1884 REPUBLIC ARGENTINA HAND MADE COIN SILVER SPOON SAINT HERVE PATRON MINSTRELS

Saint Herve (c. 521 – 575 AD), also known as Harvey, Herveus, or Houarniaule, was a sixth-century Breton saint. Along with Saint Ives, he is one of the most popular of the Breton saints. He was born in Guimiliau (Gwimilio).

Legend

Herve was the son of a Welsh bard named Hyvarnion, who had studied under Cadoc. Hyvarnion became a minstrel at the court of Childebert I. His mother was Rivanone, a woman of surpassing beauty who knew the properties of plants and herbs.

Herve was born blind. His father died when Herve was still quite young. He inherited his father's harp. His mother became an anchoress and entrusted the seven-year-old boy to the care of his uncles who placed him with a learned hermit who lived in the forest. At about fourteen years of age, he went to study at the monasastic school at Plouvien, where his maternal uncle, Gourvoyed was abbot. Herve grew up to become a teacher and minstrel.

With his disciple Guiharan, Herve lived near Plouvien as a hermit and bard. He had the power to cure animals and was accompanied by a domesticated wolf. His wolf devoured the ox or donkey Herve used in plowing. Herve then preached a sermon that was so eloquent that the wolf begged to be allowed to serve in the ox's stead. Herve's wolf pulled the plow from that day on.

He was joined by disciples and refused any ordination or earthly honour, accepting only to be ordained as an exorcist. He died in 556 AD and was buried at Lanhouarneau.

Veneration

Saint Herve is venerated throughout Brittany. His feast day is June the 17th.

For fear of the Normans, his relics were removed to a silver shrine in the chapel of the Chateau de Brest. Given to the Bishop of Nantes, they were lost during the Revolution.

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In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.

With the decline of a living bardic tradition in the modern period, the term has loosened to mean a generic minstrel or author (especially a famous one). For example, William Shakespeare and Rabindranath Tagore are respectively known as "the Bard of Avon" (often simply "the Bard") and "the Bard of Bengal". In 16th-century Scotland, it turned into a derogatory term for an itinerant musician; nonetheless it was later romanticised by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).

A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who sang songs and played musical instruments.

Minstrels performed songs which told stories of distant places or of existing or imaginary historical events. Although minstrels created their own tales, often they would memorize and embellish the works of others. Frequently they were retained by royalty and high society. As the courts became more sophisticated, minstrels were eventually replaced at court by the troubadours, and many became wandering minstrels, performing in the streets; a decline in their popularity began in the late 15th century. Minstrels fed into later traditions of travelling entertainers, which continued to be moderately strong into the early 20th century, and which has some continuity in the form of today's buskers or street musicians.

Initially, minstrels were simply treats at court, and entertained the lord and courtiers with chansons de geste or their local equivalent. The term minstrel derives from Old French menestrel (also menesterel, menestral), which is a derivative from Italian ministrello (later menestrello), from Middle Latin ministralis "retainer", an adjective form of Latin minister, "attendant" from minus, "lesser".

In Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest, the professional poet was known as a scop ("shaper" or "maker"), who composed his own poems, and sang them to the accompaniment of a harp. In a rank much beneath the scop were the gleemen, who had no settled abode, but roamed about from place to place, earning what they could from their performances. Late in the 13th century, the term minstrel began to be used to designate a performer who amused his lord with music and song. Following a series of invasions, wars, conquests, etc., two categories of composers developed. Poets like Chaucer and John Gower appeared in one category, wherein music was not a part. Minstrels, on the other hand, gathered at feasts and festivals in great numbers with harps, fiddles, bagpipes, flutes, flageolets, citterns and kettledrums. Additionally, minstrels were known for their involvement in political commentary and engaged in propaganda. They often reported news with bias to sway opinion and revised works to encourage action in favor of equality.

The music of the troubadours and trouveres was performed by minstrels called joglars (Occitan) or jongleurs (French). As early as 1321, the minstrels of Paris were formed into a guild. A guild of royal minstrels was organized in England in 1469. Minstrels were required to either join the guild or abstain from practising their craft. Some minstrels were retained by lords as jesters who, in some cases, also practised the art of juggling. Some were women or women who followed minstrels in their travels. Minstrels throughout Europe also employed trained animals, such as bears. Minstrels in Europe died out slowly, having gone nearly extinct by about 1700, although isolated individuals working in the tradition existed even into the early 19th century.