Gregory of Tours writes the Miracles of Julian, in Latin in Clermont and Tours (central and north-west Gaul), 570/587. Overview entry.
E05130
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Julian (Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris)
Overview entry:
(Ch. 1) Julian's martyrdom - see E05131.
(Ch. 2) The discovery of Julian's head at Vienne in the tomb of the martyr Ferreolus - see E05137.
(Ch. 3) The miraculous power of the spring in which the saint’s head was washed - see E05140.
(Ch. 4) The woman whose husband, condemned to death by the emperor in Trier, was saved by her prayers to the saint; and how she then built a church over his grave - see E05142.
(Ch. 5) How the saint saved a pagan who took refuge in his church - see E05143.
(Ch. 6) The conversion of the pagan inhabitants of Brioude - see E05144.
(Ch. 7) Burgundians capture people from Brioude, but they are slaughtered and the captives liberated - see E05145.
(Ch. 8) The Burgundian queen restores some of the stolen treasures of the church - see E05146.
(Ch. 9) Cures at the church of Julian, including that of a paralysed woman to whom the saint appeared in a dream - see E05150.
(Ch. 10) A man, who tried to drag from the church a man who had struck him, loses his sight, but recovers it after prayer to the saint - see E05151.
(Ch. 11) A man, disabled in the hand because he yoked his oxen on a Sunday, is eventually cured at the tomb - see E05152.
(Ch. 12) The curing of a mute, deaf, and blind man - see E05153.
(Ch. 13) Soldiers who broke into the church in the reign of Theuderic are punished and the king declares an area of peace around the church - see E05154.
(Ch. 14) A man who seized an estate of the church falls ill, but recovers when he repents - see E05155.
(Ch. 15) A man who seized fields belonging to the church is struck by lightning - see E05156.
(Ch. 16) Becco, the count of Clermont, who wrongly accused a servant of the church, is struck down at the saint's feast - see E05157.
(Ch. 17) A tax collector who seized sheep belonging to the church, is struck down and dies - see E05164.
(Ch. 18) A thief who stole a horse during the saint’s vigil finds himself unable to leave Brioude - see E05165.
(Ch. 19) A perjurer at the saint's tomb is paralysed, but released when he admits his guilt - see E05166.
(Ch. 20) A thief who steals a cross and cloths from the saint's tomb finds himself unable to leave the church - see E05198.
(Ch. 21) A poor man, who lost his horse during vigils for the saint, recovers it - see E05199.
(Ch. 22) A blind man, instructed in a dream to visit the shrine, recovers his sight - see E05200.
(Ch. 23) Gregory's uncle Gallus is cured of a thorn embedded in his foot - see E05201.
(Ch. 24) Gregory's brother Peter is cured of a fever with dust from the tomb - see E05202.
(Ch. 25) Gregory's headache, cured at the spring where Julian's decapitated head was washed - see E05203.
(Ch. 26) A man with a fever is cured at this spring - see E05204.
(Ch. 27) A great storm hits Brioude, but those in the church are unharmed by a lightning bolt - see E05205.
(Ch. 28) A monk, unable to approach the tomb at Julian's feast because of the crowds, is miraculously able to enter the church at night - see E05229.
(Ch. 29) How Germanus of Auxerre helped to establish the right day for Julian's feast - see E05230.
(Ch. 30) The possessed attest to the many saints who attend Julian's feast - see E05231.
(Ch. 31) The tameness of animals offered to the church - see E05232.
(Ch. 32) Relics of the saint are taken to a church built in his honour outside Reims, and cure a possessed man on the way - see E05233.
(Ch. 33) Dust from the shrine cures a possessed man in 'a certain city of the East' - see E05234.
(Ch. 34) Gregory takes threads from the covering of the tomb and uses them to consecrate a church of Julian at Tours - see E05237.
(Ch. 35) A possessed man bemoans the presence of Julian at the consecration of his church in Tours, but is then cured - see E05237.
(Ch. 36) Wine miraculously increases during a night of vigils in the new church - see E05239.
(Ch. 37) A paralysed servant of the monastery is cured after holding vigils in this church - see E05240.
(Ch. 38) A half-blind girl recovers her sight after vigils in this church - see E05241.
(Ch. 39) A crippled boy is cured when his parents hold vigils in this church - see E05243.
(Ch. 40) Perjurers are punished in a church in the Touraine with relics of the saint - see E05244.
(Ch. 41) Aredius of Limoges builds a church of Julian, and consecrates it with relics of the saint - see E05254.
(Ch. 42) A paralysed man is cured at the church of Julian - see E05255.
(Ch. 43) As are a blind man and some who were possessed - see E05256.
(Ch. 44) A barbarian steals a gold cross from this church, but restores it - see E05257.
(Ch. 45) Relics are brought from Brioude to Aredius, and cure a possessed boy along the way - see E05258.
(Ch. 46a) A sick servant of Gregory's who was taken to soothsayers dies, while one who ingested dust from the shrine of Julian was cured - see E05265.
(Ch. 46b) The warden of Julian's shrine finds the tomb strewn with roses, which he uses to effect cures - see E05266.
(Ch. 47) A blind woman recovers her sight in a church with relics of Julian in the territory of Saintes - see E05267.
(Ch. 48) A possessed man and girl are cured by relics carried by the priest Nannius - see E05268.
(Ch. 49) These relics cure others when placed in an oratory by Nannius - see E05269.
(Ch. 50) Gregory dedicates a church in the Touraine with relics of Julian and of Nicetius of Lyon, where a blind man receives his site. Gregory closes his book with the hope that Julian will grant him his patronage - see E05270.
Text: Krusch 1969.
Translation: Van Dam 1993.
Summary: Bryan Ward-Perkins
Composing and translating saint-related texts
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.The Miracles of Julian, full title Martyrdom and Miracles of the Martyr Saint Julian (Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris), consists of 50 chapters. It opens with a brief account of Julian's martyrdom and of the discovery of his head in Vienne (chapters 1 and 2), followed by 48 chapters of miracles effected by the saint, primarily at his tomb in Brioude (south of Clermont, central Gaul), but also through relics distributed in other areas of Gaul (and in one case, chapter 33, even in an unnamed 'city of the East').
Brioude and the shrine of Julian are within the ancient territory of Clermont, Gregory's native city, and the attachment that he and his wider family felt towards Julian is manifest in a number of stories in the Miracles, including evidence that Gregory often attended the feast of the saint on 28 August. In chapter 50 Gregory addresses Julian as his patron and asks for his support through the remainder of his life.
Gregory wrote the Miracles of Julian over an extended period, very possibly starting before he became bishop of Tours in 573. Statements he makes in chapters 32 and 34 suggest that he initially planned to draw the book to a close with less chapters than the fifty we have, and that this was soon after his consecration to Tours; but, learning later of more miracles (primarily from Aredius of Limoges, chapters 41-45) and himself witnessing a further miracle (chapter 46a), he extended the book to 50 chapters, completing these in the early or mid 580s. Chapter 50 addresses the reader in a valedictory tone, with a personal invocation of Julian; but it is possible that the work was never published in Gregory's lifetime.
For discussion of the work, see:
Krusch B., Gregorii Turonensis Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Miracula et opera minora (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I.2; 2nd ed.; Hannover, 1969), 2.
Monod G., Études critiques sur les sources de l’histoire mérovingienne, 1e partie (Paris, 1872), 42–45.
Van Dam, R., Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton, 1993), 162-163.
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.
Bibliography
Edition:Krusch B., Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Miracula et opera minora (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I.2; 2nd ed.; Hannover 1969), 112–134.
Translations:
de Nie. G., Lives and Miracles: Gregory of Tours (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 39; Cambridge MA, 2015).
Van Dam, R., Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton, 1993), 200–303.
Further reading:
Murray A.C. (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden and 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
25/02/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00035 | Julian, martyr of Brioude (southern Gaul) | Iulianus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Katarzyna Wojtalik, Cult of Saints, E05130 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05130