important the “merits and virtues” common to a single ideal of sanctity rather than the
diverse singularities of the lives of his many subjects. Hagiographers used stories, known
as “types” (topoi), that followed a traditional form and were intended to convey a moral
message rather than historically accurate information. Hagiographers borrowed phrases,
themes, motifs, even verbatim passages from stories from earlier works, adapting them to
the specifics of their story. The traditional and even repetitive character that such use of
topoi creates is one of the most striking aspects of medieval hagiography.
In addition to exemplary conduct, the “merits and virtues” described by hagiographers
also included the miracles that God performed through the saints. Such miracles occurred
not only during the lives of the saints, but also posthumously at their tombs or otherwise
in relation to their relics. Posthumous miracles included such visible marvels as cures and
exorcisms, as well as invisible acts, like the remission of sins. The devout came to the
shrines of saints or prayed to them in search of miraculous intercession. Hagiography
recorded these aspects of the veneration of the saints through collections of posthumous
miracle stories (miracula) and accounts of major events in the history of relic cults
(inventiones, the ritual placement of relics in a shrine that inaugurated their public
veneration), and translationes (the transfer of relics from one shrine to another).
The origins of hagiography in medieval France must be sought in the Roman province
of Gaul, whose ecclesiastical hierarchy was dominated by members of its elite families.
Over this well-born company towered the figure of St. Martin of Tours (d. 397), a
military officer who underwent a dramatic conversion to Christianity. The former soldier
remained a man of action his entire life, becoming in turn a tireless missionary, a severely
ascetic monk, and a capable bishop. Martin was recognized as a holy man in his own day;
shortly after his death, his devoted disciple Sulpicius Severus (d. 410) composed a record
of his life. The work betrays both the sophistication of a Roman man of letters and the
zeal of a religious reformer. Martin’s portrait is finely etched with vivid anecdotes
recalled by the author himself or by other eyewitnesses. Sulpicius originally intended his
work as a guide to the ascetic life for a circle of Gallo-Roman aristocrats who gathered at
his home, but it was widely copied and circulated. One of the earliest pieces of
hagiography to be composed in what was to become France, this work set the standards
for later Latin hagiography and became a virtual mine of topoi.
Over the course of the 5th century, other Gallo-Roman aristocrats, both bishops and
hermits, came to be celebrated as saints. An excellent example is provided by the vita of
Germanus of Auxerre (d. 448), composed a generation after his death by Constantius of
Lyon. Writing after the collapse of Roman authority in Gaul, the author sought to provide
a model of an efficient and aristocratic bishop who guarded the lives of his flock with
charismatic power. An ideal administrator and pastor was thus presented to the
contemporary Gallo-Roman elite. The work was written at the request of a bishop of
Auxerre and given wide dissemination by another in order to promote the cult of the
saint. Hagiography was steadily taking on a public function.
During the 6th century, the Franks tightened their grip on Gaul. The greatest
hagiographer of the Merovingian kingdom was Gregory of Tours, who composed eight
linked collections of traditions about the saints of Gaul during the last decades of the 6th
century. These libri miraculorum contained stories of miracles performed by Christian
holy people, both during their lives and posthumously at their shrines. The bishop’s
purpose was above all else pastoral, providing the Roman community of Gaul with a
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