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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Gregory the Great writes the Dialogues, recounting miraculous stories with various local saints as their subject. Written in Latin in Rome, c. 593. Overview entry.

Evidence ID

E04383

Type of Evidence

Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts

Literary - Hagiographical - Lives

Major author/Major anonymous work

Gregory the Great (pope)

Gregory the Great, Dialogues

Summary and Description:

In the Dialogues, Gregory the Great records miraculous stories about a number of Italian saints. He presents these stories as a set of dialogues between himself and his student, Peter. Peter outlines the value of these stories in the prologue of Book 1:

In expositione quippe qualiter inuenienda atque tenenda sit uirtus agnoscitur, in narratione uero signorum cognoscimus inuenta ac retenta qualiter declaratur. Et sunt nonnulli quos ad amorem patriae caelestis plus exempla quam praedicamenta succendunt. Fit uero plerumque in audientis animo duplex adiutorium in exemplis patrum, quia et ad amorem uenturae uitae ex praecedentium conparatione accenditur, et iam si se esse aliquid aestimat, dum de aliis meliora cognouerit, humiliatur.

‘An explanation of Scripture teaches us how to attain virtue and persevere in it, whereas a description of miracles shows us how this acquired virtue reveals itself in those who persevere in it. Then, too, the lives of the saints are often more effective than mere instruction for inspiring us to love heaven as our home. Hearing their example will generally be helpful in two ways. In the first place, as we compare ourselves with those who have gone before, we are filled with a longing for the future life; secondly, if we have too high an opinion of our own worth, it makes us humble to find that others have done better.’

Gregory then recounts several miraculous stories. In each case, he is careful to cite the source of the stories, hinting at a world in which these accounts were transmitted orally. Some of the stories refer to posthumous miracles brought about by the relics of well-known saints, including *Sebastian (martyr of Rome, S00400) and *Peter (the Apostle, S00036), described in E04438 and E04481. Gregory also describes saints appearing to devotees in miraculous visions (E04507; E04581; E04587; E04588; E04597).

The majority of the stories, however, refer to the miracles which local saints effected. Most of these events took place within the saint’s own lifetime. The following saints are the subject of stories in the
Dialogues:

*Honoratus (abbot and founder of Fondi, earlier 6th c., S01662)
Dialogues 1.1 = E04384.
*Libertinus (abbot of Fondi, mid-6th c., S01708)
Dialogues 1.2 = E04428.
*Equitius (abbot of Valeria, later 6th c., S01710)
Dialogues 1.4 = E04430.
*Constantius (sacristan near Ancona, 6th c., S01711)
Dialogues 1.5 = E04431.
*Marcellinus (bishop of Ancona, 6th c., S01712)
Dialogues 1.6 = E04432
*Nonnosus (abbot of Mount Soracte, later 6th c., S01713)
Dialogues 1.7 = E04433.
*Anastasius (abbot of Suppentonia, earlier 6th c., S01714)
Dialogues 1.8 = E04436.
*Boniface (bishop of Ferento, 6th c., S01715)
Dialogues 1.9 = E04437.
*Fortunatus (bishop of Todi, 6th c., S01716)
Dialogues 1.10 = E04438.
*Martyrius (monk of Valeria, 6th c., S01717)
Dialogues 1.11 = E04440.
*Severus (priest of Antodoco, 6th c., S01718)
Dialogues 1.12 = E04441.

*Benedict (monk of Nursia, ob. 547, S01727)
Dialogues 2 = E04450.
*Scholastica (nun of central Italy, ob. 543, S01728)
Dialogues 2.33-34 = E04455.

*John I (bishop of Rome, ob. 526
, S00308) Dialogues 3.2 = E04459.
*Agapitus I (bishop of Rome, ob. 536
, S00811) Dialogues 3.3 = E04443.
*Datius (bishop of Milan, ob. 552, S00558),
Dialogues 3.4 = E00846.
*Sabinus (bishop of Canosa, ob. 556, S01729)
Dialogues 3.5 = E04444.
*Cassius (bishop of Narni, ob. 558, S01730)
Dialogues 3.6 = E04460.
*Constantius (bishop of Aquino, 6th c., S01731)
Dialogues 3.8 = E04462.
*Frigdianus, (bishop of Lucca, ob. 588, S01732)
Dialogues 3.9 = E04463.
*Sabinus (bishop of Piacenza, ob. 420, S01732)
Dialogues 3.10 = E04464.
*Cerbonius (bishop of Populonia, ob. c. 575, S01752)
Dialogues 3.11 = E04472.
*Fulgentius (bishop of Otricoli, 6th c., S01753)
Dialogues 3.12 = E04473.
*Floridus (bishop of Perugia, 6th c., S01754)
Dialogues 3.13 = E04475.
*Isaac, (abbot of Spoleto, 6th c., S01755)
Dialogues 3.14 = E04476.
*Euthicius (abbot of Nursia, 6th c., S01756)
Dialogues 3.15 = E04478.
*Florentius (monk of Nursia, 6th c., S01757)
Dialogues 3.15 = E04479.
*Martinus (hermit of Monte Massico, 6th c., S01758)
Dialogues 3.16 = E04480.
*Benedictus (hermit near Rome, 6th c., S01759)
Dialogues 3.18 = E04482.
*Zeno (bishop of Verona, ob. 371, S01558)
Dialogues 3.19 = E04483.
*Stephanus (priest of Valeria, 6th c., S01760)
Dialogues 3.20 = E04484.
*Acontius (sacristan near Palestrina, 6th c., S01761)
Dialogues 3.23–4 = E04485.
*Menas (hermit of Samnium, 6th c., S01772)
Dialogues 3.26 = E04499.
*Hermengild (Visigothic prince and martyr, ob. 585, S01771)
Dialogues 3.31 = E04502.
*African confessors whose tongues were cut out by the Vandals (S01481)
Dialogues 3.32 = E07832
*Eleutherius (abbot of Spoleto, 6th c., S01770)
Dialogues 3.33 = E04503.
*Amantius (priest of Città di Castello, 6th c., S01768)
Dialogues 3.35 = E04504.
*Maximian (bishop of Syracuse, ob. 594, S01769)
Dialogues 3.36 = E04505.
*Sanctulus (priest of Nursia, 6th c., S01767)
Dialogues 3.37 = E04506.
*Suranus (abbot of Sura, martyred by the Lombards, S01843)
Dialogues 4.23 = E04590.
*Paschasius (deacon of Rome, ob. 511/514, S01844)
Dialogues 4.43 = E04594.

Summary: Frances Trzeciak.

Non Liturgical Activity

Composing and translating saint-related texts
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Oral transmission of saint-related stories

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Ecclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits

Source

Gregory the Great (Pope, 590-604) wrote his Dialogues on the Lives and Miracles of the Italian Fathers (Dialogi de vita et miraculis patrum italicorum) in Rome around 593. Organised into four books, the first three are a collection of lives and miracles of various Italian saints. The longest is the Life of Benedict of Nursia, which comprises the entirety of book 2. The final book consists of an essay on the immortality of souls after death. As a whole, the work documents and explains the presence of the miraculous in the contemporary world and the ability of saints to effect miracles both before and after death. The attribution of the Dialogues to Gregory has been disputed, most recently by Francis Clark who argued that the work was created in the 680s in Rome. Others - such as Adalbert de Vogüé, Paul Meyvaert and Matthew dal Santo - have, however, strongly argued for Gregory's authorship and it is broadly accepted that Gregory was responsible for the Dialogues.

For a discussion of Gregory's devotion in writing the
Dialogues, see E04383, and for the role of the Dialogues as a tract justifying the nature of miracles and theorising on the immortality of souls, see E04457.

Gregory's principal aim in collecting the miracle stories of the holy men and a very few women of sixth-century Italy was to show the presence of God's power on earth as manifested through them, rather than to encourage the cult of these individuals. Indeed, though posthumous miracles at the graves of a few individuals are recorded (and also a few miracles aided by contact relics of dead saints), there is very little emphasis in the
Dialogues on posthumous cult; some of the miraculous events that Gregory records (e.g. E04429) are not even attributed to named individuals. Although very few of the holy persons in the Dialogues are 'proper' saints, with long-term cult, we have included them all in our database, for the sake of completeness and as an illustration of the impossibility of dividing 'proper' saints from more 'ordinary' holy individuals.


Bibliography

Edition:
Vogüé, A. de, Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, Sources chrétiennes 254 (introduction), 260 (Books 1-3), 265 (Book 4) (Paris: Cerf, 1978, 1979, 1980).

Translation:
Zimmerman, O.J., Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, Fathers of the Church 39 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1959).

Further Reading:
Clark, F.,The 'Gregorian' Dialogues and the Origins of Benedictine Monasticism (Leiden: Brill, 2003).

Dal Santo, M., "The Shadow of A Doubt? A Note on the
Dialogues and Registrum Epistolarum of Pope Gregory the Great (590–604)," Journal of Ecclesiatical History, 61.1, (2010), 3-17.

Meyvaert, P., "The Enigma of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues: A Reply to Francis Clark,"
Journal of Ecclesiastical History 39 (1988), 335–81.

Vogüé, A. de, "Grégoire le Grand et ses Dialogues d’après deux ouvrages récents,"
Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 83 (1988), 281–348.


Record Created By

Frances Trzeciak

Date of Entry

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00202Felicissimus and Agapitus, and four other deacons of Xystus II, all martyrs of RomeAgapitusCertain
S00308Iohannes/John I, bishop of Rome, ob. 526JohannesCertain
S00558Datius, bishop of Milan, ob. 552DatiusCertain
S01481African confessors whose tongues were cut out by the VandalsCertain
S01558Zeno, bishop of Verona, ob. 371ZenoCertain
S01662Honoratus, founder and abbot of Fondi, earlier 6th c.HonoratusCertain
S01708Libertinus, abbot of Fondi, mid-6th c.LibertinusCertain
S01710Equitius, abbot in the province of Valeria, later 6th c.EquitiusCertain
S01711Constantius, sacristan near Ancona, 6th c.ConstantiusCertain
S01712Marcellinus, bishop of Ancona, 6th c.MarcellinusCertain
S01713Nonnosus, prior of Mount Soracte, later 6th c.NonnosusCertain
S01714Anastasius, abbot of Suppentonia, earlier 6th c.AnastasiusCertain
S01715Bonifacius, bishop of Ferento, 6th c.BonifatiusCertain
S01716Fortunatus, bishop of Todi, ob. c. 537FortunatusCertain
S01717Martyrius, monk of Valeria, 6th c.MartyriusCertain
S01718Severus, priest of Interocrina, 6th c.SeverusCertain
S01727Benedict of Nursia, monastic founder, ob. 547BenedictusCertain
S01728Scholastica, nun of central Italy, ob. c. 543ScholasticaCertain
S01731Constantius, bishop of Aquino, 6th c.ConstantiusCertain
S01733Sabinus, bishop of Piacenza, ob. 420SabinusCertain
S01752Cerbonius, bishop of Populonia, ob. c. 575CerboniusCertain
S01753Fulgentius, bishop of Otricoli, 6th c.FulgentiusCertain
S01755Isaac, abbot of Spoleto, 6th c.IsaacCertain
S01756Euthicius, abbot of Nursia, 6th c.EuthychiusCertain
S01757Florentius, monk of Nursia, 6th c.FlorentiusCertain
S01758Martinus, hermit of Monte Massico, 6th c.MartinusCertain
S01759Benedictus, hermit near Rome, 6th c.BenedictusCertain
S01760Stephanus, priest of central Italy, 6th c.Stephanus Certain
S01761Acontius, sacristan near Palestrina, 6th c.AcontiusCertain
S01767Sanctulus, priest of Nursia, 6th c.SanctulusCertain
S01768Amantius, priest of Città di Castello, 6th c.AmantiusCertain
S01769Maximianus, bishop of Syracuse, ob. 594Maximianus Certain
S01770Eleutherius, abbot of Spoleto, 6th c.EleuthariusCertain
S01771Hermenegild, Visigothic prince and martyr, ob. 585Herminigildus Certain
S01772Menas, hermit of Samnium, 6th c. MenasCertain
S01843Suranus, abbot of Sura, martyred by the LombardsSuranusCertain
S01844Paschasius, deacon of Rome, ob. 511/514PaschasiusCertain
S02921Herculanus, bishop and martyr of Perugia, ob. 541/552HerculanusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Frances Trzeciak, Cult of Saints, E04383 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04383