Gregory of Tours writes the Miracles of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050). In Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 573/594. Overview entry.
E02800
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi)
Overview entry:
Book 1
(Prologue) Gregory stresses the importance of recording Martin's miracles and recounts a dream in which he was commanded to do so - see E07804 and E07805.
(Ch. 1) Sulpicius Severus wrote a Life of Martin - see E02801.
(Ch. 2) Paulinus of Périgueux rendered Severus' Life into verse - see E02802.
(Ch. 3) The ordination and death of Martin. [not entered in the database]
(Ch. 4) How the chanting of Psalms at Martin's death was revealed to St Severinus, bishop of Cologne - see E02803.
(Ch. 5) How Martin's death was revealed to *Ambrose (S00490) - see E02804.
(Ch. 6) The transfer of Martin's body - see E02805.
(Ch. 7) Theodomund, a mute man - see E02806.
(Ch. 8) Chainemund, a blind woman - see E02807.
(Ch. 9) Bishop Baudinus of Toursis saved from a storm on a lake - see E02808.
(Ch. 10) The man who took the saint's relics to Cambrai (north-east Gaul) - see E02809.
(Ch. 11) The Sueves in Galicia (north-east Spain) who were converted - see E02847.
(Ch. 12) Queen Ultrogotho (widow of King Childebert) - see E02860.
(Ch. 13) The man who suffered from a blister and was in pain - see E02861.
(Ch. 14) The fortress in Italy called Tertium - see E02862.
(Ch. 15) The oil from the lamp beneath the painting of the blessed Martin - see E02863.
(Ch. 16) The procurator Placidus - see E02869.
(Ch. 17) The events that happened in Amiens (north-east Gaul) - see E02873.
(Ch. 18) The oratory at Sireuil (western Gaul) - see E02875.
(Ch. 19) Bella, a blind woman - see E02876.
(Ch. 20) Ammonius, a man who was thrown down - see E02877.
(Ch. 21) Another man who was hanged - see E02898.
(Ch. 22) Leomeris, acrippled man - see E02900.
(Ch. 23) Wiliachar, a bound man - see E02901.
(Ch. 24) Alpinus, a lame count - see E02902.
(Ch. 25) Charigisil, a crippled man - see E02903.
(Ch. 26) Aquilinus, who lost his senses - see E02916.
(Ch. 27) Charivald, a lame man - see E02917.
(Ch. 28) The rope that was cut - see E02918.
(Ch. 29) King Charibert, who seized a villa - see E02919.
(Ch. 30) Eustochius of Poitiers - see E02921.
(Ch. 31) The man who committed perjury in the sacred colonnade - see E02922.
(Ch. 32) How his power restored me to health from an illness - see E02923.
(Ch. 33) My cleric who lost his senses - see E02924.
(Ch. 34) His power averted a storm from my estate - see E02925.
(Ch. 35) The wood from the blessed railing - see E02926.
(Ch. 36) His power restrained my enemies - see E02933.
(Ch. 37) People suffering from dysentery - see E02934.
(Ch. 38) Possessed people and people suffering from chills - see E02935.
(Ch. 39) Leomeria, a blind woman - see E02936.
(Ch. 40) Securus, a crippled man - see E02937.
Book 2
(Prologue)
(Ch. 1) How Gregory was rescued from a fever and dysentery - see E02943.
(Ch. 2) The illness of Justinus - see E03000.
(Ch. 3) Maurusa, who suffered from gout in her hand - see E03001.
(Ch. 4) The slave belonging to the priest Symon - see E03002.
(Ch. 5) The paralysed man from Auxerre (eastern Gaul) - see E03003.
(Ch. 6) Another paralysed man from Orléans (nothern Gaul) - see E03004.
(Ch. 7) A similar story about another paralysed man from Bourges (central Gaul) - see E03005.
(Ch. 8) The blind man who received his sight - see E03006.
(Ch. 9) Another blind woman - see E03007.
(Ch. 10) The woman freed from a flow of blood - see E03008.
(Ch. 11) The lame woman - see E03040.
(Ch. 12) The man suffering from dysentery who was healed - see E03056.
(Ch. 13) The blind man who recovered his sight - see E03085.
(Ch. 14) The paralysed girl - see E03086.
(Ch. 15) The blind man who recovered his sight - see E03087.
(Ch. 16) The stories that a boatman told - see E03088.
(Ch. 17) Duke Guntramn - see E03089.
(Ch. 18) Landulf, a madman - see E03090.
(Ch. 19) Theudomer, a blind deacon - see E03091.
(Ch. 20) Desiderius, a possessed man - see E03092.
(Ch. 21) The man who had a contracted hand - see E03094.
(Ch. 22) Remigia, a married woman - see E03095.
(Ch. 23) Vinast, a blind man - see E03127.
(Ch. 24) The boy who was crippled in all his limbs - see E03128.
(Ch. 25) The paralysed man who was healed - see E03130.
(Ch. 26) Piolus, a mute man - see E03131.
(Ch. 27) The paralysed woman - see E03132.
(Ch. 28) The blind woman - see E03133.
(Ch. 29) The two blind men - see E03134.
(Ch. 30) The mute woman - see E03135.
(Ch. 31) Another crippled woman - see E03177.
(Ch. 32) The oil that increased at his tomb - see E03178.
(Ch. 33) Allomer, a crippled man - see E03179.
(Ch. 34) The blind monk - see E03180.
(Ch. 35) The men in prison who were released - see E03181.
(Ch. 36) The relics that Bishop Leodovald brought back - see E03213.
(Ch. 37) The possessed man who was cured - see E03214.
(Ch. 38) The mute girl - see E03215.
(Ch. 39) What the priest Aredius carried as a blessing - see E03217.
(Ch. 40) Sisulf, an ill man - see E03218.
(Ch. 41) The blind man who received his sight - see E03294.
(Ch. 42) The man whose hand was paralysed - see E03295.
(Ch. 43) The little boy who was revived - see E03296.
(Ch. 44) The blind man who received his sight - see E03297.
(Ch. 45) The two boys who were healed - see E03298.
(Ch. 46) The lame man who was healed - see E03299.
(Ch. 47) The crippled man whom an ox hauled about - see E03301.
(Ch. 48) Another man who had crippled hands and feet - see E03302.
(Ch. 49) Another man who had a crippled arm - see E03303.
(Ch. 50) The blind man who received his sight - see E03304.
(Ch. 51) People with dysentery - see E03306.
(Ch. 52) Another man who was cured of a serious swelling - see E03307.
(Ch. 53) The delirious man who was restored - see E03308.
(Ch. 54) The blind girl from Lisieux (northern Gaul) - see E03309.
(Ch. 55) The boy who had a crippled hand - see E03311.
(Ch. 56) The woman whose fingers were bent into her palm and who came to Tours - see E03477.
(Ch. 57) Another woman who was crippled while working during the festival of *John the Baptist (S00020) - see E03478.
(Ch. 58) Another boy who was blind and crippled - see E03479.
(Ch. 59) Another woman who was sold after being freed - see E03481.
(Ch. 60) The pain in my eyes and my headache - see E03482.
Book 3
(Prologue) The miracles that take place at Martin's tomb; Gregory's own experience of healing there - see E07807.
(Ch. 1) The pain in my throat - see E03483.
(Ch. 2) The disabled girl who was cured - see E03485.
(Ch. 3) The man whose hand was stuck to a lever - see E03487.
(Ch. 4) The crippled man who was cured - see E03488.
(Ch. 5) The blind man who received his sight - see E03489.
(Ch. 6) The disabled boy who was cured - see E03490.
(Ch. 7) The man who made a key on a Sunday - see E03491.
(Ch. 8) The dead boy who was revived - see E03492.
(Ch. 9) The man who had a disabled foot - see E03493.
(Ch. 10) My mother's shinbone - see E03494.
(Ch. 11) The woman whose hand was healed - see E03517.
(Ch. 12) The boy who was cured of an illness - see E03518.
(Ch. 13) Theoda, whose foot was healed - see E03520.
(Ch. 14) The crippled man - see E03522.
(Ch. 15) Gundulf, a disabled man - see E03524.
(Ch. 16) The blind boy who received his sight - see E03525.
(Ch. 17) The ear of the secretary Siggo - see E03530.
(Ch. 18) The disease in the herds - see E03531.
(Ch. 19) The blind man who received his sight - see E03532.
(Ch. 20) A similar story about another blind man who received his sight - see E03533.
(Ch. 21) Iulianus, a crippled man - see E03539.
(Ch. 22) The woman who received her sight at the saint's bed - see E03540.
(Ch. 23) The mute man whose brothers stole his possessions - see E03541.
(Ch. 24) The oil that increased - see E03542.
(Ch. 25) The woman's fingers that were straightened - see E03543.
(Ch. 26) Another crippled woman - see E03544.
(Ch. 27) The crippled boy - see E03545.
(Ch. 28) The blind man who received his sight - see E03546.
(Ch. 29) The man whose hand was fastened to his mallet - see E03547.
(Ch. 30) The boy with an ill stomach - see E03548.
(Ch. 31) A woman's withered right hand - see E03984.
(Ch. 32) The woman whose hands were fastened together - see E03985.
(Ch. 33) The death of horses - see E03986.
(Ch. 34) The plague that was accompanied by blisters - see E03987.
(Ch. 35) The two paralysed men and the one blind man who was healed - see E03988.
(Ch. 36) Agustus, a crippled man - see E03989.
(Ch. 37) The mute girl - see E03990.
(Ch. 38) The blind deacon from Châlons-sur-Marne - see E03996.
(Ch. 39) The woman who was crippled and blind - see E03997.
(Ch. 40) The paralysed man who was cured - see E03998.
(Ch. 41) The chains around a girl that were broken - see E04041.
(Ch. 42) The book containing the Life of Martin that survived the flames - see E04042.
(Ch. 43) The two boys who were healed - see E04043.
(Ch. 44) Mallulf, a crippled man - see E04044.
(Ch. 45) A man whose hands were straightened - see E04046.
(Ch. 46) The woman whose arm was crippled - see E04047.
(Ch. 47) The man who was imprisoned for a debt - see E04048.
(Ch. 48) The blind woman who received her sight - see E04049.
(Ch. 49) The paralysed boy whose entire body was disabled - see E04050.
(Ch. 50) Lupus, the priest who was cured of a fever - see E04051.
(Ch. 51) The baby who was cured - see E04061.
(Ch. 52) The cleric with dysentery - see E04062.
(Ch. 53) The man who was released after being hanged - see E04063.
(Ch. 54) The mute man who was healed - see E04064.
(Ch. 55) The woman whose hand was crippled - see E04065.
(Ch. 56) The woman who received her sight - see E04067.
(Ch. 57) The blind man who received his sight - see E04068.
(Ch. 58) The paralysed man and the two blind men - see E04069.
(Ch. 59) The boy with a fever - see E04070.
(Ch. 60) The miracles that happened during Gregory's journey - see E04071.
Book 4
(Prologue) How the saints have power to intercede for those who venerate them - see E07809.
(Ch. 1) Gregory's stomach-ache - see E04086.
(Ch. 2) Gregory's tongue and lips - see E04087.
(Ch. 3) The boy cured of a fever - see E04088.
(Ch. 4) The crippled man and the blind woman - see E04089.
(Ch. 5) The slave of Theodulf - see E04090.
(Ch. 6) The many ailments that were cured - see E04091.
(Ch. 7) The cluster of grapes in Galicia (north-west Spain) - see E04092.
(Ch. 8) The Martin's church in Saintes (north-west Gaul) - see E04093.
(Ch. 9) The two men suffering from dysentery - see E04094.
(Ch. 10) The saucers that Martin acquired - see E04095.
(Ch. 11) Blederic, who had no sons - see E04109.
(Ch. 12) The blind woman at the villa of Ternay (north-west Gaul) - see E04110.
(Ch. 13) The withered hand that was restored - see E04111.
(Ch. 14) Baudegisil, a disabled man - see E04112.
(Ch. 15) The man who brought wax - see E04113.
(Ch. 16) The release of a prisoner - see E04114.
(Ch. 17) The blind boy - see E04115.
(Ch. 18) The blind girl - see E04116.
(Ch. 19) The crippled man and the blind man - see E04117.
(Ch. 20) Another blind man - see E04118.
(Ch. 21) The consecrated bread taken away by Mothar, a citizen of Tours - see E04204.
(Ch. 22) The crippled man who was healed - see E04205.
(Ch. 23) The blind woman and the disabled man who were healed - see E04206.
(Ch. 24) The many blind and possessed people who were healed - see E04207.
(Ch. 25) The girl healed of a fever - see E04208.
(Ch. 26) The men in prison who were freed - see E04209.
(Ch. 27) The servant of the bishop Nonnichius of Nantes who was healed of an illness - see E04210.
(Ch. 28) The disappearance of the fever of Claudius, a royal clerk - see E04211.
(Ch. 29) What Abbess Agnes of Poitiers (north-west Gaul) said about a boatman - see E04465.
(Ch. 30) The miracles at the monastery of Ligugé (north-west Gaul) - see E04466.
(Ch. 31) The spring that the saint while alive made to flow - see E04487.
(Ch. 32) The fire at Poitiers - see E04488.
(Ch. 33) The servant healed of a fever - see E04489.
(Ch. 34) Leudulf, a mad and disabled man - see E04497.
(Ch. 35) The prisoner - see E04566.
(Ch. 36) The mute woman - see E04573.
(Ch. 37) The people suffering from chills who were healed - see E04574.
(Ch. 38) The blind, the paralysed, and the possessed - see E04575.
(Ch. 39) A similar story about the release of prisoners - see E04599.
(Ch. 40) Mauranus, a mute man - see E04600.
(Ch. 41) The crippled man and the prisoners who were released - see E04601.
(Ch. 42) Another crippled boy - see E04633.
(Ch. 43) People suffering from fevers - see E04634.
(Ch. 44) Principius, a madman - see E04635.
(Ch. 45) The blind man and the crippled man - see E04636.
(Ch. 46) Paternianus, a blind, mute, deaf and crippled man - see E04637.
(Ch. 47) Miraculous protection from fire in Bordeaux (south-west Gaul) - see E04638.
Summary: Katarzyna Wojtalik.
Composing and translating saint-related texts
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Source
Gregory, of a prominent Clermont family with extensive ecclesiastical connections, was bishop of Tours from 573 until his death (probably in 594). He 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.Gregory's Miracles of Martin (full title Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi, 'Books of the Miracles of Saint Martin the Bishop'), consists of four books of miracles, 207 chapters in all, effected by Martin, primarily at his grave and shrine in Tours. Most of them occurred at the time of the saint's festivals, on 4 July and 11 November. Gregory tried to record the miracles in chronological order, so historians have been able to calculate quite precisely the dates of the events and miracles mentioned in the work. This fairly precise chronology has enabled scholars to determine the dates of completion of each book. There have been three main dating schemes proposed for the composition of the four books. The oldest was suggested by Monod in 1872, another by Krusch in 1885, and then one by Van Dam in 1993 (for fuller discussion, see Shaw 2015, 103-105). Their datings of the individual books do not vary substantially, and in our entries we have given only those of Van Dam. Shaw 2015 convincingly demolishes an earlier theory, that Gregory wrote the Miracles in two distinct stages: a first stage that was written during a particular period, and a second stage in the early 590s, in which Gregory revised the whole work.
Book 1, with 40 chapters, was written between 573 and 576. In the prologue, Gregory mentions that he started writing after he became bishop of Tours in August 573. Book 1 must have been completed by 576, since Venantius Fortunatus in a letter to Gregory of that year referred to it (Epistula ad Gregorium 2, prefatory letter to Fortunatus' Life of Martin, MGH Auct. ant. 4.1, p. 293).
Book 2 consists of 60 chapters. It must have been finished before November 581, because the last miracles it mentions occurred in November 580, while the first ones recorded in Book 3 happened in November 581. Using the same methodology, the completion of Book 3, which also covers 60 chapters, can be dated between 587 and July 588.
Book 4, which consists of 47 chapters, seems never to have been completed, presumably because of Gregory’s death. There are two main arguments in support of the idea that it is unfinished. Firstly, Book 4 has no conclusion and no tidy number of chapters, while each of Books 1 to 3 has these elements. Secondly, the last story recorded in Book 4 is not about Gregory himself, unlike the final stories of Books 2 and 3.
Book 1 covers miracles that occurred before Gregory’s episcopate in Tours. The next three books are a running chronicle of Martin’s miracles under Gregory’s episcopate. Some of the miracles are recorded in very summary form, while others are much more elaborately presented: because of this, it has been argued that Gregory first jotted down notes, and only subsequently gave the stories full literary treatment (which in some cases, he was never able to do).
The three completed books of the Miracles of Martin were probably released as they were completed, rather that published together. In this sense they are the exception amongst Gregory's writings, since the rest of his work was not finally completed and seems to have been unpublished at the time of his death.
For discussion of the work, see:
Krusch, B. (ed.), Gregorii episcopi Turonensis miracula et opera minora (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 1,2; 2nd ed.; Hannover, 1969), 2–4.
Monod, G., Études critiques sur les sources de l’histoire mérovingienne, 1e partie (Paris, 1872), 42–45.
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.
Van Dam, R., Saints and Their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton, 1993), 142–146, 199.
Bibliography
Editions and translations:Krusch, B. (ed.), Gregorii episcopi Turonensis miracula et opera minora (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 1,2; 2nd ed.; Hannover, 1969), 134–211.
Van Dam, R. (trans.), Saints and Their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton, 1993), 200–303.
de Nie, G. (ed. and trans.), Lives and Miracles: Gregory of Tours (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 39; Cambridge MA, 2015), 421–855.
Further reading:
Murray, A.C. (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden-Boston, 2015).
Shanzer, D., "So Many Saints – So Little Time ... the Libri Miraculorum of Gregory of Tours," Journal of Medieval Latin 13 (2003), 19–63.
Katarzyna Wojtalik
09/05/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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