Therefore, having heard the fame of the blessed Bishop and his powers everywhere noised abroad, he sought the city of Tours; and approaching the Saint's basilica, fasting and praying for many days, having received the light, he was restored to his former soundness. For he was free-born by descent. But Leudast, who then held the countship of Tours, hearing that he was so skilled a craftsman, began to slander him, saying: 'Thou art a fugitive from thy masters, nor shall it be lawful for thee any longer to wander about through diverse places.' And he sent him bound to be kept in his own house. But neither there was the power of the angelic Confessor lacking. For when he had been seized, at once he was constrained by the infirmity of which he had been free;
and when he was in a very bad state, the count, seeing that he could prevail nothing against him, ordered him loosed from his bonds to depart free. And he, returning to the basilica, was healed anew. CHAPTER LIX. Concerning another woman, who after her freedom was sold. Like to this is also that which befell a woman who, after the liberty she had earned, was again sold by her patron's sons to barbarians. But by the power of the Saint, that she might more easily be defended, she was crippled with her limbs fully made feeble. For the sinews of her hams were so twisted that her calves touched her thighs (another reading: the underparts of her legs). Then, abandoned by the masters to whom she had been unjustly sold, she sought the patronage of the blessed Confessor. Abiding at his shrine no long time, she was granted both liberty and soundness together.
CHAPTER LX. Concerning the pain of my eyes and head. And because the former little book was begun from the time when Paulinus left off, and stood complete under forty chapters, I have determined to complete this one, once begun, under sixty. Namely, that as blessed Martin, either bereaved of this world, kept whole the comeliness of virginity, and also accomplished his martyrdom triumphantly, whether in hidden snares or in public injuries, to whom likewise belonged the crown of the thirtyfold and sixtyfold, even the hundredfold fruit, so it might be increased in these hundred miracles.
But my hope was that I should not be cheated of my vow, which in eight years, at the Lord's bidding, I have fulfilled—the book, that is, having been begun from a miracle wrought upon me, to which I have again returned. And this I judge to have come about not without the providence of the Divinity, that it should be ended at that point from which it is read to have been begun. In which, when I had described fifty-nine miracles and was still more attentively awaiting the sixtieth, suddenly the left temple of my head was constricted with pains, and, with the veins throbbing and the tears flowing, so great a torment threatened that I forcibly pressed my eye lest it should burst. And while I bore this grievously for one day and a night, coming in the morning to the Saint's basilica, I prostrate myself in prayer.
When this was finished, I touched the place of pain with the veil that hung before the blessed sepulchre. And when it was touched, at once both the throbbing of the veins and the flow of tears stopped. But after three days a like pain touched the right part of my head. The veins throbbed, and the tears flowed copiously. Rising again in the morning, having touched the veil in the same manner as before, I departed with my head whole. But when ten days had passed, it seemed good to me to lessen my blood by letting; and on the third day after the bloodletting, a thought stole upon me, injected, as I believe, by the tempter, that these things which I had suffered had come from the blood, and that if the vein had been cut at once, these would immediately have ceased.
While I think and turn these things over, the veins of both temples leapt forth, the pain which had been before was renewed, and now it seized not one part of the head but the whole head. Moved therefore by the pains, I hasten to the basilica, and beseeching pardon for my evil thought, I touched my head with the pall that covers the blessed sepulchre; presently, the pain being calmed, I withdrew whole from the tomb. There are indeed many and other things which the blessed man works daily, which it would be long to pursue. Yet if we still deserve to see miracles, it pleases me that they be joined to another little book. For, as we have said, let these two little books be held within this number.
I too render the greatest thanks to the Lord's mercy, that it has been granted me, through the intercession of the glorious Bishop, to be able to bring to the end what I treated at the beginning; beseeching that what the Confessor often bestows upon the peoples, he may more liberally grant to me a sinner, and may cleanse me from the errors which he often beholds and observes, and may restore to me the light of truth, may rescue me from the fall of unbelief, may cleanse my heart and mind from the loathsome leprosy of lust, may purge my thoughts from depraved desires, and may wash away and cast down every mass of crimes from me;
that when in the judgment I shall have been placed on the left side, he may deign to draw me with his sacred right hand out of the midst of the goats, and, holding me reserved behind his back, may await the sentence of the Judge. And when, by his judging, I shall have been assigned to the infernal flames, with the most sacred pall, with which he is covered in glory, may he, having sheltered me beneath it, excuse me from punishment, while the angels say to the King what they once said concerning the resuscitated monk: 'This is he for whom Martin prays.' And let it come to pass that, since I do not deserve to be clothed in that brightness, I may at least deserve to be freed from the assaulting ministers of hell; nor let so much guilt prevail against me that I be separated from the kingdom of him whom I have faithfully confessed in the world. Here ends the second book. Prologue.
Beginning, by Christ's ordaining, to write the third little book concerning the powers of blessed Martin, we give thanks to almighty God, who has deigned to bestow upon us such a physician as may cleanse our infirmities, wash away our wounds, and confer salutary remedies. For if at his blessed tomb the soul be humbled and the prayer be uplifted; if tears flow down and true compunction follow; if from the depth of the heart sighs be sent forth, and the guilty breasts be beaten—weeping finds gladness, guilt finds pardon, the pain of the heart attains to a cure. For very often the touch of the blessed sepulchre has commanded fluxes to cease, the blind to see, the paralytic to rise, and the very bitterness of the heart to depart far off.
And this I, who have often experienced it, judge unworthy: that among the masses of so many miracles I should also insert here those things which he deigned to work upon me. But again I fear lest I appear culpable, if I hide them like a defrauder. For I call God to witness, and that hope which I have placed in his power, believing that I shall not be cheated of his mercy: that whenever either a pain of the head rushed upon me, or a throbbing struck my temples, or hardness of hearing weighed down my ears, or a mist overspread the sharpness of my eyes, or a pain settled in other limbs—as soon as I touched the aching place, whether with the tomb or with the hanging veil, immediately I received health, marvelling in silence that in the very touch the pain departed at a run. CHAPTER ONE. Concerning the pain of my throat.
Now what I lately suffered I will insert first as a miracle in this little book. While, sitting at table after the fast, we were eating, a fish was brought in on a dish; and while we ate it, signed with the Lord's cross, one of the bones of that very fish most injuriously stuck in my throat. Stirring up grievous pains, it cut my throat with its sharpness, and barred the very gullet by its length; it hindered the sound of my voice, and would not let even the very liquid of the saliva, which often flows down from the palate, to pass through. But on the third day, when, neither coughing nor hawking, I could throw it out, I ran back to the known helps. I approach the tomb, I roll myself upon the pavement, and pouring out tears with groaning, I beseech the help of the Confessor.
Then rising up, I touched my gullet, throat, and the rest of my head with the veil that hung there. Without delay, I received health; and before I went out of the holy threshold, I felt no weariness. Yet what became of that evil prickle, I know not. I did not throw it out by vomiting, nor did I feel it pass down into the belly. One thing only I know: that I felt myself so swiftly healed that I thought as if someone, with hand thrust in, had taken away that which had inflicted injury on my throat. CHAPTER II. Concerning a feeble girl healed. A girl of twelve years, feeble in all her limbs,
lay as if dead for six years upon a bed in her parents' house, taking no step, performing no work of the hands, beholding no light, uttering no word, hearing nothing spoken. At the Blessed one's tomb the parents pour out prayers for their daughter, offer gifts, and yet further promise vows. Now the people gathered for the solemnities; the sacred festival is celebrated with joy. But on the third day of the festival, the girl calls her father, saying: 'I thirst.' He, rejoicing that he had deserved to hear his daughter's voice, which he had never heard, ran more swiftly, and taking a little water brought it to the girl to drink. When she had drunk it, she said: 'Stretch out thy hand to me.' And her father, having taken hold of her right hand, raised her up.
And she, standing upon her feet, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, said: 'I give thanks to thee, almighty God, who, looking upon my lowliness, hast deigned to save me through thy holy Bishop.' And thus, with her limbs restored, she received sight and hearing, and returned home joyful. CHAPTER III. Concerning the man in whose hand a staff stuck fast. Two years before these things were done, a certain man, neither fearing nor honouring the holy day of the Lord's resurrection, having taken his corn, goes to the mill, and, having put in the wheat, began to turn the mill with his hand. But when the work was finished, he could not open his palm, but with grievous pain held against his will the staff which he had grasped.
After this, seeing that he was not relieved, the staff being cut off on either side, he came to the Saint's basilica, and prayer having been made and vigils celebrated, his fingers being loosed, his hand was restored to its former work. But in another year, on this holy day, he took up the work for which he had before been rebuked by God, and again the wood stuck fast in his hand. He then, weeping with pain, returned to the basilica of the holy Confessor, but did not at once deserve to be heard. But after two years, at the same festival at which we have related the girl was healed, this man too was set free from the burden of the wood. CHAPTER IV. Concerning a crippled man healed.
A crippled man coming from Limoges, who could neither take a step nor had the light of his eyes, carried by the hands of the devout, is laid down before the holy sepulchre; and having besought the mercy of the blessed Bishop, his feeble limbs being made straight, he is granted health. CHAPTER V. Concerning a blind man given sight. A certain blind man, who had long lacked the light of his eyes, came to the same festival. And prayer having been made, while he stood before the holy sepulchre, suddenly, his eyes being opened and his sight received, he rejoices. CHAPTER VI. Concerning a feeble man healed.
Now a boy, an inhabitant of the city of Tours, while he is consumed by an excessive and long-lasting illness, is made feeble in all his limbs, and is left by the fever without hope of walking, his shin-bones twisted like ropes and unable to be separated. But after the fever's departure, he begged of his parents that they would carry him to the holy basilica. Setting him down, when presented, at the Saint's feet, they make prayer that the wonted power might come to his aid. But on the third day, when both he and his parents persevered in prayer and fasting, the light of mercy having arisen, his twisted shins being made straight, he was taken back whole by his parents. CHAPTER VII. Concerning him who was making a key on the Lord's Day.
So too another man, named Senator, from Craeatonnus, a village of Anjou, while on the Lord's Day he was making a key, the fingers of both his hands contracted, with the nails fixed into the palm. So he who wished to open a door could not unfasten his hands. Thereafter, four months having passed, the nails now fixed into the flesh and the palm rotting, he sought the help of the Confessor, and giving himself to prayer and fasting for four days, lifting up his hands now sound, he returned whole, praising the power of the Bishop, and proclaiming that no one should undertake what he himself had presumed. CHAPTER VIII. Concerning a dead man raised.
At the time when such things were being done in the city of Tours, envoys from Spain, namely Florentius and Exsuperius, were coming to King Chilperic. When I had received them at a banquet of the church, as we feasted, because they asserted themselves to be catholics, Florentius, who was the elder in age, anxiously begged to learn something of the power of the blessed Man. And I, giving thanks to God, ask whether his name was even heard in those regions, or whether his Life was read by anyone. As I asked these things, he said that his name was magnificently honoured in those places; moreover he relates that he himself was a special foster-son of the Bishop, saying that a great power of his had been shown upon him.
'My grandfather,' he said, 'many years ago built a basilica in honour of the blessed Bishop Martin; and when it was completed and adorned with elegant workmanship, he sent devout clerics to Tours, seeking relics of the Bishop, namely that he might consecrate with his relics the place which he had built in his name. And when he had done this, he came each day, and prostrate on the ground with his wife implored the help of the holy Bishop. But after a long time a child is born to them. And when, at three months old, he was smitten with a fever, he was so emptied out that he could neither suck the breast nor was able to take any nourishment.
Meanwhile, as the disease persisted, food being refused, with only the breath fluttering, he awaited death alone. Without delay, that breath too was breathed out. Then the sorrowing mother and grandmother, over the death of their only and firstborn offspring, laid the now lifeless little body, taken up between their arms, before the altar of blessed Martin, with hope not uncertain; and as if they beheld the Saint with visible eyes, the grandmother (another reading: the grandfather) addresses him, saying: "Our greatest hope was, most blessed Confessor, to have brought hither thy pledges, by which diseases might be driven off, fevers extinguished, the darkness of blindness put to flight, and other infirmities also be washed away, because very many things are read of thee, which either while living
or after thy passing thou workest. For we have heard that thou by prayer didst raise the dead, didst drive away leprosy with a kiss, didst cure the demon-possessed with a word, didst press out poison with a finger, and didst do many other things: here thy power will appear, if now too, according to our faith, thou shalt raise up this little one. But if thou shalt not do it, we will no longer bow our necks here, kindle lights, or show the grace of any honour." And saying these things, having left the little infant before the altar, she, and those who were with her, departed.
But when morning came, those returning found him turned toward the altar; and while they marvelled, the mother took him up in her arms, and recognising that he had resumed his breath, she puts him to the breast, and he at once, having drunk the milk, was strengthened. Then the mother with the father and all the household, with voice lifted up to heaven, blessed God, saying: "Now we have known that thou art a great God, and doest wondrous things alone, who hast restored to us our little one by the prayer of thy Confessor." And thereafter they showed to that place greater reverence than they had before shown. These things I learned, thus done, from the very mouth of Florentius. CHAPTER IX. Concerning him who had a feeble foot.
There was a cleric from the city of Poitiers, dwelling in a field of that region which belonged to the holy basilica, who was crippled in the use of one foot, which, as he himself asserted, he had lost through the assault of the noonday demon (see below, book IV, ch. 36). He had cut a staff to the length of his knee, and with a leather pad placed over it at the knee itself, his footprint being turned backward, he accomplished the step which he strove to take with that foot, the staff giving him support. After nine years he came to the aforesaid basilica, and having poured out prayer for three days, on the third day of the festival he rose up with his knee made straight. And when the people came to the saint's solemnities, he taught how he had been healed through his power.
CHAPTER X. Concerning the leg of my mother.
To my mother indeed the saint's power came to her aid in this manner. At the time when, the pains of childbirth being over, she brought me forth, she contracted a pain in one muscle of her leg. It was sudden, as though a nail were being driven in, and it caused so grievous an affliction that it often produced a fainting fit; nor was there anything that could soothe it, except when, held a very long while before the fire, she grew numb from the heat of the hearth; but also, if some ointment were poured on for a little while, it would quiet down. What more? After my ordination she came to Tours, both to meet the holy bishop and out of longing for me. When she had therefore stayed here for two or three months, and was continually praying for the help of the blessed Pontiff;
at length, the wonted mercy looking upon her, the pain departed from her leg, which had wearied the woman for thirty-four years.
CHAPTER XI. Concerning a woman's hand that was healed.
Likewise another woman from the territory of Angers, whose fingers were fixed into her palm, as she poured out prayers at the holy place, with her fingers straightened and her hand healed, departed.
CHAPTER XII. Concerning a boy healed of sickness.
A boy of our household, seized by a fever, was burning grievously. For his limbs burned on the outside, while within there was a violent thirst; and if he took any drink, he soon cast it up from his stomach, taking no food at all.
And when on the fourth or fifth day [another reading: year] he was worn out by this distress, he asked that they bring him a little of the dust from the tomb to drink. When this was brought and diluted with wine, as he faithfully drank it, he regained his health and recovered.
CHAPTER XIII. Concerning the foot of Theoda that was healed.
Now Theoda, the daughter of Wiliacharius, once a presbyter, while she frequently suffered from a humor in her feet, lost the use of one foot, which had been reduced to disability. After this she came to the blessed basilica, in which, while she poured out frequent prayers, the disability being removed, she was restored to soundness.
CHAPTER XIV. Concerning a man who was bent over.
There was at that time in a village
[another reading: city] which lay under the protection of holy mother Church, there was a certain man who walked bent over, as though his loins were broken. Like that woman in the Gospel narrative (Luke XIII, 11), bowed downward, he could in no way be raised upright, but with two staffs placed under his armpits he made his way bent over. Coming, however, to the festival, on the third day after the solemnities were performed, he stood erect, cleansed from every diabolical assault, and departed sound.
CHAPTER XV. Concerning Gundulf the crippled.
A certain Gundulf, a citizen of that same city, had from his infancy lived with Gunthar, son of King Chlothar.
While he was in his service, and, at the king's command, climbed a tree to pick ripe apples, the branch broke and he fell; and having struck his foot against a stone, he was crippled. After many years, while he persisted in this disability, and, having mounted a horse, was urging it swiftly forward to go, his seat slipping, he was thrown down, and grievously injured the other foot, which was sound, by crushing it. Thereafter he asked to be carried to the holy basilica, and casting himself down upon the pavement, he faithfully poured out prayer. Nor did the loving-kindness delay, which has always been wont to come to the aid of the afflicted, but at once, all pain being removed, he rose up sound from the pavement.
Yet for about thirty years, on the other foot, as we said above, he continually limped. At length, having examined the faults of his own conscience, he resolved to be converted, namely, that with his hair humbled (i.e., tonsured) he might serve the holy bishop himself. But first he obtained a command from the king, that while living he might hand over all his property to the basilica. This done, his head being shorn, and the vow of his good resolve fulfilled, his foot, which had been shortened by the broken bones, was lengthened. And he who before went supported by two boys, now without the help of any man runs about wherever he wishes, without any impediment of disability.
CHAPTER XVI.
Concerning a blind man enlightened.
After this a certain little boy from the region of Limoges, coming blind, received the light of his eyes in this manner. In the third year of his birth, when, already beginning to walk, and as his tongue broke forth into words he loosened his lips, while he was fondly playing with his mother, while he gave kisses, while he hung upon her neck, while he was carried in her arms, the force of the wind being stirred up by a diabolical onslaught, dust was raised from the ground together with chaff, and was borne over the boy and his mother with a great whirlwind. But the woman, being a countrywoman and unwary, did not think to fortify herself and her son with the standard of the Savior, and therefore, the snares prevailing, the eyes of the child, filled with dust, were shut fast. He, crying out for a long while, at length quieted by his mother, remained blind.
When grown, he was given over to beggars, so that, walking with them, he might receive some little earnings. For his parents were very poor. Therefore in the twelfth year of his blindness he came to Tours before the day of the solemnity on which God the Father, joining the Word to flesh, brought salvation to the world. Now when the vigil of the festival had passed [another reading: on the day], while the others were departing and he lay motionless at the feet of the saint, then he felt as though someone had pricked his eyes with a dart, and at once blood, bursting from them, began to flow down over his cheeks; and turning his face upward, he saw a candle shining above him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said: 'I give thanks to you, holy Confessor of God, for by your power I have been counted worthy to receive light.'
O admirable grace! O immense power! For with manifold favors you scatter your gifts among the peoples. For he who had asked for alms, received light, and for a long time deprived of outward light, his face is now adorned with the light of your power. O, if the darkness of the many sins did not bar you from our sight, surely you would come visibly, and to the sick you would cry with the voice of Peter: 'Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give to you: in the name of Christ Jesus, go forth sound' (Acts III, 6).
CHAPTER XVII. Concerning the ear of Siggo the Referendary.
There had been a reason for us to make for the town of Reims;
and when we had been kindly received by Bishop Egidius, who then governed the Church, at daybreak the next morning, on the Lord's Day, we went to the church, and sitting in the sacristy we awaited the coming of the bishop. At that time I had upon me the relics of holy Martin, though carried in a careless manner. Now Siggo, formerly the referendary of Sigibert, came to meet us, and having kissed me, I asked him to sit beside me. But he, having one ear stopped up, could scarcely make out with the other what we were saying. But when we had conversed sufficiently, he was called into the house of the church.
Immediately, then, as he departed from me, the barrier of the deaf ear was burst open, and feeling as though a great wind went out thence, he received his hearing; and returning at once he began to give me thanks, saying: 'It is now the third day since I lost the hearing of this ear; but while I was speaking with you, I felt it swiftly unlocked.' Then I, confessing [another reading: confused], lest these things should be ascribed to me, said: 'Do not, sweetest son, render any thanks to me, but to him whose power restored hearing to you. For know that I carry with me the relics of blessed Martin, by whose might the dullness of your hearing has been driven away.'
CHAPTER XVIII. Concerning a sickness of cattle.
At a certain time, while a cruel plague so raged among the cattle that no breed was thought to remain for restocking, a certain man of ours went to the holy basilica, and took the oil of the lamps which hung from the vault, together with the water itself, in a small vessel; and having carried it home, he marked with the Lord's cross, upon the foreheads and backs, the cattle which this disease had not yet touched, dipping his finger in the liquid; and casting the animals themselves to the ground and turning them on their backs, full of faith he poured some of this ointment into their mouths. Soon, quicker than the word, the secret plague being driven off, the cattle were delivered.
CHAPTER XIX. Concerning a blind man enlightened.
An inhabitant of Avranches also, to whom the use of sight had been denied for six years, sought to be saved by the protection of the blessed Confessor.
Coming to his basilica, and for a long time devoting himself to fasting and prayers, he implored the help of the blessed bishop. At last, the most holy festival arriving, while the people watched the solemnities of the Mass, his sight was restored to him; and he returned to his homeland seeing, who had come to the holy basilica led by another. And he himself, for the joy of so great a loving-kindness, vowed to be tonsured in that very place. Which afterward, returning devoutly, he fulfilled.
CHAPTER XX. Concerning another blind man enlightened.
For a certain man too, coming from parts across the sea, while he was at work in a field, suddenly a violence of wind arose over him with dust, and he lost the light of his eyes. And he who had long been a guide for the blind, was himself led home, another guiding him.
For in this blindness he was held for the course of three years. After this he sought out the basilica of the blessed Confessor, and [another reading: at which] devoting himself to prayer for four years, being visited by the divine power, with his eyes opened he merited to see the light.
CHAPTER XXI. Concerning Julian who was crippled.
But this fame too, as we have often said, was spread abroad and made known not only to its own city, but also in other cities, and almost throughout the whole world. A certain Julian, coming from Spain, having his hands and feet crippled, came in to this physician, prostrating himself, and saying: 'For I believe without doubt, O most holy bishop, that you can grant me those helps of healing which you are not wont to deny to others who hope in you.'