Site logo

The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Gregory of Tours, in his Histories (3.7), recounts how *Radegund (former queen, and monastic founder, ob. 587, S00182), in c. 560 built a nunnery in Poitiers (western Gaul), where she led a holy life. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 575/594.

Evidence ID

E02050

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Major author/Major anonymous work

Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 3.7

Illa (Radegund) quoque ad Deum conversa, mutata veste, monastyrium sibi intra Pectavensem urbem construxit. Quae orationibus, ieiuniis atque elymosinis praedita, in tantum emicuit, ut magna in populis haberetur.

'Radegund turned to God, took the habit of a religious, and built a nunnery for herself in Poitiers. She was famous for her prayers, her fasting and her charity, and she shone so much that she was held to be great amongst the people.'


Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 105.
Translation: Thorpe 1974, 168-169, lightly modified.

Cult Places

Cult building - monastic

Non Liturgical Activity

Construction of cult buildings
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Fast
Distribution of alms

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Monarchs and their family
Women

Source

Gregory of Tours wrote the Histories (Historiae) during his episcopate in Tours (573–594). They constitute the longest and most detailed historical work of the post-Roman West. Gregory's focus is Gaul under its Frankish kings, above all the territories of Tours and (to a lesser extent) Clermont, where he had been born and brought up. Much of his work tells of the years when, as bishop of an important see, he was himself centrally involved in Frankish politics. The Histories are often wrongly referred to as a History of the Franks. Although the work does contain a history of the rulers of Francia, it also includes much hagiographical material, and Gregory himself gave it the simple title the 'ten books of Histories' (decem libri historiarum), when he produced a list of his own writings (Histories 10.31).

The
Histories consist of ten books whose scope and contents differ considerably. Book 1 skims rapidly through world history, with biblical and secular material from the Creation to the death in AD 397 of Martin of Tours (Gregory’s hero and predecessor as bishop). It covers 5596 years. In Book 2, which covers 114 years, the focus moves firmly into Gaul, covering the years up to the death of Clovis in 511. Books 3 and 4, which cover 37 and 27 years respectively, then move fairly swiftly on, closing with the death of king Sigibert in 575. With Book 5, through to the final Book 10, the pace slows markedly, and the detail swells, with only between two and four years covered in each of the last six books, breaking off in 591. These books are organised in annual form, based on the regnal years of Childebert II (r. 575-595/6).

There continues to be much discussion over when precisely Gregory wrote specific parts of the
Histories, though there is general agreement that none of it was written before 575 and, of course, none of it after Gregory's death, which is believed to have occurred in 594. Essentially, scholars are divided over whether Gregory wrote the Histories sequentially as the years from 575 unfolded, with little or no revision thereafter, or whether he composed the whole work over the space of a few years shortly before his death and after 585 (see Murray 2015 for the arguments on both sides). For an understanding of the political history of the time, and Gregory's attitude to it, precisely when the various books were written is of great importance; but for what he wrote about the saints, the precise date of composition is of little significance, because Gregory's attitude to saints, their relics and their miracles did not change significantly during his writing-life. We have therefore chosen to date Gregory's writing of our entries only within the broadest possible parameters: with a terminus post quem of 575 for the early books of the Histories, and thereafter the year of the events described, and a terminus ante quem of 594, set by Gregory's death.

(Bryan Ward-Perkins, David Lambert)


For general discussions of the Histories see:
Goffart, W., The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton, 1988), 119–127.

Murray, A.C., "The Composition of the Histories of Gregory of Tours and Its Bearing on the Political Narrative," in: A.C. Murray (ed.),
A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden and Boston, 2015), 63–101.

Pizarro, J.M., "Gregory of Tours and the Literary Imagination: Genre, Narrative Style, Sources, and Models in the
Histories," in: Murray, A Companion to Gregory of Tours, 337–374.

Discussion

Although this passage praises Radegund highly for her sanctity, she is not here presented as a woman with saintly powers.

Radegund organised the monastery in Poitiers c. AD 560, most probably before AD 557. In AD 569 she sent to the East for relics of the Cross and relics of apostles and martyrs, which she placed in the monastery (
Histories 9.40, see E02363). For more information about the monastery, see Vieillard-Troiekouroff 1976, 224-229, and Boissavit-Camus 1998, 82-85.


Bibliography

Edition:
Krusch, B., and Levison, W., Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Libri historiarum X (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I.1; 2nd ed.; Hannover, 1951).

Translation:
Thorpe, L., Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks (Penguin Classics; London, 1974).

Further reading:
Boissavit-Camus, B., "Poitiers," in: N. Gauthier (ed.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 10: Province ecclésiastique de Bordeaux (Aquitania Secunda) (Paris, 1998), 65-92.

Murray, A.C., "The Composition of the Histories of Gregory of Tours and Its Bearing on the Political Narrative", in: A.C. Murray (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden-Boston 2015), 63-101.

Pietri, L. and Heijmans, M.,
Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris 2013), vol. 2, 1569-84, 'Radegundis'.

Vieillard-Troiekouroff, M.,
Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d'après les œuvres de Grégoire de Tours (Paris, 1976).


Record Created By

Katarzyna Wojtalik

Date of Entry

14/12/2016

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00182Radegund, former queen of the Franks and monastic founder, ob. 587RadegundCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Katarzyna Wojtalik, Cult of Saints, E02050 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02050