Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Martin (2.35), recounts how four prisoners were miraculously freed after they prayed to *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) soon after his feast in July 577, along with their amazed guards, they took refuge in the church of Martin in Tours. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 577/581.
Evidence ID
E03181
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Major author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi) 2.35
In proximo autem, id est post tertiam de festivitate diem, erant quattuor vincti in carcere. Cumque eos saevitia iudicis ita constringeret, ut nec victus necessaria nulli praebere liceret, antestitis beati praesidia corde puro precantur. Dum haec igitur devote agerent, media die subito scinditur trabis, qua pedes eorum conclusi coartabantur, confractisque catenis, liberatos se sentiunt. Nec morati ostium petunt quo aperto, eclesiam sanctam, nemine prohibente, ingressi sunt. Custodes autem in tantum obstupe facti fuerunt, ut nec verbis quidem eos increpare praesumerent; qui etiam sequentes eos, cum eisdem se in eclesia abdiderunt.
'Soon after, that is, on the third day after this festival, there were four men bound in prison. Because the judge had confined them so brutally that it was not possible to offer any of them the necessary sustenance, with pure hearts they requested the assistance of the blessed bishop. As they piously did this, suddenly at noon the stocks that enclosed and restricted their feet were split, the chains were broken, and the men realised that they had been freed. Immediately they went to the door, opened it, and entered the holy cathedral without anyone’s opposing them. The prison guards were so surprised that they did not dare to rebuke these men even with words; instead, they followed the men and took refuge with them in the cathedral.'
Text: Krusch 1969, 172.
Translation: Van Dam 1993, 246-247, lightly modified (= de Nie 2015, 607).
FestivalsPrayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesMiracle after death
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesThe socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)
Dating by saint’s festival
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Seeking asylum at church/shrine
MiraclesMiracle after death
Freeing prisoners, exiles, captives, slaves
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesThe socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)
Soldiers
Prisoners
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.
Discussion
The story must have happened on 7 July 577. This was the third day after Martin's festival.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.
Record Created By
Katarzyna Wojtalik
Date of Entry
06/07/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Certain |
|---|
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