Gregory the Great, in his Dialogues (2.38), tells the story of a woman who was healed after spending a night in a cave in which *Benedict (of Nursia, monastic founder, ob. 547, S01727) had lived and reflects on the miraculous power of the martyrs, which supposedly manifests itself in a more spectacular way in the places which do not have their bodies. Written in Latin in Rome, c. 593.
E08470
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Gregory the Great (pope)
Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2.38
GREGORIUS: Qui et in eo specu, in quo prius sublacu [Benedictus] habitauit, nunc usque, si petentium fides exigat, miraculis coruscat. Nuper namque est res gesta, quam narro, quia quaedam mulier mente capta, dum sensum funditus perdidisset, per montes et ualles, siluas et campos, die noctu que uagabatur, ibi que tantummodo quiescebat, ubi hanc quiescere lassitudo coegisset. Quadam uero die, dum uaga nimium erraret, ad beati uiri benedicti patris specum deuenit, ibi que nesciens ingressa mansit. Facto autem mane, ita sanato sensu egressa est, ac si eam numquam insania capitis ulla tenuisset. Quae omni uitae suae tempore in eadem, quam acceperat, salute permansit.
PETRUS: Quidnam esse dicimus, quod plerumque in ipsis quoque patrociniis martyrum sic esse sentimus, ut non tanta per sua corpora, quanta beneficia per reliquias ostendant, atque illic maiora signa faciant, ubi minime per semetipsos iacent?
GREGORIUS: Vbi in suis corporibus sancti martyres iacent, dubium, Petre, non est quod multa ualeant signa monstrare, sicut et faciunt, et pura mente quaerentibus innumera miracula ostendunt. Sed quia ab infirmis potest mentibus dubitari, utrumne ad exaudiendum ibi praesentes sint, ubi constat quia in suis corporibus non sint, ibi eos necesse est maiora signa ostendere, ubi de eorum praesentia potest mens infirma dubitare.
'GREGORY: Also in that cave in which [Benedict] first dwelled, even to this very time, he works miracles, if the faith of them that pray requires the same. For the thing which I mean now to rehearse fell out lately. A certain woman falling mad, lost the use of reason so far, that she walked up and down, day and night, in mountains and valleys, in woods and fields, and rested only in that place where extreme weariness enforced her to stay. Upon a day it so fell out, that albeit she wandered at random, yet she missed not the right way: for she came to the cave of the blessed man Benedict: and not knowing anything, in she went, and reposed herself there that night, and rising up in the morning, she departed as sound in sense and well in her wits, as though she had never been distracted in her whole life, and so continued always after, even to her dying day.
PETER: What is the reason that in the patronage of martyrs we often times find, that they do not afford so great benefit by their bodies, as they do by other of their relics: and do there work greater miracles, where themselves be not present?
GREGORY: Where the holy martyrs lie in their bodies, there is no doubt, Peter, but that they are able to work many miracles, yea and also do work infinite, to such as seek them with a pure mind. But for as much as simple people might have some doubt whether they be present, and do in those places hear their prayers where their bodies be not, necessary it is that they should in those places shew greater miracles, where weak souls may most doubt of their presence.'
Text: de Vogüé 1979.
Translation: Zimmerman 1959.
Place associated with saint's life
MiraclesHealing diseases and disabilities
Miracle at martyrdom and death
RelicsNoted absence of relics
Unspecified relic
Contact relic - unspecified
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the veneration of saints
Considerations about the nature of miracles
Source
Gregory the Great (Pope, 590-604) wrote his Dialogues on the Lives and Miracles of the Italian Fathers (Dialogi de vita et miraculis patrum italicorum) in Rome around 593. Organised into four books, the first three are a collection of lives and miracles of various Italian saints. The longest is the Life of Benedict of Nursia, which comprises the entirety of book 2. The final book consists of an essay on the immortality of souls after death. As a whole, the work documents and explains the presence of the miraculous in the contemporary world and the ability of saints to effect miracles both before and after death. The attribution of the Dialogues to Gregory has been disputed, most recently by Francis Clark who argued that the work was created in the 680s in Rome. Others - such as Adalbert de Vogüé, Paul Meyvaert and Matthew dal Santo - have, however, strongly argued for Gregory's authorship and it is broadly accepted that Gregory was responsible for the Dialogues.For a discussion of Gregory's devotion in writing the Dialogues, see E04383, and for the role of the Dialogues as a tract justifying the nature of miracles and theorising on the immortality of souls, see E04457.
Gregory's principal aim in collecting the miracle stories of the holy men and a very few women of sixth-century Italy was to show the presence of God's power on earth as manifested through them, rather than to encourage the cult of these individuals. Indeed, though posthumous miracles at the graves of a few individuals are recorded (and also a few miracles aided by contact relics of dead saints), there is very little emphasis in the Dialogues on posthumous cult; some of the miraculous events that Gregory records (e.g. E04429) are not even attributed to named individuals. Although very few of the holy persons in the Dialogues are 'proper' saints, with long-term cult, we have included them all in our database, for the sake of completeness and as an illustration of the impossibility of dividing 'proper' saints from more 'ordinary' holy individuals.
Discussion
For an account of the Life of Benedict, see E04450.Bibliography
Edition:Vogüé, A. de, Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, Sources chrétiennes 260 (Paris: Cerf, 1979).
Translation:
Zimmerman, O.J., Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, Fathers of the Church 39 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1959).
Further Reading:
Clark, F.,The 'Gregorian' Dialogues and the Origins of Benedictine Monasticism (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
Dal Santo, M., "The Shadow of A Doubt? A Note on the Dialogues and Registrum Epistolarum of Pope Gregory the Great (590–604)," Journal of Ecclesiatical History, 61.1, (2010), 3-17.
Meyvaert, P., "The Enigma of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues: A Reply to Francis Clark," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 39 (1988), 335–81.
Vogüé, A. de, "Grégoire le Grand et ses Dialogues d’après deux ouvrages récents," Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 83 (1988), 281–348.
F. Trzeciak & R. Wiśniewski
13/07/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Certain | S01727 | Benedict of Nursia, monastic founder, ob. 547 | Certain |
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