From miraculum to mirabilia: degrees of the miraculous in the Report of Miracles among the Eastern Tatars by Odoric of Pordenone (Echoes of the oral tradition in the author’s text)

Abstract

The article analyses the Report of Miracles among the Eastern Tatars (Relatio de mirabilibus orientalium Tartarorum) by the Franciscan missionary Odoric of Pordenone, who travelled to India and China in the first third of the 14th century. His work centres on an account of the discovery and translation of the relics of Franciscan martyrs. Odoric provides a detailed and reverent account of their Christian deeds, martyrdom and posthumous miracles. The culmination of Odoric’s narrative is the translation of their relics, which is marked by a miracle (miraculum). Whereas the author served as a passive chronicler up to this point, he becomes an active participant in the events of this scene. We are dealing here with the missionary’s personal testimony. Another example of a religious miracle – the voyage through the valley of the dead – also requires the missionary to show his Christian steadfastness, yet this account takes the form of a folktale. Here the author’s text is based on myth as well as personal experience. Besides these central chapters, the religious stratum of the narrative is sparse. Odoric mainly describes the “terrestrial world”, which he depicts through extraordinary phenomena, exotic customs, and “wonders” (mirabilia), whose importance is already evident from the title of the book. He takes an interest in everything that differs from habitual notions, things, and phenomena or that evokes surprise: flora, fauna, local customs, the external appearance of natives, and economic life. Traditional eastern mirabilia, such as cynocephali and ogres, which were found both in the oral tradition and in written sources, are also present in Odoric’s Report, although “wonders” that are explainable predominate.