Persevering assiduously in prayer in this faith, and not doubting of the Lord's mercy, with his feet and hands made straight, he was restored sound.
CHAPTER XXII. Concerning a woman enlightened at the saint's couch.
But since in the foregoing little books we have often said that in that place from which he passed to the heavens many miracles are usually wrought, I will set forth what was recently done. A native woman of the city of Tours, deprived of clearness of sight, sought out the cell at Candes, in which the couch of the blessed bishop is kept, thinking it would be a protection for her if she touched the railings of his very couch.
Now the couch is said to be nothing other than that on the pavement where, with ashes strewn beneath and a stone set at his head, the Israel of our time lay down with bowed neck. So to this oracle the woman is led, her husband supporting her, and there for many days, stricken with compunction, she poured out prayer. At length the loving-kindness, often poured forth in pity, looking upon her, restored to the woman the sight she had lost. And so great a faith thereafter kindled the woman, that until the day of her death she never departed from that place.
CHAPTER XXIII. Concerning a mute man whose brothers had taken away his property.
An inhabitant of the city of Angers, his limbs disordered by sickness, turned his head toward the couch: thereafter through
each day the fever growing stronger, deprived of all his limbs, he was likewise robbed of hearing and speech. But after a few days, when he had recovered from the fever, and remained without voice, his share of property having been taken from him by his brothers, he was cast out of his father's house, his brothers saying: 'This one has been made mad. Let God not permit that he should either cling to our property or acquire a portion of the inheritance.' Now they were freeborn and dwelling on their own possession; but, thinking nothing of those things which were God's, they cast out the mute and deaf man, whom they ought rather to have cherished. He, however, although he was without these faculties, yet retained his understanding in his heart.
Moreover, taking tablets in his hand and clashing them together, he imitated the voice of one asking. With this device, then, he came to the aforesaid village, and there joined himself to others begging for alms. The sixth year had now elapsed since this poor man fed upon the riches of the holy cell. Now it came to pass that on one night of the Lord's Day, while he lay down in the house of his host, suddenly that place was filled with an immense light, and behold, he, terrified with fear, was prostrated on the ground. And at once there appeared to him a certain man adorned in priestly garb, who, touching him and placing the cross of Christ upon his forehead, said: 'The Lord has made you whole. Arise, and hasten to the church, and give thanks to your God.'
And he himself, lifting up his voice with thanksgiving, filled the neighborhood with his cries. At once all run together to the spectacle, and marvel at him speaking, whom the day before they had seen mute. Meanwhile the signal is sounded at the morning hours: the people too gather, and the vigils being celebrated, the saint's power, made manifest, was renowned. In these days two demoniacs in this place, the demon being cast out, were cleansed.
CHAPTER XXIV. Concerning oil that increased.
But let us return to our Aredius, or rather, so to speak, the special foster-son of the blessed Confessor, to whom from his relics he often grants the beholding of miracles. He came to the saint's festival with that kindness, humility, and charity which was his custom.
On returning, he carried away with him a little flask filled with oil from the saint's tomb, saying: 'Perhaps some sick person is on the road, who, pricked in heart, desires to receive a blessing from the shrine of blessed Martin.' At length in a certain place a devout woman approached him, presenting another flask with oil, saying: 'I beg you, servant of Christ, that you sanctify this oil with your blessing.' But he, that he might not seem subject to vanity, said: 'My power is small; but, if it please you, I have oil from the tomb of blessed Martin, from which let this oil be poured upon. And you, if you believe his power to be great, will draw salvation from this.' But she, rejoicing, asked that what the presbyter said be carried out. For that vessel was half full.
And when some of that liquid, which had been taken from the saint's basilica, was poured upon it, at once the oil, bubbling up, filled the flask to the very top. Seeing which, the matron, marveling at the power of the blessed Confessor, returned home rejoicing.
CHAPTER XXV. Concerning the straightened fingers of a certain woman.
Now another woman, whose fingers were fixed contracted into her very palm, sought out the basilica of the blessed bishop Martin. A few days having passed, pouring out prayer and imploring the saint's help, with her fingers straightened, she received her hand sound.
CHAPTER XXVI. Concerning a crippled woman.
Some years ago a girl, falling into a most grievous infirmity, was contracted, crippled in all her limbs.
She, having heard the miracles which the glorious bishop worked in individual cases, devoutly invoked his name. After a few days she asked to be carried to his basilica, and lying for many days in its courtyard, often pouring out prayer with tears, she was visited by the power of the Pontiff; and so, the divine mercy coming to her aid, she departed healed.
CHAPTER XXVII. Concerning a crippled boy.
Now a boy from the territory of Angers, while he was sitting in his parents' house, through the onslaught, as he himself asserted, of the diabolical art, lost the use of his hands and feet, so that, with his fingers contracted inward, his nails were driven into his palm, and the sinews [another reading: nerves] of his knees, dried up, turned his heels back toward his legs:
and thus for six years being ill-carried by his parents, he was brought to the temple of the holy bishop. But persevering in prayer, his limbs being restored, in accordance with the meaning of his own name he blossomed afresh, as it were new, Floridus (the flowering one).
CHAPTER XXVIII. Concerning a blind man enlightened.
Ceriens, a slave by birth of that same holy basilica, deprived of sight through the onslaught of the ensnarer, sat sick in his own little dwelling, able to do no work there. He endured this blindness for nearly three years, then sought out the shrine of the blessed priest; and there, having entreated the wonted mercy, he returned enlightened to his own home.
CHAPTER XXIX. Concerning a man to whose hand a staff stuck fast.
From the territory of Tours, a certain man's slave, while on the Lord's Day he was building a fence, his hands began to cling to the very wood. And he, swiftly drawing out his right hand, while astonished he wondered at the deed, that very hand was contracted with great pain, and the nails were fixed into the palm; and with all the fingers of the right hand contracted, he returned to his lodging in sorrow. But after four years he came to the saint's basilica, and prayer being made he was healed, proclaiming to the people that no one should imitate his deed, lest a greedy farmer should defile the solemnities of so great a day, lest weak humanity, by performing earthly works, should dissolve the heavenly mystery of our sacred resurrection and redemption.
CHAPTER XXX.
Concerning a boy whose stomach was ailing.
A certain little boy from the region of Albi, his stomach wasting away with various diseases, loathed food and drink; even that which he seemed to take, he cast back up with grievous bitterness. And when for many days he was tormented in this distress [another reading: languor], full of faith he had a desire to come to the basilica of the blessed Confessor. In which, fasting and praying for three days, on the fourth day he conceived a desire to take food, and tasting wine with his mouth he was strengthened; thereafter giving thanks, he departed sound.
CHAPTER XXXI. Concerning the withered right hand of a woman.
A certain woman, she too, as they say, coming from Angers, who was indeed withered in all her limbs, but especially bore her right hand with its fingers more withered than the other limbs, prostrated herself at the saint's tomb. Going out thence, she stayed for a short time in the courtyard. But, the intervention of the glorious bishop coming to her aid, the vein receiving blood, the skin its ruddiness, and the rest of the body its strength, she was made whole. The cause that she should suffer this was that on the Sabbath day after sunset, which adjoined the Lord's night, she wished to shape bread.
CHAPTER XXXII. Concerning a woman whose hands clung to one another.
Another woman did a similar thing to this one, whose hands, contracted inward and joined to one another, clung together.
And when she was vexed with the greatest pains, she set out on the road, saying: 'If I go to the basilica of holy Martin, at once this infirmity will depart. For I trust that he too will come to my aid, who has often had pity on those suffering such things.' When she said thus, and was making her way begun, as best she could, her hands were at once separated, yet without the fingers being straightened. But indeed when she reached the holy place, and poured out prayer, at once all pain being removed, the fingers being made whole, she carried back her hands freed, with thanksgiving.
CHAPTER XXXIII. Concerning a disease of horses.
Now in the region of Bordeaux there arose this year a grievous disease of horses. At the village [another reading: town] of Marsas, which is contained within this district,
subject to the dominions of blessed Martin, there is an oratory consecrated both by his name and by his miracles. At length, the aforesaid plague coming on, they went to the oratory, making vows for their horses, namely, that if they should escape, they would confer a tithe of them upon that place. And when this matter brought them advantage, they had added that, from the iron key which unlocked the door of the oratory, they should impress marks upon the horses. This done, the saint's power so prevailed, that both those which had been sick were healed, and those which had not been stricken suffered nothing further.
CHAPTER XXXIV. Concerning a plague that was with blisters.
In the previous year too the people of Tours were most grievously laid waste by a pestilential sickness.
For the malady was such that a man seized by a violent fever swarmed all over with blisters and tiny pustules. Now the blisters were white with a hardness, having no softness, but only inflicting excessive pain. Then if, ripeness being given, they began to burst and run, then, with the garments clinging to the body, the pain was more violently increased: in which sickness no art of physicians could avail anything, unless the Lord's help were present. For many, seeking a blessing from the holy basilica, merited relief.
But why is it necessary to recall many, since the others should have perceived from this, what we saw one woman to have merited? The wife, then, of Count Eborinus, when she was held by this plague, was so covered with these blisters, that neither her hands, nor the soles of her feet, nor any part of her body remained free, but even her very eyes were held covered by them. And when she was now held in the peril of death, she sought the blessing of the holy tomb. Then there was sent to her some of the water with which the blessed one's tomb had been washed at the Lord's Pascha (see above, book II, ch. 51). At length, her wounds being anointed from it, she thereafter took a draught of it: soon, then, the fever being extinguished, the blisters running off without pain, she was healed.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Concerning two paralytics, and one blind man healed.
But since there are many miracles which the whole world experiences, of which not even the smallest part, as I think, reaches us, let us at least set forth those which the neighborhood experiences. Thus Badegisilus, bishop of Le Mans, being invited, came to a certain place of his diocese, to consecrate a basilica of the blessed Man both by his name and by his relics. The solemnities being celebrated, as they invoked the name of holy Martin, two paralytics received their step, and one blind man his sight.
CHAPTER XXXVI. Concerning Augustus who was crippled.
Now a certain Augustus, a citizen of the city of Tours, while he labored under excessive pain of the loins, with his feet contracted and drawn back almost to the loins themselves, was most grievously crippled:
in which infirmity he labored for the course of two years. Then, admonished by his own people, he sought out the saint's basilica, and there, fasting and praying for seven days, the pain being removed and his feet made straight, he departed sound.
CHAPTER XXXVII. Concerning a mute girl.
At this time too a certain woman, while her companions were departing and she alone remained at the loom, there appeared to her as she sat a most hideous shadow, which, seizing her [another reading: the little girl], began to drag her. But she, crying out and weeping, when she saw no help, yet manfully strove to resist. Now after the space of two or three hours had passed, the rest of the women, returning, found her lying half-alive on the ground, able to speak nothing at all. She made signs indeed with her hand:
but as they understood nothing, she remained mute. The shadow, indeed, which had appeared to her, so lay in wait for the men of that house, that, abandoning the place, they migrated elsewhere. But afterward, when two or three months' days had passed, the girl, coming to the basilica, merited to receive speech. And so she narrated with her own mouth all the things she had suffered.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. Concerning a deacon of Châlons.
Meanwhile a deacon of Châlons, as is the custom of that people, while the others were celebrating the morning thanksgivings, as he was drinking, was stricken with the loss of his eyes; and recognizing his own guilt, and that he had done a thing unworthy of his vocation, he held himself back from food and drink, passing the night in vigils and persisting in prayers.
Meanwhile, while he was doing these things, the fame which had filled the whole world far and wide came at length to his ears, namely, that there was at Tours Martin the bishop, at whose tomb the calamities of such infirmities, being driven off, often found rest. The deacon does not delay, but at once ordering the journey to be set out upon, he came, not doubting of the power of the blessed Man, to the holy basilica; and there, prostrated on the ground, supported by prayer, on the third day, his eyes being opened, he received light. But I, while I strove more carefully to extort the truth as to why these things had befallen him, learned this from him. 'Seven months ago,' he said, 'while, the signal being sounded at matins, I was making for the church, I met one of my friends;
rushing into his embrace and kisses, I began to inquire whether he had left all things prosperous at home. Then, called back from my way, I began to drink a draught with him. But after it seemed that we had fulfilled charity through the cups, having said farewell, he departed. As he was going away, with so great a glue my eyes, their lids joined, clung together, that I could in no way open them. At length, while I was going away sad in this infirmity, I had a desire to visit the tomb of the blessed bishop: but on the third day after I came, while I stood by his tomb, suddenly a great fever seized my eyes. But I began to groan vehemently, and to entreat the saint's help strongly: and at once blood, bursting from my eyes, drove off the night and brought back the day.'
The deacon, having told us these things, returned home sound.
CHAPTER XXXIX. Concerning a crippled and blind woman.
There was also a certain blind woman, who, with her hands and feet contracted backward, sought, with the comfort of her parents, to celebrate the blessed festival of the glorious bishop. When, on the third day after the festival had passed, she desired to return home, prostrate in the holy basilica she began to pray that the Lord would deign to show her the wonted aid of his mercy. While she sought this with tears, at once, her hands being straightened and her feet made firm, being led to the holy tomb, she performed thanks for the health received. After this she asked to be led to the door, where, prostrate again, she said to her people:
'I will not rise up from here, unless he first restore to me the light of my eyes, who restored the use of my feet and hands.' As she said these things, suddenly the demoniacs cried out that they were being tormented, and confessed that the presence of Martin was at hand. But although the devil, who from the beginning is a liar (John VIII, 44), is by no means to be admitted to belief, yet by the very facts the presence of the blessed Man is declared. For this woman, who a little before had been straightened, now being enlightened, confirmed that the blessed bishop was present.
CHAPTER XL. Concerning a paralytic healed.
Now after a short interval, there lay a certain paralytic on a pallet, who had come conveyed by a wagon from Bourges.
He too, in like manner visited by the power of the blessed bishop, rose up sound, and restored to his own steps, was received whole, his parents' company looking on.
CHAPTER XLI. Concerning chains broken upon a girl.
In these days a certain girl, born already of freed parents, by the sons of her patron, her freedom being broken, was condemned to the yoke of servitude: whence it came to pass that, since she would not consent to her unjust masters to perform any work, she was bound with chains and fetters. While in this custody she remained, others seeking out the blessed festival, weeping and wailing because she could not be present at the blessed festival, suddenly the beam in which her feet were confined was split;
and she, as though now free, yet bound with chains, having slipped away, sought out the blessed basilica. As soon as her feet touched the sacred thresholds, at once the broken chains fell from her body; and so she was endowed alike with soundness and with freedom.
CHAPTER XLII. Concerning the book of his Life saved amid the flames.
What if I should have recourse to the very writings of the blessed Life? Will it not be admirable, that that sacred book of this history, surrounded by flames, was neither scorched nor consumed? A monk, then, of Marmoutier, by command of the abbot, went to another cell, as though to do some work, and, for the salvation of his soul and the correction of his life, carried with him the book of the Life of the blessed bishop.
When night came on, he settled himself on a small bed heaped with old straw, placing the book at his head. As he slept, a man appeared to him in a dream, saying: 'Do not sleep upon this straw, for it is sprinkled with blood.' I believe, as mortal weakness goes, that some crime had been committed upon it, and that for this reason the blessed man would not suffer the words of his own praise to be tossed about there. Now the first vision came easily to the man, and the second admonition had no effect; but the third shook the monk with greater terror. He arose, and going out at first light to his work, ordered the boy to take the straw from the bed and consume it with fire, making no mention of the book. But the boy, unaware, threw out the book caught up among the straw, and kindled the fire.
When the straw had been reduced to ashes, and nothing remained but cinders, the book appeared unharmed, of which—as the truth attests—not a letter, not a single leaf was consumed. Thus the divine power deigned to guard the praises of its own foster-child, as it were, so that the flame would not burn his book, which the sting of concupiscence had not scorched in this world. But lest it seem incredible to anyone, the very codex is kept among us to this very day. CHAPTER XLIII. Concerning two boys who were healed. Now once, when we were making a journey, two of the boys who guarded the horses began to fall ill; and one of them indeed labored under a fever, the other with dysentery.
A violent fever gripped them both, and they were so worn out that they could not even be kept upright when set upon the backs of the horses. So I took the dust which I had carried away from the Saint's tomb upon a little box, and ordered it to be brought and given to them to drink in water. Soon the fever was suppressed and the pain extinguished, and both recovered. CHAPTER XLIV. Concerning Malulf the cripple. For glorious are the miracles which the Lord daily deigns to work to the praise of His Bishop; and, as I have often testified, these cannot be narrated by my unskilled self—yet, insofar as that very unskillfulness allows, they shall be set forth by lamplight, lest they be hidden. A certain Malulf, a citizen of the territory of Tours, oppressed by a savage sickness, lay gasping on his bed;
and wasting away from this affliction, he was drawn together in hands and feet. For five years' course he endured in this state at the Saint's basilica. Finally, in the sixth year, he begged to be carried into the Saint's basilica; and lying down there in prayer, his infirmity left him and he merited to obtain health. CHAPTER XLV. Concerning another whose hands were straightened. And lest for this reason the things related should seem incredible to anyone—because they are not recorded for each individual in writing—this is the cause: that when they have been restored to soundness by the Saint of God, they at once depart; and sometimes they return so secretly that, if it is permitted to say so, they are seen by no one. And when a report arose that the power of the blessed Bishop had appeared, we summoned to us the keepers of the shrine, and learned what had been done:
yet we do not always learn their names from them. Those, however, we usually write down by name whom we were able to see, or whom we ourselves questioned. There came to the festival a certain man from Bourges, crippled in his hands, whose fingers were so fixed into the palm that they were thought to be swarming with worms. But when the solemnity had been celebrated, the fingers of both hands were straightened, and he was granted soundness; and all the people saw him returning healthy. The cause of his infirmity had befallen him from this: that he had wished to mend a hedge of his cornfield on the Lord's Day. CHAPTER XLVI. Concerning a woman whose arm had drawn together. There was a woman from the territory of Poitiers, whose arm had withered with contracted sinews.
Coming to the tomb of the blessed man, and passing the night there in prayer and vigils, she carried back her arm sound; but immediately, being bound to servitude by her masters, she incurred the same affliction again. She returns once more, and is healed. Then her masters came, and striving to take her away, received a price from the goods of the Saint, and desisted; and so this woman was given to liberty. CHAPTER XLVII. Concerning one who was held for a debt. In those days, when a certain man was being dunned for the discharge of a debt which he had contracted in his necessities, and he had neither the means nor the resources to repay what he had borrowed, he was confined in prison.
At length, when the creditor saw that he could extort nothing from him, since he had nothing, and there was no one to stretch out a hand of mercy to him, he bound him more tightly in chains, and denying him food and drink, said: 'I will make you waste away with hunger as a lesson to all, until you repay everything.' Now while these things were being done, the relics of the holy Bishop, which were being carried into the district of Soissons, were passing through the street. So when the prisoner heard the voices of those chanting psalms, he prayed that the power of the holy Bishop might visit him; and at once his bonds were loosed, and with no one holding him back, he entered the holy basilica. From there, ransomed by the devout, he was released from the bond of his debt. CHAPTER I (XLVIII). Concerning a blind woman given light.
It also came to pass on one of the festivals that a woman who, having lost her sight, remained in blindness, having heard of the miracles of the holy man, sought out his basilica with eager devotion. And prostrating herself upon the dry ground before the tomb, as soon as she poured out her prayer, she merited to receive her sight. CHAPTER XLIX. Concerning a paralytic weak in his whole body. At this solemnity there came a little boy with the sight of his eyes closed, the passages of his ears stopped up, his mouth obstructed, the use of his hands lost, the steps of his feet condemned to stillness. What more? He was so dead to the use of all his limbs that he quivered with the breath alone. But as soon as he touched the holy place, all his infirmity utterly removed, he departed sound, with thanksgiving. CHAPTER L.
Concerning a priest healed of fevers. Lupus, a priest of the city of Bordeaux, was at one time gravely afflicted by a quartan ague, so that when the fever came on, he could take neither food nor drink. Meanwhile there came the festival of the holy Bishop Martin. So he, having celebrated the vigils with the rest of the clergy and people, went forth before all in the morning and hastened to the basilica of the Saint. But as he was hurrying along, he met a Jew, and when the man asked where he was going, he answered: 'I have caught a quartan ague, and I am now hastening to the basilica of the Saint, that his power may drive this sickness from me.' The man said: 'Martin will profit you nothing—him whom the earth pressing down has made earth—and you seek his shrine in vain.'
'For a dead man cannot grant medicine to the living.' But he, despising the words of the ancient serpent, went on where he had set out, and prostrating himself before the holy relics, poured out his prayer, and found there two little candles formed of wax and papyrus. Taking these, he brought them to his house, and lighting them, he drank the ash of the papyrus with clean water, and at once recovered his health. But the Jew, seized by this same sickness, was buffeted by it for the space of a year; yet his wicked mind could not be changed by torments, ever the same. CHAPTER LI. Concerning the healing of the little child, son of Cardegisil.
Cardegisil, a citizen of the city of Saintes, surnamed Cyso, having received us into his house, invited us to an oratory which his mother had built and consecrated with relics of the blessed Martin. Now when, the prayer being ended, we were anxious to know whether the power of the holy Bishop had been shown there, he answered: 'Three years ago this little boy, my son, whom you see before you—while he still hung at his mother's breast—began to do badly, and for thirty days or more he was carried about in our arms not without toil, until he was brought so low that he could not even suck the breast, much less take any other food.'
'And as he was failing, on the sixth day after he began to grow worse, we laid him before the altar weeping, and awaited his death. But I, unable to bear the grief, departed from the house, charging the woman that, when he had died, she should at once lay him to burial. While the mother wept, the infant lay until evening; but as the sun was setting, he raised his voice, saying: "Sweetest sister, where are you?" For he was accustomed to call his mother thus, as is the endearing way of infants. And she ran up, saying: "Here I am, sweetest son." And taking him in her arms, and at once offering the breast, the milk being drawn, he straightway recovered.' CHAPTER LII. Concerning a cleric with dysentery.