Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Julian (3), tells how many people are healed after they touch or drink the water from the spring at Brioude (central Gaul) in which the head of *Julian (martyr of Brioude, S00035) was washed after his martyrdom. Written in Latin in Clermont and Tours (central and north-west Gaul), 570/587.
E05140
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Julian (Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris) 3
In loco autem illo quo beatus martyr percussus est fons habetur splendidus, lenis, dulcibus aquis uberrimus, in quo et a persecutoribus caput amputatum ablutum est, de quibus aquis multae sanitates tribuuntur infirmis. Nam saepe caecorum oculi ab his tacti inluminati sunt; tertianorum, quartanariorum febrium accensi, ut potati qui patiuntur fuerint, conquiescunt. Nam et si quis gravi laborans incommodo, inspirante martyre, desiderium habuerit hauriendi, protinus ut hauserit convalescit; et ita velociter extinguitur vis febrium, ceu si videas, super inmensum rogum proiectis undis incendia universa restingui.
'At the spot where the blessed martyr was beheaded, there is a sparkling spring that is gentle and filled with sweet water. [Julian’s] head, after it had been cut off by his persecutors, was washed in this spring; and many cures are offered to ill people from its water. For often the eyes of the blind are illuminated after being touched by these waters, and people who suffer and burn from tertian and quartan fevers are calm once they have swallowed [some water]. And if anyone who is in pain from a serious misfortune wishes, at the urging of the martyr, to drink [from the spring], immediately upon drinking he recovers. The burning of fevers is quenched as quickly as if you were to see waves tossed on a huge funeral pyre and all its flames extinguished.'
Text: Krusch 1969, 123-124.
Translation: Van Dam 1993, 166.
Place of martyrdom of a saint
Holy spring/well/river
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsContact relic - water and other liquids
Touching and kissing relics
Eating/drinking/inhaling relics
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.
Translation:
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
28/02/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00035 | Julian, martyr of Brioude (southern Gaul) | Certain |
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