Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Martin (2.36), recounts how Leodovald, bishop of Avranches (north-west Gaul), requested relics of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) from Tours. The relics on their journey to Avranches heal a paralysed man, and after their deposition, a blind man and a mute woman are cured; AD 576/577. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 577/581.
E03213
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi) 2.36
Multi fide pleni reliquias beati viri portantes virtutes multas experiuntur. Nam Leodovaldus Abrineatinae civitatis episcopus sancti domni reliquias per presbiterum suum devotus expetiit. Quas acceptas, cum terminum antedictae civitatis ingressus fuisset, occurrit ei adhuc inter deserta posito paralyticus, deferentium inlatus manibus; osculatus vero fideliter velum, quo capsa sanctorum pignorum cooperta erat, mox in pedes constitit ac propriis gressibus domi regressus est. Haec enim agis, beatissime confessor, nec tibi sat est propriam aedem exornare prodigiis, nisi et diversos saltus, quos pede non adisti, virtutibus tremendis inlustres. Sed et deinceps caecus quidam, adminiculo deducente, in occursum earum velociter properat. Adveniens autem, quando beati pignora in altare locabantur, expedita solemnitate, visum recipere meruit oculorum. Sed et alia nihilhominus mulier, quae diu muta fuerat, sermonis usum recepit.
'Many people who are filled with faith experience many miracles as they carry relics of the blessed man. Bishop Leodovald of Avranches [sent] his presbyter and piously requested relics of the holy lord [Martin]. The priest received the relics; when he entered the territory of the aforementioned city, a paralysed man who was brought by those carrying him in their hands met the priest when he was still in a deserted region. After the paralysed man piously kissed the cloth that covered the reliquary with the holy relics, soon he stood on his own feet and returned home with his own steps. Most blessed confessor, you perform these miracles, but it is still not sufficient for you to decorate your own church with wonders unless you also dignify with outstanding miracles the various regions that you did not visit on foot. Then a blind man quickly hurried with the assistance of his cane to meet these relics. He approached, and when the relics of the blessed [Martin] were placed in the altar and the ceremony was completed, he deserved to receive sight in his eyes. And another woman who had been mute for a long time similarly recovered the use of her speech.'
Text: Krusch 1969, 172.
Translation: Van Dam 1993, 247 (= de Nie 2015, 609).
Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsUnspecified relic
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Reliquary – institutionally owned
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Other lay individuals/ people
Women
Cult Related ObjectsPrecious cloths
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
Leodovald became bishop of Avranches in 576 or 577, shortly before he asked for relics of Martin.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
07/07/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Certain |
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