De Virtutibus Sancti Martini Episcopi

Of the holy Gregory, Bishop of Tours, a letter in four books on the virtues of the holy bishop Martin. 993-994 To the holy lords, most sweet in the love of Christ, my brothers and sons of the Church of Tours committed to me by God, Gregory the sinner. Those miracles which our Lord God deigned to work through the blessed Martin, his bishop, while he was in the body, He deigns to confirm daily for strengthening the faith of believers. He now adorns with his virtues the tomb of him who worked in him while he was in the world; and He who then sent the bishop to perishing peoples now bestows benefits through him upon Christians. Therefore let no one doubt the virtues of the past, when he sees the gifts of present signs dispensed, when he sees the lame raised up, the blind enlightened, demons put to flight, and all other kinds of diseases cured by his healing. I, however, bringing faith to that book which was written about his Life by earlier authors, will commit to memory for posterity, by the Lord’s command, the present virtues, as far as I recall them. I would not presume to do this, had I not been admonished a second and third time in a vision. Yet I call almighty God to witness, because I once saw in a dream, in the middle of the day, in 995-996 the basilica of the lord Martin, many weak persons and those oppressed by various diseases healed, and I saw them, while my mother looked on, who said to me: “Why are you slow to write down these things which you see?

I said to him: "Does it not escape you that I am ignorant of letters, and that I, foolish and unlearned, dare not proclaim such wondrous miracles? Would that Severus, or Paulinus, were alive, or at least that Fortunatus were present, to describe these things. For I, unskilled as I am, incur a mark of disgrace if I attempt to record them." And he said to me: "Do you not know that if someone speaks among us for the understanding of the people, as you are able to speak, he is considered all the more excellent? Therefore do not hesitate, and do not cease from this work; for it will be a sin for you if you keep silent about these things." But I, desiring to do this, am afflicted by the torment of a twofold weariness, of grief and of fear alike: grief that such great miracles, which were performed under our predecessors, have not been recorded; fear that I, a rustic, should undertake a noble work. But lured by the hope of divine mercy, I shall undertake what is urged. For it is possible, I believe, that through the barrenness of my tongue he may bring forth these things, he who, producing water from a dry flint in the desert, quenched the thirst of a parched people; or surely it will be evident that he again opens the mouth of an ass, if, opening my lips, he deigns to spread these things through me, unlearned as I am. But why do I fear my rusticity, when the Lord Redeemer and our God, to destroy the vanity of worldly wisdom, chose not orators but fishermen, not philosophers but rustics?

I trust, therefore, in your prayers, because even if an uncultivated speech cannot adorn the page, yet the glorious Bishop will make it shine with his illustrious virtues.