E03482: Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Martin (2.60), recounts, as the final miracle of Book 2, how he himself was cured of repeated headaches at the tomb of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) in Tours, after he touched his head with the curtain that hung in front of the saint's tomb, and with the cloth that covered it; AD 580/581. Gregory closes the book, and thus his account of the first hundred miracles of Martin, with an invocation of Martin, asking for his help in this world and the next. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 581.
Creators: name: Kwojtalik
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2017
Subjects: History

description: Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi) 2.60<br><br>Gregory describes how his plan for Book 2 of the Miracles of Martin was for it to include 60 miracles, thereby making up 100 miracles between Book 1 (with 40) and Book 2 (with 60). Having opened Book 2 with a miracle performed on himself, Gregory believes that the miracle he is about to recount was providentially ordained, so that he could close Book 2 with a similar miracle.<br><br>In quo cum quinquaginta novem virtutes discripsissem et sexagesimam adhuc adtentius praestolarem, subito mihi sinistrum capitis timpus artatur doloribus, et pulsantibus venis, defluentibus lacrimis, tantus inminebat cruciatus, ut oculum vi conpremerem, ne creparet. Quod dum per unam diem ac noctem graviter ferrem, mane adveniens ad basilicam sancti, orationi prosternor. Qua expleta, doloris locum velo, qui ante beatum dependebat sepulchrum, attegi. Quo tacto, protinus et pulsus venarum et lacrimarum fluxus stetit. Post triduum vero dextram capitis partem similis attigit dolor. Pulsabant venae, atque ubertim lacrimae defluebant. Iterum mane consurgens, pari ut prius modo contacto velo capite, sanus abscessi. <br><br>Transactis vero decim diebus, visum est mihi minuere sanguinem; tertia vero die post sanguinis diminutionem subiit mihi cogitatio, et, ut credo, per insidiatorem iniecta, quod haec quae pertuleram a sanguine evenissent, et, si vena protinus fuisset incisa, confestim ista cessassent. Dum haec cogito ac revolvo, amborum timporum venae prosiliunt, renovatur dolor, qui prius fuerat, et iam non unam partem capitis, sed totum arripit caput. Commotus ergo doloribus, ad basilicam propero, ac pro cogitatione prava deprecans veniam, palla, quae beatum tegit sepulchrum, caput attigi; mox, dolore sedato, sanus recessi de tumulo.<br><br>'As for this book, when I had described fifty-nine miracles and was still attentively awaiting the sixtieth, suddenly, my left temple was cramped with pain, and as my veins pulsed and tears flowed, the torment was so great that I pressed hard on my eye to keep it from bursting. When I had suffered like this severely for a day and a night, and day-break came, I went to the basilica of the saint and prostrated myself in prayer. After I finished, I touched the painful spot to the curtain that hung in front of the blessed tomb. At its touch, at once the pulsing pain and the flowing tears stopped. After three days, however, a similar pain attacked the right side of my head: the veins pulsed and abundant tears flowed. Again, after I had arisen at day-break and touched my head to the curtain as I had done earlier, I left healed. <br><br>Ten days later it seemed best to let my blood; but three days after letting my blood the idea came to me, as I believe insinuated by the tricks of the Deceiver, that my sufferings had been due to my blood, and that they would have ceased immediately if a vein had been immediately cut. While I was thinking these thoughts and turning them over in my mind, the veins in both my temples begin throbbing again, the pain that had been there before was renewed, and it now seized not just one side, but my whole head. Distressed by the pain, I hasten to the basilica, and while asking forgiveness for the perverse thought, touched my head to the cloth that covered the blessed tomb; at once, the pain was stilled, and I left the tomb healthy.' <br><br>Gregory writes that another book may follow, if more miracles occur, but, for the present, thanks God that he has been able to complete these two books. He closes with a request to Martin to help him, in this world and the next:<br><br>Deprecans, ut quod saepe confessor tribuit populis mihi peccatori largus indulgeat, purgetque me a morbis, quos saepe conspicit et intendit, restituat mihi lumen veritatis, eruat me ab infidelitatis lapsu, mundet cor et mentem a lurida lepra luxoriae, purget cogitationes a concupiscentiis pravis atque omnem a me facinorum molem diluat ac prosternat, ut, cum in iudicio sinistrae fuero parte locatus, ille me de medio hedorum sacrosancta dextera dignetur abstrahere, reservatumque post tergum, sententiam iudicis praestoletur. Cumque eo iudicante fuero flammis infernalibus deputatus, sacrosancto pallio, quo ille tegitur a gloria, me contectum excuset a poena, dicentibus regi angelis, quod quondam de monacho resuscitato dixerunt: "Iste est, pro quo Martinus rogat". Fiatque, ut, quia non mereor illa claritate vestiri, vel ab inruentibus tartarorum ministris merear liberari; nec tantum mihi noxa praevaleat, ut separer ab eius regno, quem fideliter sum confessus in saeculo. EXPLICIT LIBER II.<br><br>'And I implore the confessor to grant me, a sinner, generously what he has often granted to the people: that he may cleanse me of the errors which he often sees and notices, that he may restore in me the light of truth, prevent me from falling into disbelief, purge my heart and mind of the lurid leprosy of lust, purify my thoughts of perverse desires, and that he may wash and cast off the whole weight of my crimes from me, so that at the Judgement, when I have been placed on the left-hand side, he will deign to snatch me from the midst of the goats with his sacrosanct right hand and keep me safe behind his back while awaiting the Judge's verdict. And when, according to the Judge's decision, I have nevertheless been sentenced to the eternal flames, that he will wrap me in the sacrosanct mantle that covers him in his glory and rescue me from punishment, while the angels say to the Judge, as they once said about the monk who had been revived: "This is the man Martin is interceding for."<br><br>And let it happen that, although I do not deserve to be clothed in light, I may still deserve to be rescued from the servants of Tartarus when they attack, and that the weight of my sins alone may not prevail over me so that I be separated from the kingdom of the One whom I have faithfully confessed in this worldly life. END OF BOOK TWO'<br><br>Text: Krusch 1969, 179-180. Translation: de Nie 2015, 659-661, modified using Van Dam 1993, 258-259.