Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Julian (36), describes how wine miraculously increased during the night that a monk and his guests spent keeping vigils in the new church of *Julian (martyr of Brioude, S00035) at Tours; AD 574. Written in Latin in Clermont and Tours (central and north-west Gaul), 573/587.
Evidence ID
E05239
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Major author/Major anonymous workGregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Julian (Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris) 36
Summary:
The night before relics of Julian were placed in his new church in Tours, the monk of that place invited some people to hold vigils in the church. Before they did so, they shared some wine. After they had passed the night in vigils, the monk again invited them for refreshment. Entering the storeroom, he found that the cask that he had left almost half-empty was overflowing and forming a rivulet of wine across the floor. Although drawn from repeatedly, the cask remained full until the next day. Thus a vintage that normally occurs in October, miraculously occurred in May.
Text: Krusch 1969, 129.
Summary: Katarzyna Wojtalik.
FestivalsMiracle after death
RelicsContact relic - other
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityVigils
MiraclesMiracle after death
Material support (supply of food, water, drink, money)
RelicsContact relic - other
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Other lay individuals/ people
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
There are problems of the precise date of this event, which are discussed by Van Dam 1993, 187, n.24.The story of the relics placed in this church (threads from the cloth covering the tomb of Julian in Brioude) is told by Gregory in the preceding chapters, Miracles of Julian 34 and 35, see E05237. For the church, 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). (Her Miracle 35.)
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).
Record Created By
Katarzyna Wojtalik
Date of Entry
20/03/2018
| 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:
Katarzyna Wojtalik, Cult of Saints, E05239 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05239