The Presbyters Project

Dialogue 3.6.3

Si quando autem exorcizandorum daemonum Martinus operam recepisset, neminem manibus adtrectabat, neminem sermonibus increpabat, sicut plerumque per clericos rotatur turba uerborum, sed admotis energumenis ceteros iubebat abscedere, ac foribus obseratis in medio ecclesiae cilicio circumtectus, cinere respersus, solo stratus orabat.

(ed. Fontaine 2006: 310-312)

Dialogue 3.6.3

When Martin was engaged in the work of exorcising demons, he touched no one with his hands, he scolded no one with speeches - contrary to flood of words employed by the clerics - but rather, when demon-possessed persons were brought to him, he would order the others to depart, and with the doors bolted, wrapped in sackcloth and sprinkled with ashes, he would pray, stretched out on the floor in the middle of the church.

(trans. Goodrich 2015: 236)

Place of event:

Region

Gaul
East

City

Primuliacum

About the source:

Author: Sulpicius Severus
Title: Dialogues, Dialogi, Gallus sive dialogi de virtutibus sancti Martini, Dialogorum libri II
Origin: Primuliacum (Gaul)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Sulpicius Severus` hagiographical corpus concerning Martin of Tours cosists of the Life itself, three letters, and three Dialogues. The Dialogues were composed between the year 400 (the year of Origenist controversy, to which Sulpicius makes a reference), and the year 410-412 when Jerome`s Commentary on Ezekiel was published, in which Jerome mentions the Dialogues. Stancliffe (Stancliffe 1983: 81) suggests that the Dialogues were composed between 404 and 406, judging by the comment of one of the interlocutors that eight years have passed since Martin`s death (in 397) and no allusion to the barbarian invasions of Gaul in 406-407. The work was likely published in two separate volumes, with volume 1 containing the first and second Dialogue and volume 2 the third and last one. It can be proven by both early mansuscript tradition and the account of Gennadius (see [670]).

Edition:

Sulpicius Severus, Gallus: dialogues sur les “vertus” de Saint Martin, ed. and transl. J. Fontaine, Sources Chrétiennes 510, Paris 2006.

Translation:

Sulpicius Severus, The Complete Works, transl. R.J. Goodrich, Ancient Christian Writers 70, New York 2015.

Bibliography:

C. Stancliffe, St. Martin and his hagiographer: history and miracle in Sulpicius Severus, Oxford 1983.

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus

Ritual activity - Exorcism

Theoretical considerations - On priesthood

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1031, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1031