everything that made up

10400-615: Was normally near-total, especially images of the Virgin Mary and saints, and the iconoclasts ("image-breakers") also smashed representations of holy figures in stained glass windows and other imagery. Further destruction of icons, anathema to Puritans , occurred during the English Civil War . Less extreme transitions occurred throughout northern Europe in which formerly Catholic churches became Protestant. Catholic regions of Europe, especially artistic centres like Rome and Antwerp , responded to Reformation iconoclasm with

10504-513: Was said to depend, especially the wooden one that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was later taken to Rome by Aeneas . (The Roman story was related in Virgil 's Aeneid and other works.) Some members of Abrahamic religions identify cult images as idols and their worship or veneration as idolatry ; the worship of hollow forms, though others do not. The matter has long been controversial, depending largely on

10608-543: Was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates. There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language. According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to

10712-470: Was still forbidden. Christian images that are venerated are called icons . Christians who venerate icons make an emphatic distinction between " veneration " and " worship ". Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians make an exception for the veneration of images of saints – they distinguish such veneration from adoration or latria . The introduction of venerable images in Christianity

10816-521: Was the maternal language of the English queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and kings Richard I (who wrote troubadour poetry) and John . With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) decreed that the langue d'oïl (French – though at the time referring to the Francien language and not

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