Gregory the Great, in his Dialogues (3.37), describes some miracles of *Sanctulus (priest of Nursia, 6th c., S01767). One of these stories refers to the destruction and restoration of a church of *Laurence (deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037), presumably in the region of Nursia (central Italy), and another to a miraculous intervention by *John the Baptist (S00020). Written in Latin in Rome, c. 593.
Evidence ID
E04506
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
Major author/Major anonymous work
Gregory the Great (pope)
Gregory the Great, Dialogues 3.37
Summary:
Sanctulus, a priest from the province of Nursia (ex Nursiae provincia) ordered a group of Lombards working at an oil press to fill his own container. They were not able to extract any oil from the press until Sanctulus poured water into it. Then an abundance of oil flowed forth.
After the Lombards destroyed the church of Laurence a number of craftsmen and builders were hired to restore it. Sanctulus miraculously found a loaf of bread in an oven, which had not been placed there by any local women. After the workers were fed, the scraps amounted to more than the original loaf.
On another occasion, Sanctulus offered himself to the Lombards in the place of a prisoner. He was to be beheaded, but Sanctulus called on the aid of *John (presumably the Baptist, S00020) and the executioner was unable to lower his arm and sword to do the deed. The Lombards, who were gathered around, recognised his sanctity. Sanctulus healed the executioner’s arm, which could still not be lowered, only after he had promised not to kill any more Christians.
Summary: Frances Trzeciak.
Cult PlacesConstruction of cult buildings
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesForeigners (including Barbarians)
Cult building - independent (church)
Rejection, Condemnation, SceptisismDestruction/desecration of saint's shrine
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Saint denying or suspending miracles
Material support (supply of food, water, drink, money)
Miraculous protection - of people and their property
Specialised miracle-working
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesForeigners (including Barbarians)
Torturers/Executioners
Soldiers
Crowds
Other lay individuals/ people
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.
Discussion
Sanctulus is otherwise unknown.The saint John whom Sanctulus invokes is certainly John the Baptist, who lost his head at the orders of Herod. John, who had suffered in this way, was clearly felt to be the right saint for a man to invoke, when threatened with decapitation.
Nursia was the region around present-day Norcia in southern Umbria.
Bibliography
Edition:Vogüé, A. de, Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, Sources chrétiennes 260 (Paris: Cerf, 1979).
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.
Pietri, Ch. and Pietri, L., Prosopographie chrétienne du bas-empire, 2 Prosopographie de l'Italie chrétienne (313-604), 2 vols (Rome 1999-2000: École française de Rome), vol. 2, 1987-8, 'Sanctulus 3'.
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
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Iohannes | Certain | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Laurentius | Certain | S01767 | Sanctulus, priest of Nursia, 6th c. | Sanctulus | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Frances Trzeciak, Cult of Saints, E04506 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04506