Gregory of Tours, in his Glory of the Martyrs (100), tells of relics of *George (soldier and martyr, S00259), and of other unnamed saints, being hosted at an oratory in the territory of Limoges (western Gaul), and refusing to move on until a part was left at the oratory; other relics of George effect many miracles in a village in the territory of Le Mans (north-west Gaul). Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 580/594.
Evidence ID
E00653
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
Major author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs 100
Multa de Georgio martyre miracula gesta cognovimus, de quibus pauca locuturus sum. Huius enim reliquiae cum reliquorum sanctorum a quibusdam ferebantur; sed cum portitores ad locum quendam Lemovicini termini advenissent, ubi iam pauci clerici, consertum ligneis tabulis oratorium, Dominum assidue precabantur, mansionem postulant. Susceptique benigne, noctem cum ceteris fratribus psallendo deducunt. Mane autem facto, adprehensam capsulam levare penitus non valebant. Denique cum iter agere sine pignore sancto penitus nequirent, et eis maximus dolor animi insedisset, intellegunt, inspirante Deo, sibi aliquid ex his in loco oportere relinquere. Tunc inquisitis ligaturis divisisque particulis, seniori qui cellulae praeerat largiuntur, relinquentes partem patrocinii, sumentes facultatem quo voluerant abeundi.
Habentur etiam eius reliquiae in vico quodam Cinomannensi, ubi multa plerumque miracula ostenduntur. Nam caeci, claudi, frigoritici vel reliqui infirmi saepius ibi sanitatum gratia munerantur.
'I know many miracle stories about the martyr George, of which I will narrate a few. Some people were carrying his relics along with the relics of other saints. When these couriers came to a place on the borders of Limoges where a few clerics had already constructed an oratory from wood planks and were constantly praying to the Lord, they requested lodging. They were received with kindness and they spent the night chanting psalms with the other brothers. At daybreak they took the reliquary but could not lift it at all. Then, since they utterly refused to travel without the holy relics and felt a great grief come in their hearts, they understood, by the inspiration of God, that they ought to leave some of their relics in this place. They searched in the fastenings and divided out some small pieces; they presented these to the elder who presided at the cell. By leaving a part of their protection they were granted the ability to go where they wished.
There are also relics of George in a village of the territory of Le Mans, where often many miracles are revealed. For the blind, the lame, those with fevers, and other ill people are often there rewarded with the favour of health.'
Text: Krusch 1969, 104.
Translation: Van Dam 2004, 93, lightly modified.
Liturgical ActivitiesMiracle after death
RelicsUnspecified relic
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Chant and religious singing
Cult PlacesCult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)
MiraclesMiracle after death
Saint aiding or preventing the translation of relics
Healing diseases and disabilities
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsUnspecified relic
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Reliquary – institutionally owned
Division of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - lesser clergy
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.Internal references to datable events and to other work by Gregory, suggest that he wrote the greater part of his Glory of the Martyrs between 585 and 588, though there is one chapter (ch. 82), long before the end of the book, that describes an event that is most readily dated to 590. It is in fact likely that Gregory was collecting and recording these stories throughout his life, and, fortunately for our purposes, precise dating is not of great importance, since his views on the role of saints and the correct ways to venerate them do not seem to have changed during his writing life. The work was probably never fully completed and polished: the version we have closes with four very disparate chapters, including one (105) about the divine punishment of an avaricious woman that bears no obvious connection to the overall theme of the book. (For discussions of the dating, see Van Dam 2004, xi-xii; Shaw 2015, 104-105, 111.)
In his preface, Gregory states that his aim in the work is 'to publicise some of the miracles of the saints that have until now been hidden' (aliqua de sanctorum miraculis, quae actenus latuerunt, pandere), so, as in his Glory of the Confessors, his focus is not on the lives of the saints, nor on the details of their martyrdoms, but on miracles they have effected, particularly through their relics. Miracles are recorded from many places; but unsurprisingly the largest number is from Gaul.
The book opens, rather curiously, with a sizeable number of miracles and relics of Jesus and his mother Mary, neither of them conventional 'martyrs'. The explanation for this must be that Gregory's interest was really much more in relics and miracles in general than in martyrs specifically. Many of the Gallic saints he included are somewhat obscure, but outside Gaul he concentrates for the most part on major saints; towards the end of the book, however, he slips in a couple of lesser Syrian saints, probably because they had interesting specialisms: Phokas and Domitios, with, respectively, particular skills at curing snake bites and sciatica. In the case of the non-Gallic saints, it is not always clear whether they were attracting active cult in Gaul – Phokas and Domitios, for instance, almost certainly didn't. It is only when Gregory tells us of a church dedication or relic that we can be certain that the saint concerned had serious cult in Gaul: in the case of the martyrs of Rome, for instance, this is true of Clement and Laurence, but not of Chrysanthus and Daria, Pancratius, and John I.
Although each section contains extraneous material, the work can be broken down very roughly into the following sections:
*Chapters 1-7: Miracles and relics of Jesus (with some of Mary), including three chapters (5-7) on relics of the Passion. (For the most part, these chapters are not covered in our database.)
*Chapters 8-19: Miracles and relics of Mary and John the Baptist.
*Chapters 20-25: Miraculous images of Jesus, and a spring associated with Easter.
*Chapters 23-34: Miracles and relics of the Apostles and Stephen (i.e. New Testament saints).
*Chapters 35-41: Miracles and relics of the post-apostolic martyrs of Rome.
*Chapters 42-46: And of northern Italy.
*Chapters 47-77: And of Gaul (in no obvious order, except that the first three chapters are occupied by early martyrs). This is the longest section of the book.
*Chapters 78-87: Very miscellaneous, with only marginal references to saints: three anti-Arian stories (79-81); two stories regarding relics of Gregory's (82-83); four stories of the punishment of impure people (84-87).
*Chapters 88-102: Miracles and relics of martyrs of Spain, Africa (just one, Cyprian of Carthage), and the East, in that order.
*Chapters 103-106: Miscellaneous.
But tight structuring was never a great concern of Gregory's, so within this broad framework, he often wanders off his main theme. For instance, a clutch of miracle stories relating to John the Baptist (chs. 11-13) lead Gregory into a general discussion of the River Jordan (ch. 16), which then leads him to discuss some springs near Jericho (ch. 17), linked to the preceding chapter by the common theme of 'miraculous waters in the Holy Land', but with no connection to any martyr. Similarly, a miracle story involving relics of St Andrew and the punishment of an Arian count (ch. 78) leads Gregory into three stories against Arians with no relation to saints. These digressions did not bother Gregory and are part of the charm of his work.
Gregory very seldom tells us about his sources, which for the most part were certainly oral; he had a wide circle of acquaintances within the Gallic church, and also met and collected stories from travellers from abroad, including (if the source is to be believed) a man who had travelled to India (ch. 31). But Gregory also used a range of written texts, including Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History (chs. 20 and 48), the poems of Prudentius, Paulinus of Nola, and Venantius Fortunatus, and a substantial number of Martyrdoms (Van Dam 2004, xiv-xvi).
Because many of his stories are set abroad, Glory of the Martyrs is less informative about cult practices than Glory of the Confessors, with its very local and very Gallic focus, but it is still a gold-mine of information. To take just two examples: the story of Benignus of Dijon is a remarkably rich and detailed account of the discovery and enhancement of a previously unknown martyr (ch. 50), while that of Patroclus of Troyes shows the importance of a written Martyrdom, and the degree of scepticism that might greet a new one (ch. 63).
There is a good general discussion of Glory of the Martyrs in Van Dam 2004, ix-xxiii, and of Gregory's hagiography more widely in Shaw 2015.
(Bryan Ward-Perkins)
Discussion
For the overview of the Glory of the Martyrs see E00367.Gregory does not feel the need to introduce George to his readers other than by name, and he is the only one of the saints of the East and North Africa discussed by Gregory in the final chapters of Glory of the Martyrs, to whom he attributes miracles in Gaul. George appears to have been a familiar figure in the region, attracting considerable cult. Outside the works of Gregory, we learn, from a poem by Venantius Fortunatus (E05638), of a church dedicated to George at Mainz in the first half of the 6th century.
The village in the territory of Le Mans may be Saint-Martin-des-Bois: Vieillard-Troiekouroff 1976, 265.
Bibliography
Edition:Krusch, B., Liber in gloria martyrum, in: Gregorii Turonensis Opera. 2: Miracula et opera minora (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 1.2; 2nd ed.; Hannover, 1969).
Translation:
Van Dam, R., Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs (Translated Texts for Historians 4; 2nd ed., Liverpool, 2004).
Further reading:
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.
Vieillard-Troiekouroff, M., Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d'après les œuvres de Grégoire de Tours (Paris, 1976).
Record Created By
Marta Tycner, Bryan Ward-Perkins
Date of Entry
18/03/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00259 | George, soldier and martyr, and Companions | Gregorius | Certain | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | Certain |
|---|
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