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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 (8.6), records how, on the defeat of Gundovald in 585, Garachar, Count of Bordeaux, and Bladast sought sanctuary in the church of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) in Tours (north-west Gaul), and he himself sought mercy for them in Martin's name during Guntram's visit to Orléans in July 585. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 585/594.

Evidence ID

E02268

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Major author/Major anonymous work

Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 8.6

Rex igitur in crastinum in venatione progressus est. Quo redeunte, Garacharius comis Burdigalensis adque Bladastis a nobis repraesentati sunt, quia, ut superius diximus, in basilica sancti Martini confugium fecerant, pro eo quod Gundovaldo coniuncti fuissent. Nam cum prius, pro his depraecatus, nihil obtinere potuissem, haec in sequenti locutus sum: 'Audiat, o rex, potestas tua. Ecce! a domino meo in legatione ad te directus sum. Vel quid renuntiabo ei qui me misit, cum nihil mihi responsi reddere vellis?' At ille obstupefactus ait: 'Et quis est dominus tuus, qui te misit?' Cui ego subridens: 'Beatus Martinus', inquio, 'misit me'. Tunc ille iussit sibi repraesentari viros. Sed cum in eius conspectu venissent, multas eis perfidias ac per iurias exprobravit, vocans eos saepius vulpis ingeniosas, sed restituit eos gratiae suae, reddens quae illis ablata fuerant.

'The next morning King Guntram went off hunting. When he returned, I brought Garachar, Count of Bordeaux,and Bladast to have an audience. As we said earlier, they had fled to Saint Martin’s church, because they had belonged to Gundovald’s party. At first I had no success at all when I made my intercession on their behalf. I persevered all the same. "Listen, mighty King!" I said, "I have been sent by my master to give you a message. What answer shall I carry back to him who sent me, seeing that you refuse to give me a reply?" Guntram was astonished at what I said. "Who is this master who sent you?" he asked. I answered with a smile: "It was Saint Martin who told me to come." At that he ordered the men to be brought in. No sooner did they appear than he reproached them for their many acts of perjury and treason, calling them repeatedly cunning foxes. In the end he restored them to his favour and gave them back all that had been taken from them.'


Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 374-375.
Translation: Thorpe 1974, 438-9, lightly modified.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Non Liturgical Activity

Seeking asylum at church/shrine
Saint as patron - of an individual

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Aristocrats
Officials

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

In fact there is no mention earlier in Gregory's Histories of these two men seeking sanctuary in Tours, though in 7.37 he does mention Bladast's flight from Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. Garachar is mentioned here for the first and only time in the Histories.


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:
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.

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

02/02/2017

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00050Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397MartinusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Katarzyna Wojtalik, Cult of Saints, E02268 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02268