When for six years he continued, suffering badly in this infirmity, he came to the holy temple of the blessed Martin, and there, assiduously applying himself to prayer, on the morrow of the holy festival, while he stood at the feet of the blessed Martin, suddenly it seemed to him as if a flashing brightness shone around him; and immediately, his eyes being opened, he beheld all things. He, straightway being made a cleric in that same place, departed sound. CHAPTER XVI. On the things which a boatman related. There was also that notable miracle, when the Lord, on the day of the Epiphany through the intercession of the blessed Bishop, brought forth from the waters of the Falernum, and from the bottom of the river-bed drew wine for a poor man—He who once turned water into wine.
Therefore, when at a certain time we were making a journey in the district of Balbiacum, we came to the river Loire. And when we earnestly inquired of the boatman, who was to ferry us to the other bank, about the places into which we might go to fish, he pointed out a place, saying: 'May the blessed Martin be your help.' But our men received this ungratefully, saying that in his name no catch was ever seen to come about. But he said: 'Let there be no doubt, for his power provides this. For I will relate to you,' he said, 'what befell me this year, and how, through the invocation of his name, with the Lord's aid, I obtained what I wished.'
'In short, it was the day of the Epiphany, and entering into my storeroom, I found no drink for me to draw; and going out I prayed, saying: "Most holy Martin, send me on this sacred solemnity some wine, lest, while others feast, I remain fasting." But while I was praying these things in silence, I heard a voice on the farther bank calling me, that I should bring my boat across to a man who was making a journey. But when, having taken up my poles, I began to plough toward him against the current of the river, and as I had not yet reached the middle, suddenly a great fish, dislodged from the deep, fell into the boat: when it had at once been overpowered, and the men ferried across, I returned home, and having sold the fish for one measure of wine, I was refreshed with the rest.'
'Therefore know how swiftly, in that for which he is invoked, if it be asked faithfully, he will appear.' But I call God to witness that I learned this from the very mouth of the boatmen. CHAPTER XVII. On Duke Gunthramnus. On a certain day, while Gunthramnus Boso was crossing the river Loire over against the village of Amboise, and, the darkness now rushing in, a dreadful night held the world, suddenly, with the wind opposing, the boatmen were thrown into confusion on the deep; and, the boats which sustained that bridge being separated, and filled with water up to the brim, all descended up to the waist with those very boats into the depth, yet the boats were in no way drawn out from under their feet.
But when all were terrified, Boso, crying out with no hoarse voice, proclaimed the help of the blessed Martin, and prayed that he would hasten to come to free them; saying confidently to his men: 'Fear not, for I know that the right hand of the holy Man is most ready to stretch out aid, especially in necessities.' As he said these things, the boats being directed by God, and the contrary wind being changed to a favourable one, with none perishing, they reached the shore, where the help of the blessed Confessor came so present that they even recovered the silver which they had lost when the river snatched it away, the river itself restoring it to the shore. CHAPTER XVIII. On Landulfus the lunatic.
A certain man from the territory of Vienne, Landulfus by name, was grievously vexed by the harassment of a lunatic demon, so that often, thinking himself beset by the enemy, he would fall to the ground, and emitting bloody foam from his mouth, was held as one dead. This kind of disease the authority of skilled physicians has called epileptic; but the country folk have called it 'the falling sickness,' because the sufferer falls. And when the aforesaid man saw himself afflicted in this peril, having heard the fame of the blessed Prelate, he went to his holy basilica, that the helps present to all might come to his aid. But when he had come to that same place full of faith, the boldness of the savage demon assailed him more fiercely; nor was he allowed to go out of the courtyard, on account of the public harassment of the demons:
yet in the courtyard he was harmed in nothing. For visibly, coming with a great clatter of arms, they tried to pierce him with the points of their lances. But if he cast himself to the ground, a horrible multitude of frogs seemed to leap down upon him. There were also voices publicly heard from him, of those reproaching and saying: 'Martin, whom thou hast sought, will be able to give thee no aid, for thou art delivered into our dominion.' But he, confidently and unmovably opposing to these the sign of the cross, terribly put them to flight through the thin air. But after these empty and vain assaults, when the enemy saw that he could not claim him for himself, he tried to mock him with wiles. For, composing himself in the likeness of a veteran, he came to him, saying:
'I am Martin, whom thou dost invoke; rise, and adore before me, if thou wilt receive health.' To him he said: 'If thou art the lord Martin, make over me the sign of the cross, and I will believe.' But he, hearing the name of the sign ever contrary to himself, vanished like smoke. But after these things, standing at the feet of the glorious Lord, he was thrown into a stupor of mind, and saw the blessed basilica shine with a new light; coming out of which the Saint said to him: 'Thy prayer is heard, and behold, thou shalt be sound from the infirmity which thou sufferest.' And so, making the sign of the blessed cross over his head, he departed. But he, returning to himself, all the snares removed, felt that he had received complete health.
Yet after he had received health, when he began to use wine to excess, and his body, long abstinent, was soaked with the downpour, his side together with one foot and hand was drawn up. But again applying himself to temperance, and shaving his head, he was once more restored to health by the power of the Blessed one. CHAPTER XIX. On Theudomeris the blind deacon. While we briefly write down each several miracle of the blessed Man, and do not expand them into a fuller discourse, greatly fearing and dreading, we pursue the journey we have begun, lest perchance it be said by the more prudent: 'A skilled man could have extended these much further.'
But to us, who are engaged in ecclesiastical doctrine, it seems fitting that a history which pertains to the edification of the Church should, verbosity being set aside, be woven in a brief and simple style, so that it may both proclaim the power of the blessed Bishop and not impose tedium on the wise. By this done, both the reader is roused to reading, and the Saint is set forth in his work. Theudomeris the deacon, when, on account of a humour of the head, with cataracts falling [or closing], he had the entrances of his eyes grievously barred for four years, came to the little cell at Candes, in which the blessed man passed away.
And prostrate at his little bed, the whole night being spent in tears and prayers, immovable he wetted the ground with his weeping, and the venerable wood of the railing grew warm with his sighs; but at the dawning of day, the cataracts of his eyes being unbarred, he merited to see the light. What did the physician ever do of such a kind with his irons, since they bring a business of more pain than of healing, since, the eye being distended and pierced through with their points, they first portray the torments of death before they open the light? In which, if caution should fail, it prepares eternal blindness for the wretched man. But for this blessed Confessor the will is his iron, and his power alone the ointment. CHAPTER XX. On Desiderius the demoniac.
In this cell, when Desiderius the demoniac, coming from Auvergne, had raved the whole night through, in the morning he began to cry out that the blessed Martin was burning him. In these cries, vomiting forth I know not what foul matter with blood, the demon being cast out, he was cleansed; and leaving behind the dust infected with the corruption, he went out of the cell sound. CHAPTER XXI. On a man having a contracted hand. A certain man in the same place brought a disabled hand with contracted fingers, so that the nails fixed in his palm, with blood sometimes flowing down, caused him exceeding pain.
He, casting himself down at the aforesaid little bed of the glorious lord, weeping and entreating, as much driven by pain as by faith, on the following day, his fingers being straightened, received his hand sound. CHAPTER XXII. On the matron Remigia. The matron Remigia, incurring a similar infirmity, came very devoutly to the blessed cell. She, persisting in vigils and prayers, when she was feeding the register of the poor which was gathered together there, lifted up her withered arm with its contracted fingers, sound, to mix their food. And so, serving the blessed poor all day long, she returned home safe. She afterward, year by year, furnished sufficient sustenance to the aforesaid brethren.
But it came to pass that on a certain occasion one of her serving-girls was badly shaken by a quartan-type fever. Now while she came according to custom and furnished food to those poor, she implored the help of the holy Man. And lying for four days at the blessed cell in continual prayer and fastings, the girl, healed of all fever, returned home with her household, magnifying God. CHAPTER XXIII. On Vinastes the blind. A certain man doing such things, Vinastes by name, received his sight, namely while he ministered the necessaries of food to those poor.
But this man, weighed down with very great blindness for very many years, had the custom that, coming from his region to the aforesaid cell of the Saint, he would furnish the most abundant food to those poor, and, having most devoutly celebrated vigils, would send them away in satiety; whom he himself, according to his ability, served as a servant. When therefore he expended these things over many years, as we have said, on a certain occasion, his vow and service alike being fulfilled, he prostrated himself at the railing of the holy bed, and praying and bidding farewell, desired to return. But after the prayer was completed, rising up, his eyes being opened a little, he beheld a silken curtain hanging from the railing; and he said: 'I see as it were a silken pall hanging here.' To him his companions said:
'We perceive that thou seest truly.' But he himself began again to weep and to pray, that the blessed Confessor would graciously complete the work he had begun. While he prayed more attentively, he fell asleep; and a man appeared to him in a vision, saying: 'Go to the basilica of the lord Martin, and there thou shalt obtain full health.' He, delaying nothing, led by the hands of servants, as he touched the threshold of the blessed Confessor, received whole sight, faith giving aid. CHAPTER XXIV. On a man contracted in all his limbs. At Bourges also there was a certain woman who, conceiving, bore a son, whose hams had drawn up to his stomach, his heels to his shins; and his hands were clinging to his breast, and his eyes too were closed.
He resembled some monster rather than the form of a man. When he was looked upon not without the derision of many, and the mother was reproached why such a son had come forth from her, she confessed with tears that he had been begotten on the Lord's night. Not daring to kill him, as is the custom of mothers, she nourished him as a sound boy. But when grown, she handed him over to beggars, who, receiving him, placed him in a cart, and drawing it along, displayed him to the peoples, receiving much in alms through him. While these things were carried on over long times, in the eleventh year of his age he came to the festival of the blessed Martin, and, cast down by the thieves before the tomb, he lay there miserably.
But the festival being over, he received sight and hearing. Thence being brought back to his accustomed manner, he begged alms. After nearly a year or somewhat more, he came again to the solemnity, and was placed in the spot in which he had lain before; and, the solemnity's feasts being run through, all his limbs being straightened, he obtained fullest health. Lest perchance these things seem incredible, I myself saw him safe and sound: nor did I learn them as heard from another, but I came to know them as related from his own mouth. But since I have said that this befell his parents on account of sin, through the violation of the Lord's night—beware, O men, to whom marriages are joined. It is enough on other days to give labour to pleasure; but this day pass in the praises of God undefiled.
For those who in it come together as spouses, thence are born sons either contracted, or epileptic, or leprous. And let this which we have said be a lesson, lest the evil which is committed in one night be borne through the spaces of many years. CHAPTER XXV. On a paralytic healed. That miracle, to be marvelled at above the rest, I will set forth to you who pray, which after an immense heap of grief laid open great joy to us, since it both brought forth the power of the Blessed one, and raised up what was tottering, and fortified the wavering hearts of the peoples with the abundant firmness of stability.
For when, on the venerable night of the Lord's Nativity, after the sacred vigils had been kept, we were preparing to go forth from the church to the basilica of the Saint, one of the possessed, fiercer than the rest, began to rage exceedingly, and tearing and dashing himself about, he cried out: 'In vain do you seek the threshold of Martin; to no purpose do you enter his house, for he has abandoned you because of your many crimes, and behold, he loathes you. At Rome he works wonders. There he pours light into the eyes of the blind, there he sets straight the steps of the paralytic; and upon other diseases also he sets an end by his power.' At this voice of the devil the whole people was thrown into confusion, and not only were the hearts of the lesser folk overwhelmed, but we ourselves were shaken with dread.
But as we entered the basilica with great weeping, we all prostrated ourselves upon the pavement in prayer, that we might be found worthy of the holy man's presence. And behold, a certain man named Bonulfus, whose two hands together with one foot had been drawn up three years before through an excessive bout of fever, and whose hands had been straightened at the feast of the blessed man, but who still limped with a foot yet weak, threw himself down before the holy altar, praying that he who had restored his withered hands might by like power straighten also his contracted foot. But during this prayer he was seized by a violent fever, and as though stretched upon the rack he was tormented with pain in his sinews. Meanwhile the pain stirred the suppliant to defiance, and he who had come to seek a cure began to bring forward a complaint.
For he said: 'O lord Martin, it was healing I sought from you, not torments. And if I am not worthy of it, at least let me not be afflicted with pains.' And while we, standing around in tears, awaited the coming of the blessed one, and meanwhile, as the holy solemnities were being celebrated, the sacred gifts having been offered upon the altar and the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ having been covered with the pall according to custom, the contractions of his sinews softened, and the skin of his diseased knee having burst, with a stream of blood flowing forth, he stretched out his foot whole. Seeing this, I, giving thanks to Almighty God and bathing the threshold with my tears, broke out before the people in this exclamation:
'Let all fear depart from your hearts, for the blessed Confessor dwells among us; and put no trust at all in the devil, who has never uttered anything true. He is a liar from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth (John 8:44).' And as I spoke thus, the lamentation of all was loosed into joy. The sick man himself also, rising up before us, stood upon his feet set free. And all the people, seeing these things, raising a clamor to heaven, applauded, saying: 'Glory to God in the highest, who, as once He glorified the shepherds with angelic light, so today has glorified us by the presence of the blessed Confessor, and has shown by present power that he is with us.' And thus all were snatched from the fear of the enemy and strengthened by the protection of Christ. CHAPTER XXVI.
Concerning Piolus the mute. The blessed man appeared in no unlike a wonder of power on the holy day of the Epiphany, when before the people he opened the closed mouth of a certain mute man. A certain Piolus, a cleric of Condate, from his very birth held forth hands clenched fast for a toilsome world, useless for the work of labor. And why this came to pass—whether he or his parents had sinned (John 9:2) that he should be born thus maimed—it is not for our discernment to resolve. This one thing only we know, that in him, as in the other sick, the grace of the Priest was made manifest. For when he had reached ten years of age, and as his nails grew suffered grievous pains in his hands and could not endure them, he came to the threshold of the blessed Confessor.
And there, having lingered many days with the utmost frugality, he carried away his fingers straightened and his hands made whole. But after nearly five years he met with a most grievous misfortune, and while he was being struck down by the force of a violent fever, he was deprived of the utterance of his voice; and being delivered from the fever, he remained without the function of speech. But his mouth's opening had been so obstructed that he could not even send forth any kind of bellowing; yet binding three boards with a strap, he carried them in his hand, and striking them against one another, he expressed by the boards the good greeting which he could not give from his mouth. This contrivance is useful to vinedressers, when they strive to defend the vineyards from the flocks of pillaging birds.
But when the aforesaid man had come to the basilica of the Saint on that night on which our Lord Jesus Christ, drawing up the streams of water, offered Falernian wine, he resolved to keep watch at the feet of the blessed one. But when the time of midnight had passed, he fell asleep. And as he beheld in a vision some peril or other, terrified with dread, he opened his hitherto barred mouth in this first utterance: 'Lord Martin, deliver me.' And thus, with blood bursting from his mouth and throat, he received at once both hearing and speech. CHAPTER XXVII. Concerning the paralytic woman. But when, King Sigibert having been slain (in the year
575), and Chilperic, snatched from imminent death, had taken the kingdom, Ruccolenus with the men of Le Mans was grievously oppressing the city of Tours, so that, laying all waste, he left no hope of sustenance in the houses of the church or in the little lodgings of the poor. And on the next day he sent envoys to the city, that the men who, on account of a fault by no means unknown to us, were sheltering at the basilica of the Saint should be dragged out by the clergy; and if this were delayed in being done, he threatened to consume everything with fire. And we, hearing these things, exceedingly grieved, went to the holy basilica and earnestly implored the help of the blessed one. And at once a paralytic woman, who for twelve years had been contracted, was made straight.
But Ruccolenus himself, having assaulted the farther bank, was immediately stricken with the royal disease (jaundice), and being battered by Herodian infirmities, which it would take long to relate, and like wax flowing down drop by drop before the face of fire, on the fiftieth day, swollen with dropsy, he perished. But neither will I keep silent this, that at that time the channel of the river, by the will of God and the power of the blessed man, having been filled without any inundation of rains, prevented the enemy from crossing, lest he should harm the city. CHAPTER XXVIII. Concerning the blind woman.
But on that day of the recurring solemnity on which the Lord, about soon to suffer for the salvation of the world, the traitor disciple having been put to confusion, ministered the banquet to the apostles, when all were hastening to the church to render their desired vows to the Lord, a certain woman burdened with long-standing blindness, while she was in the country estate, began to weep and to say: 'Woe is me, that, being blinded for my sins, I am not worthy to behold this feast with the rest of the people.' Then, prostrate on the ground with great weeping, she invoked the name of the blessed Confessor; and her prayer completed, she was restored to her former light. Then, having received her sight, in order to render thanks to God she came to the blessed basilica with wondrous clearness of eyes.
But also one of the possessed was on that day cured by the power of the Saint. CHAPTER XXIX. Concerning two blind men. Two blind men, coming from Bourges, with their eyelids dried up and stuck together with rheum, lay prostrate praying at the feet of the blessed lord. And it came to pass on the day of his feast, with the people standing by, while the wonders of his life were being read aloud (see below, chapter 49), there came upon them a splendor like a flash of lightning, and, the bindings which had sealed their eyelids being broken, with blood flowing from their eyes, and their sight opening wide, they were found worthy to discern all things. CHAPTER XXX. Concerning the mute woman.
A certain woman, whose gaping mouth an excessive humor together with fever had bound up, so that she could not even govern her tongue, but could only send forth a bellowing like a beast, not a voice like a human being—at the urging of faith, with great confidence of soul, approached the courts of the blessed Confessor; and there abiding many days, asking alms and at the same time the opening of her mouth, at last she was regarded by the power of the Saint. For on a certain Lord's Day, while the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, she was standing in the holy basilica with the rest of the people. And it came to pass, when the Lord's Prayer was being said, that she too with open mouth began to chant the holy prayer together with the rest. And she who had been held bound with the yoke of servitude was redeemed from the goods of the blessed Confessor:
and now she continues free-born, with the function of her voice restored. CHAPTER XXXI. Concerning another infirm woman. The blessed man showed himself present when invoked by no lesser miracle. A certain religious woman named Apra, oppressed by the force of fevers, had lost all use of her limbs, with only her tongue still serving her. For when she lay with both hands and feet contracted, and day and night implored the help of the blessed one, it seemed to her on a certain night that an old man had come to her, who with gentle touch drew upon all her limbs. Awaking in the morning, she felt her feet together with one hand restored to health, and astonished she knew not what occurrence had brought this about. But on another day, admonished through her slumber, she set out without any delay to the blessed basilica.
But that night was the vigil of the Confessor's passing. And when the time of midnight had already passed, while keeping watch she was shaken by some terror or other, and suddenly her contracted hand was made straight. And while the people were astonished, she recounted all the things she had previously endured, recognizing that it had been one and the same power: formerly in that raising up of her feet, which now shone forth in the straightening of her hand. CHAPTER XXXII. Concerning the oil that increased at the Saint's tomb. Since we behold daily such miracles as we have written, what will those wretches be able to say who declare that Severus lied in his Life of the holy Bishop?
For I heard a certain man, filled, as I believe, with a wicked spirit, declaring that it could not have happened that oil increased under the blessing of Martin; nor this either, that a flask falling and crashing upon a marble pavement had remained unharmed. Therefore what was lately done I will declare, producing many as witnesses. A certain one of our deacons was being badly tormented by a quartan ague (a fever recurring every fourth day), whom, since I often rebuked him as to why, sluggish, he did not set out to the basilica of the Saint, that he might pray from his heart that the power of the Pontiff would come to his aid; at last, pricked in conscience by us, he prostrated himself trembling at the blessed tomb. Thereupon, when the fire of the fevers had subsided a little while, he asked that a flask half-full of rose-oil be brought to him.
For already against that fever, though he had profited from it but little, yet he had spent much, and it was very nearly half. And anointing his forehead and temples with this liquid, he asked that the little vessel too be placed beside the blessed one's tomb. But on the fourth day, when the fever pressed him hard, he sought the basilica and, prostrate, prayed for a very long time. But taking up the flask, which he had left half-full, he found it full, and marveling at the power of the blessed Bishop, he carried it home with fear and veneration. Being anointed again from it, immediately all the burning of his ailment subsided, nor was he afterward broken down by the same. What further was done concerning that same flask after these things, we record not without a deep sigh and a wonder.
For when it was hanging on the wall in the aforesaid deacon's little lodging, by the assaults of the enemy rushing upon it, it was struck and fell, shattered into pieces, and the oil that poured out the earth quickly absorbed. Yet a boy who was present, when he had seen what happened, taking a little vessel, by pressing out that very earth drew forth a little oil, and gathering the rose-essence that had been spilled, together with the broken glass, presented it to us. Receiving this, I carefully transferred it into another vessel. For the measure of oil was about half of a small cup; and yet in the vessel it made only the height of two fingers. But on the next day, looking, the height of the oil was about four fingers.
Astounded at the power of the holy liquid, I left it protected and covered with my own seal. But after seven days, looking again, I found there more than one sextarius (about a pint). And summoning the deacon and showing this to him, I marveled. But he affirmed with an oath that just so much had then perished in the broken flask as was now seen in this one. Which to this day, in the name of God, bestows benefit upon those who seek it. He himself also afterward, anointing a similar sick person from this ointment, the oil increasing, healed him, and thereafter restored many to health by means of it. CHAPTER XXXIII. Concerning Allomeris the contracted.
Let the region of Angers too bring forth its own miracle, from which a certain Allomeris, coming with feet and hands contracted, and also weak of tongue, sought out the temple of the blessed Confessor. There, when he had stayed throughout the whole of Lent, constantly praying and beseeching that the power of the holy Bishop might visit him, there came that Lord's Day before holy Easter, on which our Lord Jesus, treading roads strewn with the spoils of the trees, came to Jerusalem, with the crowd following and crying out: 'Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' (Matt. 21:9). On that day, then, when it had now become late, and he himself was lying alone outside before the tomb, suddenly he fell into an ecstasy, and, terrified with dread, lay like a dead man.