Miracles in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

Ascension of Isaiah 11.18Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
Epistle of the Apostles 5Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · The apostles list Christ's miracles, from Cana to the feeding of the five thousand, and read the five loaves as the five articles of the faith.
Martyrdom of Andrew (first Greek martyrdom), chapter 3Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the Acts); the Martyrdom text is later · Andrew comes to Patras and works healings in the name of Jesus, and the proconsul Lesbius seeks to kill him as a magician.
Martyrdom of Andrew (first Greek martyrdom), chapter 5Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the Acts); the Martyrdom text is later · Andrew prays to Christ and heals Lesbius, who believes with all his household.
Martyrdom of Andrew (first Greek martyrdom), chapter 6Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the Acts); the Martyrdom text is later · Andrew heals the sick of Patras, and the people destroy their idols and temples, proclaiming the God of Andrew.
Acts of John 9Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John drinks poison unharmed before Domitian; a second recension has a magician prepare it.
Acts of John 10Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John raises the dead man, and Domitian banishes him to an island instead of executing him.
Acts of John 13Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John raises a servant girl of Domitian, who then sends him to an island for a set time.
Acts of John 23Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John raises Cleopatra in the name of the one whom all powers fear.
Acts of John 24Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · At John's word Cleopatra raises her husband Lycomedes.
Acts of John 36Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John ends his sermon with warnings of judgment and heals all the sick; he then proposes to visit the temple of Artemis.
Acts of John 42Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · At John's prayer the altar and half the temple of Artemis collapse, and the Ephesians confess John's God.
Acts of John 46Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · A kinsman of the priest killed in the temple's fall turns to the Lord, and at John's word he raises the priest himself.
Acts of John 52Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · The father is raised, and John leads him into the city as a believer.
Acts of John 74Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Andronicus explains the plot, and at John's prayer Callimachus is raised.
Acts of John 79Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · At Andronicus's request John prays to the one God and calls Drusiana back to life.
Martyrdom of Paul 1Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Paul raises Nero's cupbearer Patroclus, who confesses Christ the King of the ages before Nero, and Nero orders all soldiers of Christ to be put to death.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 22Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Thecla is placed on the pyre, but a storm sent by God quenches the fire and she is saved.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 9Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · Accused of pushing a playmate off a roof, Jesus raises the dead boy Zeno, who testifies that Jesus did not throw him down.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 10Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · Jesus heals a young man whose foot has been split by an axe, and the crowd says that the Spirit of God dwells in him.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 12Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · At eight, Jesus sows a single grain that yields a hundred measures, and gives the wheat to the poor of the village.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 13Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · When a beam for a rich man's bed is cut too short, Jesus stretches it to the right length, and Joseph blesses God for the child.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 16Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · When a viper bites James while he gathers wood, Jesus breathes on the bite, the snake bursts, and James is healed.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 17Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · Jesus raises a dead infant in the neighborhood and gives him back to his mother, and the crowd marvels.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 18Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · Jesus raises a workman killed at a building site, and the crowd says the child is from heaven.
Protevangelium of James 13Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Joseph finds Mary pregnant, is reassured by an angel, both are accused before the priest and cleared, and on the journey to Bethlehem Mary goes into labour, while Joseph sees all creation stand still.
Protevangelium of James 20Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Salome's hand is withered for her unbelief and healed when she holds the child; the magi come by Herod to the cave and worship.
Dialogue with Trypho 69.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ is the spring of living water, who healed the blind, deaf, and lame and raised the dead.
Dialogue with Trypho 69.7Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Some called Christ a magician; his healings promise bodily wholeness at the resurrection.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 15.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The fire was lit, and the writers saw a marvel they were spared to report.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 15.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The flames formed an arch around Polycarp without consuming him, and a sweet fragrance filled the air.
Diatessaron, section 5Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 6Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 11Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 12Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 18Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 19Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 21Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 24Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 36Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 38Tatian · ca. 160-180
Martyrdom of Peter (Greek Acts of Peter) 2Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Many sick people are healed in the name of Jesus Christ, and the church in Rome grows daily.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 9Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter goes to Marcellus's house and sends a dog, given a human voice, to summon Simon to a public contest.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 11Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter casts a demon out of a young man, who smashes Caesar's statue, and Marcellus restores it by sprinkling water in Christ's name.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 12Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · The dog rebukes Simon, foretells Peter's victory, and dies at Peter's feet; the crowd asks for another sign.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 13Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter makes a smoked fish swim again in a pool, and many believe and gather to hear him expound the Scriptures.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 15Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter sends a seven-month-old infant who speaks with a man's voice, rebukes Simon, and silences him until the sabbath.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 20Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter heals a blind widow, then expounds the Gospel reading on the transfiguration, teaching that Christ appeared in many forms according to each one's capacity, and lists his titles.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 21Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Blind widows are healed by a heavenly light and each describes Christ in a different form: an old man, a young man, a boy.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 26Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · At Peter's prayer the prefect Agrippa raises his dead servant by the hand, and the crowd acclaims the one God of Peter.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 27Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter raises the widow's son, who is to serve later as deacon and bishop, and the people acclaim the God of Peter.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 28Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Simon fails to raise the dead Nicostratus while Peter raises him and refuses vengeance on Simon; the crowd honours Peter, gifts pour in for the poor, and Peter accepts money from a woman of ill repute as owed to Christ.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 31Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter heals the sick while Simon's illusory wonders fail, and Simon announces that he will fly up to God.
The Instructor 1.2.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word, who made the whole human being, heals both body and soul, as his healing of the paralytic and raising of Lazarus show; he forgives sins and orders all creation for humanity's sake.
Against Heresies 2.31.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The heretics' wonders are magical deceptions; they cannot heal or raise the dead, as the Lord, the apostles, and the church have done.
Against Heresies 2.31.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Unlike the church's free and compassionate healing, the heretics' deceptions mark them as forerunners of the dragon.
Against Heresies 2.32.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ's true disciples work real miracles in his name, and the church freely exercises countless gifts throughout the world.
Against Heresies 2.32.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The church heals by prayer in Jesus' name, not by incantations, which shows that Christ truly worked by the power of God.
Against Heresies 3.12.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · At the healing of the lame man, Peter proclaimed that the God of Abraham glorified his Son Jesus and fulfilled the prophets.
Against Heresies 5.5.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Jonah and the three young men in the furnace show that nothing in nature can resist God’s will, so he can give raised bodies everlasting life.
Against Heresies 5.12.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Word who healed bodies member by member would have no reason to do so unless the flesh were to be saved; who gives healing gives life and incorruption.
Against Heresies 5.13.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Jairus’s daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus rose in the same bodies in which they died, a pledge that at the last trumpet the dead will rise in their bodies.
Against Heresies 5.15.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · By making clay to give sight to the man born blind, Christ showed himself to be the hand of God that formed man from the earth and seeks out the lost.
Miscellanies 6.3.28Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Greeks themselves tell wonders like those of the prophets, such as Aeacus' prayer that ended a drought, so they cannot reasonably disbelieve the miracles of Moses and the prophets.
Miscellanies 6.3.30Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Empedocles was said to control the winds and heal, an idea taken from the Scriptures' righteous wonder-workers; but whatever powers move the winds, the one God is their Lord.
Acts of Thomas 20Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The king learns that Thomas has built nothing but has given everything to the poor, healed the sick, and lived ascetically.
Acts of Thomas 60Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's fame spreads and he heals the sick laid in his path; the healed praise Jesus and ask to join his flock, and Thomas begins a prayer of glory.
Acts of Thomas 141Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · At the king's plea Thomas prays to the Lord of the waters, and the flood subsides; Thomas is taken back to prison.
On the Raising of Lazarus (homily), part 2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · The second part of the Lazarus homily: Christ's tears teach ordered sympathy, the Jews roll away the stone as witnesses, and the voice that created the world raises Lazarus, a mirror of our own resurrection.
Pistis Sophia 110Anonymous · 3rd century
Prescription against Heretics 44Tertullian · ca. 203 · At the judgment heretics will have no excuse, since Christ warned against false teachers; Tertullian ironically imagines Christ recanting his teaching, and closes by promising treatises against particular heresies.
Commentary on Daniel 3.29Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 6:21–23: the lions, tamed by the angel, fawn on Daniel as on a new Adam, a sight Darius shows to all; trust in God rather than in men.
Against Marcion 3.3Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Miracles alone cannot prove Marcion's Christ, since Christ himself warned that false Christs would work signs, and the Creator's works came first.
Against Marcion 4.8Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ bears the Creator's name Nazarene, has a real body that was seized at Nazareth and heals by touch, and is confessed by demons who fear the Creator's Son, as Isaiah foretold.
Against Marcion 4.20Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's stilling of the storm, his victory over the legion of demons, and his healing of the bleeding woman all show him to be the Creator's Christ, with a real body, fulfilling rather than opposing the law.
Against Marcion 4.21Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The sending of the Twelve, the feeding of the five thousand, Peter's confession, and Christ's sayings on losing one's life and being ashamed of him all belong to the Creator's Christ, who truly took flesh and suffered.
Against Marcion 4.35Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's warnings about causing stumbling, his teaching on rebuke and forgiveness, the healing of the ten lepers, and his sayings on the kingdom and the days of Noah and Lot all follow the Creator's law and prophets.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 38Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The dead whom Christ raised were a foretaste and pledge of the bodily resurrection, though they were raised only to die again, not to glory.
To Scapula 4Tertullian · 212 · Tertullian urges Scapula not to fight against God, citing lenient governors, Christian healings of pagans, the favor of Severus, the rain miracle under Marcus Aurelius, and the blameless life of Christians.
Fragments on Luke, column 345Origen · ca. 220-254 · The voice at the transfiguration makes law and prophets one with the Gospel, and the healings, especially of the moonstruck boy, are types of the healing of souls.
PG 12:1219 (Ps 16 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 17:7–11 (LXX 16:7–11): God’s mercies are “made wonderful” in Christ’s miraculous healings; the one who resists Christ resists God’s right hand; the righteous are sheltered under God’s wings; the enemies’ shut-up “fat” is the thickness of a mind bound to matter, or the loss of brotherly love.
Fragment 49Julius Africanus · after 221 · Long excerpts from Africanus's Chronography: the history of Herod, Antony and Augustus to the fall of Alexandria; the three kings omitted from Matthew's genealogy; the darkness at the crucifixion, which Thallus wrongly called an eclipse; and the seventy weeks of Daniel, counted from Artaxerxes' twentieth year to Tiberius's sixteenth.
Fragment 28 on John 2:11Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 2:11: the disciples' faith was confirmed, for turning water into wine is a change of essence possible only to the Creator.
Fragment 59 on John 5:2Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 5:2–8: Jesus healed only one man at the sheep pool, the most hopeless, to show his power without seeking glory; the pool's healing is explained as God's cooperation with the people's belief.
Fragment 61 on John 9:6Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 9:6–7: Christ's spittle mixed with earth figures the divine meaning of Scripture clothed in historical letter; the blind must be anointed with the letter and wash in Siloam, the Sent One, to see; the distance to the pool made the miracle widely known.
Commentary on John 10.53Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus expels the spirit and heals Peter's mother-in-law in Capernaum.
Commentary on John 10.54Origen · ca. 230–248 · Mark also says Jesus healed many sick and possessed in Capernaum that evening.
Commentary on John 10.57Origen · ca. 230–248 · Luke also tells of the healing of Peter's mother-in-law and of many others at sunset in Capernaum.
Commentary on John 10.65Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only John marks a “beginning of signs,” and he places it at Cana.
Commentary on John 10.66Origen · ca. 230–248 · Cana's gladness, not healings, is the first sign, since the Word's beauty shows more in gladdening the healthy than in curing the sick. Next verse: the Passover was near.
Commentary on John 10.148Origen · ca. 230–248 · If the story is literal, it shows Christ's divine power to master crowds, no less than his other miracles.
Commentary on John 10.149Origen · ca. 230–248 · This would be greater than turning water into wine, since it subdued the minds of thousands.
Commentary on John 10.319Origen · ca. 230–248 · No signs in Jerusalem are recorded; perhaps the temple cleansing itself counts as a sign.
Commentary on John 13.406Origen · ca. 230–248 · The father begs Jesus to come before his son dies, and Christ heals him by a word.
Commentary on John 13.444Origen · ca. 230–248 · The centurion's servant was likewise healed at a distance by a word.
Commentary on John 13.445Origen · ca. 230–248 · All three healings, the centurion's boy, the official's son, and Peter's mother-in-law, took place at Capernaum.
Commentary on John 13.449Origen · ca. 230–248 · Scripture never names “wonders” alone, but often names “signs” alone.
Commentary on John 13.450Origen · ca. 230–248 · Wonders are extraordinary deeds; signs are things that point beyond themselves, even when ordinary.
Commentary on John 13.452Origen · ca. 230–248 · Every wonder in Scripture is also a sign pointing beyond itself.
Commentary on John 13.453Origen · ca. 230–248 · Signs call for understanding; the official is rebuked because he needed wonders to believe.
Commentary on John 20.164Origen · ca. 230–248 · One unable to hear can be healed, as the deaf man was by “Be opened.”
Commentary on John 20.315Origen · ca. 230–248 · We believe Jesus had no demon; demons cannot do his works, which still continue in the churches.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.3Origen · ca. 240 · Converted Gentiles confess that the “mountains” (the gods of the nations) and the “hills” (deified heroes like Heracles and Asclepius) were a lie, and that their wonders were false signs, unlike those of Moses and Christ.
Against Celsus 1.46Origen · ca. 248 · The Spirit who came on Jesus at his baptism still works among Christians in exorcisms, healings, prophecies, and sudden conversions; Isaiah foretold that the Father would send both Christ and the Spirit.
Against Celsus 1.68Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus likens Jesus' miracles to street magic, but magicians never call anyone to moral reform or the fear of God, as Jesus' works and life did.
Against Celsus 2.33Origen · ca. 248 · Origen points to the signs at Jesus' death recorded in the Gospels and by the historian Phlegon, and to healings still done in Jesus' name, as his noble deeds.
Against Celsus 2.34Origen · ca. 248 · Origen answers Celsus's taunts drawn from Euripides' Bacchae, pointing to the miraculous freeing of Peter and Paul, the judgment on the Jewish nation, Pilate's wife's dream, and Jesus' patient endurance of mockery.
Against Celsus 2.48Origen · ca. 248 · Origen defends Jesus' healings and raisings of the dead as foretold by Isaiah and credibly reported, and says the disciples do greater works in healing souls.
Against Celsus 2.49Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows that Jesus warned not against wonder-workers in general but against false christs, and that his warning, far from reducing his own miracles to sorcery, presupposes their divine character.
Against Celsus 2.50Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows from 2 Thessalonians that the deceptive signs foretold belong to the Antichrist, and that Christ's miracles, like Moses' against Egypt's magicians, are proven divine by their fruit in changed lives.
Against Celsus 2.51Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues that if magic worked by demons exists, genuine miracles by divine power must exist too, and that the two are told apart by the life of the worker and the moral fruit, as the nations formed by Moses and Jesus show.
Against Celsus 2.52Origen · ca. 248 · Origen asks Celsus's Jew why he accepts Moses' miracles as divine but rejects Jesus', when Jesus did a greater work in founding a new way of life among the nations.
Against Celsus 2.53Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows that every objection Celsus's Jew raises against Jesus' warning about false wonder-workers can be turned against Moses, who gave a similar warning in Deuteronomy.
Against Celsus 2.55Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus's Jew compares the resurrection to Greek tales of heroes returning from Hades and dismisses its witnesses; Origen answers that the same objections could be made against Moses, so that defending Moses defends Jesus even more.
Against Celsus 3.3Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues that Israel's faithfulness under persecution shows it had genuine signs and prophecies from God, since otherwise it would have turned to the pagan oracles and healing gods.
Against Celsus 3.24Origen · ca. 248 · Origen replies that if Celsus credits the many witnesses to Asclepius, far more witness to Jesus, and that Christians still heal the sick and insane by invoking God and Jesus' name, as Origen himself has seen.
Against Celsus 3.26Origen · ca. 248 · Origen quotes Herodotus's account of Aristeas of Proconnesus, who vanished, reappeared, and was honored at Metapontum by command of Apollo, a story Celsus accepts without question.
Against Celsus 3.28Origen · ca. 248 · Origen contrasts the pointless marvels of Aristeas with the saving purpose of Jesus' miracles, foretold by the prophets, and explains that in Christ divine and human nature began to be woven together so that believers too might become divine.
Against Celsus 6.8Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus praises Plato for not telling marvels or demanding faith in a Son of God, but Origen points to the marvellous legends told of Plato, Pythagoras, and Socrates, and to Plato's own mention of a Father of the world's ruler.
Against Celsus 8.45Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus lists the benefits and punishments said to come from pagan oracles and shrines; Origen asks why these should be believed and the biblical miracles called myths, when even Greek philosophers doubted the oracles.
Against Celsus 8.46Origen · ca. 248 · Scripture records better-attested versions of everything Celsus claims for oracles: the Exodus led by prophecy, children given to Abraham and Sarah, Hezekiah, and the Shunammite, healings by Jesus, and punishment of those who profaned the temple.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 133Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Both robbers first reviled Jesus, but one was converted, a figure of those who believe after many sins; the darkness at the crucifixion was not a solar eclipse, impossible at the Passover full moon, but a local darkness over Judea, probably from clouds, figuring the darkness that came upon the Jewish nation until all Israel is saved.
Commentary on Matthew 10.19Origen · ca. 246–248 · Jesus did few mighty works at Nazareth because of unbelief; divine power and human faith work together, as weather and farming do in producing a harvest.
Commentary on Matthew 11.7Origen · ca. 246–248 · The disciples confess Jesus as truly the Son of God, and the sick of Gennesaret, brought by others, are healed by touching the fringe of his garment.
Commentary on Matthew 12.2Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Pharisees sought a sign from heaven because they suspected earthly signs might come from Beelzebul, but signs from heaven too can be false, as in Job and in the coming man of sin; Jesus’ raising of Lazarus, calming of the sea, and teaching showed him truly the Son of God.
Commentary on Matthew 16.9Origen · ca. 246–248 · Accepting the healing of the two blind men as history, Origen seeks its meaning through faith: Jericho is the world, and the crowd that follows Jesus and his disciples out of it is led toward Jerusalem.
Commentary on Romans 10.12Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · True boasting is in Christ; Paul speaks only of what Christ did through him in word and in signs and wonders across the nations, building on no one else's foundation, an example for church leaders not to teach virtues they lack; his visit to Rome 'in passing' is framed to draw out the Romans' love.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 22Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · Pionius's body is found unharmed by the fire, a sign of his crown.
On Rebaptism 8Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · Answering the objection that the disciples were rightly baptized, the writer lists the many signs by which the disciples believed Jesus was the Christ.
Against the Nations 1.43Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius rejects the charge that Christ was a magician, since no magician ever did what he did without spells or rites.
Against the Nations 1.44Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ worked his miracles by the power of his name alone, and all of them were beneficial.
Against the Nations 1.45Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ's healings of the sick, the possessed, lepers, the blind, and the lame show he was more than a mortal.
Against the Nations 1.46Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ calmed the sea, walked on water, fed five thousand, raised the dead, knew hearts, appeared after his death, and his name still puts demons to flight.
Against the Nations 1.47Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ's miracles were meant to lead people to the true God, and they show him stronger than fate itself.
Against the Nations 1.48Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Pagan gods healed, if at all, by prescribing remedies like physicians, while Christ healed by word and touch alone.
Against the Nations 1.50Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ gave his unlearned disciples power to work the same miracles in his name, proving they were not magic.
Against the Nations 1.51Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · No pagan god ever gave priests power to heal, whereas Christ's sharing of his power with men shows a power above all things.
Against the Nations 1.52Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius challenges the famous magicians of legend to do, even with all their arts, what simple Christians did by bare command.
Against the Nations 1.54Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · The miracles were attested by eyewitnesses and believed by whole nations, who would not have suffered hatred for a fiction.
Against the Nations 2.11Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Pagans believe philosophers who worked no miracles; Christians believe Christ, whose mighty works justify faith in him.
Against the Nations 2.12Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ won the nations not by arguments but by mighty works; Arnobius recounts Peter's victory over Simon Magus at Rome.
Church History 1.13.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus healed many, and Abgar guessed he was the promised disciple.
Church History 1.13.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus laid his hand on Abgar, who was healed at once.
Church History 3.39.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Papias heard from Philip's daughters of a man raised from the dead, and of Justus Barsabbas surviving poison.
Church History 4.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Quadratus (quoted): people healed or raised by Jesus lived on, some even into his own time.
Church History 5.5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Lightning routed the enemy and rain saved the Roman army.
Church History 5.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Pagan historians record the miracle but do not credit Christian prayer; Christian writers do.
Church History 5.7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus also testifies that miracles still occurred in the churches of his day.
Church History 5.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus: the heretics cannot raise the dead, but in the church the dead have been restored through fasting and prayer.
Church History 5.7.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus: Christ's miracles were real and foretold, and his true disciples still work wonders in his name.
Church History 6.9.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Jerusalem preserved traditions of Narcissus's miracles.
Church History 6.9.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · At his prayer the water became oil, and some of it was kept as a relic.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 39Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus cites Paul and Jesus' warnings against false apostles and false Christs to show that Manes, coming centuries later without any sign or link to the apostles, is one of them.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 40Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus denounces Manes as a forerunner of Antichrist who works no miracles and knows only Chaldean; the judges then ask him whom Paul was awaiting when he spoke of "what is perfect."
Homilies 1.6Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · A report reaches Rome under Tiberius of a Jew in Judea preaching God's kingdom and working miracles.
Homilies 2.33Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter applies the rule of pairs to wonders: Simon's useless marvels come first, from evil, as the plagues of Egypt came before Moses' healings.
Homilies 2.34Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter contrasts Simon's useless marvels with the healings done by the Lord and by himself.
Homilies 8.24Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter heals the sick by laying on hands and prayer, and the crowd leaves to return the next day.
Recognitions 1.58Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Philip answers a scribe who calls Jesus a magician by pointing out that the charge would apply equally to Moses.
Recognitions 2.45Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter warns that being deceived is no excuse before God, and that even a wonder-working prophet must not be believed if he preaches other gods.
Recognitions 3.59Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains the 'pairs' of evil and good that appear in turn, and how both simple and prudent people can judge between their signs.
Recognitions 9.38Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · When the host's demon-possessed daughter is suddenly freed at Peter's presence and comes to him with her chains, Peter agrees to lodge with the family.
Recognitions 10.70Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter tells the sick that healing comes from Christ, not from him; when they confess Jesus Christ as the true God, a great light appears and all are healed.
On Jonah and Nineveh, lines 76–105Anonymous · 4th-5th century (disputed) · The sailors, unable to reach land, cast Jonah overboard; the sea calms, they sacrifice to God, and Jonah lives in the whale's belly as a sign of the Lord.
Prophetic Extracts 4.16Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Isaiah's blossoming wilderness and the healings at God's coming as Christ's miracles and the living water of his words given to the church of the nations.
Prophetic Extracts 4.31Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,” which Jesus read in Nazareth, point by point to Christ's ministry of good news, healing, release, and comfort for those who mourn for the heavenly Zion.
Divine Institutes 4.13.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The oracle admits his miracles.
Divine Institutes 4.15.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He turns to Christ's miracles, which the Jews called magic.
Divine Institutes 4.15.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · His miracles were by heavenly power, as the prophets foretold.
Divine Institutes 4.15.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He healed the sick and paralysed with a word.
Divine Institutes 4.15.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He also raised the dead.
Divine Institutes 4.15.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Five thousand were fed and twelve baskets were left.
Divine Institutes 4.15.22Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He calmed the storm with a word.
Divine Institutes 4.26.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · His sufferings and miracles had symbolic meaning; for example, he gave sight to the blind.
Divine Institutes 4.26.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Giving sight to the blind signified enlightening the gentiles.
Divine Institutes 4.26.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Healing the deaf signified people coming to hear God's word.
Divine Institutes 4.26.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Healing the dumb signified the ignorant learning to speak of God.
Divine Institutes 4.26.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Healing the lame signified opening the road of truth.
Divine Institutes 4.26.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Cleansing lepers signified purifying sinners.
Divine Institutes 4.26.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He raised the dead, a wonder fitting for God.
Divine Institutes 5.3.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hierocles set Apollonius's wonders against Christ's.
Acts of Phileas and Philoromus 2.3Anonymous · ca. 306-311
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 4.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · An earthquake shook Caesarea and the sea cast Apphianus's body before the city gates, on Friday 2 April.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 9.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · On a clear day the city's columns dripped and the streets grew wet, as if the earth wept at the outrage.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.8.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius: Numenius confirms Moses' miracles.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.27.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Moses is imprisoned; the prison doors open by themselves.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.27.27Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The staff becomes a serpent.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.27.30Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Egyptian priests imitate the signs.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.27.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The sea parts at Moses' staff.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.29.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Ezekiel: the signs of the staff and the leprous hand.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.29.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Ezekiel: a messenger describes the crossing of the Red Sea.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.2.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Greeks also copied the biblical miracles into their myths.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.2.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · If Greek marvels are true, the biblical miracles are credible; God turns people to salvation in many ways.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 40.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Some thought Jesus's miracles were magic, not knowing the prophets foretold them.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 40.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · By his word he healed every disease, drove out demons, and raised the dead.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 40.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · He fed five thousand, walked on water, and calmed the storm, as prophecy foretold.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Both Moses and Christ confirmed their teaching with miracles.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The manna in the desert parallels Christ’s feeding of the multitudes.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ walked on the sea.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s transfiguration surpasses Moses’ shining face; Moses healed Miriam’s leprosy.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ healed a leper by his word; Moses received the law written by God’s finger.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.4.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus healed lepers, cast out demons, and cured the sick.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.4.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus healed the blind and the woman who touched his garment.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.4.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus raised Lazarus, walked on the sea, and calmed the storm.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.10.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ healed body and soul, freed people from idolatry and vice, opened heaven to the nations, and even raised the dead.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.21.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah's promised healings of the blind, deaf, and lame were fulfilled by Christ's coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.21.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Through the disciples, too, countless sick people were healed, as prophecy and Gospels attest.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.4.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ did not stop Herod by a miracle because it was not yet time to display his divine power.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.4.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · It fitted Christ’s gentle, forbearing life to begin his miracles only at the right time.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s miracles after John’s preaching fulfilled Isaiah 35, which names specifically the wilderness of the Jordan.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.8.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · “Drink this first” may foretell Christ’s first miracle, the wine at Cana.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.13.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Gospels show the fulfilment in Christ’s healing of the paralytic and many others.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.13.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s healings are works of God alone, testified by those who preached him everywhere.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.13.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ, God and the Word, not a prophet like Moses, both worked wonders and gave the apostles strength.
On the Incarnation 18.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ's power over demons and diseases, especially healing the man born blind, shows him to be Lord and Maker of human nature.
On the Incarnation 18.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Turning water to wine, walking on the sea, and feeding the five thousand show his lordship over creation.
On the Incarnation 38.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah's signs mark the time of God's coming, and they never happened in Israel before Christ.
On the Witch of Endor 9Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius adds the example of Pharaoh's magicians, of whom Scripture says they did “likewise”, arguing that their wonders were illusions and that the narrator's words do not make magic equal to God's signs.
Theophany 3.40Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.27Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.50Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Book 2, lines 27–50Juvencus · ca. 330 · Jesus calms the storm; a demoniac meets him in the land of the Gerasenes.
Book 2, lines 375–399Juvencus · ca. 330 · A ruler begs Jesus for his dead daughter; the woman with the flow of blood is healed.
Book 2, lines 400–424Juvencus · ca. 330 · The girl raised; two blind men healed; a mute demoniac healed; Jesus pities the crowds.
Book 3, lines 77–99Juvencus · ca. 330 · The feeding of the five thousand; Jesus prays alone while the disciples' boat is tossed by the wind.
Book 3, lines 100–124Juvencus · ca. 330 · Jesus walks on the water; Peter walks, doubts, sinks and is rescued.
Book 3, lines 199–223Juvencus · ca. 330 · Many healed; the feeding of the four thousand; Pharisees and Sadducees ask for a sign.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 14.6Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Through the man he assumed the Word worked visible miracles and taught, while remaining unchanged and present everywhere.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 14.12Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Throughout his life Christ showed now his shared human weakness, now his divinity in miracles, prophecy and teaching.
Demonstration 1.17Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 2.20Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ's healings, teaching, and parables all flowed from his love; Aphrahat urges his reader to share it by keeping the two commandments.
Life of Constantine 1.28.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine told Eusebius under oath that, while praying, he and his army saw a cross of light above the sun with the words “By this conquer.”
Life of Constantine 2.9.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine told Eusebius that a bearer who abandoned the standard was killed, while the standard's shaft caught the missiles aimed at its bearers.
Oration II Against the Arians 12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · In Acts 2:36 “made” refers to the crucified humanity and means “displayed,” as Acts 2:22 shows; so too the Son “made himself equal to God” by displaying it in his works.
Oration III Against the Arians 32Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Word was never outside his flesh: he healed with human gestures and divine power, and the sufferings of his body are rightly called his, so that salvation and worship are directed to the Son himself.
Oration III Against the Arians 55Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The one who wept and hungered also raised Lazarus and gave sight to the blind; his sufferings show that the impassible God took passible flesh, and his works show that he is the Word.
Catechetical Lecture 12.28Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · To the Jews: if Sarah bore in old age, Moses' hand and rod were changed, and Aaron's dry rod blossomed, God can also give a virgin a child.
Catechetical Lecture 18.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The apostles raised the dead, and Paul teaches that this very body will rise, transformed and incorruptible; glow-worms show that God can make the righteous shine.
Homily on the Paralytic 0Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350-387 · Wherever Jesus goes he brings salvation, healing the sick at the pools.
Homily on the Paralytic 2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350-387 · Jesus chose the man ill for thirty-eight years, saw his need of soul and body, and made healing depend on his willing.
Homily on the Paralytic 5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350-387 · Like the blind men, the paralytic is led by Christ's question to knowledge; Christ, true God and true man, is the spring of life who walks on the waters.
Homily on the Paralytic 7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350-387 · Christ healed the long paralysis instantly by a word, but could not heal the long unbelief of those who murmured at his healing on the sabbath.
On the Decrees of Nicaea 1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Athanasius praises his correspondent for refuting the Arians, who, like the Pharisees with Jesus, invent pretexts such as the complaint that Nicaea used unscriptural terms.
Two Tractates and a Letter 1Potamius of Lisbon · ca. 350-360 · Potamius describes in vivid, elaborate language the decay of Lazarus's body, Christ's weeping, and the raising of Lazarus.
Cento, lines 539–561Proba · ca. 360 · As the disciples despair in the storm, Christ comes to them walking on the water, calms the sea, and brings the boat safely to land.
Letter to Constantius 1Cyril of Jerusalem · 7 May 351 · Cyril offers the emperor, as his first letter from Jerusalem, not earthly gifts but news of a heavenly sign confirming his faith.
Letter to Constantius 3Cyril of Jerusalem · 7 May 351 · Cyril reports the luminous cross seen over Golgotha on 7 May (351), which the whole city saw, and links it to Christ's prophecy of the sign of the Son of man.
Life of Antony 38Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Miracles belong to the Savior and are no ground for boasting; what matters is a virtuous life and the gift of discerning spirits.
Life of Antony 56Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony prayed for the sick without boasting or complaint, teaching that healing comes from God alone and that thanks are due to God, not to him.
Life of Antony 57Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony sent away Fronto, an imperial official with a terrible affliction, telling him he would be healed on reaching Egypt, and so it happened.
Life of Antony 58Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Without seeing her, Antony announced the healing of a gravely afflicted girl waiting outside the mountain, attributing it wholly to the Savior.
Life of Antony 60Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony saw the soul of Amoun of Nitria carried to heaven at the hour of his death, thirteen days’ journey away; Amoun had once been carried across a flooded river.
Life of Antony 61Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · At the request of Count Archelaus, Antony prayed for the sick virgin Polycratia of Laodicea, who was healed at the very hour of his prayer.
Life of Antony 70Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · In Alexandria crowds, including pagans and their priests, flocked to see the “man of God”; he healed many, and many became Christians.
Life of Antony 83Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony’s miracles should not be doubted, for Christ promised such power to those who believe and ask in his name.
On the Trinity 3.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The changing of water into wine at Cana shows a divine power whose working is incomprehensible though its effect is certain.
On the Trinity 3.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The feeding of the five thousand likewise shows a visible miracle whose manner cannot be understood, calling for faith in God's power.
On the Trinity 3.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's miracles, real but beyond explanation, teach us to accept his indescribable birth from the Father.
On the Trinity 6.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Though the apostles had seen Christ's miracles, they confessed only when he said he came forth from God, recognizing in his divine knowledge a divine birth.
On Saint Athanasius 1.17Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer quotes in full the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and the coming of the rain.
On Apostate Kings 5Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer recounts how Jeroboam, though warned by Ahijah's prophecy and by his withered hand at Bethel, persisted in idolatry until death, and warns the emperor not to do the same.
Letters to Serapion 4.14Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Christ as God worked miracles and as man suffered, yet the one Lord did all things conjointly, as when his human spittle healed the blind man.
Letters to Serapion 4.16Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Pharisees, like Israel with the golden calf, ascribed God’s works to another and so passed from pardonable weakness to unpardonable blasphemy.
History of the Arians 57Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius reports two signs of judgment: a youth who tried to drag away the bishop’s throne was mortally wounded by it, and another who mocked was struck blind.
Tractates on the Psalms 55.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hope in God frees the saint from fear of men; Christ too, remaining God in the flesh, worked divine deeds and feared nothing from flesh.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary recounts the Sabbath healing of the paralytic at the pool and Christ’s reply, “My Father works until now, and I work.”
Tractates on the Psalms 135.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God alone does great wonders: even the wonders of Moses and Joshua's halting of the sun were his work.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ's 'sitting' signifies his teaching, as from Moses' chair, and his 'rising' his works, as after the Sermon on the Mount and at the foot-washing.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ's humanity, wholly devoted to the Father, was 'made terribly wonderful' through the signs at his death, his resurrection and ascension, and the wonders of the apostles.
Oration 4.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory recalls God's ancient wonders, from Enoch to the crossing of the Red Sea.
Oration 4.19Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The wonders continued in the wilderness and in the conquest, and above all in Christ and his apostles.
Oration 4.53Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory hesitates over a widely reported wonder at one of Julian's sacrifices.
Oration 5.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The temple rebuilding was stopped by earthquake and fire; a cross appeared in the sky and on people's clothing, and many sought baptism.
Oration 18.30Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory tells how his mother, dying from inability to eat, recovered after dreaming that he fed her with blessed bread.
Oration 43.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · When the grandparents longed for better food, they prayed in faith, recalling God's wonders in the wilderness, and deer came of themselves to be taken.
Oration 43.54Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Basil's exile was prevented when Valens' son fell ill; Basil also healed the prefect; and when a governor of Pontus tried to seize a widow who had taken sanctuary and abused Basil, the people of Caesarea rose to defend him, and Basil saved the governor from the mob.
Tractates 1.2.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno lists the heroes of faith, from Enoch to the apostles, to show what faith accomplishes.
Tractates 2.11.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes Isaac's miraculous birth to the aged Sarah, fulfilling the prophecy of the barren woman's joy.
Against Eunomius 1.21Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil refutes Eunomius's definition of time as a motion of the stars, citing the days before the stars were made and the day the sun stood still, and defines time as the interval coextensive with the world.
Homilies 1.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Examples from Esau to Daniel show the power of fasting, which also brings peace to households and rest to servants.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.8Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The gospel healings show that faith, not the holiness of the one who acts, brings the gift: the mother whose daughter was raised, the centurion, and the woman with the flow of blood.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:31Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Spiritual gifts serve God's honour, not personal merit, as Christ's warning to wonder-workers shows; love is the better way, and miracles have ceased because good works now draw people to faith.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God stood by Paul and rescued him from the devil’s jaws; Paul sends greetings, explains why Trophimus was left sick, and closes with his signature naming Jesus Christ as God and man.
Commentary on Philippians 2:19–24Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul will send Timothy, his like-minded son, and now sends Epaphroditus, whose near-fatal illness was a trial for his good; Paul's grief would have been for the loss of a helper, not hopeless mourning.
Commentary on Romans 1:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains that the gospel is God’s power because it was confirmed by signs, that it saves Jew and gentile alike through faith, and that the name “Jew” dates from Judas Maccabaeus.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 3.2Anonymous · ca. 370 · At Rome Peter defeats Simon Magus in raising a dead youth and in Simon's attempted flight; Nero seeks Peter's death; Peter, leaving Rome, meets Christ at the gate (“Lord, where are you going?”), returns, and is crucified head downward, while Paul is beheaded.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 4.17Anonymous · ca. 370 · The author describes Elisha's healing of the spring at Jericho and the fertility of the surrounding plain.
Question 114, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Christian God proved his claim to be the only God by mighty works, while pagans worship gods who gave no signs, and with shameful rites.
Question 115, section 45Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · As the emperor can pardon what judges cannot, God can do what the world’s order cannot, as Christ’s miracles show; so fate cannot hinder those who trust in God.
Question 127, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Moses’ miracles, Paul’s typology, and Christ’s own words show that the law of Moses comes from the same God as the gospel, so it cannot be dismissed as error.
On the Holy Spirit 29.74Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Gregory the Wonderworker, whose tradition his churches kept unchanged, handed down the disputed doxology; Firmilian, Meletius, the East, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, and the West use it too.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.10.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Healed, the man spread the news in Tiberias.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.34.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Let Ebion imitate Christ's miracles if he can.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.34.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Ebion cannot work signs in Christ's name.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.15.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · After Cana Jesus worked other signs at Capernaum.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.15.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law at Capernaum.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.16.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · From Cana on, Jesus worked signs and preached.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.20.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Childhood signs refute the claim that 'Christ' was the dove descending at the Jordan.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.21.27Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The healing of the official's son is John's second sign.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.21.28Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus heals the paralytic at the pool in Jerusalem.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.30.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Springs said to turn to wine commemorate Cana.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.30.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius says he drank from the spring at Cibyra.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.30.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The miracle shows Christ is God, who turns water into wine in every vine.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.1.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The gifts were given for the persuasion of unbelievers.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.1.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Neither Pharaoh's Egyptians nor the Jews of Christ's time believed despite great signs.
On the Christian Faith 3.4Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose reads Ps 88 as Christ speaking as man, “free among the dead and without help,” and contrasts the prophets and apostles, who raised the dead by prayer or in Christ’s name, with Christ, who commands by his own power.
On the Christian Faith 4.5Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose distinguishes four kinds of impossibility (by nature, by weakness, by lack of skill or authority, and by fixed will) and shows that the first three cannot apply to Christ, so that John 5:19 expresses the unity of will and love between Father and Son.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 137Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina recalls Christ’s miracles of raising the dead and his own resurrection. Gregory grants that the resurrection is believed but asks whether bodies will rise as they died, old, wasted, or diseased, which would make resurrection a misfortune.
On the Making of Man 25Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · The fulfilment of Christ’s predictions (such as the fall of Jerusalem) makes his promise of resurrection credible, and his graded miracles of raising the dead, culminating in Lazarus and his own risen body, demonstrate it.
Life of Macrina, part 9Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Gregory turns the virgins' wailing into psalmody; the widow Vetiana and the deaconess Lampadia help prepare the body, revealing Macrina's iron cross, a ring holding a relic of the cross, and the scar of a healed tumour.
Life of Macrina, part 11Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Mindful of the command not to uncover a parent's shame, Gregory covers the parents' remains before laying Macrina beside her mother; on the way home an officer of Sebastopolis tells how Macrina promised to heal his daughter's eye.
Life of Macrina, part 12Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · The officer's wife discovers on the road home that their daughter's eye has been healed by Macrina's prayer; Gregory ends by declining to record her further miracles for fear of unbelief.
Psalm 77Apollinaris of Laodicea · uncertain (fourth to sixth century) · A paraphrase of Psalm 77 of the Septuagint (Psalm 78): the history of Israel’s rebellions in the desert and in the land, and God’s mercy from the exodus to the choice of Zion and David.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 8.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · An ancient sycamore said to be planted by the patriarchs heals the sick.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 14Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · At Cordova Ossius tried to have Gregory of Elvira deposed and exiled, but when Gregory appealed to Christ, Ossius collapsed as he was pronouncing sentence, and the terrified pagan vicar begged Gregory's pardon.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 20Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Zosimus, set up at Naples in place of the exiled Maximus, was condemned by Maximus and by Lucifer of Cagliari; his tongue, the petitioners say, hung out of his mouth whenever he tried to celebrate, until he gave up the see.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 28Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Lucifer wrote and lived by the Scriptures and worked miracles, as Gregory of Elvira recognized, so to brand the defenders of the true faith with his name is sacrilege.
Catechetical Oration 13Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Christ's birth from a virgin without pleasure and his death without corruption are beyond nature, and so prove that he is God.
Catechetical Oration 34Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Christ, shown to be God by his miracles, keeps his promise to be present when invoked, so the divine is surely present in baptism, and the prayer that precedes it confirms this.
On the Life of Moses 307Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The narrative continues with the signs of the rod and the hand, the meeting with Aaron, Pharaoh’s harsher demands, the contest with the magicians, and the first plagues, from which the Hebrews are spared.
On the Life of Moses 309Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The narrative continues through the remaining plagues, the Passover blood, the departure with the Egyptians’ wealth, Pharaoh’s pursuit, and Moses striking the Red Sea.
On the Life of Moses 311Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Israel crosses the Red Sea on dry ground, the Egyptians drown, the people sing their victory song, Marah’s water is made sweet, and they reach Elim before thirst strikes again in the desert.
On the Life of Moses 323Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The narrative runs through the quails and their deadly surfeit, the spies and the sentence on the unbelieving generation, the water from the rock, the rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and the budding of Aaron’s rod.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.7.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ’s miracles manifested what Isaiah’s words foretold.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.8.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ’s miracles and resurrection gave understanding even to the untaught nations.
Letter 78.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains how the case arose and why he sent Boniface and Spes to the shrine of St Felix at Nola, where God might reveal the guilty party.
Letter 102.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The sixth question, from pagan mockery, asks how Jonah survived in the whale and what the gourd meant.
Letter 102.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Jonah's preservation is no harder to believe than the resurrection; the monster's size, attested by ribs displayed at Carthage, made it possible, clothes or no clothes.
Letter 102.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who reject this miracle must reject all, including the three men in the furnace; pagans would admire it if told of Apuleius or Apollonius.
Letter 111.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine comforts Victorianus about captive consecrated women, telling how a captive nun's prayers healed her captors and won her release.
Letter 135.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Volusian reports a friend's objections to the incarnation, the virgin birth, and Christ's miracles, and asks Augustine to answer them.
Letter 136.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Marcellinus writes to Augustine that Volusian has sent him questions on the incarnation, and asks him to answer the claim that Apollonius and Apuleius worked greater miracles than Christ.
Letter 137.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The prophets also worked miracles, and Moses defeated the magicians; but Christ, foretold by the prophets as Lord, did things uniquely his own: virgin birth, resurrection, and ascension.
Letter 137.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Unbelievers despise lesser miracles because others performed them and reject Christ's unique works because no one else did them; Augustine urges Volusian not to be like them.
Letter 162.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that things are wonderful either because their reason is hidden, as with the virgin birth, or because they are unusual, as when Christ marveled at the centurion's faith.
Letter 187.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · John's leaping was a miraculous sign wrought by God in the infant, recognized by Elizabeth through the Spirit, not an act of faith by the infant.
Letter 205.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from the three young men in the furnace that God can preserve the features of a body while removing all corruption from it.
Letter 227.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Alypius of the baptism of Gabinianus and of the physician Dioscorus, converted after his daughter's healing and successive blindness and paralysis.
On Order 2.27Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine distinguishes divine authority, which surpasses human power in signs and in Christ shows its power, mercy, and nature, from the deceptions of demons and from fallible human authority.
Homilies on Matthew 4.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Matthew's three groups of fourteen show Israel unimproved under every form of government; Chrysostom explains the count, why Mark and Luke differ, why the Gospel has no prophetic heading, and why miracles were given at certain times, including signs under Julian in his own day.
Homilies on Matthew 6.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The magi's behavior is inexplicable on human terms; the star was no ordinary star but an invisible power in the form of a star, as its north-to-south course, daytime brightness, appearing and hiding, and descent over the child show.
Homilies on Matthew 14.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · As God has always confirmed a new way of life with signs, Christ confirms his preaching with healings, and his hearers are urged to seek from him the healing of the soul, which is the root of bodily ills.
Homilies on Matthew 27.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ heals Peter’s mother-in-law at once and completely in the humble house of a fisherman, then heals many in the evening, fulfilling Isaiah’s word that he took our infirmities.
Homilies on Matthew 28.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ takes only the disciples into the storm to train them; he sleeps so that their fear may make them feel the miracle, rebukes their little faith before calming the sea, and the calm reveals him as God.
Homilies on Matthew 32.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The church has become a marketplace of chatter; Chrysostom asks for love, since all share one table and one cup, and teaches that God stopped the signs because virtue, not miracles, is the true proof and health of the soul.
Homilies on Matthew 32.8John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Virtue is greater than miracles, as Paul and Christ teach; the Christian who turns to almsgiving, leaves the theater, guards his eyes and sings psalms works the true signs.
Homilies on Matthew 43.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · When the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign after so many signs, Christ calls them an evil and adulterous generation and promises only the sign of Jonah, hinting at his resurrection and at the ruin that would come on Jerusalem.
Homilies on Matthew 46.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The apostles were great not because of their signs but because of their contempt for money, glory and worldly affairs; John, Elijah, Job, David and the patriarchs shone by their life, and signs without virtue harm.
Homilies on Matthew 46.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Signs exist for the sake of a good life, which is the greater thing; fasting is good but last in the choir of virtues, while love and almsgiving surpass even virginity and make one equal to the apostles.
Homilies on Matthew 48.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · In his own country Christ teaches but does few signs, so as not to increase their envy and condemnation; his townsmen despise him for his humble family, and he answers gently that a prophet is not honored in his own country.
Homilies on Matthew 49.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ withdraws after John’s death, heals the crowds that follow him, and leads the slow disciples step by step toward the feeding of the five thousand.
Homilies on Matthew 50.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ withdraws to pray in solitude and leaves the disciples in the storm to train their endurance, then comes walking on the sea and lets the fervent Peter walk to him.
Homilies on Matthew 50.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Peter sinks through little faith though he is near Christ, the disciples confess Jesus as Son of God, the sick of Gennesaret are healed by touching his fringe, and Chrysostom urges approaching Christ’s body in the Eucharist with faith and a pure heart.
Homilies on Matthew 53.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ prepares the feeding of the four thousand by stating his own compassion and questioning the disciples, who, though still slow, are rising by degrees; the evangelists honestly record their own failings.
Homilies on Matthew 53.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The four thousand are fed with a different number of remnants so the disciples will remember both miracles; Christ refuses the Pharisees a sign from heaven, explaining that his first coming is as physician and the heavenly signs are kept for his coming as judge.
Homilies on Matthew 57.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ pairs each foretelling of his passion with miracles and with John’s fate to console the disciples; he heals the moonstruck boy whom the disciples could not heal, exposing the father’s weak faith and teaching that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains.
Homilies on Matthew 66.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The two blind men near Jericho persevere against rebuke and are healed; Christ then sends for the donkey and colt, fulfilling Zechariah and entering Jerusalem openly now that the Passion is near.
Homilies on Matthew 67.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom treats the cleansing of the temple as a second cleansing, explains the children’s praise as a sign of Christ’s power and a type of the Gentiles, and says the barren fig tree was cursed to show the disciples his power to punish.
Homilies on Matthew 88.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The darkness at midday, lasting three hours and so no eclipse, was the promised sign of Jonah and a sign of God’s wrath, given when the mockers had had their fill; Christ’s Hebrew cry from the Psalm shows his honor for the Father, and his loud cry at death shows that he laid down his life by his own authority.
Homilies on Matthew 88.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The raising of the saints, the split rocks and the torn veil showed Christ’s power and wrath, and that the way into the true sanctuary was opening, while the centurion and the crowd were moved; the women who stayed to the end, and Joseph who dared to bury him in his own new tomb, show a courage the disciples lacked.
Hexameron (Exameron) 2.3Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The works of creation must be judged by the rule of Scripture and the power of Christ, not by philosophy.
Hexameron (Exameron) 2.11Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan show God's power over water; even the philosophers' physics allows waters above the heavens.
Hexameron (Exameron) 3.9Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Springs, aqueducts, the rock in the desert, Christ's stilling of the storm, and Elisha's axe show God's power over water.
On the Mysteries 9Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · Ambrose argues from the miracles of Scripture and from the virgin birth that the word of Christ changes the bread and wine into his body and blood, which feed the Church, and that the Spirit truly regenerates in baptism.
On True Religion 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine argues that those who teach the worship of one God are to be believed before those who teach many, and that the miracles which won faith at first were not continued into his own time, lest people always seek visible things.
Life of Hilarion 14Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Hilarion heals the three dying children of Aristaenete at Gaza, and many come to him and become monks, the first in Palestine.
Life of Hilarion 15Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Hilarion heals a blind woman by spitting on her eyes, after Christ's example.
Life of Hilarion 16Jerome · ca. 390–392 · A paralysed charioteer is healed when he believes and gives up racing.
Life of Hilarion 43Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Hilarion spends his last five years in a remote, demon-haunted spot in Cyprus, where he heals a paralysed steward.
Life of Malchus 9Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Pursued to a cave by their master and his slave, the fugitives are saved when a lioness kills both men and then leaves.
Sermon 6.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine recounts the three signs given to Moses: the rod and serpent, the leprous hand, and the water turned to blood.
Sermon 98.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s bodily miracles point to the greater miracle of raising dead souls, which only those already risen in heart can see.
Sermon 98.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s miracles were done to signify spiritual truths, like letters to be read and not only admired; the cursing of the fig tree, out of season, signified the Jews who had the words of the law without its deeds.
Sermon 98.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ raised three dead: the synagogue ruler’s daughter at home, the widow’s son on his way to burial, and Lazarus from the tomb.
Sermon 126.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith concerns things unseen, but the visible creation leads to its unseen maker; because people had stopped wondering at God’s daily works, Christ came to do unusual miracles.
Sermon 130.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The feeding of the five thousand is a sign: the five barley loaves are the five books of Moses, in which Christ is hidden, and they grow when they are broken open in explanation.
Sermon 136.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ left the man’s eyes unformed so as to heal them as a miracle; the man, like everyone, had original sin, though that was not the cause of his blindness; all are born blind in heart.
Sermon 142.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Creator does not ask us to learn from him how to create or to work miracles, gifts given only to some, as different members have different powers; what all must learn from him is meekness and humility of heart.
Sermon 164.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ asks us to learn from him not his divine works or miracles but gentleness and humility; his burden is light as feathers are to a bird, not a weight but wings.
Sermon 242.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The risen Christ let his disciples see and handle his body; men argue against this because they believe only what they are used to seeing, but God, the author, did it.
Sermon 247.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · That the risen Christ entered through shut doors should be believed, not reasoned out, like the virgin birth, his walking on the sea, and the daily miracles of nature.
Sermon 252.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The catch after the resurrection, compared with the earlier one in Luke 5, must be questioned for its inner meaning, since Christ, the Word, speaks by deeds as well as words.
Sermon 275.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God honored Vincent’s body with a miracle so that what the enemy tried to hide was found and venerated; such miracles at the saints’ remains show that nothing that dies perishes for God.
Sermon 286.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs’ blood was the seed of the Church; Augustine recalls the finding of Protasius and Gervasius by Ambrose at Milan, which he witnessed, and the healing of a well-known blind man.
Sermon 286.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God does not heal everyone through the martyrs but promises immortality to all who imitate them; like a physician or a father who scourges, he refuses some requests for our good.
Sermon 316.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen, first among the deacons as Peter among the apostles, worked wonders through the name of Christ, and the miracles now done at his memorial are likewise done in Christ's name, so that he should be loved in Christ.
Sermon 317.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen's relics, now in Africa, bring many benefits, but his faith is what is to be imitated, above all his love of enemies; God, who gives sun and rain to good and bad alike, keeps for the good what he gave Stephen.
On the Profit of Believing 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · Those who refuse to believe Christ without reason are not Christians, for Christ himself sought faith through miracles, and so built the authority of the church.
On the Profit of Believing 34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · Authority, working through miracles and the multitude of believers, prepares the foolish to be cleansed and to see the truth; the miracles of Christ were done so that such authority might be established.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine warns against being deceived by the mere name of Christ or by miracles, reconciles “Lord, Lord” with 1 Cor 12:3, and closes with the parable of the two builders and the sevenfold pattern of the sermon.
Historia monachorum, prologueRufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Rufinus’s prologue: at the request of the brothers on the Mount of Olives he will describe the monks of Egypt whom he saw, their virtues and their miracles.
Historia monachorum, chapter 6Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Theon, a silent recluse near Oxyrhynchus who healed the sick through his window, bound robbers by prayer, knew Latin, and was followed by the desert beasts.
Historia monachorum, chapter 7Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Apollonius of Hermopolis: his call and victory over the demon of pride, his miracles among pagans and in famine, the Easter feast sent from God, and his teaching on joy, hospitality, daily communion and hidden fasting.
Historia monachorum, chapter 8Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · On the way south Rufinus’s party is kept from a dragon; a monk tells how his master Ammon set dragons to guard his cell against robbers and killed a man-eating dragon by prayer.
Historia monachorum, chapter 9Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · The presbyter Copres tells of Patermuthius, a robber turned monk whose prayer stopped the sun and raised the dead, and of his own miracles: blessed sand for barren fields, a fire ordeal with a Manichee, and stolen vegetables that would not cook.
Historia monachorum, chapter 10Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Copres tells how Syrus, Isaiah and Paul were carried miraculously upstream to visit Anuph, a confessor who told them of his visions and died three days later.
Historia monachorum, chapter 11Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Copres tells of Helenus, who carried fire unharmed, resisted craving, rode a wild ass and a crocodile, read hearts, and protected a disciple from demons; Copres then shows his garden planted in the desert.
Historia monachorum, chapter 15Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Apelles the smith, who drove off the devil with red-hot iron, tells of the hermit John, who prayed standing for three years, unmasked Satan disguised as a priest, healed, and discerned the state of distant monks.
Historia monachorum, chapter 17Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · The walled monastery of Isidore in the Thebaid, which no one leaves once entered, whose monks work signs and die foreknowing their end without sickness.
Historia monachorum, chapter 19Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · The deacon Apollonius, martyred with the converted pipe player Philemon, the judge, and their guards, who were drowned at Alexandria; miracles occur at their tomb.
Historia monachorum, chapter 24Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Didymus, an elder of Nitria who trod on scorpions and vipers unharmed.
Historia monachorum, chapter 28Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · The two Macarii; Macarius the Egyptian makes a murdered man clear an innocent suspect, dispels the illusion of a girl turned into a mare, heals a diseased girl, and refutes a Hieracite heretic by raising the dead.
Historia monachorum, chapter 30Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Ammon, founder of Nitria, who persuaded his bride to live with him in virginity, healed a young man once his parents returned a stolen ox, and was carried across the Nile.
Historia monachorum, chapter 31Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Paul the Simple, who left his adulterous wife for the desert, learned perfect obedience from Antony, and through his simplicity worked greater healings than his master.
Life of Saint Martin 7Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · Near Poitiers Martin prays over a catechumen who had died unbaptized; the man revives, is baptized, and describes his judgment.
Life of Saint Martin 8Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · Martin prays over a slave who had hanged himself, and the man revives and walks out with him.
Life of Saint Martin 13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · Bound in the path of a falling sacred pine, Martin makes the sign of the cross and the tree falls the other way; many pagans believe.
Life of Saint Martin 14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · Martin turns back a fire from a neighbouring house and, after three days of fasting, destroys a temple at Leprosum protected by angels.
Life of Saint Martin 16Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · At Trier Martin prays, blesses oil, and restores a paralysed girl on the point of death.
Life of Saint Martin 18Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · A demon confesses to spreading a false invasion rumour; at Paris Martin kisses and heals a leper; threads of his clothing heal the sick.
Life of Saint Martin 19Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · A letter of Martin cures Arborius's daughter, Martin heals Paulinus's eye, and an angel heals Martin after a fall.
Confessions 9.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Ambrose, by a vision, finds the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius; a blind man is healed and the persecution ceases.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 26.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that God never acts against nature itself, only against the course of nature known to us, which is what we call a miracle.
Letters 1.2Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Someone objects that Martin, a worker of miracles, was himself burned in a fire.
Letters 1.13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · When Martin turns to prayer the flames leave him unharmed, and the monks break in and rescue him.
Letters 3.8Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · At his command the birds leave the river.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · If a candidate says God moved him by a sign or dream, the catechist should turn him to the surer guidance of Scripture, then narrate from creation to the Church, giving reasons that point to love without lengthy disputation.
On the Trinity 3.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that the same divine power works both ordinary natural processes and miracles, which differ only in being unusual, citing Elijah's rain, the thunders of Sinai, the wine at Cana, Aaron's rod, and Moses' rod turned into a serpent.
On the Trinity 3.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine says that the same God who gives life in the womb raised the dead, and that events are called natural when they follow the usual course and mighty works when they are unusual and meant to admonish.
On the Trinity 3.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that miracles and signs, whether done by angels or by men, can bear the person of God, illustrates this with prophets, Jacob's stone, Moses' rod and the bread of the sacrament, admits he cannot know how angels do these things, and affirms that God, being unchangeable, is still less visible.
On the Trinity 4.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine says that demons can easily work wonders through aerial bodies, as acrobats astonish theater crowds, but a faithful soul neither envies nor esteems them, since the saints have done far greater things by God's power.
Commentary on Daniel 3, scholion 8Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The fire did not harm the youths but only burned their bonds.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 5Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Miracles in heretical churches do not confirm their error: as God sends sun and rain on the unjust to their judgment, so he works powers among heretics, and Christ will reject even wonder-workers he never knew.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 24Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The talismans of Apollonius of Tyana worked by natural science and materials, whereas Christ's miracles came by divine authority without matter; Christ silenced the demon in Apollonius' statue and the other pagan gods.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 29Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · When the paralytic was let down through the roof, the crowd inside was warned and moved aside, and only part of the roof was opened.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 38Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus because rumors attributed Jesus' miracles to Elijah or Jeremiah; Jesus answered with miracles showing he was the one John had pointed out.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 100–101Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Miracles continued in churches seized by heretics because they are worked by the orthodox saints and martyrs to whom those churches belong; and Christians learn in the right order, for the apostles preached Christ from the law, which is the Gospel foretold, as the Gospel is the law fulfilled.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 117Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The risen Christ entered through shut doors with his real body, as he walked on the sea, by divine power and not by becoming spirit; the stone was rolled away only so that the empty tomb and grave clothes could be seen.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Whether Adam was made at full age or grew as in the womb, God is not bound by the numbers of time he gave to creation, as the water made wine and the rod made serpent show.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The causal reasons were created fit both for ordinary gradual growth and for sudden, wonderful works, as God pleases.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Created things have seminal reasons for their natural course; God can make from them what exceeds that course, as with Aaron's rod, Sarah's child, and Balaam's donkey, but only what he made possible in them.
Dialogues 1.11Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · The hermit refuses food after the boys’ punishment, and after eight days the abbot finds warm heavenly bread hanging at his door.
Dialogues 1.13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A hermit with a well, an ox, and a garden feeds the travelers; vegetables cook in the sun; at the palm tree he feeds dates to a lion.
Dialogues 1.14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A she-wolf that ate at a hermit’s door stole a loaf, stayed away in shame, and returned penitent; Postumianus praises Christ’s power over beasts.
Dialogues 1.15Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A lioness brings an anchorite to her blind cubs, he heals them, and she later brings him a skin as a gift.
Dialogues 1.18Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A newcomer who promised to obey even if ordered into fire walked into a burning oven at the abbot’s command and was unharmed.
Dialogues 1.20Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A famous exorcist, tempted by vanity, prayed to be possessed by a demon for five months and was thereby cured of pride.
Dialogues 1.24Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Sulpicius argues that Martin equaled or surpassed the desert saints, for he worked amid hostile clergy and bishops, and he alone raised the dead.
Dialogues 1.26Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Postumianus agrees that Martin is known everywhere except among the envious clergy of Gaul, who deny his miracles; Sulpicius hands the narration to Gallus, Martin’s disciple.
Dialogues 2.2Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A globe of fire is seen above Martin at the altar; he heals Gallus’s uncle Evanthius from a distance and draws snake venom out of a boy through his finger.
Dialogues 2.3Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Soldiers whose wagon team shied at Martin beat him savagely; their mules then refuse to move until the soldiers find Martin and beg his pardon.
Dialogues 2.4Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · As bishop Martin raised a dead boy in a pagan village near Chartres, and the whole crowd became catechumens on the spot.
Dialogues 2.5Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Valentinian I, influenced by his Arian wife, refused to see Martin; after fasting and prayer Martin entered the palace, and fire under the throne forced the emperor to rise and grant his requests.
Dialogues 2.8Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Postumianus doubts that Gallic clergy will heed Martin’s example; Sulpicius complains of the hostility his rebukes earned him; Gallus tells how straw from Martin’s bed healed a possessed man at Claudiomagus.
Dialogues 2.9Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin calms a demon-possessed cow, and stops hounds chasing a hare; the fire story is referred to Sulpicius’s letter to Eusebius.
Dialogues 3.2Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · At Chartres Martin heals a girl mute from birth with blessed oil, in the presence of the bishops Valentinus and Victricius.
Dialogues 3.3Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Oil blessed by Martin overflows its flask; a flask of his oil falls without breaking; a dog is silenced in Martin’s name.
Dialogues 3.4Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin lay at the door of the cruel count Avitianus at night until an angel forced the count to come out, release his prisoners, and leave Tours.
Dialogues 3.7Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin’s prayer freed a district near Sens from hail for twenty years; the storms returned in the year of his death.
Dialogues 3.9Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A column from heaven shatters an idol; a woman with a flow of blood is healed by touching Martin’s garment; a snake turns back at his command.
Dialogues 3.10Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · At Martin’s word the deacon Cato catches a huge pike at Easter; Arborius sees Martin’s hand shine as with gems at the eucharist.
Dialogues 3.14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin’s power returns: a possessed man is healed at the gate; a pagan merchant saved at sea by calling on Martin’s God; a household plague ended after seven days of prayer; a monk’s indecency perceived from afar.
On the Divination of Demons 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · The wonders demons perform no more prove their goodness than the feats of acrobats and engineers prove theirs.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's turning water into wine is no greater than God's yearly turning of rain into wine in the vine; God, who made all things through the Word, works unusual miracles to awaken people dulled to the wonders of creation.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The God-man who made all things also turned water into wine, and the deed conceals a mystery: as water became wine, so we, once unwise, have been made wise by faith.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine resumes the sermon on Cana to explain what the miracle signifies, since Christ's deeds instruct faith as well as rousing wonder.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Miracles claimed by Donatist leaders prove nothing without love and unity; it is better to be a humble member within the body than a gifted one torn from it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ healed only one of the many sick at the pool, since his miracles aimed at the eternal salvation of souls and signified unity, not mere bodily health.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's walking on the sea, in which the flesh walked and the divinity governed, was an inseparable work of the Father abiding in the Son.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The “greater works” are greater than the healing of the man sick for thirty-eight years, namely raising the dead; yet the Son did not need to learn this.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 24.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The feeding of the five thousand is less than God's daily governing of the world, but its rarity makes us marvel and raises the mind from visible works to the invisible God.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 24.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's miracles, deeds of the Word, are like writing: one must not only admire them but read and understand what they say.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 24.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The boy's five barley loaves and two fish were multiplied to feed five thousand, with twelve baskets of fragments left over.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The crowd, seeing that Jesus had not left by boat, followed to Capernaum, which revealed that he had walked across the sea.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 44.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ the light of the world is the day, and he has not departed, as the apostles' greater works after the ascension show.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The raising of Lazarus is no wonder for the Creator; it is a sign given so that we may believe and prepare for the final resurrection to life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 71.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The greater works the disciples would do, such as healing by their shadow and converting nations, are done by Christ through them.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 91.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Others besides Christ raised the dead and did unique wonders, so the phrase "works which no one else did" needs explaining.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 91.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The works "which no one else did" are Christ's many healings done in the people themselves; the virgin birth and resurrection, though greater, were not done before them.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 91.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · They saw Christ's healing works and hated him without cause; and since the one God works every miracle, no one else did Christ's works.
Against Vigilantius 10Jerome · 406 · Jerome answers Vigilantius's dismissal of miracles at the martyrs' shrines and says the demon in him is tormented by the relics.
City of God 10.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine recalls the miracles that confirmed God's promises and law, from Abraham and Lot to the Exodus and the wilderness, as witness that worship belongs to the one God.
City of God 10.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine distinguishes demonic wonders from true miracles, which commend the worship of the one God, and notes that creation itself is a greater miracle.
City of God 10.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that the angels who command sacrifice to the one God, and confirm it with greater miracles, must be believed rather than those who demand worship for themselves.
City of God 10.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine recounts the miracles connected with the ark of the testimony, which commended the law of worship of the one God.
City of God 10.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine defends the reliability of the scriptural miracles and teaches, from Psalm 73, that the good of man is to cleave to God.
City of God 14.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Unfallen humans would have moved the genital members by will, as some people now control unusual bodily functions, like the presbyter Restitutus of Calama who could make himself insensible; man, forsaking God, cannot even obey himself.
City of God 21.5Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Unbelievers who demand reasons for the eternal punishment cannot explain the many marvels of nature recorded by writers; God's power and truthfulness are reason enough to believe what he foretells.
City of God 21.7Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Unbelievers explain marvels simply as “nature”; Augustine answers that God's will and omnipotence is the stronger reason, and he distinguishes the marvels he has tested himself from those he only read.
City of God 21.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · A portent is not against nature but against what is known of nature; God, who changed the course of Venus, stopped the sun, and turned Sodom into a waste, can change the nature of human bodies as he has foretold.
City of God 22.7Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · In more educated times than Romulus's, the world could have come to believe Christ's bodily resurrection and ascension only through divine power, prophecy, and miracles, despite persecution.
City of God 22.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that miracles attested Christ's resurrection and ascension and still occur, and he recounts healings and raisings he witnessed or verified in Milan, Carthage, Hippo, Calama, and Uzalis, many at shrines holding relics of Stephen.
City of God 22.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The miracles done through the martyrs, however God works them, bear witness to the faith for which they died, the faith in Christ's bodily resurrection and ours.
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.38Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah recalls God's signs in Egypt and gift of the land, which Israel received by the fathers' merits and lost at once through disobedience; their unfulfilled promise refutes those who think a man can do all he vows (Jer 32:20–23).
Apologetic Book 9.6Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The Jews know of the Red Sea crossing.
Apologetic Book 9.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The Jordan, Elijah and Habakkuk.
Apologetic Book 9.8Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Lazarus and the man born blind.
Apologetic Book 9.9Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The calming of the storm and Peter on the water.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.4.15Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The darkness was no eclipse.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.15.9Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The rain miracle.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.15.11Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Marcus's letter on the miracle.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.36.12Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The victory over Gildo was a miracle.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Elisha’s breathing on the Shunammite’s son did not give the boy a soul; God restored it at the prophet’s prayer, and the text does not say he breathed three times.
On Care for the Dead 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · The martyrs' help, such as Felix's appearance at Nola, comes by divine power as a miracle, not by any natural power of the dead.
Retractations 1.12Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On True Religion, Augustine explains that the true religion existed before it was called Christian, defends the sense in which sin is voluntary, affirms that miracles still occur, and withdraws his view that the first couple would have had no children without sin.
Retractations 1.13Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On the Usefulness of Believing, Augustine refines his remarks on the letter that kills, on who is already blessed, on knowing and believing, on wise and foolish, and on miracles today.
The Conferences 7.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · As the disobedient prophet was killed but not eaten by a lion, God chastises saints for small faults: Abba Paul, who fled even the sight of a woman, was paralysed and nursed by nuns for four years, while oil touched by his body healed the sick.
The Conferences 12.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Like the taste of honey, the joy of these gifts cannot be described but only known by experience; God’s wonderful work is a steadfast soul, like the old man in Alexandria who said Christ’s miracle was that he was not moved by insults.
The Conferences 13.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · God calls people to salvation in countless ways, as the gospel calls and healings show: some unasked, some at their request, some against their will, according to each person’s faith and capacity.
The Conferences 15.1John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Nesteros explains three sources of healings: the holiness of saints, God’s working even through sinners for the faith of others, and demonic deception meant to discredit religion or puff up the healer.
The Conferences 15.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · One should judge holiness not by miracles but by freedom from vice and by love, which Paul ranks above all spiritual gifts; the fathers used miraculous powers only in extreme necessity.
The Conferences 15.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Macarius, founder of the settlement at Scetis, challenged a Eunomian heretic to raise a dead man; when the heretic fled, Macarius raised an ancient corpse before the people, acting only from love and necessity, as Elijah did.
The Conferences 15.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Challenged by mockers, Abraham called on Christ’s name and healed a lame man’s withered knee.
The Conferences 15.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The saints ascribed their miracles to God, since even reprobates can work wonders in Christ’s name, and Christ told his disciples to rejoice not in power over demons but that their names are written in heaven.
The Conferences 15.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Christ told his disciples to learn humility from him, not miracles; love and humility mark his disciples, and monks who advertise themselves as exorcists are vainglorious.
The Conferences 15.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Overcoming one’s own lust, anger, and sadness is a greater miracle than casting out demons or healing bodies, since the soul is worth more than the body.
Part 14Eutherius of Tyana · ca. 431-440 · The author argues that each of Christ's miracles is great only if his flesh is real, and, in a new chapter, that denying that Christ took our nature empties the promises, the fulfilment of the law, and our hope of resurrection.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 72.4Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The manner of the incarnation, like the healing of the man born blind with clay, is a wonder beyond reason; we should believe that it happened and leave the how to God.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 73.8Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The same light was light for Israel and darkness for Egypt, and the Nile remained water while it became blood: wonders without change of nature.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 73.9Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The furnace was flame and dew at once; God, who changed nothing there, became man without change; and since prophets and angels could not save humanity, God saved it himself, respecting free will.
Chapter 17Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Heaven, sea, earth, and the underworld all bore witness to Christ, and creation itself trembled at his death, yet the Jews who killed him refused to believe.
The Passion of the Martyrs of Agaunum 8Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 443-450 · A paralysed noblewoman was healed at the martyrs' basilica, one of many daily miracles there.