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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 (10.15), recounts how, during the revolt of 590, Leubovera, abbess of Radegund's monastery in Poitiers (western Gaul) and some of her supporters, sought sanctuary in the church in Poitiers of *Hilary (bishop of Poitiers, ob. 367, S00183), and also how people were killed in an affray at the tomb of Radegund (former queen and monastic founder, ob. 587, S00182). Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 590/594.

Evidence ID

E02385

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Major author/Major anonymous work

Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 10.15

The following is an incident during the long-running and complex revolt in the nunnery that Radegund had established in Poitiers, narrated at length in books 9 and 10 of the Histories. The leader of the revolt, Clotild, has assembled a group of male henchmen, who break into the nunnery one night and try to kidnap the abbess. Basina is a nun who supported Clotild.

Sed venientes cum evaginatis gladiis ac lanceis [...] adpraehensam praepositam pro abbatissa, quia tenebrae erant, excussis linteaminibus, a capite soluta caesariae, detrahunt et usque basilicam sancti Helari inter manus deferunt custodiae mancipandam; adpropinquantesque basilicae, caelo modico albiscente, ubi cognoverunt non esse abbatissam, mox ad monasterium redire puellam praecipiunt. Revertensque abbatissam adpraehendunt, extrahunt et in custodia iuxta sancti Helari basilicam in locum, ubi Basina metatum habebat, retrudunt [...] Adfuit enim diebus illis Flavianus, nuper domesticus ordinatus, cuius ope abbatissa sancti Helari ingressa basilica absolvitur. Inter haec ad sepulchrum sanctae Radegundis homicidia perpetrantur, et ante ipsam beatae crucis arcam quidam per seditionem truncati sunt. [...] Denique, orto igitur scandalum, pueri qui cum abbatissa erant, dum seditione, quam Chrodieldis scola commovit, resisterint, puerum Basinae percutiunt, qui cecidit et mortuus est. At illi post abbatissam ad basilicam confessoris confugiunt [...]

'The men approached with spears at the ready and swords drawn [...] They laid hands on the Prioress, in the darkness taking her for the Abbess, tore off her veil, let down her hair, dragged her out and carried her off in a mob to Saint Hilary's church, where they proposed to guard her closely. As they approached the church, the sky began to lighten momentarily and they realized that she was not the Abbess. They ordered her to return to the monastery. Returning, they seized the Abbess, dragged her out in her turn and locked her up in a house not far from Saint Hilary's church where Basina had her lodging [...] It happened that Flavianus, who had only recently been appointed as one of the King’s officials, was in Poitiers at this time, and with his help the Abbess was released and brought to Saint Hilary’s church. Meanwhile men were being killed before Saint Radegund's tomb and others were cut down in a riot outside the shrine of the Holy Cross. [...] While the servants of the Abbess were trying to put down an affray organized by Clotild's gang, they struck one of Basina's servants and the man fell down dead. They then sought refuge with the Abbess in the confessor's church [...]'


Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 501-3.
Translation: Thorpe 1974, 567-9, lightly modifed.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave

Non Liturgical Activity

Seeking asylum at church/shrine

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Women
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Slaves/ servants
Crowds

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

For a further reference to the same events, see E07785.


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

26/02/2017

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00182Radegund, former queen of the Franks and monastic founder, ob. 587RadegundisCertain
S00183Hilarius/Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, ob. 367HelariusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Katarzyna Wojtalik, Cult of Saints, E02385 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02385