Gregory of Tours writes the Life of *Illidius (bishop of Clermont, d. 384/385, S00022): it tells how the saint was chosen as bishop of Clermont (central Gaul), and records his one recorded lifetime miracle and many miracles from the grave. Gregory, Life of the Fathers Book 2, written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 573/594. Overview of Gregory's Life of Illidius.
Evidence ID
E00024
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives of saint
Major author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers, Book 2 (Life of Illidius of Clermont)
Summary:
Preface: Gregory explains what confessors are and also apologises for his lack of literary polish [see E07867].
§ 1: Illidius was chosen as bishop of Clermont. His fame reached the emperor in Trier, who summoned him there to cure his daughter, possessed by a demon. Illidius expelled the demon, and was offered large quantities of gold and silver. These he refused, accepting instead for his city the privilege that it pay its tribute in gold, rather than in kind.
§ 2: Gregory addresses those who say that one miracle is not enough to make a saint, arguing that miracles beyond the grave are a more reliable sign of sanctity [see E00023]. Many miracles took place at the grave of Illidius in Clermont. One was experienced by Gregory himself, who as a boy was cured of a serious illness. Having been taken to the grave (ad tumulum) at his own request, a first visit brought only temporary respite; but on his second visit, after vowing to become a cleric, Gregory was completely cured. A servant of Count Venerandus was cured of blindness after celebrating vigils at the tomb.
§3: Gregory recounts a miracle he himself witnessed in Tours – how woollen string, wrapping relics of Illidius, was not consumed when it fell into a fire [see E00027].
§4: A gravely ill baby was healed after being laid by his mother at the tomb of Illidius: the woman spent a night of vigils there; the infant was cured and temporarily given the ability to speak; the mother consecrated the child to the saint. Illidius appeared in a dream to an abbot warning him of the imminent collapse of the church's lime-kiln, thereby saving many lives. Bishop Avitus raised the body of Illidius and placed it in a sarcophagus in a newly built apse [see E00022].
Text: Krusch 1969, 219-222.
Summary Marta Tycner.
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityVigils
MiraclesMiracle after death
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Cult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityVigils
Consecrating a child, or oneself, to a saint
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Children
Ecclesiastics - abbots
Source
Gregory, bishop of Tours from 573 until his death (probably in 594), was the most prolific hagiographer of all Late Antiquity. He wrote four books on the miracles of Martin of Tours, one on those of Julian of Brioude, and two on the miracles of other saints (the Glory of the Martyrs and Glory of the Confessors), as well as a collection of twenty short Lives of sixth-century Gallic saints (the Life of the Fathers). He also included a mass of material on saints in his long and detailed Histories, and produced two independent short works: a Latin version of the Acts of Andrew and a Latin translation of the story of The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.The Life of the Fathers by Gregory of Tours is different from his other hagiographical works (Miracles of Julian, Miracles of Martin, Glory of the Confessors and Glory of the Martyrs), which all concentrate on posthumous miracles of the saints. The Life of the Fathers, by contrast, describes the exemplary behaviour in life of twenty Gallic saints (for a list of the Lives, see E05870). Gregory himself draws this contrast in the opening words of his preface: 'I had decided to write only about what has been achieved with divine help at the tombs of the blessed martyrs and confessors; but I have recently discovered information about those who have been raised to heaven by the merit of their blessed conduct here below, and I thought that their way of life, which is known to us through reliable sources, could strengthen the Church' (trans. James 1991, 1). In this preface Gregory also explains why he chose to call the book Life of the Fathers, not Lives of the Fathers: because they all lived the same bodily life.
The nineteen Lives of men, and the single Life of a woman (Life 19), all relate to holy people of Gaul, the majority living in the mid to later sixth century. Although this agenda is unspoken, there can be little doubt that Gregory wrote these Lives partly to show that holiness, and the miraculous, were not just things of the past, but very much present within the Gaul of his day (a message that he expressed explicitly in his Histories). Almost all the saints he describes were active within one or other of the two dioceses with which Gregory was most familiar (his native Clermont, and Tours, the city of his episcopate), or indeed were his relatives (all bishops - Life 6 is of an uncle, Life 7 of a great-grandfather, and Life 8 of a great-uncle).
Although Gregory says in his preface that they all shared one bodily life, in reality his saints fall into one of two distinct categories: holy bishops who are effective leaders of their flocks but only moderately ascetic (Lives 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 17), and holy ascetics who have withdrawn from the world and sometimes engage in extreme mortification of the body (Lives 1, 3, 5, 9-16, and 18-20). Gregory's work was unquestionably didactic in purpose - teaching the correct way to lead a good Christian life, and it is notable, for instance, how, in this work written by a bishop, his ascetics accept episcopal correction when necessary (Lives 15.2 and 20.3, in both cases from Gregory himself), and might even delay their death to suit the timetable of a bishop (Life 10.4).
Because the focus is on the lives of these holy people, there is much less emphasis on their cult after death than in Gregory's other hagiographical works; however, all the Lives close with an account of the burial of the saint, and in almost all cases with reference to posthumous miracles recorded there (the exceptions are Lives 10, 11 and 20, which have no reference to miracles at the tomb).
Gregory probably collected material for the Life of the Fathers (and perhaps wrote individual Lives) over a long period of time. However, from the words of his preface (quoted above) and from other references within the text, it is evident that he assembled his material into the polished work we have today only towards the very end of his life, after he had already written much of his extensive hagiography recording the miracles of saints lying in their graves. Because Gregory's views on saints do not seem to have changed during his writing life, we have not here expended energy in exploring the possible dating of individual lives, merely recording them all as written some time between 573 and 594.
For more on the text, and on its dating: James 1991, xiii-xix; Shaw 2015, particularly 117-120.
Discussion
Gregory's interest in Illidius was certainly elicited by the cult he observed in his own times at the saint's grave in Clermont, and by the fact that he himself experienced a healing miracle there (E00024). The miracle that the young Gregory experienced is the earliest attestation of the cult of Illidius and must have occurred in the 540s or 550s. When bishop Avitus raised Illidius' body and rebuilt the apse around it in the 570s or 580s (E00022), the cult was presumably flourishing. Gregory also owned relics of Illidius (E00027).For the church and monastery where Illidius was buried (Saint-Allyre) see E00022.
In his Histories 1.45, Gregory gives an abbreviated account of Illidius, with many of the same details found here in Life of the Fathers – see E01794.
The most striking miracle of Illidius is the one experienced by Gregory himself. The illness and the subsequent convalescence after a visit at the grave of Illidius were doubtless events of huge importance in Gregory's life: the vow he made to the saint was the first step on his way to becoming a bishop. Interestingly, another healing miracle of Illidius, which Gregory recounts at length (ch. 4), exhibits some narrative similarities to the one Gregory experienced himself.
Bibliography
Edition:Krusch, B., Gregorii Turonensis Opera. 2: Miracula et opera minora (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I.2; 2nd ed.; Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1969).
Translation:
James, E., Gregory of Tours. Life of the Fathers (Translated Texts for Historians 1; 2nd ed.; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1991).
de Nie, G., Gregory of Tours, Lives and Miracles (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 39; Cambridge MA, 2015).
Further reading:
Pietri, L. and Heijmans, M., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris 2013), vol. 2, 1036-1037, 'Illidius'.
Shaw, R., "Chronology, Composition, and Authorial Conception in the Miracula", in: A.C. Murray (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden-Boston 2015), 102-140.
Record Created By
Marta Tycner
Date of Entry
14/09/2014
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00022 | Illidius, bishop of Clermont, d. 384/385 | Illidius | Certain |
|---|
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