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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 Miracles of Martin (3.57), writes how a blind man was cured at the church of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) in Tours, three days before his feast in 586/587. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 586/588.

Evidence ID

E04068

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) 3.57

Hominis cuiusdam oculi crassa caliginis nube contecti, quodam gluttino coniunctis palpebribus fuerant obserati, et quod super deerat viro, magnis doloribus tenebatur. Quid plura? Festivitatem sancti cum reliquis devotus expetiit, adtente exorans, ut a virtute beati antistitis visitari mereretur in die solemnitatis. Sed sacra solemnia praevenit potentia confessoris, ostendens se adesse populis, cum tenebras pepulit lumenque refudit. Igitur ante diem tertium festivitatis hoc in atrio, quod absidam corporis ambit, orante, subito aperti sunt oculi eius, et aspiciens lucem videre meruit. Quod cum his qui aderant cum gratiarum actione narraret, dictum est ei, ut silens potius orationem funderet, ut coeptam virtutem beatus antistis celerius adimpleret. Tunc prostratus terrae, cum in lacrimis prorupisset, firmatis oculis, incolomis a solo surrexit.

'A man’s eyes had been covered by a thick cloud of darkness and obstructed by his eyelids that were fastened together by some stickiness; all other parts of his body were racked by terrible pains. Why say more? He piously attended the saint’s festival with the other people and carefully prayed that he might deserve to be assisted by the power of the blessed bishop on the day of his festival. But the confessor’s power anticipated the holy ceremonies, and showed its presence to the people by dispelling darkness and restoring light. Three days before the festival while this man was praying in the courtyard that surrounds the apse containing [Martin’s] body, his eyes were suddenly opened, and he looked about and deserved to see the light. While he was giving thanks and describing what had happened to the others who were there, he was told that he should rather be silent and offer a prayer that the blessed bishop might quickly complete the miracle that he had begun. Then, prostrating himself on the ground, he burst out in tears; his eyes were healed, and he stood up from the ground with his health.'


Text: Krusch 1969, 196.
Translation: Van Dam 1993, 581-582, modified (= de Nie 2015, 759-761).

Festivals

Saint’s feast

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Non Liturgical Activity

Visiting graves and shrines
Prayer/supplication/invocation

Miracles

Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Other lay individuals/ people

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 festival mentioned in this chapter was certainly in 586 or 587, but there are different opinions amongst scholars over the precise date: between 11 November 586, 4 July 587 and 11 November 587 (van Dam 1993, 281, n. 92).


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

24/09/2017

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


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
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