E00674: Bishop Nicetius of Trier (eastern Gaul), describes the posthumous healing power of the Gallic saints *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050), *Germanus (bishop of Auxerre, ob. c. 448, S00455), *Lupus (bishop of Troyes, ob. 479, S00418), *Hilary (bishop of Poitiers, ob. 367, S00183), *Remigius (bishop of Reims, ob. c. 533, S00456), and *Medard (bishop of Noyon buried at Soissons, ob. 557/558, S00168), and contrasts this with the alleged absence of miracles in Arian churches. Letter to Chlodosinda, Queen of the Lombards, written in Latin, presumably at Trier, between 561 and 569.
Creators: name: Dlambert
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2015
Subjects: History

description: Nicetius of Trier, letter to Queen Chlodosinda (Epistolae Austrasicae 8)<br><br>The purpose of Nicetius' letter is to call upon Chlodosinda, a Frankish princess who had married Alboin, King of the Lombards, to persuade her husband to become a Nicene rather than an Arian. This passage follows on immediately from the argument put forward by Nicetius that relics and churches dedicated to the saints are ineffective for Arians (E00747).<br><br>Hic si iubet ad domnum Martinum per festivitate sua, quod undecima dies facit November, ipsos mittat, et ibi, si audent, aliquid praesumant, ubi caecos hodie inluminare conspicimus, ubi surdis auditum et mutis sanitatem recipere. Nam quid dicam de leprosos aut de alios quam plures, qui quanta et quanta debilitate percussi sunt, ibidem per singulos annos – sed per singulos annos alii et alii – sanantur? Et fortasse dicunt: Confingunt vel caecos. Quia caeci a natiivitate esse videntur, quid dicunt, cum inde inluminatos conspicimus et ad propria, Deo miserante, sanos reverti videmus? Nam quid dicam adhuc de domni Germani, Hilari vel Lupi episcopis, ubi tanta mirabilia hodie apparent, quantum nec dicere verbis valeo; ubi tribulantes, id est demonia habentes, in aera suspensi torquuntur et dominos, quos dixi, esse confitentur? Numquid in ecclesias eorum sic faciunt? Non faciunt, quia Deum et dominos sanctos ibi habitare non sentiunt: daemon daemonem non exorcizat; nam ubi sancti habitant, daemon vagari non dimittitur. Ideo fit, ut locus, ubi Deus est, ostendatur. Quid de domno Remegio et domno Medardo episcopis, quos tu, credo, videres? Non possumus tanta exponere, quanta mirabilia per illos Deum videmus facere.<br><br>'If he [Alboin] orders, let him send his men to the lord Martin during his feast, which is on the eleventh day of November, and, if they dare, let them venture to do something there, where every day we see the blind receive their sight, the deaf their hearing, and the dumb their health. What shall I say of lepers or of many others, who, no matter with what sickness they are afflicted, are healed there year after year? Perhaps they will say: "They are pretending to be blind". What do they say when they are seen to have been blind from birth, when we see them receive sight there, through God's mercy, returning healed to their own place? What shall I say of the lord bishops Germanus, Hilary, or Lupus, where so many wonders occur every day, so great that I cannot express them in words: where the afflicted (that is, having demons) are suspended and whirled round in the air and confess those I have named to be their masters? Do such things happen in their [the Arians'] churches? They do not happen, because the demons do not feel that God and the holy lords (dominos sanctos) dwell there: demon does not exorcise demon. But no demon is permitted to rove where the saints dwell. So it is that the place where God is found is made clear. What of the lord bishops Remigius and Medard, whom you, I believe, saw? We cannot set out how many wonders we see God do through them.'<br><br>Nicetius goes on to call on Chlodosinda to imitate the role of her grandmother Clotilde in the conversion of her husband Clovis, and to describe how seeing the miracles at the festival of Martin prompted Clovis's baptism (E00760).<br><br>Text: Gundlach 1892, 121, lines 24-38. Translation: Hillgarth 1986, 80, adapted.