De Miraculis Sancti Martini Episcopi

Many indeed are the other things as well that 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 in this number. I also give the greatest thanks to the Lord's loving-kindness, because through the intercession of the glorious Bishop it has been granted to me that what I undertook at the beginning I have been able to bring through to the end; praying that what the Confessor has often bestowed on peoples, he may more abundantly grant to me, a sinner, and cleanse me from the errors which he often sees and observes, and restore to me the light of truth, snatch me from the fall of unbelief, cleanse my heart and mind from the foul leprosy of lust, purify my thoughts from depraved desires, and wash away and cast down from me every mass of crimes; so that when in judgment I shall have been placed on the left side, he may deign to draw me out from the midst of the goats with his sacrosanct right hand, and keeping me reserved behind his back, may await the Judge's sentence. And when, with him judging, I shall have been assigned to the infernal flames, may he, covered by the sacrosanct pallium with which he is clothed in glory, excuse me from punishment, with the angels saying to the King what they once said of the resuscitated monk: This is he for whom Martin prays.

And may it come about that, since I do not deserve to be clothed with that brightness, I may at least deserve to be freed from the ministers of the Tartars rushing upon me; nor let the harm prevail against me so greatly that I be separated from his kingdom, whom I faithfully confessed as God in the world.

The second book ends.

THE THIRD BOOK.

Prologue.

As, with Christ ordaining, we begin to write the third little book concerning the virtues of the blessed Martin, we give thanks to almighty God, who deigned to grant us such a physician, who would cleanse our infirmities, wash away our wounds, and bring healing medicines. For if the soul is humbled at his blessed tomb, and prayer is raised on high, if tears flow down and true compunction follows; if sighs are sent forth from the depths of the heart, and sinful breasts are beaten; weeping finds joy, guilt finds pardon, and the heart's sorrow attains to healing. For very often the touch of the blessed tomb has commanded fevers to halt, the blind to see, the paralytic to rise, and has driven even the bitterness of the heart far away. Having myself often experienced this, I judge it unworthy that amid such great heaps of miracles I should also insert here those things which he deigned to work upon me. But again I fear lest I appear harmful if, as though deceitful, I hide them.

For I call God to witness, and that hope which I have placed in his power, believing that I am not disappointed by his mercy: because as often as either a pain of the head attacked me, or a throbbing beat at my temples, or hearing weighed down my ears, or a mist poured over the sharpness of my eyes, or pain settled in other limbs, as soon as I touched the painful place, either with the tomb or with the hanging veil, I straightway received healing, marveling in silence that in the very touch the pain had departed with its course.

CHAPTER ONE

Concerning the pain of my throat.

But what I recently endured, I will set down as the first miracle in this little book. While we sat at a banquet and were eating after a fast, a fish is brought in on a dish: while we were eating it signed with the Lord's cross, one bone of that same fish clung most injuriously in my throat. This, stirring up severe pains, cut into my throat with its point, and blocked the very gullet with its length: it impeded the sound of my voice, and did not allow even the liquid of saliva itself, which often flows down from the palate, to pass through. But on the third day, when I was unable to throw it out either by coughing or by clearing my throat, I had recourse to the well-known protections. I approach the tomb, I fall prostrate on the pavement, and with poured-out tears and groaning, I beg the aid of the Confessor. Then, raised up, I touched my gullet, throat, and the rest of my head with the veil that was hanging there. And without delay, I received healing; and before I left the holy threshold, I felt no distress. Yet what became of the wicked point, I do not know.

I did not reject it by vomiting, nor did I perceive that it passed away into the belly. One thing only I know, that I felt myself healed with such swiftness that I thought someone had put in his hand and taken away those things which had done injury to my throat.

CHAPTER II.

Concerning the weak girl healed.

But a girl of twelve years, weak in all her limbs, for six years lay as if dead on a little bed in her parents' house, neither taking a step, nor performing the work of her hands, nor seeing the light, nor speaking a word, nor hearing one spoken. The parents pour out prayers for their daughter at the blessed one's tomb, offer gifts, and further promise vows. And the people gathered for the solemn rites; 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 been granted to hear his daughter's voice, which he had never heard, ran more swiftly, and taking up a little water, brought it to the girl to drink. When she had drunk it, she said: Give me your hand. And her father, taking her right hand, raised her up. And she, standing on her feet, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, said: I give thanks to you, almighty God, who, looking upon my lowliness, deigned to save me through your holy bishop. And in that hour, with her limbs restored, she received sight and hearing, and returned home joyful.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning the man in whose hand a stick stuck fast.

But two years before these things were done, a certain man, neither fearing nor honoring the holy day of the Lord's resurrection, having received his grain, went to the mill, and having loaded the wheat, he began to turn the mill by hand. When the work was finished, however, he could not open his palm, but with severe pain he held fast, against his will, the stick he had grasped. After this, seeing that he was not to be relieved, he cut the stick away on both sides and came to the basilica of the Saint, and having made prayer and celebrated vigils, his fingers were loosened and his hand was restored to its former work. In another year, however, on this holy day, he took up the work for which he had previously been rebuked by God, and again the wood stuck fast in his hand. Weeping with pain, he returned to the basilica of the holy Confessor, but he did not immediately deserve to be heard. After two years, however, at the same festival at which we related that the girl was healed, this man also was freed from the burden of the wood.

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning the paralytic healed.

But a paralytic coming from the Limousin country, who could not walk a step, nor had the light of his eyes, was carried by the hands of the faithful and laid before the holy tomb; and having implored the mercy of the blessed Bishop, his weak limbs were made straight, and he was restored to health.

CHAPTER V.

Concerning the blind man enlightened.

A certain blind man, who for a long time had lacked the light of his eyes, came to that same festival. And prayer having been made, while he stood before the holy tomb, suddenly his eyes were opened, and rejoicing in the recovered light.

CHAPTER VI.

Concerning the weak man healed.

But a boy, an inhabitant of the city of Tours, while he was consumed by a very great and long-lasting illness, was weakened in all his limbs, and was left by the fever without hope of walking, whose shins, like ropes, were so twisted that they could not be separated. But after the departure of the fever, he begged his parents to carry him to the holy basilica. And when he had been brought forth, they laid him at the feet of the Saint and made prayer, that the accustomed power might come to his aid. But on the third day, while he and his parents persevered in prayer and fasting, the light of mercy having arisen, his twisted shins being [made straight], he was received back sound by his parents.

CHAPTER VII.

Concerning the man who made a key on the Lord's day.

So too another man, by name Senator, from the village of Craeatonnum in the territory of Angers, while he was making a key on the Lord's day, the fingers of both his hands contracted, with the nails driven into the palm. Thus he who wished to open a door could not unclose his hand. Then, after four months had passed, with the nails now fixed in the flesh and the palm rotting, he sought the aid of the Confessor, and having spent four days free for prayer and fasting, raising up his hands healed, he returned safe, praising the power of the Bishop, and he proclaimed that no one should attempt what he himself had presumed to do.

CHAPTER VIII.

Concerning a dead man raised.

At the time when such things were being done at the city of Tours, envoys from Spain, that is Florentius and Exsuperius, were coming to King Chilperic. When I had received them at a banquet of the church, as we were feasting, because they asserted that they were catholics, Florentius, who was the elder in age, earnestly begged to learn something of the power of the blessed man. But I, giving thanks to God, asked whether his name was heard in those regions, or whether his Life was read by anyone. While I was asking this, he said that the name of the Bishop was greatly honored in those places; and he also told me that he was a particular foster-son of the Bishop, saying that great power of his had been shown upon himself.

My grandfather, he said, many years ago built a basilica in honor of the blessed bishop Martin, and when it was completed and adorned with elegant workmanship, he sent devout clerics to Tours, seeking the pontiff's relics, so that he might consecrate with his relics the place he had built in his name. When he had done this, he came every day and, prostrate on the ground with his wife, implored the aid of the holy pontiff. After a long time, however, a child was born to them. But when the child was three months old, he was stricken with fever and was so drained that he could neither suck the breast nor take any nourishment. Meanwhile, as the illness persisted and food was refused, with only his breath fluttering, nothing remained but to await his passing. And without delay, his spirit too was breathed out. Then the grieving mother, or rather grandmother, taking up in her arms the little body of her only and firstborn child, now lifeless, laid it before the altar of blessed Martin in no uncertain hope; and as if she beheld the saint with her visible eyes, the old woman addressed him, saying: Our greatest hope, most blessed confessor, was to bring your pledges here, by which diseases might be driven off, fevers extinguished, the darkness of blindness put to flight, and other infirmities as well washed away, because many things are read of you, which you either did while alive or accomplish after your passing.

For we have heard that you have raised the dead by your prayer, driven out leprosy with a kiss, cured the possessed by a word, crushed poison with your finger, and done many other things. Here your power will be made manifest, if even now, in accordance with our faith, you raise this little child. But if you do not do so, we shall no longer bow our necks, light lamps, or show the honor of any reverence. And having said this, they left the infant before the altar, and she herself and those who were with her departed. When morning came, they returned and found him turned toward the altar, and while they were marveling, his mother took him in her arms, and recognizing that he had recovered his breath, she put him to the breast; and he, having at once drunk the milk, was strengthened. Then the mother, with the father and the whole household, lifting up their voice to heaven, blessed God, saying: Now we know that you are a great God, and that you alone do wondrous things, who by the prayer of your confessor have restored this little child. And thereafter they showed greater reverence to that place than they had before. I learned that these things were done thus from the mouth of Florentius himself.

CHAPTER IX.

Concerning the man who had a withered foot.

There was a cleric from the city of Poitiers, in the territory of that region, who belonged to the holy basilica, with one foot withered, which, as he himself asserted, he had lost through the attack of the noonday demon. Cutting a stick to the measure of his knee and placing leather over it at the knee itself, with his leg stretched out behind, he accomplished with the support of the stick the step he tried to take with his foot. He came to the aforesaid basilica after nine years, and having poured out prayer for three days, on the third day of the festival he rose with his knee straightened. But when the people came to the solemnities of the Saint, he showed them how he had been healed by his power.

CHAPTER X.

The shin of my mother.

To my mother, in this manner, the power of the Saint came to aid. At the time when, her labor pains completed, she brought me forth, a pain came upon one muscle of her shin. It was sudden, as if a nail were being driven in, and it caused such very severe pain that it often brought on fainting, nor was there anything that could soothe it, except when, held for a very long time against the fire, it grew numb from the vapor of the hearth; but even if some ointment had been poured on for a little while, it would quiet down. What more? After my ordination she came to Tours, either to meet the holy Bishop, or for the sake of her desire for me.

When she had therefore stayed here for two or three months and was continually entreating the aid of the blessed Pontiff, at last, with the customary compassion looking upon her, the pain departed from her breast, which had afflicted the woman for thirty-four years.

CHAPTER XI.

Concerning the woman whose hand was healed.

But also another woman from the territory of Angers, with her fingers fixed in her palm, when she poured out prayers at the holy place, with her fingers straightened, her hand was healed and she departed.

CHAPTER XII.

Concerning the boy healed from illness.

A boy of our household, seized by a fever, was gravely burning. For his limbs burned outwardly, while inwardly there was a severe thirst; and if he received anything to drink, he immediately threw it up from his stomach, yet taking no food at all. And when he was worn out by this suffering for the fourth or fifth day, he asked that they bring him a little of the dust from the tomb to drink. When it was brought and mixed with wine, as he drank it faithfully, he recovered his health and grew strong.

CHAPTER XIII.

Concerning Theodana's foot healed.

But Theodana, daughter of the former presbyter Wiliacharius, while she suffered rather frequently from a discharge of the feet, lost the use of one foot, which had been reduced to weakness. After this she came to the blessed basilica, where, while she poured out frequent prayers, her weakness was removed and she was restored to health.

CHAPTER XIV.

Concerning the bent man.

There was at that time in a villa [Ed., city], which lay under the protection of the holy mother church, a certain man who walked bent over, as if his kidneys had been broken. Like that woman of the Gospel series (Luke 13:11), he was bent downward and could in no way be raised upright, but with two sticks added under his arms he made his way bowed down. But coming to the festival, on the third day after the solemnities had been celebrated, he was raised up, cleansed from every assault of the devil, and departed sound.

CHAPTER XV.

Concerning Gundulf the disabled.

But a certain Gundulf, a citizen of that city, lived from his infancy with Gunthar, son of King Clothar. While he was held in his service, and, by the king's command, climbed a tree to pick ripe apples, the branch broke and he fell; and his foot, dashed against a stone, was crippled. But after many years, while he persisted in this crippled state, and having mounted a horse [that is, a steed] was urging it swiftly to go, with his seat slipping he was thrown headlong, and crushed the other foot, which was sound, and gravely injured it. Then he asked to be carried to the holy basilica, and, cast down upon the pavement, he poured out his prayer faithfully. Nor did that loving-kindness delay, which is wont always to come to the aid of the afflicted, but at once, with all pain taken away, he rose sound from the pavement. So for about thirty years he had been continually lame in the other foot, as we said above. At length, having examined the sins of his own conscience, he resolved to be converted—namely, that with hair humbled he might serve that holy Bishop. But first he obtained a command from the king that he should hand over all his property to the basilica while still living. This done, with his head 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 walked supported by two boys now runs wherever he wishes, without any man's support and without any hindrance of weakness.

CHAPTER XVI.

Concerning a blind boy enlightened.

After this, a certain little boy from the region of Limoges, coming as a blind man, received the light of his eyes in this manner. In the third year of his birth, when he was already beginning to take steps and, his tongue bursting forth into words, he loosened his lips, while he played charmingly with his mother, while he gave kisses, while he hung upon her neck, while he was carried in her arms, a wind, stirred up by diabolical agency, raised dust from the earth together with chaff and bore it upon the boy and his mother with a great whirlwind. But the rustic and heedless woman did not take care to protect herself and her son with the standard of the Savior, and therefore, with the snares prevailing, the young child's eyes were filled with dust and closed up. He cried out for a long time, but at last, soothed by his mother, he remained blind. When he had grown up, he was given over to beggars, so that at least by walking with them he might receive some small allowance. 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 into the world. When the vigil of the festival had passed, while the others were departing and he lay motionless at the steps of the Saint, then he felt as if someone had pricked his eyes with a point, and immediately blood, bursting forth from them, began to flow down through 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, because by your power I have merited to receive light. O wondrous grace!

O immense power! For you scatter your gifts among the peoples through afflictions of many kinds. For he who had sought a coin received light, and a face long adorned by an outward light is now adorned by the light of your power. If the darkness of many sins did not keep you from our sight, surely you would come visibly and cry out to the weak with the voice of Peter: "Silver and gold I have not, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ, go forth healed."

CHAPTER XVII.

Concerning the ear of Siggo the Referendary.

It had come about that we were making for the town of Reims; and when we had been kindly received by Bishop Aegidius, who then governed the Church, as the Lord's day dawned on the next morning we went to the church, and sitting in the sacristy we awaited the arrival of the bishop. At that time I had with me the relics of Saint Martin, though in a presumptuous manner, upon my person. So Siggo, formerly referendary of Sigibert, came to meet us, and when he had greeted me I asked him to sit beside me. But he, having one ear blocked, could scarcely perceive with the other what we were saying. Yet when we had conversed sufficiently, he was called into the house of the church. Straightway, therefore, when he had left me, the barriers of the deaf ear were broken open, and as though he felt a great wind issuing from it, he received his hearing; and returning at once he began to give thanks to me, saying: "It was now the third day since I had lost the hearing of this ear, but while I was speaking with you, I felt it swiftly opened.

Then I confessed—or rather, to prevent these things from being ascribed to me, I said: Do not, most sweet son, give me any thanks, but give them to him whose power restored your hearing. For know that the pledges of blessed Martin are held with me, by whose power the heaviness of your hearing has been driven away.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Concerning the sickness of cattle.

At a certain time, when a savage plague was raging so among the cattle that no breed was thought to remain for recovery, one of our people went to the holy basilica and took oil from the lamps that hung from the ceiling, together with the water itself, in a vessel, and having carried it home, he signed with the sign of the Lord's cross the cattle that the disease had not yet touched, dipping his finger in the liquid and marking their foreheads and backs; and when those animals had been thrown down to the ground and laid on their backs, full of faith he poured some of this ointment into their mouths. Presently, quicker than speech, the hidden plague was driven off and the cattle were freed.

CHAPTER XIX.

Concerning a blind man who was given light.

A certain inhabitant of Abrincatum 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 devoting himself for a long time to fasts and prayers, he implored the aid of the blessed Bishop. At last, when the sacrosanct festival arrived, while the people were watching 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. Moreover, in joy for such great loving-kindness, he vowed to be tonsured there. Returning later in devotion, he fulfilled it.

CHAPTER XX.

Concerning another blind man who was given light.

For indeed a certain man coming from overseas parts, while he was working in the field, suddenly a violent wind with dust arose over him, and he lost the light of his eyes. And he who had long been a way for the blind, himself is led home by another guiding him. For in this blindness he was held for the course of three years. After these things he sought the basilica of the blessed Confessor, and, his eyes having been opened, he merited to see the light.

CHAPTER XXI.

Concerning Julianus, a paralytic.

But this fame also, as we have often said, spread abroad not only in its own city, but also in other cities, and was made known throughout almost the whole world. A certain Julianus, coming from the Spains, having weak hands and feet, came to this physician and said: For I believe without doubt, most holy Bishop, that you can grant me those aids of healing which you are not accustomed to deny to others who hope in you. Persisting assiduously in prayer in this belief, and not doubting the Lord's mercy, with his feet and hands made straight, he was restored sound.

CHAPTER XXII.

Concerning a woman enlightened at the bed of the saint.

But since in the earlier books we have very often said that miracles are frequently celebrated in that place from which he departed to heaven, I shall make known what was recently done. A woman, a native of the city of Tours, deprived of the clarity of sight, sought out the cell of Condat, in which the bed of the blessed Bishop is kept, thinking it would be a help to her if she touched the railings of that bed. Now the bed is called nothing other than that on which our Israel of this present time reclined with bent neck, with ashes spread beneath upon that floor and a stone placed at his head. Therefore the woman is led by her husband's assistance to this place of prayer, where for many days, compunct, she poured out her prayer. At length the loving-kindness, often poured out for pitying, looking upon her, restored to the woman the sight she had lost.

And so great a faith thereafter kindled the woman that even to the day of her death she never departed from that place.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Concerning the mute man whose brothers had taken away his property.

But a certain inhabitant of the city of Angers, his limbs disordered by disease, turned his head to his little bed; then, as the fever grew stronger day by day, deprived of all his limbs, he was robbed alike of hearing and speech. After a few days, however, when he had recovered from the fever and remained without voice, a portion of his property having been taken from him by his brothers, he was cast out of his father's house, his brothers saying: This man has been made mad. Let not God permit that he should either cling to our property or acquire a share of the inheritance. Now they were freeborn and dwellers on their own estate; but thinking nothing of the things that were God's, they cast out the mute and deaf man, whom they ought rather to have cherished. Yet he, although he was without these senses, nevertheless kept understanding in his heart. Moreover, taking up tablets in his hand and striking them together, he imitated the voice of one asking. For with this device he came to the aforementioned village, and there joined himself to others begging for alms. So the sixth year had now passed since this poor man was fed from the riches of the holy little cell. It came to pass, moreover, that on a certain night of the Lord's day, while he lay in the house of his host, that place was suddenly filled with an immense light, and behold, he, terrified with fear, was laid prostrate on the ground.

And immediately there appeared to him a man adorned in priestly garb, who, touching him and imprinting the cross of Christ on his forehead, said: The Lord has healed you. Rise, and hurry to the church, and give thanks to your God. But he, lifting up his voice with thanksgiving, filled the neighborhood with his shouts. At once all ran together to the spectacle, and marveled at him speaking whom the day before they had seen mute. Meanwhile, when the signal was rung at the customary hours, the people also gathered, and after the vigils had been celebrated, the power of the Saint was made manifest and glorified. In those days two possessed men in this place, the demon having been cast out, were cleansed.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Concerning the oil that increased.

But let us return to our Aredius, or rather even the specially beloved, so to speak, foster-son of the blessed Confessor, to whom he more often grants to behold miracles concerning his pledges. He came to the festival of the Saint with that kindness, humility, and charity with which he was accustomed. But returning, he brought with him a small flask filled with oil from the holy sepulcher, saying: Perhaps there is some sick person on the way who, pricked in heart, desires to receive a blessing from the church of blessed Martin. Then in a certain place a devout woman came to him, presenting another flask with oil, saying: I beg you, servant of Christ, that you sanctify this oil with your blessing. But he, lest he seem subject to vanity, said: My power is small; but, if it pleases you, I have oil from the sepulcher of blessed Martin, with which let this oil be poured over.

But you, if you believe his great power, will draw healing from this. And she, rejoicing, asked that what the presbyter said be fulfilled. For that vessel was half full. And when she was drenched with this liquid, which had been taken from the basilica of the Saint, the oil at once bubbling up filled the flask to the very top. Seeing this, the matron, marveling at the power of the blessed Confessor, returned home rejoicing.

CHAPTER XXV.

Concerning the straightened fingers of a certain woman.

But another woman, whose fingers were contracted and fixed into her own palm, sought the basilica of the blessed Martin, the bishop. And after a few days had passed, pouring out prayer and imploring the aid of the Saint, with her fingers straightened, she received her hand whole.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Concerning a paralyzed woman.

Before these years, a girl, falling into a most grievous infirmity, was contracted, weakened in all her limbs. She, having heard of the miracles which the glorious Bishop was working individually, devoutly invoked his name. But after a few days she asked to be carried to his basilica, and lying in its atrium for many days, having often poured out prayer with tears, she was visited by the power of the Pontiff; and so, with divine mercy assisting, she departed healed.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Concerning the crippled boy.

But a boy from the territory of Angers, while he was staying in his parents' house, through the working, as he himself asserted, of diabolical art, lost the use of his hands and feet, so that with his fingers contracted inward, his nails dug into his palm, and the sinews of his knees, having withered, turned his heels back toward his shins; and so for six years, badly carried about by his parents, he was brought to the church of the holy Bishop. But persevering in prayer, with his limbs restored, in accordance with the meaning of his own name, he blossomed forth like a new Floridus.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Concerning the blind man enlightened.

A certain servant of the same holy basilica, blind from birth, having been deprived of sight through the assault of the deceiver, was living sick in his own little lodging, able to do no work there. For nearly three years he endured this blindness; he sought the house of the blessed priest, and there, having prayed, he was enlightened by the accustomed mercy and returned to his own home.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Concerning the man whose hand stuck to a stick.

But from the territory of Tours, a certain man's slave, while he was building a fence on the Lord's day, his hands began to stick to the wood itself. And he, quickly pulling out his right hand, marveled astonished at what had been done, and his hand was contracted with great pain, and his nails were driven into his palm; and with all the fingers of his right hand contracted, he returned to his lodging in sorrow. But after four years he came to the basilica of the Saint, and after prayer was made he was healed, preaching to the people that no one should imitate what he had done, lest a greedy farmer defile the solemnity of so great a day, lest weak humanity, performing earthly works, dissolve the heavenly mystery of the sacred resurrection and of our redemption.

CHAPTER XXX.

Concerning the boy whose stomach was infirm.

A certain little boy from the territory of Albi, his stomach wasting away with various diseases, loathed food and drink; and what he seemed to take he would reject with a grievous bitterness. And when he had been tormented in this suffering for many days, full of faith he had the 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 healed.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Concerning the withered right hand of a woman.

A certain woman, who also, as they say, came from Angers, was withered in all her limbs indeed, but especially she bore her right hand with its fingers more withered than the rest of her limbs, and she cast herself down at the tomb of the Saint. Departing from there, she stayed for a short time in the atrium. But with the intervention of the glorious Bishop coming to her aid, the vein received blood, the skin its color, and the rest of the body its strength, and she was made whole. And this was the cause that she suffered these things, because on the day of the Sabbath after sunset, which adjoined the night of the Lord's day, she wished to knead bread.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Concerning the woman whose hands stuck to themselves.

Another woman did a similar thing, whose hands, contracted inward and joined to each other, stuck together. And when she was vexed with the greatest pains, she set out on the way, saying: "If I go to the basilica of Saint Martin, this infirmity will straightway depart. For I trust that he will also succor me, who has often had mercy on those suffering such things." When she spoke thus and, as she was able, took up the journey she had begun, her hands were immediately separated, though not yet with straight fingers. But when she came to the holy place and poured out her prayer, straightway all pain being taken away and her fingers made firm, she returned her hands free, with thanksgiving.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Concerning the disease of horses.

In the region of Bordeaux, moreover, in this year there arose a severe disease of horses. At the estate—or rather town—of Marciac, which is contained within this territory and subject to the dominion of the blessed Martin, there is an oratory consecrated both by his name and by his powers. And so, when the aforesaid plague came, they came to the oratory, making vows on behalf of their horses—namely, that if they escaped, they would contribute a tenth from them to the place. And when this cause brought them benefit, they added that they would impose characters from the iron key which closed the door of the oratory upon the horses. This done, the power of the saint prevailed so greatly that both those who had fallen sick were healed, and those who had not incurred it suffered nothing further.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Concerning the plague which was with blisters.

In the previous year also the people of Tours were most grievously laid waste by a sickly plague. For such was the ailment that a man seized by a strong fever broke out all over with blisters and tiny pustules. The blisters were white with a hardness, having no softness, but only inflicting excessive pain. Moreover, if, having reached maturity, they began to burst and discharge, then, with the clothing clinging to the body, the pain was increased more violently; in which sickness the art of the physicians could avail nothing, unless the Lord's help were present. For many, seeking a blessing from the holy basilica, obtained relief.

But why is it necessary to recall these things concerning very many, when others have observed that which we have seen one woman deserve? The wife, then, of Count Eborin, when she was held by this plague, was so covered with these blisters that neither her hands, nor her feet, nor any part of her body remained free of them, but even her very eyes were covered and obscured by them. And when she was already in danger of death, she sought the blessing of the holy sepulcher. Then there was sent to her some of the water with which the blessed one's tomb is washed on the Lord's Passover. At last, when her wounds had been anointed with it, she herself then drank of it; and immediately, with the fever quenched and the blisters falling away without pain, she was healed.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Concerning two paralyytics and one blind man healed.

But since there are many virtues which the whole world experiences, of which not even the smallest part, as I think, has come to us, let us set forth those which the neighborhood experiences. And so Badegisil, bishop of the Cenomani, having been invited, came to a certain place in his diocese, to consecrate a basilica of the blessed man both in name and in relics. When the solemn rites had been celebrated, invoking the name of Saint Martin, two paralyytics received the power to walk, and one blind man received his sight.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Concerning Augustus, a cripple.

Now a certain Augustus, a citizen of the city of Tours, while he was suffering from an excessive pain in the kidneys, with his feet drawn together and contracted almost back to the kidneys themselves, was grievously weakened; and in this infirmity he labored for the course of two years. Then, warned by his own people, he sought the basilica of the Saint, and there, fasting and praying for seven days, with the pain removed and his feet made straight, he departed healed.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Concerning a mute girl.

At this time also a certain woman, when her companions had gone away, remained alone at the loom, and there appeared to her as she sat a most hideous shadow, which, seizing her, began to drag her. But she, crying out and beating her breast devoutly, since she saw no help, nevertheless strove manfully to resist. But after the space of two or three hours had passed, the remaining women, having returned, found her lying half-dead on the ground, able to speak nothing at all. She indeed made signs with her hand, but since they understood nothing, she remained mute. But the shadow which had appeared to her so greatly lay in wait for the men of that house that, leaving the place, they moved elsewhere. But afterwards, when the days of two or three months had passed, the girl, coming to the basilica, deserved to receive speech. And so she recounted with her own mouth all that she had endured.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Concerning the deacon of Châlons.

Meanwhile a deacon of Châlons, as is the custom of that people, while others were celebrating morning thanksgivings, was struck with the loss of his eyes as he drained a cup; and recognizing his guilt, and that he had done a thing unworthy of his purpose, he abstained from food and drink, spending the night in vigils and persisting in prayers. Meanwhile, while he was doing these things, the fame that had filled the whole world far and wide reached even his ears—namely, that Martin the bishop was at Tours, at whose tomb the plagues of such infirmities, once driven out, were often laid to rest. Nor did the deacon delay, but immediately ordering the journey to be undertaken, he came to the holy basilica, not doubting the power of the blessed man, and there, prostrate on the ground, supported in prayer, on the third day, with his eyes opened, he received his sight. But I, while striving more carefully to extract the truth as to why these things had happened to him, learned this from him. He said: Before these seven months, while, the morning signal having been rung, I was making for the church, I met one of my friends; rushing into his embrace and kisses, I began to ask whether he had left everything at home prosperous. Then, called back from the road, I began to drain a drink with him. But after it seemed that we had fulfilled charity through cups, having said farewell, he departed. As he went away, my eyes stuck together with such great gum, with the eyelids joined, that I could by no means open them. Finally, when I was going away sad in this infirmity.

I had a desire to visit the tomb of the blessed bishop; and on the third day after I came, while I stood by his tomb, a great fever suddenly seized my eyes. And I began to groan vehemently and to earnestly implore the help of the saint; and immediately blood bursting forth from my eyes drove away the night and brought back the day. The deacon told us these things, and returned safe to his own home.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Concerning the crippled and blind woman.

There was also a certain blind woman, whose hands and feet were contracted backwards, who, with the comfort of her relatives, sought to celebrate the blessed festival of the glorious bishop. And when on the third day after the festival had passed she wished to return home, she prostrated herself in the holy basilica and began to pray that the Lord might deign to show her the accustomed help of his mercy. While she asked this with tears, immediately her hands were made straight and her feet were made firm, and being led to the holy tomb, she gave thanks for the health she had received. After this she asked to be led to the door, where, prostrating herself again, she said to her people: I will not rise from here unless he who restored the use of my feet and hands first restores to me the light of my eyes. As she said this, suddenly those possessed by demons cried out that they were being tormented, and confessed that Martin was present. But although the devil, who is a liar from the beginning (Jn. VIII, 44), is in no way to be believed, yet by the things themselves the presence of the blessed man was declared.

For this woman, who had been sent forth a little while before, now enlightened, proved that the blessed Bishop was present.

CHAPTER XL.

Concerning the paralytic healed.

After a short interval, moreover, a certain paralytic lay on a cot, who had been carried there on a cart from Bituricum. 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 by the crowd of his kinsfolk looking on.

CHAPTER XLI.

The same, with the chains broken upon the girl.

In those days a certain girl, born of parents already of freedman status, was, her freedom having been broken, consigned to the yoke of slavery by the sons of her patron; whence it came about that, since she would not consent to perform any work for her unjust masters, she was bound with chains and fetters. While she remained in that custody, when others were seeking the blessed festival, she sat groaning and wailing that she could not be present at the blessed festival; suddenly the beam to which her feet were fastened was split; and she, as though already free, though still bound with chains, slipped away and sought the blessed basilica. And as soon as her feet touched the sacred threshold, at once the broken chains fell from her sole; and so she was granted both soundness and freedom together.

CHAPTER XLII

Concerning the book of her Life saved from the flames.

What if I return to the writings of the blessed Vita herself? Will it not be wonderful that that sacred book of her history, surrounded by flames, was neither scorched nor consumed? A monk, therefore, of the greater monastery, at the abbot's command, went to another cell, as if 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 Antistis. When night came, he laid himself on a bed stuffed with long-used straw, placing the book at his head. As he slept, a man appeared to him in a dream, saying: Do not sleep on this straw, for it is stained with blood. I believe, as is the way with mortals, that some crime was committed there, and for this reason the blessed man did not suffer the words of his praise to be rolled about in that place. Yet the first vision was easy for the man, and the second warning did not prevail; but a third shook the monk three times with terror. And he, rising and going forth at dawn to other work, ordered a boy to drag the straw from the bed and burn it with fire, saying nothing about the book. But the boy, unaware, seized the book among the straw, threw it outside, and kindled the fire. When these were reduced to embers, and nothing remained but ashes, the book appeared unharmed, of which not a letter, not one leaf—as the truth holds—was consumed.

Thus the divine power deigned to guard, as it were, the praises of its own foster-son, so that the flame did not burn his book, which the sting of desire had not scorched in this world. But lest this seem incredible to anyone, the codex itself is kept among us to this day.

CHAPTER XLIII

Concerning two boys who were healed.

Moreover, when we were once on a journey, two boys from among the grooms began to fall ill: and one of them was suffering from sickness, the other from dysentery. Yet a strong fever held both, and they were so weakened that they could not even be placed upon the backs of the horses and borne. But I took the dust which I had brought from the Saint's tomb upon a little box, and when it had been brought, I ordered them to drink it with water. At once the fever was checked, the pain was stayed, and both recovered.

CHAPTER XLIV

Concerning Malulf, who was crippled.

For the miracles are renowned which the Lord daily deigns to work to the praise of his Bishop, and, as I have often testified, these cannot be told by me, an unskilled man; yet, as that very lack of skill allows, they will be brought to light, lest they seem hidden. A certain Malulf, a citizen of the territory of Tours, was struck down by a savage illness and lay gasping upon his bed; wasting away from that affliction, he was contracted in his hands and feet. For the space of five years he endured this in the Saint's basilica. At last, in the sixth year, he asked to be carried to the Saint's basilica; and there, lying down in prayer, with his weakness lost, he merited to obtain health.

CHAPTER XLV.

Concerning the hands of another man made straight

And lest for this reason the things that are reported seem incredible to anyone—because they are not written down in the pages individually—the reason for this is that when they have been restored to health by the Saint of God, they depart at once; and sometimes they return so secretly that, if it may be said, they are seen by no one. And when a report arose that the power of the blessed Bishop had appeared, we summoned the guardians of the shrine to us and learned what had been done; yet we do not always learn their names from them. But for the most part we write by name those whom we have been able to see, or whom they themselves have disclosed. There came to the festival a certain man of Bourges, weak in his hands, whose fingers were so fixed into his palm that he was thought to swarm with worms. But when the solemnity had been celebrated, the fingers of both his hands were made straight, and he was granted health; and all the people saw him returning sound. The cause of his weakness came from this, that he had wished to build a hedge of grain on the Lord's day.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Concerning the woman whose arm had been contracted.

There was a woman from the territory of Poitiers whose arm had withered, its sinews having contracted. Coming to the tomb of the blessed man, and spending the night in prayer and vigils, she brought her arm back sound; but immediately, being handed over to owners in servitude, she incurred the same condition again. She returns to the tomb, and is healed. Then her owners came, and striving to lead her away, having received a payment from the possessions of the saint, they desisted, and so she is granted her freedom.

CHAPTER XLVII.

Concerning the man who was held for a debt.

In these days, when a certain man was pressed for the payment of a debt which he had contracted for his necessities, and he had neither the means nor the ability to repay what he had borrowed, he was confined in prison. At last, when the creditor saw that he could extort nothing from him, because he had nothing, and that there was no one to extend to him a hand of mercy, he bound him more tightly in chains, and having denied him food and drink, he said: I will make you waste away with hunger as a lesson to all, until you repay everything. While these things were being done, the relics of the holy bishop, which were being carried into the territory of Soissons, were passing through the street. And so the prisoner, having heard the voices of those singing psalms, prayed that the power of the holy bishop might visit him; and immediately, his bonds being loosed, with no one restraining him, he entered the holy basilica. Then, having been redeemed by the devoted faithful, he was freed from the bond of his debt.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the blind woman who was enlightened.

It also came to pass at one of the festivals that a woman who, having lost her sight, remained in blindness, upon hearing of the miracles of the holy man, sought his basilica with eager devotion. And when she had prostrated herself on the bare ground before the tomb, as soon as she poured forth her prayer, she merited to receive her sight.

CHAPTER XLIX.

Concerning the paralytic who was weak in his whole body.

At this solemnity there came a little boy with the gaze of his eyes closed, the passages of his ears stopped up, the offices of his mouth obstructed, the uses of his hands lost, the steps of his feet condemned. What more? He was so deadened in the use of all his members that he breathed only with his spirit alone. But when he reached the holy place, all his weakness being utterly removed, he departed healed with thanksgiving.

CHAPTER L.

Concerning the priest healed of fevers.

Lupus, a priest of the city of Bordeaux, was at a certain time grievously vexed by a quartan fever, so that when the fever came upon him he could take neither food nor drink. Meanwhile the festival of the blessed Martin the bishop arrived. And he, having celebrated the vigils with the rest of the clergy, in the morning went before them all and hastened to the basilica of the Saint. And while he was hurrying, he met a Jew, and when the latter asked him where he was going, he answered: I have contracted a quartan fever, and now I am hastening to the basilica of the Saint, that his power may drive this sickness from me. The other said: Martin will profit you nothing, whom the earth pressing upon him has made of earth, and you seek his shrine in vain.

For a dead man cannot give healing to the living. But he, despising the words of the ancient serpent, went back to where he had begun, and prostrate before the holy relics he poured out a prayer, and found there two little candles made of wax and papyrus. Taking these, he brought them home, and when they were lit, he drank down the ash of the papyrus with clean water, and at once received healing. But the Jew, seized by this infirmity, was tossed about for the space of a year; yet he could not be changed from his wicked mind even by torments.

CHAPTER LI.

Concerning the little infant son of Cardegisilus who was healed.

But Cardegisilus, a citizen of the city of Saintes, surnamed Cyso, when we had been received into his house, invited us to the oratory which his mother had built and consecrated with the relics of the blessed Martin. Then, when after prayer we were anxious to know whether the power of the holy Bishop had been shown there, he replied: Three years ago, this little boy, my son, whom you see before you, while he still hung at his mother's breast, began to be unwell, and for thirty days or more he was carried about in people's hands not without labor, until he was so afflicted that he could not even suck the breast, much less take any other food. And as he was failing, now on the sixth day after he had begun to be more seriously ill, we laid him weeping before the altar, awaiting his death. But I, unable to bear the grief, departed from the house, instructing my wife that when he had died, she should at once place him for burial.

As his mother wept, the infant lay there until evening; but when the sun was setting, he raised his voice and said: "Dearest sister, where are you?" For he was accustomed to call his mother this, as is the way with the endearments of infants. And she ran to him, saying: "Here I am, dearest son." And taking him up in her arms and offering her breast, once the milk was drunk he straightway recovered.

CHAPTER 50

Concerning a cleric with dysentery.

In these days, when these things were reported to us, one of our clerics came down with a flux of the belly together with fever and an excessive failure of the stomach; and what he discharged from below was for the most part blood. And this affliction had gripped him all the more because the food he took, as the nausea grew worse, he straightway threw up: but at once, as soon as he drank of the dust from the tomb, the infirmity was removed and he was made well.

CHAPTER 51

Concerning a man hanged and released. Likewise concerning another.

But I did not think this should be passed over in silence either, that he very often raised up those rushing headlong to death, stretching out the right hand of his mercy. In short, the servant of a citizen of our own city [Genitor], seized by the judge for the crime of theft, was sentenced to the gallows. As he was being led away, he kept invoking the name of the blessed bishop, saying: "Free me, holy confessor Martin, from the impending danger." So, having been hanged and left alone, with the wind suddenly stirred up, he heard a voice saying: "Let us free him.

And behold, the beam that supported the man was shaken from the four quarters of heaven, and together with a vast mass of turf it was torn from the earth like a tree uprooted, and so the man, given over to death, was raised up alive again. Another man also, who had committed many crimes and, pricked by God, was doing penance for the evils he had done, was seized for some reason or other and condemned to a similar death, ever invoking the aid of the blessed Confessor. And when he had been hung up, his bonds were broken and he fell to the ground unharmed. But the evil mind of men hung up again the man whom God had rescued. Hearing this, the abbot of the nearby monastery ran to the count to plead for him; for he was about three miles distant from there. Having obtained from him the man's life in this matter, he returned and found him alive. Having taken him down from the hanging, he brought him to the monastery, the man declaring and saying: "For I have felt the power of Saint Martin, who rescued me."

CHAPTER LIV.

Concerning the mute man healed.

For there was a man within the territory of the city of Tours itself, from the village of Mont Laudun, and that man was simple by nature, bound in the bond of marriage. As he lay at rest with his wife in the middle of the night, terror arose, and, stricken with fear and leaping from the bed, while he wandered trembling through his little lodging, he lost the service of his voice. Without delay, he indicated by a nod to his wife that she should bring him to the basilica of the Saint. When he arrived, while he lay continually before the blessed tomb for several months in prayer, his tongue was released, and he merited to receive speech as he had had it before, by the power of the blessed Bishop.

CHAPTER LV.

Concerning the woman whose hand had contracted.

A woman of Transliger, on the Lord's day, while she was doing work which the authority of the Fathers forbids to be done on that day, her hand contracted and stiffened, and her fingers were fixed into her palm. While she was tormented with pains, she came to the holy church of the Confessor; and she vowed that, if she were healed of this infirmity, she would thereafter do no work on this day of the Lord's resurrection which would be unfitting for that day; and immediately, with her fingers removed from her palm and her hand made straight, she departed.

CHAPTER LVI.

Concerning a woman who was contracted and blinded.

For the goodness of the Confessor is so great that it checks the foolish, setting their fault before their eyes, so as to make them corrected thereafter. For this reason a certain woman is weakened in her arms. For when on the Sabbath day after sunset, which adjoins the night of the Lord's resurrection, she placed bread in the oven, her arm was shaken with pain. After a second and a third loaf had been put in, her hand, unwilling, began to stiffen upon the wood which it was holding; and the woman, understanding that she was condemned by the judgment of divine power, quickly cast away openly what she was holding; nevertheless she could not escape the punishment. For her hands were so contracted with severe pain that her nails were driven into the palm itself. From this, believing that she could be healed by no physician's remedy, she sought the basilica of the Blessed Martyr, and there praying faithfully with hands stretched out, she departed healed; and she vowed that through each single month, coming for one week to the holy temple, she should serve God and the blessed Bishop. And this she was most manifestly known to have observed for one year. But after a year, having omitted the week of one month, she did not come to the holy basilica. But as she sat in her little lodging, one of her eyes was pierced with pain: pressing it, she lost it, and the other also began at once to ache. Thus in the space of a single hour she was made blind in both eyes.

Nor did the woman delay; having confessed her fault, she fled to the well-known defenses; and there pouring out prayer suppliantly, and performing penance for her negligence in compunction, on the eighth day, with blood flowing from her eyes, she was healed.

CHAPTER LVII.

Concerning a blind man who was healed.

The eyes of a certain man, covered by a thick cloud of darkness, had been closed with the eyelids joined as if by glue, and what remained of the man was held by great pains. What more? Devoutly he sought the festival of the Saint with the others, earnestly praying that he might deserve to be visited by the power of the blessed Bishop on the day of the solemnity. But the power of the Confessor anticipated the sacred solemnities, showing that he was present to the people when he drove away the darkness and restored the light. Therefore, three days before the festival, while he was praying in that atrium which surrounds the apse of the body, suddenly his eyes were opened, and looking, he merited to see the light. And when he recounted this with thanksgiving to those who were present, it was said to him that he should rather pour out prayer, so that the blessed Bishop might more swiftly fulfill the healing he had begun. Then, prostrated on the ground, when he had burst into tears, with his eyes strengthened, he rose up whole from the ground.

CHAPTER LVIII.

Concerning the paralytic and the two blind men cleansed and healed, and the two possessed.

But after the third day of this solemnity, there was a certain paralytic praying in this place, whose infirmity had come upon him for this reason, as he himself recounted: because when he was a very small boy and was keeping watch over the flocks in the field with the other shepherds, he fell asleep beside a certain spring; and when the others had likewise gone away at midday, he alone remained. And at last, left behind, when he tried to rise from sleep, he was seized by pains. Straightway all his limbs were contracted, and his arms twisted outward, the sinews in his knee drawn together, his heels pulled up to his shins, and since he had no strength to walk, immense tears poured from him with great cries. But when his companions returned to look after the flocks, he was found wailing. Then, carried in the arms of his parents, he was brought back home. But after a few days, when he was somewhat relieved of his pains, he was assigned to certain beggars, and going about with them through regions and cities for ten years or more, he came also to this festivity and was made firm in all his limbs. Two blind men were enlightened on the same day, and two possessed persons were cleansed at the tomb of the Bishop.

CHAPTER LIX.

Concerning the boy who was feverish.

A certain youth of our people was afflicted with nocturnal fevers to such an extent that from the eighth hour of the day until the second hour of the next day he could obtain no respite from the burning heat. Indeed, all food was hateful to him, and he took nothing by which he might be strengthened. A fierce pain also racked all his limbs, and pallor had settled upon his cheeks. And while he was thus carried in the arms of his parents as an invalid, I scarcely could obtain that he be brought to the tomb of the blessed Bishop. At last, having been brought there, when he had drunk a draught made from the sacred dust of the tomb mixed with water, straightway by this blessing, all his pain having been put to flight, the fever was extinguished. Without delay, the boy sought the private places of digestion, and was led into a corner for the purpose of purging his belly. But when, with his will urging him on and the wind driving it forth, he voided it, immediately two worms came out from him in the manner of serpents, which seemed to move so before the eyes of men that they were thought to be alive. These having been expelled from him, he was forthwith fully healed, and he took food and drink as he had been accustomed, and the redness was restored to his cheeks, the pallor having been put to flight, and he was made firm in all his limbs.

CHAPTER LX.

Concerning the things that were done on my journey.

There had recently arisen an occasion for me to go to the territory of the city of Clermont to visit my mother. But fearing the infirmities that might come upon us, I presumed to take some of this dust, that is, from the tomb of the blessed bishop, and to carry it with me, so that when some illness had attacked any of our people, the power of the saint might come to their aid with its customary help. So when I came to my mother, at once a fever with dysentery seized one boy, wore him down, and consumed him, so that, with the use of food denied him, he was nourished by the fevers alone. On the third day, when these things were being done and it had been reported to me, I gave the dust, mixed in drink, to the dying boy, and immediately, with the fever put to flight and the pain calmed, he recovered. In those days I heard from bishop Veranus that at a certain time, while he was being burned by the heat of a quartan fever, he sought the basilica of the blessed Martin which was in that place, kept vigil, and was healed. But we, coming from this journey to Clermont, found bishop Avitus so gravely shaken by a tertian fever that even if he took any food, he would immediately throw it up; but when a drink was taken from this same pledge, the fever was trampled down and he was strengthened. A wasting fever had attacked two of our boys and all the joints of their limbs, as had been settled; but having drunk from this blessing, they were healed.

I myself, on this journey, when I was grievously suffering from pain in my teeth, and now not only the teeth themselves, but the whole head was being pierced by the pulsing of veins and the darts of pain, and my temples were throbbing violently, I took refuge in this protection, and at once, the pain being suppressed, I recovered. O ineffable theriac! O indescribable ointment! O praiseworthy antidote! O heavenly purgative, so to speak, which surpasses the subtleties of physicians, exceeds the sweetnesses of spices, and grows beyond the strength of all ointments! It cleanses the belly like agaric, the lung like hyssop, and purges the head itself like pepper. Indeed it not only strengthens weak limbs, but—what is greater than all these—it wipes away and smooths out the very stains of consciences. Let these things, then, that have been set down suffice for this little book. Yet if we are still deemed worthy to behold miracles, it pleases me that they be inserted into another little book, so that the things that are shown ought to be made known not to the eyes, but rather to voices. For the rest, however, we beseech his power, that he who grants such things from his tomb may deign to raise us, already dead to God through sins, from the sepulcher of this death, so that at the time of the resurrection of our flesh he may obtain for us forgiveness, when he is carried forth to the crown.

Here ends the third book.

THE FOURTH BOOK.

Prologue.

The Prophet urges us with most wholesome exhortation, and in another psalm: Those who fear the Lord glorify him. Likewise also in another psalm: Those who fear the Lord are joined to the blessedness of the eternal house. Therefore it is plainly evident to human understanding that all are admonished—not only those free from guilt, but also those given over to the evil of noxious crime—to render worship reverently to the friends of God. This thing not only bestows benefit in the present age, but also grants refreshment in the future. For since we often see the insignia of virtues come forth from the tombs of the blessed, we are not undeservedly admonished to pay them the due reverence of honor, from whom we do not cease to seek remedies for our infirmities. And by their prayers we do not doubt that we obtain even the remission of sins: and not only to merit this, but to be saved from infernal punishments by their intercession. For we trust that just as here they cut off the kinds of diseases, so there they avert the savage penalties of torments; and just as here they mitigate bodily fevers, so there they extinguish eternal ones; and just as here they raise the corpses of the dead to life, so there they obtain that the stains of sins be cleansed by their intercession; and just as here they cleanse the foul, filthy ulcers of leprosy, so there they restore to eternal life those leprous with sin, snatched from the Acherontic pools by the hand laid upon them.

Wherefore, when each one rejoices in his own joy under his patron, then he renders the debt of honor more abundantly, when he has felt himself cleansed by his power from the infirmity by which he was held: as now both we and countless peoples have experienced concerning the blessed Martin, bishop and patron peculiar to the whole world: and would that the sloth of our mind permitted us to venerate him as is fitting for a friend of God, who has very often restored us to health when oppressed by so many kinds of diseases.

CHAPTER ONE.

Concerning the pain of my belly.

But in the most recent times I incurred a pain of the belly. And although it did not give relief altogether, nevertheless the evil of the pain wandered about in those winding recesses of the intestines. I applied, I confess, the baths rather often, and I caused hot substances to be bound over the very torments of the belly, but they could in no way heal the infirmity. For the sixth day had dawned, and the pain was growing stronger more and more, when it came into my memory that, a few years before, as is contained written in the second book of this work (Chapter 1), I had been healed from this pain by the power of the Saint. I approached rashly to the place of the tomb, and, prostrated on the ground, I poured out a prayer, and secretly, from the veils hanging there, I injected one thread under my clothing, and with the sign of the cross from it I marked my belly: immediately the pain was assuaged, and I departed well.

CHAPTER II.

Concerning my tongue and lips.

At a certain time, indeed, my tongue had become seriously afflicted, so that frequently, when I wished to speak, it made me stammer, which was not without shame for me. I went, moreover, to the tomb of the Saint, and with the wood of the railing I touched my impeded tongue: immediately, the swelling being pressed down, I recovered. For it had swollen greatly, and had filled the whole cavity of the palate. Then, after the third day, my lip began to swell out severely. I went again to seek healing at the tomb; and when my lip had been touched by the hanging curtains, immediately the throbbing of the vein stopped. And I believe these things happened to me from an abundance of blood; nevertheless I did not strive to reduce the blood, on account of the Saint's power. This matter caused me no further trouble.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning a boy healed from fever.

Finally, a very little boy was afflicted by a fever, and with his limbs wasted, since he took no food, he was at the point of breathing his last. His father ran to me in tears; I instructed him that, having carried the boy to the basilica, he should keep vigil over him the whole night. When he had done this, he immediately received the boy back healthy through the power of the holy bishop...

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning a crippled man, and a blind woman, and three demoniacs.

At the festival, moreover, which is celebrated in the month of May, a certain man arrived, whose fingers had contracted in his hand; after prayer had been made, with his fingers straightened he departed. A blind woman, moreover, after eight years, having prostrated herself on the ground before the tomb of the Saint, with her eyes enlightened, returned to her own place. Three demoniacs were then cleansed by the power of the Saint.

CHAPTER V.

Concerning the servant of Theodulf.

In that year (A.D. 588), that is, in the thirteenth year of King Childebert, there came to the festival which is celebrated for the blessed man's passing, a servant of Theodulf, a citizen of Tours, a swineherd, who, while he was keeping watch by night over the flock entrusted to him, lest either a beast snatch anything from it or the deceit of a thief carry it off, with a sudden darkness poured over his eyes, lost his sight. He, enduring in blindness for six years, came to this festival; but after the third day, enlightened by the power of the Saint, he was dismissed free by his master.

CHAPTER VI.

Concerning many infirmities healed.

Also in the year of the aforesaid king (589), when the solemnity of the Sauclus came, twelve paralytics were restored, three blind were enlightened, five demoniacs were cleansed. There was present at this festival also Aredius, abbot of the city of Limoges, whom we have mentioned in the earlier books, through whom the Lord restored with straight steps a certain paralytic woman, who for eight years had lain upon a cart in the atrium of the blessed Confessor. For the man of God himself asserted that he had felt, as it were, the hand of the blessed Martin, when he touched the limbs of the weak woman with a healing touch, having imposed the sign of the cross. There had come also to this festival Florentianus the mayor of the palace, with Romulfus, count of the palace. To them it was no small wonder concerning the glory of the Confessor, through whom the Lord deigned to work such great miracles.

CHAPTER VII.

Concerning a vine in Galicia.

And because we have made mention of Florentianus the mayor of the palace, I think it wrong to pass over in silence what I learned from him. At a certain time, on the business of an embassy, he went to Galicia, and coming into the presence of King Miro, he set forth the matters enjoined upon him. For King Miro was at that time in that city in which his predecessor had built a basilica of Saint Martin, as we have set out in the first book of this work. Before the portico of this house, a vine spread out over a chamber, with grapes hanging down through the trellises, flourished as though painted. For beneath it was a path which led the traveler on foot to the doors of the sacred house.

And when the king, passing by for the sake of prayer, was approaching this place, he said to his men: Take care that you do not touch one of these clusters, lest perhaps you incur the offense of the holy bishop. For all things that are contained in this courtyard are consecrated to him. Hearing this, one of the boys said within himself: Whether these things are consecrated to this saint or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that it is the resolve of my mind to eat from them. And immediately, putting out his hand, he began to cut off the tail of a cluster, and at once his right hand, clinging to the chamber, withered and stiffened with a shriveled arm. For he was the king's mime, who was accustomed to stir up laughter in him with jesting words. But no guffaw helped him, nor the trick of his art; but compelled by pain, he began to cry out and say: Help a wretched man, men; come to the aid of one oppressed; bring relief to one suspended; and pray for me the power of the holy bishop Martin, who am tormented by such an end, afflicted by such a blow, severed by such a cutting. The king also, having gone out, when he had learned what had been done, was inflamed with such fury against the boy that he wished to cut off his hand, if he had not been prevented by his men. Yet when his servants further said: Do not, O king, add your vengeance to the judgment of God, lest perhaps the injury which you threaten against the boy you turn back upon yourself.

Then he, stricken in heart, entered the basilica, and prostrate before the holy altar he poured out prayers to the Lord with tears; nor did he rise from the floor before a flood of tears from his eyes erased the record of his offense. When he had been loosed from the bond by which he had been bound and had entered the basilica, the king was lifted from the ground, and so, receiving his servant back in safety, he returned to the palace. Moreover, the aforementioned elder testified that he had learned these things from the account of the king himself, just as we have narrated they were done. For so does the glorious Pontiff illuminate his own city with miracles, that he is not felt to be absent from others.

CHAPTER VIII.

Concerning the basilica of the Saint at the city of Saintes.

But in the present year, Palladius, bishop of the city of Saintes, sought relics of this holy Confessor. For he had built a basilica in his honor, which he consecrated with these pledges, and he merited to receive there miracles which the city of the saint himself has quite often experienced. For after the course of two or three months, I received his letter, in which he indicated that three paralytic men with contracted feet had come; who, as soon as they entered the basilica and poured out prayer, with their steps made straight, were restored to health. Two blind men in that place merited to receive light after prayer was made, and more than twelve who were held by a shivering fever, with the trembling driven off, recovered.

CHAPTER IX.

Concerning two sufferers from dysentery.

Two of our boys, the cleric Dagobard and the layman Theodore, were suffering from dysentery with fever; and they were so weakened by the disease that, when the need of digestion came upon them, they could not be lifted from their bed except by the hands of others. But when dust from the tomb had been drunk, they immediately recovered.

CHAPTER X.

Concerning the patens which the Saint displayed.

There is among us a paten of sapphire color, which the Saint is said to have brought from the treasury of the emperor Maximus, and from it the power often comes forth upon those suffering from chills. For if anyone beset by the onset of fevers, who is wont to shiver in the air, should come and draw water from it, he is presently healed. And there is also at the village of Condat another paten, of metal resembling crystal, displayed by the Saint, offering a like benefit to the sick, if it is sought in faith. Bodillo, one of our notaries, when he was troubled in mind by weariness of the stomach, so that he could neither write as usual nor take down dictation, and could scarcely review what was dictated to him, then, when he was often rebuked with words, poured water over this paten of the blessed Martin, which we have mentioned as being with us, and put it to his mouth. Straightway, restored to his senses, he dispatched the work of his office more keenly than he had been accustomed.

CHAPTER XI.

Concerning Blideric, to whom sons were given.

But what wonder if he restores a mind disturbed by adversity to men, who has more often turned barrenness into fruitfulness? A certain Blideric, a citizen of the territory of Chartres, having taken a wife, prayed that he might be enriched by the gift of God with offspring from his procreation; but he deserved to receive no seed from her. For the thirtieth year had completed its course, with the wife remaining barren, when the man, reflecting most wholesomely for the benefit of his soul, said to his wife: Behold, the world which we use is passing away, and no offspring is begotten between us, who, when we fail, ought to possess the accumulated fruit of our labor. I shall go, he said, to the basilica of Saint Martin, and I shall make it my heir, so that, with children denied, I may at least possess with it in the future what I am able to have. The woman consented to the counsel of her prudent husband. Without delay, they proceed to the basilica of the Saint, and, having poured out prayer, he invites the abbot to come to his home with him. When he had come, he handed over all his possession to him, saying: Let all these things which I seem to have be in the dominion of Saint Martin, and let me use only so much from them as I need for my sustenance while I live. And when the matters were signed, he compelled the abbot to remain there. Wonderful to tell! after the course of thirty years, as we have said, on that very night on which he handed over his goods to the basilica, he knew his wife, who, conceiving, bore a son. But afterward he also had others. It is believed that this was granted to this man by the power of the Saint.

Nevertheless, that man did not reject the promise attached to the lilies he had received, but by assigning them other places, he confirmed what he had first bestowed upon the saint.

CHAPTER XII.

Concerning the blind woman at the estate of Tournay.

At the estate of Tournay, in the territory of Le Mans, which is now held within the jurisdiction of that holy basilica, a certain woman, afflicted with long-standing blindness and weighed down by old age, sat at the oratory of that estate, seeking alms and continually invoking the name of Saint Martin, when on a certain Sunday night her eyes began to be pricked by pain. Then she prostrated herself before the holy altar, and as blood burst forth, she received her sight. Yet the relics of the most blessed apostles, that is, of Peter and Paul, are kept in that same place; but she declared that she had been healed by the power of the holy bishop. Nevertheless, our faith holds that in the virtues of many saints one Lord works; and those whom the Lord makes equal to heaven and equal in miracles on earth are not separated in virtues.

CHAPTER XIII.

Concerning the withered hand restored.

At that festival, moreover, at which Aunacharius, bishop of the city of Auxerre, was present, a certain man brought a withered and contracted hand, but after the third day of the festival he carried it home restored.

CHAPTER XIV.

Concerning Baudegisilus the crippled.

A certain Baudegisilus, from the territory of the city of Angers, son of Baudolfus, an inhabitant of the village of Geinensis, when he was wounded by the dart of a savage humor, lay down crippled. And since he was fed by his poor father without the benefit of work, he implored his father with tears welling up that he might kiss the threshold of the basilica of Saint Martin. He, without delay, placed him in a boat, since he could not be conveyed by any other means of transport, and devoutly set him down before the feet of the Saint, that is, outside the tomb. He, devoting himself to prayer for several days and seeking the aid of the Saint, with his crippling removed was restored to health, and thus with his father he was restored safe and sound at home.

CHAPTER XV.

Concerning the man who sent wax.

In the territory of Auxerre as well there was a man named Caelestis, who had many beehives. When a swarm had gone out from them and, rising high, was flying far away, and he, following it, obtained no success at all in catching it, he cast himself on the ground and invoked the name of Saint Martin, saying: If your power, most blessed Confessor, should wish to hold back this swarm and restore it to my authority, whatever shall be produced from it hereafter I will take the honey for my own uses, but the wax I will send with all firmness for the lights of your basilica. Having said this, while he was still lying on the ground, immediately the swarm of bees settled and came to rest on a small tree that was near the man, and he gathered it and, having hidden it in a hive, brought it home; from it, within two or three years, he gathered much. When from these he had collected more than two hundred pounds of wax, a report of hostility arose. But he, seeing that his vow would be lost, covered the wax with earth in a ditch. When peace had also been restored, he summoned our deacon to fetch it. There was then with him a boy who was suffering a very severe pain in the kidneys. He, coming to the man and learning from his mouth what had been done, ordered the wax that lay hidden in the earth to be uncovered.

But the boy who was suffering the pain we have mentioned, when he took up the hoe and dug into the earth, said: "If you are favorable, holy Martin, and if your power is to look upon this man's offering, let your power touch my loins, and let it be my healing when I uncover this wax." And when he had struck the earth with the hoe, the little bone of his loins made a sound, and immediately all the pain was taken away; and so, unharmed, he was presented with this wax at the blessed basilica.

CHAPTER XVI.

Concerning the release of a prisoner.

A certain man of the city of Tours was found guilty before the judge, who ordered that he be bound in chains and kept under guard. But when the holy days of the Lord's resurrection came, the judge ordered him to be confined in another custody on the far bank of the river Loire. So he was led, bound not only with chains wrapped around him, but also with his hands tied behind his back; and when they had come to the bank of the said river and were waiting for a boat by which they were to cross, and he was ceaselessly imploring the aid of Saint Martin, it suddenly seemed to the guards as though they had been struck on the head by someone. And at once they fall to the ground, and the chains that held the bound man were broken, and the straps, loosened, were released from his hands. But he, feeling himself free, while the men were still lying there, withdrew from them and entered the threshold of the holy church, and so he was released by the judge. For some were reporting that in those days, at the city of Poitiers as well, prisoners had been released from the prison's dungeon.

There can be no doubt of this, since the power of one Confessor was able to illuminate both cities with sacred miracles.

CHAPTER XVII.

Concerning the blind boy.

A very little boy named Leudovald, a slave of a certain Baudeleif, from a village of Angers which antiquity named Crovio, after he had been reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, was playing a game in the street with the other children, and, as that age allows, was running here and there, when suddenly a wind arose with violence and, raising the dust, filled the child's eyes. And when, struck by blindness, he was tormented by pains, a certain man appeared to his grandmother in a dream, instructing her as follows: "Go," he said, "to the basilica of Saint Martin, and this boy will receive his sight." The woman did not delay, but came with full faith to the festival of the blessed man, and received her grandson enlightened by the power of the Pontiff.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Concerning the blind girl.

For a girl in the territory of this same city, by the name of Viliogundis, was blinded in a similar circumstance. For while she was running about playing with the other little girls through the streets of the village, the dust raised by the violence of the wind filled her eyes. She, immediately vexed by pains, asked her parents to lead her to the basilica of Saint Martin. This done, as soon as they had offered prayer for her, she was enlightened. And as we were coming out from the solemnities of the mass, the aforementioned boy and girl met us together, saying that they had received the light at that very hour by the power of the blessed Bishop.

This brought us great joy as believers, because the power of the blessed Confessor deigned to visit us.

CHAPTER XIX.

Concerning the crippled and blind man.

A certain Litoveus, weak in his limbs from infancy, was struck blind by an accompanying fever; but coming to the earlier festival, he departed with his limbs straightened, though his sight was still withheld. But when he had returned again to this solemnity, freed from the darkness, a bright light rose upon him.

CHAPTER XX.

Likewise concerning another blind man.

At this festival also Leudardus, slave of Emnerius, deacon of the city of Nantes, who had been bound by the chain of blindness for six years, approached the basilica and was enlightened by the power of the blessed Confessor. For he had been warned through a vision of a dream to seek the aid of this holy Bishop.

CHAPTER XXI.

Concerning the provisions which Motharius, a citizen of Tours, took up.

A certain one of the citizens of Tours, while he was hastening to meet the king, deposited a vessel of wine and one loaf at the tomb, to remain there for one night, so that, being on his journey, he might have this as a safeguard of salvation. Then, having taken these up, he began to pursue his journey. It happened, however, that seeking lodging, he entered the guest-house of a certain man, and having set down his baggage, the woman who had an unclean spirit began to announce the arrival of the blessed Martin with immense cries, and to say: Why do you pursue us, holy one? Why do you torment us, servant of God?

Then that stranger who had come, taking the cup and drawing a little wine from that vessel, placed in it a broken piece of blessed bread. As soon as that woman who was raving received it, at once, with blood expelled along with the demon, she was healed. Another woman in the same place, who had long been ill with the chill of fevers, received a little of this blessing, and as soon as she took it, she was healed.

CHAPTER XXII.

Concerning the contracted man made straight.

Silluvius, an inhabitant of Bayeux, while he was in the countryside doing some work, was struck with terror when the wind rose, and began to tremble, and to be weakened in all his limbs, and even to cry out and declare that death was imminent for him. Meanwhile, as his neighbors ran together to such a spectacle, he, amid shouts and wailings, with his sinews contracted, was wholly disabled; and not only was the use of his ears denied him, but he also lost the very light of his eyes. But after fifteen years, while he lived in this misfortune, coming to the festival of Saint Martin, with his limbs made sound and his eyes recovered, he departed.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Concerning a blind woman and a weak man healed.

Nor was it by a power unlike this that the woman Ermegundis, a citizen of Andecavis, an inhabitant of the village of Croviensis, who was crippled and blind, was directed to this festival and departed healed. But Charimundus also, coming from Bricilonnum weak, was restored by the power of the blessed Bishop.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Concerning many blind and possessed persons healed.

On the day of this solemnity as well, several persons experienced the power, with the grace of Christ cooperating. For Leodemundus, blind, coming to the basilica of the aforesaid Bishop after seven years, received his sight. And three other blind persons besides received sight on this festival through the aid of the blessed Bishop, and very many possessed persons were cleansed.

CHAPTER XXV.

Concerning a girl healed of a fever.

The home-born slave girl of our priest Leo, when she had withdrawn to a small villa near the city, carried in her parents' arms, was overcome by the violence of a fever, and, greatly agitated day and night, was seen to be in danger of death. The priest, seeing her wasting away from the violence of the disease, mounted his horse by night and came to the basilica of the holy Confessor, and knocking at the door of the cell in which the sacristan was resting, he could not rouse the man. And since he was unable to enter the holy basilica, he poured out a prayer before the apse of the tomb, and gathered a little of the earth's dust, which, full of faith, he carried away with him, and when it was diluted and brought to the little girl to drink, the fever at once departed.

CHAPTER XXVI. Concerning the prisoners set free.

There was a certain case of King Childebert that compelled us to go into his presence. As we were pressing on, we took our journey through the district of Reims, and we found a certain man who by his account made known to us that the prison of this city, in which among the other bound men this little branch was held, had been opened by the power of Martin; and he told us that the prisoners had been released from the jail and had gone away free. For this prison was roofed in such a way that over a pile of beams strong planks were laid across, and above these, to press them down, notable stones had been placed. Nevertheless the door of the prison also, secured with an iron lock, was barred with a key-driven bolt; but the power of the bishop, as the same informant asserted, moved the stones, scattered the planks, shattered the chains, and opened the beam that cramped the feet of the bound men, and with the door not unlocked, he brought the men out through the air, lifted up, with the roof lying open, saying: I am Martin, soldier of Christ, your deliverer. Depart in peace, and go in safety. But when we, coming to the king, spread abroad the report of this miracle of power, he affirmed that certain of those who had been set free had come to him, and that the composition due for the offense, which they call fredum, had been remitted by him to the guilty. Now this was done four days before the festival (in the year 591), in the sixteenth year of the aforesaid king.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Concerning the servant of Bishop Nonnichius healed of a weakness.

Now when the feast of the blessed Martin drew near, Nonnichius, bishop of the Namnetes, came to the basilica of the Saint, bringing with him a boy whose limbs were withered, by name Baudegisillus. When the solemn rites of the Saint had been celebrated, he restored him to his limbs and led him back home in health.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Concerning the fever of Claudius, chancellor of the royal court.

While we also were staying with the king, a certain Claudius, one of the royal chancellors, was seized by a fever. And when, oppressed by the excessive fever, he had come to loathe food and drink, he lamented to us what he was suffering; and as soon as he drank the dust diluted in water, which we had lifted from the tomb of the Saint and the Blessed one for his salvation, the fever was at once checked and he was healed.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Concerning what Agnes, abbess of Poitiers, reported from a certain sailor.

Now the venerable Agnes, abbess of the holy virgins of Poitiers, reported that the matter of this miracle came to her from the very man to whom it happened, namely Trevericus, a merchant, as follows: "When," she said, "I had come to Metz, a certain merchant asked me whence I came. I said: 'From Poitiers.' He asked me whether I had ever been to the basilica of the blessed Martin at Tours. I said that, as I was traveling in Austrasia, I had presented myself there. He told me what benefit of the lord Martin he had experienced. For while he was trading salt at Metz, and had brought his boat to the bridge at Metz, he said: 'Lord Martin, I commend to you myself and the little boys I have, and my little boat.'

Meanwhile, as we lay resting in the boat, we all fell asleep. In the morning, when I awoke with the boys I had with me, we found ourselves before the Treveric gate, not knowing how we had come, since we still believed we were staying at Metz. By what means we had either sailed or flown, only the commendation of the blessed Martin knows; for we had not felt the river, and we had avoided the shipwrecking waves of the Moselle then raging. And what is wondrous enough, how we passed unharmed among the rocks in the nighttime, with no sailor keeping watch, no wind blowing, no oar guiding us.

CHAPTER XXX.

Concerning the miracles of the monastery of Locociagum.

At a later time, when we had come as far as the city of Poitiers, it pleased me, for the sake of prayer alone, to visit the monastery of Locociagum, where the blessed man had settled a gathered company of monks. For there he is read to have first raised a dead man, and he who was led by him to the episcopate is written to have been there. Therefore, seeking the desired place, I prostrated myself at the railing of the corner in which the spirit of the dead man is said to have been restored. After tears poured out with prayer, and masses solemnly celebrated, I asked the abbot whether the Lord had shown any miracle there. And he asserted before the brothers who were present that very often the blind were enlightened there and the weak restored. "Yet what was recently done," he said, "since you inquire earnestly, my lord, I will unfold to you.

A certain woman from a neighboring place, struck by the humor of paralysis, had entirely lost the use of all her limbs. She was placed on a cart and, drawn by oxen, was carried about after the manner of the rich, so that she might supply the needs of her poverty. Therefore, when she had been brought to this place and had prostrated herself on the pavement, approaching with slow effort, she devoutly kissed the veil that covered the holy screen, saying: “I believe that you are present here, blessed Confessor; I testify that here you raised the dead. For I trust that, if you are willing, you can save me and restore me to health, just as once, having burst the jaws of hell, you brought back the soul of the dead.” Having said this, she bathed her cheeks abundantly with tears; and immediately, when the prayer was finished, whatever was withered, whatever was contracted, whatever was dissolved was made whole in the woman’s body by the power of the blessed Bishop. By a similar lot, another paralytic also, coming to this monastery, as soon as he touched the veil of its screen, with all weakness removed, departed healed. It lies about forty stadia from the city of Poitiers.

CHAPTER XXXI

How the Saint obtained by prayer that a spring should arise.

Setting out from there, we entered the territory of Saintes. And when at a certain banquet we were conversing about the miracles of blessed Martin, one of the citizens faithfully related this to me, with the others affirming that it was true. There is a estate called Najogiato situated in this territory. When Saint Martin, while still alive in the body, was going to it, he met a man carrying water with a vessel. For that well, from which he was carrying it, was situated in a valley about a thousand paces from the estate, and the inhabitants used to bring water from it for their needs. The man of God said to the man carrying the water: I ask you, most beloved, hold back your hand, and grant a little water to this donkey on which I sit, to drink. He said: If you think it necessary to water your animal, go to the well, and drawing water you shall give it to him. For I will not give what I have carried with labor; and saying this he passed by. When he had gone away, a woman came at once, herself also carrying water in a vessel; and the man of God spoke to her similarly. She immediately, like Rebecca once hearing the message of God (Gen. 24), said: I give drink to you and to your donkey; nor is it any labor to me to draw again. Only let it be your will, who are continuing your journey and enduring need. And setting down the vessel from her arms, she gave the man of God drink. When this was done, drawing water again and filling the vessel, she returned to her life.

Pursuing this, the saint said: "I will repay you a benefit for your kindness, because you have watered the ass of God." And kneeling on the ground, he prayed to the Lord that he would reveal a vein of a spring in that place. And immediately, the prayer being finished, the earth was broken open and he revealed a vast spring to the wondering peoples. This spring even to this day provides benefit to the people dwelling in that field. For at the mouth of that spring there is a stone as a testimony, which preserves the footprint of that little ass on which the holy bishop sat.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Concerning the fire of the city of Poitiers.

Nor do I think that should be passed over in silence, which at that time, when Plato obtained the bishopric of the city of Poitiers, was shown by the power of the saint. A house adjoining the church's house was being consumed by a great fire, and sparks with coals were falling upon the house of the church, driven by the wind. But he, having with him dust from the blessed tomb, raised the chrismarium against the fire, and suddenly a wind arose contrary to that wind, warding off the flames from the church's roof, and drove them into another direction, and thus the house of the church was preserved.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Concerning a boy healed of a fever.

When his boy lay on his bed consumed by a most severe fever, and was already regarded as all but lifeless, as soon as he gave some of this dust, mixed with water, to the sick one, the boy at once recovered from his suffering, the fever having been banished. But let us return to the basilica of the saint.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Concerning Leodulfus, out of his mind and crippled.

When, some years before this, a great earthquake shook the earth, and all things were violently moved, as if about to fall in a single moment, a certain Leodulfus was violently shaken by it, and was not only deprived of his senses, but was also made weak in all his limbs. Coming to the basilica of Saint Martin, and devoting himself to prayer for a few days, he was restored to speech, to sense, and to all his limbs, sound as if brought back to life.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Concerning an innocent man accused by calumny, and set free.

Nor do I think that should be passed over, that a man innocently accused through the calumnies of wicked men was being brought bound with a strap to the city, to be thrust into prison. And when he had been led publicly before the basilica of the holy apostle Peter and had come to the embankment, his hands were loosed, and he said to the guards: "In this it is clear that I am free from the crime you speak of, since my hands have been loosed by divine power." Then they, indignant, bound him more tightly, and moreover, adding yet another strap to the binding, they bound, so to speak, the very bonds themselves. It happened, however, at that time, that we were coming through the square from the basilica of Saint Martin.

But when these men, coming to meet us, drew near, as soon as the bound man caught sight of the basilica of the saint, his hands were at once loosed; and leaping from the horse on which he sat, he seized our feet, declaring that he had been unjustly condemned. And so, while we were conversing with the judge, he departed without weariness.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Concerning a woman healed of dumbness.

The wife of Serenatus, one of our people, when she was returning from the cultivation of the fields with her husband sent on ahead, suddenly slipped from the hands of those accompanying her and fell to the ground, and with her tongue bound, unable to bring forth any word from her mouth, she became mute. Meanwhile, when soothsayers came and said that she was suffering an attack of the noonday demon, they brought out herb-bindings and the words of incantations; but they could not, as was their custom, apply the remedy of healing to one who was about to perish. And when the household resounded with great wailing, her son ran breathless to our granddaughter Eustenia, announcing that his mother had reached the end of extreme life. She, coming to the sick woman and visiting her, and having removed the bindings that the foolish had applied, poured oil of the blessed sepulchre into her mouth, and sealed it with wax. Soon, with speech restored and the deceit of wickedness cut off, the sick woman recovered.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

How those sick with chills were healed.

Now at the time when, after the death of the most glorious King Guntchramn, King Childebert came to the city of the Aurelianenses, one of the boys of the court was grievously shaken by a tertian fever, the fevers coming and going, with a trembling coming over him. When he had complained of this to us, we reached out to him a little of the dust of the saint's sepulcher; and drawing it in, with the trembling suppressed he recovered. But on the following night, when that day on which he was accustomed to be broken by it had come, he saw in a vision a most hideous person coming and saying to him: "Behold, now the time of your trembling has come; why do you dissemble? Do what you are accustomed to do." While he was saying this, there came a certain man splendid of countenance, with snow-white hair, comely in appearance, saying to him: "Do not tremble, but make the sign of the venerable cross upon your forehead, and you shall be healed at once." Awakened from this vision, and fortified by this sign which he had been bidden to make, he never afterward suffered what he had been wont to suffer. A girl of the queen, worn out by this same fever, having taken a draught of this healthful remedy, was healed.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. Concerning the blind, the possessed, and the paralytic.

Not many days later, when the annual day of the holy solemnity had come round again, we, having returned from the king, were present at that festival, at which four blind men, having received their sight, returned; two possessed men were cleansed; and two paralytics, who had been crippled, with their steps restored, went back sound.

CHAPTER XXXIX. How prisoners were released.

But after a few days, when the judge's sentence had shut certain guilty men of the city of Tours in the prison's dungeon, as the bound men lamented, the power of the blessed Confessor appeared, which, having burst the chains of the prisoners, permitted the Iberians to go into the basilica. And so they also, released by the judge, withdrew to their own places.

CHAPTER XL. Concerning Mauranus, the mute.

A certain man in the region of Cantabria, by name Mauranus, rising from his bed in the morning, while he was going out from the house, it seemed to him as if he had been struck by something on the neck. And at once falling to the ground, he became as if dead, and for three days, living only by breath, he was thought to be dead. But on the fourth day, with his eyes opened, he could speak nothing. For the faculty of speaking had been taken from him. But when he had heard of the miracles of the blessed Martin, he handed a single triens to the sailors, indicating with supplication that they should carry him to the shrine of the blessed bishop. As they were going away, he, having returned to his own house, saw before his feet a gold coin in the likeness of a triens. Having taken it up and weighed it, it was found to weigh the weight of one solidus.

Seeing this, Ute said within himself: The power of the blessed Martin has repaid me the favor for the loan I directed to his church. And kindled with desire, he wanted to board one ship and then another, but he was held back by his parents. When a third ship was found, he could not be held back at all. Having boarded it, when with a driving wind they had entered the deep to sail, the power of the holy bishop opened his mouth. And stretching out his hands to heaven, he spoke, saying: I give thanks to you, almighty God, who commanded me to plow this journey. For before I see the temple of your saint, I have been filled with his benefits. As they sailed, they put in at the city of Bordeaux; and having disembarked from the ship, coming to the basilica of the holy man of God and fulfilling his vow, we learned from his own mouth the things we have written.

CHAPTER XLI.

Concerning the contracted and those bound in chains.

But when another festival came round, which is celebrated in winter, a certain Maurellus from the household of Pontincon (Pontion), a servant of Duke Agiulf, who in the month of March through some incursion or other had lost the use of one knee, and was unable to plant his step, attached a stick to his knee, as is the custom of the lame, and was present. When he had poured out prayer to the Lord for the space of three days, on the fourth day, which was the day before the festival, with his knee made straight he departed healed. But after a few days, men who were being held bound in prison, divinely released, entered the basilica of the saint, and through the judge were freed from penalty.

CHAPTER XLII [At., XLI].

Concerning another cripple.

A certain boy, crippled in his feet and hands, from the estate of Themellum in the district of the city of Tours, having come to the basilica of the Saint, while among the other suppliants he was asking for a morsel of food, was visited by the power of the Saint and departed healed.

CHAPTER XLIII [Al., XLII].

Concerning boys cured of fever.

Also another little boy of Euthymius, our priest, when he had fallen into the illness of an excessive fever and was thought to be at the point of death from it, the priest, lifting some dust from the holy sepulcher and tearing off the fringes of the pall placed over it, brought it with him, and gave the dust to the boy to swallow, and tied the fringes around his neck. Straightway the fever was quenched and he was healed. In no different manner also Ulfaricus the priest, applying his care, came to the aid of another boy suffering from fever, and he immediately recovered, free of fever through the power of the Saint.

CHAPTER XLIV [At., XLIII].

Concerning Principius, who was out of his mind.

A certain good man, Principius, a citizen of the city of Périgueux, was thought to have fallen into some madness or other, and at times he was so gravely afflicted that he seemed to lose his reason. When he had endured this for many months, he sought the basilica of the blessed Bishop; and there, as I reckon, he stayed four months, abstaining from meat and wine, and aided by the protection of the blessed Confessor, he was restored sound to his own house.

CHAPTER XLV [At., XLIV].

Concerning Leodulfus, a blind man, healed.

And because the rusticity of men, while it little follows the preaching of priests, prepares itself for offense against God, I shall set forth what was done recently. A certain Leodulfus, a man of the city of Bourges, when he had cut hay, fearing lest by the coming of rain he should be drenched and lose his labor, on the morning of the Lord's day yoked his oxen and drove to the meadow, and began to pile the hay upon the cart; and immediately one of his feet seemed to him as if burning, and returning to his own house, he rested from the work. But after the solemnities of the mass had been celebrated, again yoking his oxen he went on to finish the work begun; and when the cart had been filled with hay, immediately his eyes, as if pricked by certain stings, brought upon him the greatest pain. These being closed, he could never afterward open them.

And so, remaining in blindness for a whole year, he came devoutly to the festival of the holy Bishop; and three days afterward he was restored by the gift of the light he had lost.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Concerning two other crippled men.

At that same time another crippled man also arrived, and, guided by the power of the Saint, returned to his own city on his own feet. There had come a certain man from Britain, by the name of Paternianus, who through some contagion had become blind, mute, and deaf, and crippled in his hands, and with all his limbs wasted by disease, only his feet still gave support to the man. He sought the basilica of the most powerful patron, poured out prayer, with opened eyes beheld the light he had lost, received his hands for their former use, and, marveling that he had been saved by the power of the blessed Bishop, declared the grace of his recovery to the peoples. For the sake of this miracle he received gifts from many, and from these he has already freed several from the yoke of captivity.

CHAPTER XLVII [XLVII, formerly XLVI].

Concerning a fire extinguished by his aid.

Also in the present time, in the city of Bordeaux, a certain house was seized by fire and began to burn fiercely. And when, with the flames spreading this way and that, other houses lay exposed to this danger, and there was no doubt that they too would be consumed by the heat of this conflagration, the people gathered around began earnestly to invoke the name of the blessed Martin, and with tears to entreat that his power not permit the neighboring houses to be burned; and so, at the raised voice of those weeping, the crackling of the flame began to subside. And as they cried out together, suddenly, with the Bishop granting it, aid arrived; and the fire, beaten down by suppliant prayer, the people extinguished with tears what they had been unable to overcome with water. At that time our boy Laudovald, when he was being grievously afflicted by dysentery, as soon as he received some of the dust from the tomb, was straightway freed from the disease.

Here ends the fourth book, concerning the virtues and miracles of Saint Martin the confessor.