Epitome Gregorii Turonensis
Standard abbreviation: Glor. mart. 4
Other titles: none
Other designations: L7 in van Esbroeck’s classification of Dormition traditions
Clavis numbers: ECCA 150; CANT 113
Category: Dormition Accounts
Related literature: no specific dormition texts
Compiled by Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Dormition of the Virgin (Epitome) by Gregory of Tours.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/dormition-of-the-virgin-epitome-by-gregory-of-tours/.
Created September 2024.
1. SUMMARY
Gregory devotes one chapter of his Glory of the Martyrs to the dormition of Mary (4) and alludes to this earlier chapter later in his text (8). It is assumed that Gregory obtained his information from a written source but there is too little information presented to determine what that source might be.
Gregory places the narrative after the ascension. The apostles gather together to keep watch over Mary as her death approaches. Jesus arrives attended by angels and hands her soul over to the archangel Michael. At dawn, the apostles bring Mary’s body on a bier to a tomb and wait there for the arrival of the Lord. Jesus appears again and takes Mary’s body to paradise. There her body is reunited with her soul and from that point on Mary rejoices in heaven.
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Mary (Virgin), Michael (angel).
Geographical Locations: none.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Latin
Krusch, Bruno, ed. Gregorii Episcopi Turonensis miracula et opere minora. 2nd ed. Mounmenta Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum 1.2. Hanover: Impensis Bibliopoli Hahniani, 1939 (pp. 39 and 43).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Dam, Raymond van, trans. Gregory of Tours. Glory of the Martyrs. Translated Texts for Historians, Latin Series 3. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1988 (pp. 21–22).
3.3 General Works
3.3.1 Dormition Narratives
Esbroeck, Michel van. “Les textes litteraires sur l’Assomption avant le Xe siècle.” Pages 265–85 in Les actes apocryphes des apôtres. Edited by François Bovon. Publications de la faculte de theologie de l’Universite de Geneve 4. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1981.
McNamara, Martin. “Transitus Mariae: General Introduction.” Pages 225–44 in Apocrypha Hiberniae II. Apocalyptica 2. Edited by Martin McNamara et al. CCSA 21. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019.
Mimouni, Simon. Dormition et assumption de Marie: Histoire des traditions anciennnes. Paris: Beauchesne, 1995.
__________. Les traditions anciennes sur la Dormition et l’Assomption de Marie: Études littéraires, historiques et doctrinales. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 104. Leiden: Brill, 2011 (pp. 166–67).
Shoemaker, Stephen J. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
__________. Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Wenger, Antoine. L’Assomption de la T.S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siècle. Études et documents. Archives de l’Orient chrétien 5. Paris: Institut français d’études byzantines, 1955.
3.3.2 Dormition of the Virgin (Epitome) by Gregory of Tours
Cameron, Averil. “The Theotokos in Sixth-centuy Constantinople. A City Finds its Symbol.” JTS 29 (1978): 79–108 (see pp. 90–94).
Mimouni, Simon Claude. Les traditions anciennes sur la Dormition et l’Assomption de Marie: Études littéraires, historiques et doctrinales. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 104. Leiden: Brill, 2011 (pp. 166–67).
Shoemaker, Stephen J. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (p. 37).