Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Julian (34 & 35), recounts how, while attending the saint's festival, he took some threads from the cloth covering the tomb of *Julian (martyr of Brioude, S00035) in Brioude (central Gaul); how he was asked to dedicate a church of Julian at Tours with these relics, and did so, while a possessed man proclaimed the presence of Julian and was subsequently cured; in 573-574. Written in Latin in Clermont and Tours (central and north-west Gaul), 573/587.
E05237
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Julian (Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris) 34 & 35
Haec ego dudum experta. Contigit, ut post ordinationem meam Arvernus accederem; profectusque, beati basilicam adivi. Expletaque festivitate, disruptis a palla quae sanctum tegit tumulum fimbriis, in his mihi ferre praesidium credens, impleta oratione, discessi. Apud Turonicam vero urbem monachi in honore ipsius martyris basilicam, qualem possibilitas eorum habuit, aedificaverunt, cupientes, eam eius virtutibus consecrari. Audientes autem, haec pignora a me fuisse delata, rogabant, ut dedicata aedes hisdem augeretur exubiis. At ego, adpraehensam secretius capsam, ad basilicam beati Martini, incipiente nocte, propero. Referebat autem mihi vir fidelis, qui tunc eminus adstabat, cum nos basilicam sumus ingressi, vidisse se pharum inmensi luminis e caelo dilapsam super beatam basilicam discendisse, et deinceps quasi intro ingressa fuisset.
‘Here are some events that I experienced recently. It happened that I returned to Clermont after my consecration [as bishop of Tours]. After a [further] journey I came to the church of the blessed [Julian at Brioude]. At the conclusion of his festival I pulled some threads from the cloth that covered the holy tomb, because I thought they would offer me protection; then I finished my prayer and left. In the city of Tours monks had constructed, in honour of this martyr such a church as their means allowed; now they wished it to be consecrated to his powers. When they heard that I had brought these relics, they requested that this church be dedicated and enhanced with these spoils. But I secretly took the reliquary and at nightfall hurried to the church of the blessed Martin. A trustworthy man who was at the time standing at a distance told me that when I entered the church, he saw an immense flash of light fall from heaven, descend over the church and then enter as it were inside.’
Placing the relics on the altar, Gregory celebrates vigils, and the next day solemnly takes them to the new church.
... et ecce unus ex inerguminis, manibus in se conlisis, ore patulo, cruentus proiciens sputos, aiebat: "Ut quid te, Martine, Iuliano iunxisti? Quid eum in his provocas locis? Sat nobis erat praesentia tua supplicium; similem tui ad augenda tormenta vocasti. Cur haec agis? Quare nos cum Iuliano sic crucias?" Haec et alia misero declamante, expletis missarum solemnitatibus, dum se ante sanctum altare diutissime conlidit, profluente sanie ex ore eius, ab infestatione furoris diabolici liberatus est.
'And behold, one of the possessed, striking himself with his hands and vomiting bloody spittle from his open mouth, cried out: "Martin, why have you allied yourself with Julian? Why do you summon him to this region? Your presence was enough of a torment for us; now you have invited someone similar to you to increase our suffering. Why are you doing this? Why are you, together with Julian, tormenting us this way?" While the wretched man was shouting out these and other words, the celebration of mass was completed. The man bruised himself for a long time in front of the holy altar, but was freed from the disturbance of this raging demon while bloody matter flowed from his mouth.'
Text: Krusch 1969, 128.
Translation: Van Dam 1993, 186; modified.
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityVisiting graves and shrines
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Construction of cult buildings
Vigils
MiraclesMiracle after death
Miraculous sound, smell, light
Exorcism
RelicsContact relic - cloth
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Reliquary – institutionally owned
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
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.
Discussion
Gregory’s consecration as bishop of Tours occurred on 20 August 573. Gregory pulled the threads from the cloth on 28 August (while the festival of Julian was being celebrated in Brioude), and consecrated Julian's church in Tours in spring 574.For the church of Julian in Tours, see Vieillard-Troiekouroff 1976, 310 and Pietri 1983, 417-421.
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).
Pietri, L., La ville de Tours du IVe au VIe siècle: naissance d’une cite chrétienne (Collection de l’École française de Rome 69; Rome 1983).
Shanzer, D., "So Many Saints – So Little Time ... the Libri Miraculorum of Gregory of Tours," Journal of Medieval Latin 13 (2003), 19–63.
Vieillard-Troiekouroff, M., Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d’après les oeuvres de Grégoire de Tours (Paris, 1976).
Katarzyna Wojtalik
20/03/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00035 | Julian, martyr of Brioude (southern Gaul) | Certain | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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