ABSTRACT
While the learned definition of the miracle underwent relatively few changes in the medieval centuries, there were nuances of difference which depended on such factors as the impact of classical philosophy in the schools, the polemical needs of the church in the face of its ideological foes, and the need to distinguish the miracles of angels, prophets, apostles and saints from the magical arts of the magicians, pagan priests, heretics and others. The term miraculum is derived from mirus, namely something to wonder at, a phenomenon which confounds or even appears to contradict the normal rules governing nature or society.1 The ‘signs and wonders’ found in Jewish Scripture had included both extraordinary acts performed by God in order to aid the Jewish people, often against their foes, such as the plagues of Egypt; and acts performed by divinely-inspired persons serving as agents of God such as the revival of the dead child by Elijah. A ‘sign’ often served the larger purpose of signifying God’s greatness or the order that underlies Creation, such as the considerable catalogue of divine wonders found in Ecclesiasticus 42: 15-25 and 43: 1-33. The efficacy of relics as repositories of the sacred had also received legitimacy in II Kings 13: 21 (‘and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet’), which recounted the revival of a dead man through contact with Elisha’s bones; and was later confirmed in the cure of the sick through contact with clothes touched by St Paul (Acts 19: 11-12: ‘And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them’). The sense of wonder and surprise voiced by both those who experience and witness a miracle remained a sine qua non of a credible miracle and was to become the central feature of those miracles which were intended to convert the non-believers or strengthen the faith of penitent Christians. Harnessed by the church, this elemental emotion insures the glorification of the faith among spectators to the miracle. They express surprise and awe at its performance, sing the praises of the Lord and fulfill a vow.
