Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Julian (Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris) 25
Summary:
While Gregory was hastening to the feast of Julian in Brioude, the sun caused a headache and fever in him. Suffering for two days, on the third he came to the basilica of Saint Ferreolus (ad basilicam sancti Ferreoli), ten stades from Brioude. There he went straight to the spring mentioned earlier [in Miracles of Julian 3,
E05140; where Julian's head was washed after his martyrdom]. He prayed, drank some water, and immersed his head (caput immerso) at the spring; at which point he was immediately cured and proceeded to the tomb of the martyr [Julian] with praise and gratitude.
Text: Krusch 1969, 125. Summary: Katarzyna Wojtalik.
Evidence ID
E05203Saint Name
Julian, martyr of Brioude : S00035
Ferreolus, martyr of Vienne (eastern Gaul), ob. AD 303/304 : S01893Saint Name in Source
FerreolusType of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miraclesEvidence not before
570Evidence not after
587Activity not before
538Activity not after
548Place of Evidence - Region
Gaul and Frankish kingdoms
Gaul and Frankish kingdomsPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Tours
ClermontPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Tours
Tours
Tours
Toronica urbs
Prisciniacensim vicus
Pressigny
Turonorum civitas
Ceratensis vicus
Céré
Clermont
Tours
Tours
Toronica urbs
Prisciniacensim vicus
Pressigny
Turonorum civitas
Ceratensis vicus
CéréMajor author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of ToursCult activities - Festivals
Cult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Visiting graves and shrinesCult Activities - Miracles
Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilitiesCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
AristocratsCult Activities - Relics
Contact relic - water and other liquids
Eating/drinking/inhaling relicsSource
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
The spring at Saint-Ferréol-les-Minimes is a little over a mile north of Brioude. For more details see Vieillard-Troiekouroff 1976, 255-256.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.
Vieillard-Troiekouroff, M., Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d’après les oeuvres de Grégoire de Tours (Paris, 1976).
