HORNREICH COLLECTION of U.S. & World Medal Plaques
Paul Louis Guilbert

Owner Comments:

Medal, Plaquette, 880 A.D. (Medal c.1930), Bronze, France. BERRICHONNE SAINTE-SOLANGE by medallist Paul Louis Guilbert (born in 1886, year of death unknown). Size: 57mm x 46mm. Ref: Eng-1436. Obv. Portrait of Solange right, Berrichonne below; Rv. Sainte-Solange Church, legend above, Medallist's signature. History/myth: Solange died 10 May, c. 880. She was a Frankish shepherdess and a locally-venerated Christian saint. Saint Solange was the patron of the traditional Province of Berry. The son of the count of Poitiers happened by, and was highly taken with the beauty and popularity of Solange. He approached her when she was working on tending to her sheep, but she rejected him. He argued with her to no avail, and so he decided to abduct her. At night, he came and took Solange by force, but she struggled so violently that she fell from his horse while he was crossing a stream. Her abductor grew enraged and beheaded her with his sword; Solange's severed head invoked three times the Holy Name of Jesus, according to the fully developed legend. Like Saint Denis and other saints in Gaulish territories, Solange picked up her head in her own hands and walked with it as far as the church of Saint-Martin in the village of Saint-Martin-du-Crot (which now bears the name of Sainte-Solange) and once there proceeded to actually die.