Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers, Book 4 (Life of Quintianus of Rodez)
Summary:
Preface: We must follow the prompting of the spirit and not of the flesh. Quintianus sets us an example.
§ 1: Quintianus came from Africa, and was chosen as bishop of Rodez. He enlarged the basilica of Amantius in Rodez, moving the body of the saint into it, but thereby displeasing him [see
E00034]; soon afterwards, to escape death at the hands of the Gothic rulers of Rodez, he fled to Clermont, where he was well received, and eventually became bishop. As bishop he had to suffer the enmity of the priest Proculus.
§ 2: He and the saints buried around Clermont saved the city when it was besieged by King Theuderic [see $E07868]. The priest Proculus suffers a violent death, thereby getting his just deserts.
§ 3: In a feud with Hortensius, count of Clermont, Quintianus cursed him, bringing disease and death to his household, and also predicted that no-one from his family would ever become bishop [for the truth of this prediction, see Gregory, Histories 4.35]. Hortensius requests forgiveness and the disease is lifted.
§ 4: He is learned in the writings of the church and generous with alms. He performs many miracles: exorcising demons and bringing an end to a drought in Clermont.
§ 5: He dies and is buried in the basilica of Stephen, miracles occur at his grave [see $E00037].
Text: Krusch 1969, 223-227. Summary: Marta Tycner.
Evidence ID
E00036Saint Name
Quintianus, bishop of Rodez and Clermont (Gaul), ob. 525 : S00028Saint Name in Source
QuintianusType of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives of saintEvidence not before
573Evidence not after
593Activity not before
584Activity not after
595Place of Evidence - Region
Gaul and Frankish kingdomsPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
ToursPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Tours
Tours
Tours
Toronica urbs
Prisciniacensim vicus
Pressigny
Turonorum civitas
Ceratensis vicus
CéréMajor author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of ToursCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Composing and translating saint-related textsCult Activities - Miracles
Miracle during lifetime
Power over elements (fire, earthquakes, floods, weather)
Punishing miracle
Miraculous protection - of communities, towns, armies
Revelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Aristocrats
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Officials
Monarchs and their family
Foreigners (including Barbarians)Source
Gregory, bishop of Tours from 573 until his death (probably in 594), 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 Life of the Fathers by Gregory of Tours is different from his other hagiographical works (Miracles of Julian, Miracles of Martin, Glory of the Confessors and Glory of the Martyrs), which all concentrate on posthumous miracles of the saints. The Life of the Fathers, by contrast, describes the exemplary behaviour in life of twenty Gallic saints (for a list of the Lives, see $E05870). Gregory himself draws this contrast in the opening words of his preface: 'I had decided to write only about what has been achieved with divine help at the tombs of the blessed martyrs and confessors; but I have recently discovered information about those who have been raised to heaven by the merit of their blessed conduct here below, and I thought that their way of life, which is known to us through reliable sources, could strengthen the Church' (trans. James 1991, 1). In this preface Gregory also explains why he chose to call the book Life of the Fathers, not Lives of the Fathers: because they all lived the same bodily life.
The nineteen Lives of men, and the single Life of a woman (Life 19), all relate to holy people of Gaul, the majority living in the mid to later sixth century. Although this agenda is unspoken, there can be little doubt that Gregory wrote these Lives partly to show that holiness, and the miraculous, were not just things of the past, but very much present within the Gaul of his day (a message that he expressed explicitly in his Histories). Almost all the saints he describes were active within one or other of the two dioceses with which Gregory was most familiar (his native Clermont, and Tours, the city of his episcopate), or indeed were his relatives (all bishops - Life 6 is of an uncle, Life 7 of a great-grandfather, and Life 8 of a great-uncle).
Although Gregory says in his preface that they all shared one bodily life, in reality his saints fall into one of two distinct categories: holy bishops who are effective leaders of their flocks but only moderately ascetic (Lives 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 17), and holy ascetics who have withdrawn from the world and sometimes engage in extreme mortification of the body (Lives 1, 3, 5, 9-16, and 18-20). Gregory's work was unquestionably didactic in purpose - teaching the correct way to lead a good Christian life, and it is notable, for instance, how, in this work written by a bishop, his ascetics accept episcopal correction when necessary (Lives 15.2 and 20.3, in both cases from Gregory himself), and might even delay their death to suit the timetable of a bishop (Life 10.4).
Because the focus is on the lives of these holy people, there is much less emphasis on their cult after death than in Gregory's other hagiographical works; however, all the Lives close with an account of the burial of the saint, and in almost all cases with reference to posthumous miracles recorded there (the exceptions are Lives 10, 11 and 20, which have no reference to miracles at the tomb).
Gregory probably collected material for the Life of the Fathers (and perhaps wrote individual Lives) over a long period of time. However, from the words of his preface (quoted above) and from other references within the text, it is evident that he assembled his material into the polished work we have today only towards the very end of his life, after he had already written much of his extensive hagiography recording the miracles of saints lying in their graves. Because Gregory's views on saints do not seem to have changed during his writing life, we have not here expended energy in exploring the possible dating of individual lives, merely recording them all as written some time between 573 and 594.
For more on the text, and on its dating: James 1991, xiii-xix; Shaw 2015, particularly 117-120.Discussion
Gregory's Life of Quintianus is the fourth book (and so the fourth Life) included by him in his Life of the Fathers (for which, see above).
Gregory's Life of Quintianus differs from previous lives in the collection. Gregory focuses on the political activity of Quintianus, describing it in much detail, with numerous references to names and places. The Life of Quintianus is the first one in the collection to relate political happenings still vividly present in the memory of Gregory and his contemporaries. This is probably why some of the miracles performed by Quintianus are not conventional and have a very clear historical context (on which see the notes in James's translation of the Life). One may, for instance, suspect that both the violent death of Proculus and the illness which fell on the senator's family were politically meaningful events, as too the related miraculous interventions of the holy bishop. The non-miraculous events from Quintianus' life (e.g. his banishment) are even more loaded with politics. Quintianus was certainly a politically engaged bishop and had to manoeuvre between the (Catholic) Franks and the (Arian) Visigoths. It is probable that the main aim of Gregory's text was to present a politically coherent and morally unblemished story of a controversial life.Bibliography
Edition:
Krusch, B., Gregorii Turonensis Opera. 2: Miracula et opera minora (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I.2; 2nd ed.; Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1969).
Translation:
James, E., Gregory of Tours. Life of the Fathers (Translated Texts for Historians 1; 2nd ed.; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1991).
de Nie, G., Gregory of Tours, Lives and Miracles (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 39; Cambridge MA, 2015).
Further reading:
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.
