Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Julian (6), recounts how the pagans who lived in Brioude (central Gaul) were baptised after a miraculous intervention of *Julian (martyr of Brioude, S00035). Written in Latin in Clermont and Tours (central and north-west Gaul), 570/587.
Evidence ID
E05144
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Major author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Julian (Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris) 6
Summary:
A Christian priest comes to Brioude; he promises the parents of the young man who had been afflicted by the saint (see E05143) that he would be released from his suffering if he and his parents renounced their paganism. The priest also prays for Julian's help in converting all the pagans of the area, and, during a ceremony at the local shrine, rain mixed with fire and hail descends from the heavens. The terrified pagans all promise to convert. The storm ceases, everyone is baptised, and the pagan statues are broken up and thrown into a nearby lake.
Text: Krusch 1969, 117.
Summary: Katarzyna Wojtalik.
Cult PlacesPrayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesApparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - lesser clergy
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Saint as patron - of a community
MiraclesApparition, vision, dream, revelation
Miracle after death
Power over elements (fire, earthquakes, floods, weather)
Miracles causing conversion
Healing diseases and disabilities
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - lesser clergy
Pagans
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.
Record Created By
Katarzyna Wojtalik
Date of Entry
01/03/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00035 | Julian, martyr of Brioude (southern Gaul) | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
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