Julian of Brioude

ON ST. JULIAN OF BRIOUDE, MARTYR

AT BRIOUDE IN AUVERGNE

About the year CCCIV.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

ON ST. JULIAN OF BRIOUDE, MARTYR

BY J. S.

§ I. The place and time of the martyrdom: twofold Acts, and the book of Miracles.

Most famous in Gaul was St. Julian the martyr, who obtained his crown at Brioude in Auvergne, and there was buried and began to be honored, as the learned agree. Yet not even so is the place of the martyrdom sufficiently established. The Saint buried at Brioude: Hear Ruinart in his notes on Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Martyrs, book 2, chapter 1: That Julian the martyr suffered and was buried at Brioude, there is no one who denies. But since there is a twofold village of that name, namely old and new Brivas, there is a dispute in what place the holy Martyr was first deposited. Savaro, Sirmond, etc. judge that he was buried in old Brivas, today called Vieille-Brioude; of which they will have it that Gregory, Fortunatus, Apollinaris Sidonius in his Propempticon or poem XXIV, and other ancients spoke; but others understand these things of the new Brivas, where even now the body of St. Julian is kept in a most famous basilica, which is illustrated by a noble college of canons who are called counts. I judge that we must altogether adhere to these latter, since it is agreed that in the town of Brioude, which is called new Brivas, or more rightly Brivas at the church, commonly Brioude l'Église, the sacred body of the Martyr is kept to this day; nor can any reason be brought forward why we should suspect that it was carried thither from the village of Brivas which is now named old Brivas.

[2] Valois in the Notitia of the Gauls, page 101, also inclines to this opinion, which is not to be understood of old Brivas, and records some things concerning both places to our purpose: Brivas, he says, was a village of the Arverni, noble for the tomb and basilica of Julian, martyr of Auvergne… Thither was carried the emperor Avitus, buried at the feet of blessed Julian in the year CDLXI, according to Gregory of Tours in the History of the Franks, book 3, chapter XI, where he has it thus: Avitus … sought the basilica of St. Julian, martyr of Auvergne, with many gifts; but, the course of his life being fulfilled on the journey, he died, and being carried to the village of Brivas, was buried at the feet of the aforesaid Martyr. And so the church of St. Julian had already been built before Avitus, which will be confirmed from elsewhere. Let us hear Valois again: Now it is a town, he says, not far from the river which is called the Elaver (in French l'Allier), Brioude l'Église, often surnamed from the church of St. Julian; nearest to which, a village set upon that river, where it also carries a bridge, is called Old Brivas, Vieille Brioude. Valois adds, and proves by examples, that from that name Old Brivas it does not follow that that village is more ancient than the other, which is now a town.

[3] but of the town of Brioude, is manifestly proved: But, whatever may be as to the antiquity of either place, it does not seem to me to be doubted that the first place of burial was where the church of St. Julian of Brioude stands to this day. For in the earlier Acts, at number 5, it is reported that over the sepulcher of the Saint a little cell, that is, a chapel, was built by a Spanish matron; which Gregory of Tours also has at number 9. Afterwards, by the testimony of the same Life, a basilica was built there in his honor, which when built raised a lofty summit. Of this church, and of votive pilgrimages to it, Gregory of Tours very often makes mention. Further, that this church is no other than that which is today the canons' church in the town of Brioude, can easily be shown. Berengar, count of Brioude, in the reign of Louis the Pious, restored to its former state the church where the holy martyr Julian rests in body, which is built in the village of Brioude, … which had been destroyed by the Saracens and burned with fire, and established in the same church thirty-four canons, as the letters of Louis the Pious have it, given in the year 825, which may be seen more at large in Le Cointe at the said year, number 37. Our adversaries will not deny, I think, that the church of St. Julian, in which canons were instituted in the time of the emperor Louis the Pious, is the same as that which now survives in the town of Brioude and preserves the Saint's body. There is also no reason why they should deny that that church which stood in the time of Gregory of Tours was restored at the aforesaid time. Hence I judge it manifestly follows that the church of St. Julian at Brioude is now in the same place in which was first built the chapel over the Saint's body, and accordingly that the Saint was buried where now is the town of Brioude.

[4] that place formerly most famous for the Saint's miracles. Whether that Brivas was already a town when the Saint was buried there, I do not inquire. I should readily suspect that by the concourse of a frequent populace to the Saint's sepulcher it came about that the village gradually grew into a town. For this suspicion is favored by the added name, that it is called Brivas at the church. But as these things are not altogether manifest, so it is most certain that the place was famous for the glory of miracles and for votive pilgrimages, as will be plain from Gregory of Tours below. Apollinaris Sidonius, in the Propempticon to his little book, or poem 24, has these lines to our purpose:

Hence shall kindly Brivas receive thee, Which cherishes the bones of holy Julian: Which, while they are thought dead among the dead, A living power flashes forth from the tomb.

[5] The time at which St. Julian was crowned the ancients do not assign; The time of the martyrdom cannot nor can it be certainly deduced from their writings. Not a few of the more recent indeed assert that Julian suffered in the persecution of Diocletian; but they allege neither the authority of the ancients nor fitting reasons for their opinion. Tillemont, in volume 5 of the Monuments, note 3 upon Julian, page 700, adduces several reasons for proving that opinion after a fashion; but he confesses that they are less effectual than to render the matter sufficiently certain. The first is, that the two old men who had buried the Saint's body are said in the earlier Acts, at number 4, to have been alive when the Spanish matron passed that way to the emperor dwelling at Trier, or the Trevirian emperor, as Gregory of Tours calls him. This argument, if it proves anything, would rather establish that St. Julian suffered under Julian the Apostate. For, since by the Trevirian emperor we ought to understand none other than the tyrant Maximus, who assumed the name of emperor in the year 383, as I shall prove below at number 14, those old men, whose strength had been increased by a miracle, could easily have been among the living in the time of Maximus, if our Saint had suffered under Julian, since between Julian and Maximus only twenty years and some months intervene. But truly if we say that Julian was slain under Diocletian about the year 304, then those old men would have survived nearly 80 years after the Saint's body was buried; which is in no way likely. And so this reason would persuade that he suffered under Julian, if it were sufficiently certain. But it is more likely that those old men were not living at the aforesaid time, as Gregory of Tours has it at number 8.

[6] Tillemont's second reason is, that Crispinus, residing at Vienne, would not have had jurisdiction in Auvergne, be manifestly assigned: where Julian was slain, unless he had been either prætorian prefect or vicar; and he notes that vicars were first instituted under Diocletian, although he admits that there were some under the preceding emperors. He deservedly confesses that this reason too is of small weight. Certainly it does not militate against the times of Julian the Apostate, under whom prætorian prefects and vicars were more established in the provinces than under Diocletian. The words of the earlier Acts also more favor the times of Julian

at number 1: Since oblivion has not yet cut off the memory of his passion. For, since these Acts were written in the fifth century, the later he suffered, the more easily could the memory of his deeds be preserved so long. And so, if we had to stand upon these reasons alone, I do not see why we should not rather look to the times of Julian the Apostate than to those of Diocletian. These reasons, however, prove after a fashion that the martyrdom of St. Julian is not to be referred to the earlier persecutions; nor does Tillemont, I think, intend anything else. But now it remains to be proved why he should rather seem to have suffered under Diocletian than under Julian.

[7] The Acts of St. Ferreolus, given by Ruinart in his Genuine Acts of the Martyrs from page 462, rather suggest but he is probably believed to have suffered in the persecution of Diocletian. that Ferreolus, as well as Julian — who did not long precede his friend Ferreolus — suffered in the general persecution under Diocletian and Maximian, and not under Julian. When throughout all the provinces, says the writer of the Acts, the race of the Christians, dear to God and hateful to the devil, was being compelled to serve sacrilegious rites, a certain Crispinus, governor at that time, began in the city of Vienne, according to the precept of the emperors, to compel the Christians to sacrifice. These words hint at a time in which there were both several emperors and a persecution raging throughout all the provinces. The earlier Acts of Julian also, at number 3, mention several princes, and the later, at number 1, suggest a persecution widely diffused. Further, there were both several princes, and the persecution raged most widely, while Diocletian and Maximian Herculius reigned about the year 304; neither of which happened while Julian administered the empire: for he reigned alone, nor does the persecution seem to have raged everywhere while he reigned. And so, since it is probably drawn from the Acts of Julian that these Martyrs suffered either under Julian or under Diocletian, if we wish to rely upon both sets of Acts together, the martyrdom of St. Julian must be placed under Diocletian about the year 304, in which the persecution raged most vehemently.

[8] Twofold Acts: the earlier written in the fifth century, The Acts of St. Julian exist in two forms: the one older than Gregory of Tours, and written, as it appears, in the fifth century; the other attributed by some to Gregory of Tours, but wrongly, as we judge. The former François Bosquet, afterwards bishop of Montpellier, published in part 2 of the Histories of the Gallican church, from page 176. The same, from other manuscripts, and somewhat altered here and there, Labbe gave in the New Library of Manuscripts, volume 2, from page 567. We also have them in an ancient manuscript codex which among us is marked P. Ms. 20, and we received them from another most ancient manuscript; but in both they are sprinkled with various faults. Wherefore I have preferred to reprint Labbe's edition, and to illustrate it, noting those things which in the other edition or in our manuscripts differ and are worthy of note. Further, that these Acts are not older than the fifth century is gathered from the day of death being known when they were written: since that first became known through St. Germanus of Auxerre about the year 431, as we shall report below. Perhaps at the same time at which the revelation of the birthday was made, the Acts were written; certainly not long after the middle of the fifth century. For the head of the Saint was found with the body of St. Ferreolus about the year 474; concerning which finding the author would not have been silent, if he had written after that time. That the Acts of St. Julian were formerly read publicly in the church of Brioude, we have from Gregory of Tours, to be published below at number 22: which perhaps is to be understood of these Acts. Yet it does not hence follow that the authority of these Acts is so great that all things related in them are to be held as certain. For, since the author is neither contemporary nor known, greater credit belongs to St. Gregory of Tours, where that author dissents from him, which we shall observe in a few articles.

[9] the other, inserted among the miracles written by Gregory of Tours, St. Gregory of Tours wove the whole second book On the Glory of the Martyrs out of the miracles of St. Julian, and in chapter 1 narrated his martyrdom in a compendium. Nor does it seem doubtful to me that Gregory wrote all those things in the order in which they are read in all the editions of his Works and in most manuscript codices. But afterwards there was found in manuscripts another relation of the martyrdom of St. Julian, in which all that Gregory narrates in the first four chapters is set forth somewhat more copiously and in a changed order. The first mention of this little work was made by Tillemont in volume 5 of the Monuments, note 1 upon Julian, page 696, and he left it to others to investigate whether this rather exhibits the text of St. Gregory, or the second book On the Glory of the Martyrs, as it is published. Ruinart, in the latest edition of the Works of St. Gregory, from column [ ], published the same little lucubration separately from the miracles, from manuscript codices, with the name of St. Gregory of Tours prefixed. We too have a copy of that Opusculum, received formerly from a manuscript Legendary of Prüm. But in that transcript of ours the author's name is not found prefixed, no preface is added, and the miracles are not read as subjoined. The same Passion was transmitted to us by Pierre-François Chifflet, from the Legendary of St. Thierry and a manuscript codex of Val-des-Écoliers collated with one another.

[10] Ruinart, in his preface, number 78, doubts whether Gregory himself be its author, as Gregory did not write it before the Miracles, when he writes the following: I shall say no more concerning the passion of St. Julian, which we have found in some written codices inserted into the book which was written by our Gregory concerning the miracles of that same saint; whether by Gregory himself, or by any other, it is not permitted to divine. There will be perhaps those who think that the passion itself is the offspring of Gregory. But no one will easily persuade himself that this was first written by Gregory, and by him prefixed to the narration of the miracles, but by later men taken away; since on the contrary it is much more likely that it was joined to the book of miracles, that both might be read together on the festivity of the holy Martyr. If nevertheless anyone should say that this was done by Gregory himself, I shall not much oppose him. For the little preface prefixed to it savors of Gregory's style. Wherefore it has seemed good to exhibit the book in its own place without that passion, as it is found in most written and in all printed copies. But the Passion itself, with the beginning of the same book, as other written codices have it, we shall bring forward after the rest of Gregory's works. Thus far Ruinart, with whom I altogether agree, that that Passion was afterwards joined to the book of Miracles. For this is sufficiently plain from the closing formula, Our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, etc., which in Tillemont too is found added to the Passion, and which shows that the Opusculum was there ended.

[11] But I cannot even judge that that Passion is a genuine offspring of Gregory. nor even afterwards; but they are of an uncertain author. For in the Miracles, at number 2, Gregory asserts that Julian lay hid with a certain widow; but in the Passion he is said to have hidden himself in the hut of certain old men. Which things, even if perhaps they can somehow be reconciled, if we believe that both the widow and the old men were in the same house, nevertheless do not suggest the same author. The praised Chifflet added this note to the transcript he sent: This Narrative in the manuscript codex of Val-des-Écoliers is attributed to Gregory of Tours, but falsely; for that style savors nothing of Gregory, and it seems to be rather of Eucherius of Lyon. But neither does this conjecture seem sufficiently certain. I should therefore think it more probable that that Passion was composed partly from Gregory, partly from the older Acts, and afterwards stuffed into some Gregorian manuscripts, because it was believed to be a lucubration of Gregory. Wherefore, after the older Acts, I shall publish this Passion under the name of an uncertain author, and at last subjoin the whole second book of St. Gregory of Tours, that the studious reader may have here joined together all things pertaining to St. Julian.

§ II. The Saint's cult, and in what manner it began here and was increased, and propagated in various places.

The Saint's name in the ancient Fasti: Most of the most ancient Martyrologies announce the memory of St. Julian at the XXVIII of August. The Hieronymian, in Fiorentini: In the territory of Brioude, of the city of the Arverni, the birthday of St. Julian, martyr. Ado more exactly and more at length in these words: At Brioude, the birthday of St. Julian, martyr. Who in the time of the persecution, at the exhortation of blessed Ferreolus, whose comrade in the soldiery he was, departed by a clandestine withdrawal from the city of Vienne to the aforesaid territory of the city of Auvergne; where, being seized by the persecutors following after him, his throat being cut, he was slain by a horrible death. Nearly so Usuard, and the other martyrologists who followed after, whose words I forbear to adduce. A longer eulogy André du Saussay wove, which in most things agrees with the Acts; but he wanders from the truth when he asserts that the Saint's head was carried to Vienne by St. Ferreolus, since Ferreolus was not present at the slaying, but received the Saint's head at Vienne. In the Roman Martyrology it is added that Julian suffered in the persecution of Diocletian, concerning which epoch of time we have already treated.

[13] a chapel built over his sepulcher Further, the cult seems to have begun through the chapel built over the Saint's sepulcher, which we judge to have happened in the fourth century as it drew to a close. The matter is narrated by Gregory of Tours in the Miracles below, at number 8, which receive in compendium. A certain Spaniard was in prison with the Trevirian emperor. His wife, setting out from Spain to Trier, vows at the Saint's sepulcher at Brioude, for the safety of her husband, that she will enclose the Martyr's sepulcher with a chapel, if her husband should escape safe. And when her husband had been freed, she fulfilled the promise which she had made, with immense gifts, says Gregory of Tours. Now, that the time of the chapel's building may be known, it must be inquired whom Gregory of Tours designates by the Trevirian emperor. Ruinart in his notes on this passage judges that the tyrant Maximus is designated. Tillemont suspects the same in note 3 upon Julian. But Denis de Sainte-Marthe, in volume 2 of Gallia Christiana, column 468, conjectures that the foundations of the chapel were laid under Constantius Chlorus or Constantine the Great; which could not be, if we take Maximus for the Trevirian emperor. Wherefore I shall briefly show that no other is designated by this name than Maximus.

[14] about the end of the fourth century: Gregory of Tours himself, in the History of the Franks, book 1, chapter 38, sets forth his own mind, when he has it thus concerning Maximus: But Maximus, when by tyranny, the Britons being subdued, he had taken victory, was created emperor by the soldiers. Establishing his seat in the city of Trier, he slew the emperor Gratian, circumvented by guiles. Of no other emperor does Gregory of Tours report that he fixed his dwelling in the city of Trier, although we know from elsewhere that several emperors stayed there for a time. Whom therefore could he understand by the Trevirian emperor, save him whom he there reports to have had and established his royal seat there? Hence presently at chapter 40, narrating that the daughter of Maximus was healed by St. Hillidius, he calls her the daughter of the Trevirian emperor, and gives the same name to Maximus in the Life of St. Hillidius in Ruinart, column [ ]. There seems therefore to be no doubt that Gregory of Tours everywhere understands the tyrant Maximus by the name of the Trevirian emperor. Further, since the death of Gratian, by which Maximus established his dominion in Gaul, is everywhere fixed to the year 383, and that Spaniard, who perhaps had stood for Gratian against Maximus, probably in the same

or in the following year was consigned to prison, the construction of the chapel may have happened in the year 384 or 385, or at any rate not much later.

[15] afterwards an ample church built there: But since after these things the Martyr's sepulcher grew famous by frequent miracles, and the men of Brioude had been converted to the faith, a great basilica was built there by the faithful, according to Gregory of Tours at number 14. The time of this church's building is nowhere expressed. Denis de Sainte-Marthe indeed says at column 468: Already at the beginning of the fifth century it held no lowest place among the basilicas of our Gaul; but he himself does not prove this, nor can I prove it. Nay, it appears to me more likely that it was built in the fifth century, yet toward the beginning of that century, since the Acts sufficiently suggest that not a few years intervened between the building of the chapel and of the church. In certain transcripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology there is read inserted at the XV of April the dedication of the altar of St. Julian the martyr, at Brioude among the Arverni, as our Elders observed in the Passed Over at that place. It is uncertain whether this dedication regards the altar of the first chapel or of the church; nor is it established in what year it was made. But one might suspect that the Saint's festivity was celebrated on that day of dedication, until the birthday of Julian became known. Certainly the day of his death lay long hidden, and became known at last only by a divine revelation, as I shall now explain.

[16] Constantius the priest, in the Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, in our volume VII of July, page 215, writes the following: the day of death revealed by the prayers of St. Germanus of Auxerre: At length, when he was traversing many places, … he came at a certain time to the village of Brivas, where the body of the most holy martyr Julian was held honorably buried. For there the neighboring people hung in sadness, because they did not know the day on which the most blessed Martyr ought to be honored for the glory of his virtue and passion. Now it came to pass, while he was arriving there, that he inquired of the inhabitants at what time his sacred solemnities were celebrated. But they confess that they do not know. Then he said: "Let us pray, and perhaps the power of the Lord will deign to reveal this to us." And when the time of night came on, each returned to his own. Then that same most holy pontiff, after his customary manner, passed the night in prayer. And when the morning time returned, and the sun had risen, the elders of the place being called together, he inquires whether the Lord had by chance disclosed anything to any of them. But they say: "Not at all, lord." And he: "Know that the festivity is to be celebrated on the fifth of the Kalends of the seventh month. For, as has been divinely shown to me, on this day he, being here put to death by unbelievers, was joined to the fellowship of the holy martyrs." Then the devout people who were present, rendering their vows to the prelate, carry back the longed-for medicine of body and soul. The seventh month is September, the beginning being taken from March; so that he indicated the XXVIII of August, on which the festivity was thereafter celebrated. This seems to have been done about the year 431: for, as is there proved in the preliminary Commentary at number 63, St. Germanus returned from Britain about May of the year 430; nor long after did he set out for Arles, as the Life testifies at chapter 7; and it is narrated that these things happened while he was returning thence. The same Gregory of Tours reports more briefly at number 36.

[17] From that time down at least to the end of the sixth century the Saint's church at Brioude grew greatly famous. the famous church of St. Julian at Brioude in the fifth and sixth centuries: This is abundantly plain from the little work of Gregory of Tours which we shall publish. Nevertheless it is pleasing to add a few things from his other Works. The emperor Avitus, as he has it in the History of the Franks, book 2, chapter XI, having learned … that the senate, still indignant, wished to deprive him of life, sought the basilica of St. Julian, martyr of Auvergne, with many gifts; but, the course of his life being fulfilled on the journey, he died, and being carried to the village of Brivas, was buried at the feet of the aforesaid Martyr. St. Gallus, bishop of Auvergne, or of Clermont, after he had by his prayers freed the city of Auvergne from the inguinal plague, instituted those rogations, that in mid-Lent they should come chanting psalms to the basilica of the blessed martyr Julian on a journey afoot. Now on this journey there are about three hundred and sixty stades, says the praised Gregory in book 4, chapter 5. We have treated of St. Gallus in volume X of July, in whose Life at page 107 Gregory reports the same. Cautinus, the successor of Gallus, performed the same supplication, according to Gregory, book 4, chapter 13; and indeed he sought asylum there with others against the vexations of his persecutor Chramnus. More things pertaining to this church Denis de Sainte-Marthe will give in Gallia Christiana, volume 2, from column 467, teaching that it was formerly of the diocese of Auvergne, but now pertains to the diocese of Saint-Flour, and enumerating its abbots, provosts, and deans.

[18] when the Saint himself was already patron of the Arverni: Further, St. Julian was honored not only at Brioude, but was already in the fifth century patron of the diocese of Auvergne. Hence Venantius Fortunatus in various places reckons him among the most famous Saints, and attributes him to the Arverni. In the Poems, book 10, poem 10, he sings thus of him:

There is Julian likewise, throat cut by a friendly sword, Whom the people of Auvergne honoring, they have the arms of salvation.

And in book 8, poem 4:

Gévaudan bears Privatus; abounding Auvergne, Julian; And fair Vienne likewise bears Ferreolus.

The same, in book 5, poem 3, concerning Gregory of Tours promoted to the bishopric of Tours, thus addresses the people of Tours:

Julian sends to Martin his own nursling, And offers to his brother what was sweet to himself.

Here Fortunatus hints that Julian is such to the Arverni as Martin is to the people of Tours, and that Gregory, an Arvernian by native land, who had hitherto had Julian for patron, would have St. Martin for patron. Sidonius Apollinaris, who as the fifth century drew to a close ruled the church of Auvergne, in book 7, letter 1, writing to St. Mamertus of Vienne, at once records the finding of the head of St. Julian with the body of St. Ferreolus, and at the same time shows that he is the patron of the Arverni, when he thus addresses Mamertus: And since to thee alone has been granted … the entire translation of the martyr Ferreolus, with the head of our Julian added — which the bloody hand of the executioner once carried back from here to a turbulent persecutor — it is not unjust that we demand, by way of compensation, that a part of the patronage come to us thence, since a part of the Patron has returned to you from here. Gregory of Tours records these things below at number 5.

[19] a cult also at Vienne, where the head had been found, From that finding of the head we suspect that St. Julian began to be honored at Vienne, unless he were already honored there before. In the Breviary of Vienne, printed in the year 1522, at the XXVIII of August his festivity was prescribed to be celebrated with the festivity of St. Hermes the martyr and of St. Augustine, doctor of the Church. But the finding of St. Julian and St. Ferreolus was noted in certain Martyrologies at the XV of February, as our Elders observed in the Passed Over at that place. In the Hieronymian Martyrologies too, in Fiorentini, there is noted at the XIX of September the Translation of the head of St. Julian. But it is not sufficiently clear what translation is designated. For in the eighth century also, when Charles Martel held the chief power in Gaul, Wilicarius, bishop of Vienne, translated the bones of blessed Ferreolus with the head of Julian the martyr within the city, and with hastened work built for them a church at no great cost, says Ado in his Chronicle, asserting that this was done because their church on this side of the Rhône had been burned by the Saracens.

[20] and in many places besides. That Julian was moreover honored in many places from the sixth century will be abundantly plain from the little work of Gregory of Tours to be published below, in which various churches dedicated to Julian of Brioude are commemorated, which I shall not here enumerate. But besides those recorded there, the same author in the History of the Franks, book 6, chapter 17, and book 9, chapter 6, mentions a church of St. Julian at Paris. But since there is a twofold church of St. Julian at Paris, some have doubted which is here designated. But Gérard du Bois, in the History of the church of Paris, book 9, chapter 5, number 7, shows that that one is designated which today is called St. Julian the Poor's; and he gathers many things concerning it which may there be seen. D'Achery in the Spicilegium, volume XI, from page 283, published from the cartulary of Brioude the foundation of a chapel in the county of Talamitum dedicated to St. Julian and illustrated by his relics in the year 924; and at page 292 he recites an instrument by which many things are given to the church of St. Julian. Nor will there be lacking other places dedicated to the Saint, or marked by his cult. But it is not pleasing to enumerate all these too scrupulously. These things therefore being passed over, I subjoin the Acts of the Saint, first the older, then the later, attributed by some to Gregory of Tours, and at last the miracles.

PASSION

by an anonymous author

From Labbe's edition, collated with the edition of Bosquet and with our manuscript codex.

ON ST. JULIAN OF BRIOUDE, MARTYR

BHL Number: 4540

By an Anonymous writer.

St. Julian, patron of the Arverni, We write the sublime and venerable passion of blessed Julian the martyr, patron of the city of Auvergne ^a, whom this people rejoices to have come to it as its patron. He did not come to this city fleeing martyrdom, but Christ granted him as an intercessor for our offenses, that this city and people might be fortified by the guardianship of so great a Martyr. Since oblivion has not yet cut off the memory of his passion, it is fitting that even now the same be transmitted to the times to come in faithful writings; since throughout the whole world it is most illustrious to venerate the Martyrs, it befits this little people also to set before it Julian as its martyr and intercessor, or advocate ^b.

[2] Therefore at that time in the city of Vienne ^c there befell a persecution of the Christians under a certain governor Crispinus ^d. at the persuasion of St. Ferreolus, Now St. Ferreolus ^e, himself also proved a martyr by the Lord, was at that time exercising the tribune's power in the aforesaid city. Yet he so exercised the office of the soldiery as to fulfil the purpose of sacred religion. And blessed Julian, because he was a most faithful Christian, he kept in his own service ^f. And when St. Ferreolus had learned of the persecution of the Christians, he said to St. Julian: I have learned that a persecution of the Christians is about to come to this city, and therefore I beseech thee to remove thyself from this place, until the persecution against the Christians cease.

[3] When blessed Julian heard this report, he betook himself into the territory of the city of Auvergne; he flees from Vienne into Auvergne, where he is crowned with martyrdom: and he entered the hut of a certain old woman ^g, and besought her that he might be hidden by her. Which ^h lodging was not far from where at that time vain images were honored by the heathen. But to this hiding-place the persecutors presently came, asking the woman where he was who a little before had taken refuge in her lodging. And when she denied it ⁱ, the holy Man, unwilling that his crown be defrauded him, offering himself of his own accord to the persecutors, said: This is he whom you seek; do what has been commanded you by your princes. And when he had bent a little while to prayer, he offered his neck to the persecutors. But they, delaying nothing, drawing a sword and cutting off his head, and, for an example to the others who were dwelling in the city of Vienne, cutting off the head of the holy Martyr, carried it away with them. And so he was drenched with the wave of his own sacred blood.

[4] he is buried by old men whose strength is restored: Now in those times a vain superstition was practiced by the Gentiles in these places. Two old men ^k, however, pricked by the divine power, transferred the body of the Saint from the place where he was beheaded to the village whose name is Brivas, and there delivered it reverently to burial. Whence returning, they felt, as a benefit for the burial, that they had received back from God that former strength which they had had in their youth. In those days a certain man rich in wealth in Spain became guilty in the eyes of a certain emperor ^l of the city of Trier. Him, being summoned and consigned to prison, he ordered, after some days' adjournment, to undergo a capital sentence for his crime. When his wife had learned this, anxious and sorrowful, she hastened swiftly to gather up her husband's corpse. And when that matron was passing by the aforesaid village, the aforesaid old men inquired more carefully whither she was going ^m, or why she was so sad. And she set forth to them her necessity and her cause.

[5] a man condemned to death is freed, a vow having been made by his wife: Then the old men said to the matron: A little while ago a certain Christian was beheaded by the persecutors, whose body, burying it with the highest honor, and returning thence, we felt that we had received back that former strength which we had in our youth. When the most faithful woman had heard this, straightway she bent down at the sepulcher of the holy Martyr, and promised that, if she should see her husband safe, and they should return to their home alive, in his honor they would build a little cell over the sepulcher of the holy Martyr. And when she had prayed very long, setting forth on the way by which she was going, she came to the city. And entering it, she saw her husband loosed by the king's indulgence; and not only did he obtain release, but he even received honor. And on their returning to the sepulcher of the blessed man Julian, fulfilling their vows, they built the little cell, as they had promised; and thereafter through all the years of their life they brought to his venerable sepulcher immense gifts in return for so great a benefit.

[6] a church built for the Saint, in which many miracles are done. But afterwards the repute or fame of the blessed Martyr, being declared everywhere, became known to all the people as a thing to be celebrated together; and now indeed such a witness stands by this truth, that the patronage of so great a Martyr does not withdraw. Thence, after many seasons, a basilica was built in his honor by most faithful Christians, which when built raised a lofty summit, and shines adorned with more than one privilege of its own gift, filled with the powers of our special Patron. Nor shall I keep silence concerning the miracle which the Lord works to the praise of his own name, that on the day of his birthday ⁿ he works many divine benefits by the prayers and intercessions of our special patron Julian the martyr. For ^o demons are put to flight and all the sick are made whole; and there is praise of the Lord with all peace, and there is blessed Christ God, the Son of God, to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

add redirent*

PASSION II

by an uncertain author

From three manuscripts, collated with Ruinart's edition.

ON ST. JULIAN OF BRIOUDE, MARTYR

BHL Number: 4542

By an uncertain writer.

When a persecution was announced as about to come at Vienne, St. ^a Julian therefore, sprung from the city of Vienne, was given as a martyr to the Arverni; illustrious indeed in lineage, and adorned not moderately with probity of manners; but, what is greater, vehemently kindled with the fire of heavenly love. But blessed Ferreolus, in the time of the consular Crispinus already a soldier of Christ, but not yet betrayed, was discharging in the aforesaid city the office of the tribune's power, in habit not in heart, in appearance not in affection. To whom indeed St. Julian, now grown to manhood, soon to be his colleague in heaven, by divine providence afforded companionship in the world. For, being set together in the fellowship of a temporal soldiery, they loved one another more by zeal for the faith than by military affection; and amid public labors a sacred love had bound the fellowship of the Saints with faithful bonds. When moreover the fury of the Gentiles had armed itself with continual persecutions against the race of the Christians, dear to God, and, resisting the immortal husbandman, was striving with hostile hand to tear up by the roots the sprouting vineyard of the new plantation — as the madness of the impious ran through the various parts of the world with the crafty sword of insatiable savagery, it is announced by spreading rumor that it was drawing near to the city of Vienne no less.

[2] at the persuasion of Ferreolus, Julian flees into Auvergne: And so, since it was not held doubtful that the excellent worshiper of Christ, Julian, burning with the love of martyrdom, would in no wise suffer himself to be hidden, St. Ferreolus began to act in every way, so that, before the madness of the persecutors should reach thither, the aforesaid Man of God should depart secretly, and, himself surviving for the solace of the surviving Christians, should for a little while avoid the onset of that frenzied fury. This therefore he urges by counsels, this he entreats by prayers. But he, because he was endowed with the virtue of temperance, although he had long since thirsted with all the affection of his heart for the contest of martyrdom, nevertheless did not delay to obey his friendly admonitions. For he saw that he would not have carried these things through without a divine mandate, since the persecution was then raging in the city of Vienne: for he had read that the Lord had said: If they persecute you in this city, flee into another. For he feared lest his kinsfolk should stand in his way, if he entered upon this contest among them, and lest the soldier of Christ should lose the crown of glory, if he had not lawfully contended. And when all these things had been weighed with himself, leaving all that was his own, and, kindled with the love of Christ alone, making little of carnal affections, he departed secretly according to the counsel of blessed Ferreolus; and turning aside into the territory of the city of Auvergne, he purposed to lie hid nowhere else than at the village of Brivas, in which the dirges of fanatical error were honored. Whence it is manifest that he had not fled away from the city of the Viennese through fear of death, but rather for this, that he might fulfil Christ's precept of fleeing from city to city; and that, his goods and his kinsfolk being no less despised, he might run the more freely the course of the contest he desired.

[3] lying hid and sought for death, Further, Crispinus the consular, having learned that the holy Man, fleeing by a clandestine departure, was lying hid in the territory of the city of Auvergne, immediately gave this deadly command, that wherever the persecutor pursuing him should find him, he should put him to death. And he indeed, according to the insanity of his fury, by which he was borne headlong wholly against the blood of the Saints, was decreeing the slaying of blessed Julian; but it was being wrought by a hidden dispensation, that both he should heap up for himself the accumulation of damnation, and the glorious Martyr should swiftly come to Christ, as he had long since desired. And so when the hasty lictor, in the place which is called Vinicella ^b, was gazing upon St. Julian, fixing him with a pursuing look, he enters the hut of certain old men ^c, as though to be hidden. But because by God's will he perceived that his adversaries were pursuing him, and it was no longer permitted to one who, at God's call, had his ascent to heaven prepared, to linger any more by turning aside, he demanded on the spot that he be uncovered — since indeed the old men were eager to hide him.

[4] While they wavered and delayed, when indeed he was being sought with the menacing terror of those bursting in, he offers himself, and is beheaded. lest any peril should threaten those who made excuses, immediately leaping forth out of doors, he said: Whom you demand, whom you seek — behold, I am here before you: turn your steel upon me, give me now the punishments I desire, take from me the tortures commanded; let not the shedding of innocent blood suffer the guilt of your apostasy to be in any way ascribed to patience. But when they had hesitated, astonished at so great a constancy of the blessed Martyr, he, still more constant, thereupon added: I do not wish to tarry longer in this world, because I thirst for Christ with all the eagerness of my soul. Behold I run to meet you, I put my head beneath undaunted: you have what with your whole mind you have sought; only deal your blows, and fulfil your devotion and my desire. And when with devotion of this kind the most blessed Man was eager to consecrate his soul by martyrdom, having no less subjoined a religious prayer, he commended it to Christ. But neither the constancy of his holy purpose nor his so wonderful confidence in offering himself withheld their barbarous savagery and the bloody minds of the raging men from the shedding

of innocent blood; but, drawing a sword with quivering right hand, they brandish it upon his neck.

[5] But the holy head, cut off, the throat being severed, the executioners wash in a spring The Saint's head carried to Vienne, which by chance flows out near the place of the shed blood; and because not even by the slaying accomplished did the mind of the persecutors, seething insatiably, know how to spare, leaving the trunk of the body, they carry to St. Ferreolus ^d that head which parricidal hands had washed: so that he might not doubt him slain, whom he saw by the sword, truth attesting, cut off; and might recognize that he would receive this in his own death, which through his passion he beheld in the body. All which the executioners did unknowingly, according to the divine will, namely that the spring bedewed with sacred blood might become salvation to many, and might there also more preciously retain together in the fellowship of burial ^e the Saints of God whom the fellowship of the soldiery had joined. For as he is by no distinction less in heaven, so he is joined in the tomb by the greatest and chief part of his body. O how happily, and with how swift a step, did the holy Man deserve to arrive at the highest summit! By how sudden an advance, briskly fighting for Christ, was the raw recruit made a veteran of a completed service! What vigorous fellow-soldiers scarcely attain in a long time and with much labor, the reward set before conquerors, the brave warrior obtained in a short conflict: about to receive the wages of immortality, he made his unpracticed beginnings equal, by a victorious authority, to the renowned ends of the Saints.

[6] These things therefore, as they were consecrated by the praiseworthy patience of the Martyr, so also being accomplished by the profane atrocity of the persecutors, the glorious Soldier is divided, so to speak, into three parts: for the head is carried to Vienne, the body was carried from the place in which he was struck to Brioude ^f; the body buried at Brioude, where many miracles were wrought: the happy soul is received by Christ its Maker. But the most blessed old men, who, kindled with spiritual grace, had consigned the most sacred body to burial, were so restored that, though set in extreme old age, being strengthened with the vigor of youthful years, they were held as young men. Here therefore the Confessor [*] and witness of Christ is zealously laid up, and is venerated daily with the glad devotion of the faithful: where such great benefits and powers are constantly wrought, that the human tongue in no wise suffices to relate them.

[7] likewise the spring in which the head was washed, famous for miracles. But in that place where the blessed Martyr was struck, there is a spring ^g, bright, gentle, most abundant with sweet waters, in which the head cut off by the persecutors was washed. From these waters many healings are granted to the sick: for often the eyes of the blind, touched by them, have been enlightened; and those who suffer, kindled with the fires of tertian and quartan fevers, when they have drunk, find rest. For if anyone laboring under a grave infirmity has had, by the Martyr's inspiration, a desire of drawing water, immediately, as soon as he has drawn, he recovers; and so swiftly is the force of the fevers extinguished — as if you should see, water being thrown upon a huge pyre, all the burning quenched. For the people ever rejoices in so great a Patron and in the affection of supplication granted by his grace; and those whom that place receives sorrowing, it sends back glad — our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere amplexu*

elsewhere ubi*

Ruinart, Martyr*

MIRACLES

By St. Gregory of Tours

From Ruinart's edition

ON ST. JULIAN OF BRIOUDE, MARTYR

BHL Number: 4541

By St. Gregory of Tours.

CHAPTERS OF THE ANCIENT DIVISION.

Preface of Gregory.

Chapter I. Of the passion of St. Julian the martyr.

Chap. II. Of the revelation of his head.

Chap. III. Of the power of the spring where his head was washed.

Chap. IV. Of the old men and the matron whose husband was held in prison.

Chap. V. Of the man who wished to kill another in the basilica.

Chap. VI. Of the conversion of the inhabitants.

Chap. VII. How Hillidius freed the people from hostile attack.

Chap. VIII. Of the destruction of those who carried off the furnishings of the basilica.

Chap. IX. Of Fedamia the paralytic.

Chap. X. Of the man who tried to drag out of the basilica the one who had struck him.

Chap. XI. Of the man crippled who yoked oxen on the Lord's Day.

Chap. XII. Of Anagild, dumb, deaf, and blind.

Chap. XIII. Of those who in the time of king Theodoric broke into the basilica.

Chap. XIV. Of Sigivald the usurper.

Chap. XV. Of the shepherd's malice.

Chap. XVI. Of the contumacy of Becco.

Chap. XVII. Of the deacon who carried off the sheep of the basilica.

Chap. XVIII. Of the man who stole a horse on the vigil of the Saint [*].

Chap. XIX. Of the man who perjured himself for the sake of a third of a coin.

Chap. XX. Of the man who despoiled the holy basilica by theft.

Chap. XXI. Of the man who lost his horse on the festival.

Chap. XXII. Of the blind man enlightened.

Chap. XXIII. Of the foot of Gallus, afterwards bishop, healed.

Chap. XXIV. Of the fever of Peter my brother. (elsewhere, his nephew.)

Chap. XXV. Of the pain of my head.

Chap. XXVI. Of the fever-stricken man healed at the spring.

Chap. XXVII. Of the thunder and lightning that occurred in the basilica.

Chap. XXVIII. Of the man who by reason of the multitude of the people could not approach the sepulcher.

Chap. XXIX. Of his festival.

Chap. XXX. Of the possessed.

Chap. XXXI. Of the tameness of the cattle.

Chap. XXXII. Of his relics translated into Campania.

Chap. XXXIII. Of his relics displayed in the East.

Chap. XXXIV. How his relics were placed at Tours in his basilica.

Chap. XXXV. That the wine increased on that night.

Chap. XXXVI. Of a crippled man healed in the same place.

Chap. XXXVII. Of a blear-eyed girl; manuscripts, of a blind man enlightened.

Chap. XXXVIII. Of another crippled man.

Chap. XXXIX. Of perjurers.

Chap. XL. Of his relics, which the priest Aredius took away.

Chap. XLI. Of a paralytic healed.

Chap. XLII. Of a blind man enlightened.

Chap. XLIII. Of the cross of the altar stolen.

Chap. XLIV. How his pledges were sought.

Chap. XLV. Of the boy led to soothsayers, and another healed by the Saint's power.

Chap. XLVI. Of roses divinely shown at his sepulcher.

Chap. XLVII. Of a woman enlightened.

Chap. XLVIII. Of the relics which the priest Nanninus brought.

Chap. XLIX. That from his relics many sick were healed.

Chap. L. Of another blind man enlightened.

elsewhere of St. Peter*

PREFACE.

The author celebrates God's mercy toward the Saints. The divine goodness kindles in us in a certain way a great little fire for attaining the path of his justice, when it says: The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers, showing that he who has loved justice with his whole heart, when he has prayed, is heard by the Lord. Would that each of us, when he had begun to sing [] these things, forthwith, the scandals of the world being despised, vain concupiscences neglected, and crooked paths forsaken, would endeavor to creep in upon the way of justice unencumbered and without the hindrance of worldly actions. For by this way just Abel is received, blessed Enoch is taken up, Noah is preserved, Abraham is chosen, Isaac is blessed, Jacob is enlarged, Joseph is guarded, Moses is sanctified, David is predestined, Solomon is enriched; the three children prophesy amid dew-sprinkled flames, Daniel is fed among harmful [] beasts. By this way the Apostles are directed, the blessed Martyrs are glorified. And in what manner from the wicked? Namely, while they heal the infirm, raise the dead [], despise things present, desire things to come, look down upon their torturers, do not feel their punishments, and press on [] to the heavenly kingdoms. Which without doubt they would not obtain by their own strength, unless, walking most rightly along the way of justice, they were heard by the Lord.

elsewhere tentare*

elsewhere innocuas*

elsewhere mortua*

elsewhere conscendunt*

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's martyrdom: the finding of the head: the spring famous for miracles: a certain man freed from peril of death and from prison.

CHAPTER I.

So also the renowned Martyr Julian, who, sprung from the city of Vienne, St. Julian flees from Vienne into the territory of Auvergne, was given as a martyr to the Arverni, being kindled by this fire, coveted these things and desired them with his whole mind. For when he was with the most blessed Ferreolus, he was already burning with the odor of martyrdom ^a; who, riches and kinsfolk being left behind, came to Auvergne only for love of martyrdom alone. But not even this did he carry through without a divine mandate, since the persecution was then raging in the city of Vienne. For he had read that the Lord had foretold: If they persecute you in this city, flee into another. He betook himself therefore hither into the territory of Auvergne, not through fear of death, but that, leaving his own possessions, he might more easily attain the palm: for he feared lest his kinsfolk should stand in his way, if he entered upon this contest among them, and lest the Soldier of Christ should lose the crown of glory, if he had not lawfully contended. Therefore, the persecution pressing on, he came to the village of Brivas, in which the dirges of fanatical error were honored. And when by God's will he had perceived that his adversaries were pursuing, he besought a certain widow that he might be hidden by her. And she, covering him, immediately at the Martyr's demand uncovered him; and he thus speaks to his pursuers: I do not wish, he says, to tarry longer in this world, because I now thirst for Christ with all the eagerness of my soul.

[3] But they, a sword being drawn with quivering right hand, the head being cut off, [where, being slain by the persecutors, he is buried at Brioude by two old men, whose strength is restored.] the glorious Martyr is divided, so to speak, into three parts. For the head is carried to Vienne, the limbs are laid up at Brioude, the happy soul is received by Christ its Maker. The old men too, who had consigned the most sacred body to burial, were so restored that, though set in extreme old age, they were held as young men. His head also Ferreolus the martyr received; and, his contest being completed, both the limbs of the one and the head of the other are placed in the receptacle of a single tomb. And lest this narrative perhaps seem incredible to anyone, I shall faithfully set forth [*] what I have heard was done.

II.

[4] Now at a certain time, while to meet the blessed prelate Nicetius ^b as far as Lyon

I had gone forward, [The Saint's head, with the body of St. Ferreolus, found at Vienne by St. Mamertus] it pleased my mind to go to Vienne, for no other cause than that of prayer, and especially to visit the sepulcher of the glorious martyr Ferreolus: for it had settled in my mind, on account of their ancient love, that I was as much his nursling as Julian's. At length, prayer having been made, I raise the keenness of my eyes to the lectern ^c, and I behold upon it little verses written in this manner:

This hall contains twin heroes of Christ: Julian by his head, Ferreolus by his body.

And when, reading these, I asked the sacristan why they had been so written, he answered: The basilica of the holy martyr Ferreolus had been placed by the ancients upon the very bank of the Rhône; at length, when, by the driving violence of the river, the portico which was set on that side was falling down, a provident [] priest, Mamertus ^d by name, who then ruled the church of Vienne, forestalling the ruin to come, built another basilica of elegant workmanship and of the same measure with sagacious intent, desiring to translate thither the body of the holy [] martyr. And there came to this work a great number of abbots and monks; and, the night having been passed in vigil, taking a mattock they began to dig. And when they descended into the depth, they find three sepulchers, and immediately astonishment invades the minds of the beholders; nor was anyone certain which was the tomb of the blessed martyr.

[5] Therefore, when all stood astounded in dullness [] of mind, found at Vienne: one of the bystanders, by the inspiration, as I believe, of the Divinity, cries out, saying: In antiquity it was wont to be reported, and was spread abroad among the peoples by frequent speech, that the head of Julian the martyr ^e is kept in the sepulcher of the martyr Ferreolus. If, the covering being removed, each be examined, [] it can at once be found which are the limbs of the martyr Ferreolus. Hearing this, the priest bids all prostrate themselves in prayer; which being fulfilled, he goes forward to the tombs, and, two being uncovered, he finds single men resting in them. And when he had opened the third also, he found in it a man lying with body unharmed and garment whole, who, his head having been cut off, embracing another head, held it with his arm. For it was as though he had been lately buried, neither changed by pallor of face, nor disfigured by the falling of the hair, nor dissolved by any putrefaction, but so whole and unharmed that you would think him still held by bodily sleep. Then the prelate, filled with great joy, said: That this is the corpse of Ferreolus, that this is the head of Julian the martyr, is not held doubtful. Then, with great chanting of psalms and the people applauding, he is conducted, God assenting, to the place where he is now adored. And these things, as I learned them at the martyr's sepulcher from the sacristan himself, I have faithfully reported. Yet our Sollius ^f furnishes testimony to this work, writing to Mamertus himself in these words: To thee alone in the parts of the Western world has been granted the entire translation of the Martyr Ferreolus, with the head of our Julian added: whence by way of compensation we demand that a part of the patronage come to us thence, since a part of the Patron has returned to you from here.

III.

[6] But in that place where the blessed Martyr was struck, the spring in which the head was washed, famous for miracles: there is a spring, bright, gentle, most abundant with sweet waters, in which also the head cut off by the persecutors was washed; from which waters many healings are granted to the sick. For often the eyes of the blind, touched by them, have been enlightened: those kindled with the burning of tertian and quartan fevers, when the sufferers have drunk, find rest. For if anyone laboring under a grave infirmity has had, by the Martyr's inspiration, a desire of drawing water, immediately, as soon as he has drawn, he recovers; and so swiftly is the force of the fevers extinguished, as if you should see, water being thrown upon a huge pyre, all the burning quenched.

IV.

[7] But after the passion of the blessed Martyr, and the fame going before concerning the old men a certain man bound and condemned to death, who, while they were consigning the holy limbs to burial, were restored to their former strength, many, seeking benefits there and believing, obtain them by the Martyr's indulgence. And to me, who touch briefly upon a few of these, I pray that pardon be granted, since I know myself to be less either fitted or skilled for narrating these things, neither imbued with grammatical arts nor learned in liberal letters: but what shall I do, since the love of my Patron drives me, so that I cannot be silent upon these matters? A certain man from Spain [*], being bound and given over to prison with the Trevirian Emperor ^g, was held condemned by a capital sentence.

[8] [by a vow made by his wife, is received into favor: hence a chapel built for the Saint.] When his wife had learned this, while she hastens to entomb her husband's limbs, she came to the village of Brivas; and, having found men there, while she searched into various things with intent zeal, she learns what had been done in that place, both concerning the Martyr and concerning the old men; and, believing the faithful report, she determines to hasten to the sepulcher of the blessed Martyr, that she might set forth her cause, disclose her misfortunes, and lay out all the labor of her grief. And the men besides asserting: Without doubt we promise thee, lady, that gladness will be restored to thee by the Martyr, who once restored to their ancient vigor the stiffened limbs of old men of decrepit age — this [] prayer being fulfilled, she promises that, if she should receive her husband safe, she would cover the Martyr's sepulcher with masonry, in what space she could; and, full of faith and secure concerning the Martyr's mercy, she entered Trier [], and, having found her husband received into the imperial favor, she returns glad; and when the time was inquired at which her husband had been released from prison, this was the hour of his absolution at which she had prayed for the Martyr's help. Thereafter she fulfilled the promise which she had made, with immense gifts.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere pandam*

elsewhere providens*

elsewhere sanctum*

elsewhere hebitate or hebetate*

elsewhere there is added & sic*

elsewhere Hispanis*

elsewhere hæc*

elsewhere Trevirim*

CHAPTER II.

Prodigies wrought at the sepulcher, by which the heathen were converted: various healings.

Now [*] there was, not far from the little cell which this matron had built over the Martyr's sepulcher, a great shrine, where upon a very lofty column an image of Mars and of Mercury was honored. [A heathen, fleeing into the Saint's chapel, divinely escapes the hands of his assailant;] And when the festivals of that shrine were being kept by the heathen, and the dead were bringing incense to the dead, from the midst of the crowd two youths are stirred to a quarrel, and one, a sword being drawn, attacks the other to slay him. But he, seeing that no pardon was reserved for him, since he was not defended by his own gods, sought the little cell of the glorious Martyr — the guardianship of our religion, the pardon of our confession, the healing of our contagion. Then he who was following, when in the assault of the sword he had not been able to reach him, and this one had barred the door upon himself, and that one, seizing both doorposts, was trying to break in the door, immediately his hands, cleaving to the boards, are shaken with the greatest pain, and the wretch is tortured with such affliction that his abundantly flowing tears announced outwardly how great the pain was within. Meanwhile, the crowd being astonished, he who had been shut in comes forth free; the parents also of him who was held by the Saint's power, learning of the Martyr's burial-place, entreated with many devout gifts for their son.

VI.

[10] Now it came to pass, while these things were being done, that a certain priest was coming down that way. by which prodigy, and by others done there, Who, when he had learned what had happened, promises the parents that, if they would depart from heathenism, they should receive their son whole. The priest himself also on the following night sees in a dream those images which were honored by the heathen crushed by the divine Power, and, reduced to dust, laid low upon the ground. But on the fourth day, when the heathen wished again to offer libations to the gods, the priest, sorrowful, prostrates himself at the Saint's sepulcher; and with tears he entreats that at length the splendor of the divine power might visit this heathenism which lay in darkness, and that the blessed Martyr would not suffer his own nurslings to be held any longer in this gloom, since he himself possessed the joys of everlasting brightness.

[11] the inhabitants of the region are converted to the faith: Immediately at his prayer thunders are stirred up, lightnings flash [*], a rain mixed with fire comes down, and all things are thrown into confusion with hail: the crowd runs together to the little cell, the whole throng of the heathen is prostrated before the priest, and with a wailing mingled with tears all beseech the Lord's mercy, and promise the priest that, if the hail should withdraw, they would both seek the Martyr as patron, and would pass over with a whole heart to his God, the worship of images being left behind. Then he, prayer being poured forth, deserved to obtain all that he had asked. And when the storm withdrew, the youth, believing with his parents, is on that same day freed from his pains: the heathen, being baptized in the name of the Trinity, breaking in pieces the statues which they had worshiped, cast them into a lake near the village and the river. For from that time in that place both the Catholic faith and the Martyr's power was more fully declared.

VII.

[12] After these things certain men of the Burgundians, coming to the village of Brivas, Burgundian plunderers cut down by the Saint's favor, surround it with a copious multitude of arms; and, the people being captured and the sacrosanct furnishings plundered, they cross beyond the river, and prepare to kill the men with the sword and to divide the remaining crowd by lot. Then a certain Hillidius [*], coming from Velay ^a, and, as they say, stirred up by the admonition of a dove, rushes upon them. And, having exhorted his companions, he so cut down the enemy to their destruction that, the captives being loosed, triumphing in praise of the Martyr, the river being crossed, he returns singing with all the people to the blessed little cell like a new Moses. Nor was the exultation of those rescued less, as I judge, than was that of the Israelites of old when the Egyptians were drowned. And lest anyone doubt that this was the victory of the blessed Martyr, the intimation of the dove is believed to have been some mystery of the divine power. For as Hillidius was coming, she came to meet him; when he, as is wont, delayed a little, she flew about him; and as he went forward, she went before, and returned to meet him, as though entreating him to hasten his journey. While these things were being done, a boy arriving announces the captivity, and so this man hastened his way. But also, while he himself was fighting, the dove always about

him was seen to fly to and fro. And lest anyone should grudge that a fiction concerning a dove was made and granted to a Christian man, since Orosius ^b writes that a Roman consul, that is, Marcus Valerius, was helped by the bird a raven.

VIII.

[13] The enemy therefore being laid low by Hillidius, four of them, slipping away by flight, carry into their own country a paten and a pitcher which is called anax ^c; and the things carried off by them restored to the church by the queen's piety: and, the paten being divided into as many parts as they were, they present the pitcher to king Gundobad ^d to procure his favor. But the sagacity of the queen ^e found out the remaining silver, and, many gifts being added to it, restored it to that holy place, faithfully suggesting to the king that it did not befit him to lose the favor of the holy Martyr for the sake of a little silver.

IX.

[14] For these and such ornaments of powers a great basilica was built there by the faithful, a paralytic woman healed at the sepulcher, a vision going before: which shines with the powers, as we have said before, of the blessed Martyr; in which remedies for paralytics, the lame, the blind, and other diseases as well are often sought and found. A certain woman Fedamia, bound by the humor of paralysis, in whom no member of the body was strong without pain, was brought by her kinsfolk to the blessed basilica, that at least she might earn alms from the bountiful. And while she was lying in that portico which adjoins the holy basilica, and the devout faith of the people was celebrating the Lord's night with sacrosanct vigils, and she, resting on her little bed, had slept a little, she was seized and rebuked in a vision by a certain man, who said to her: Why, while the rest were rendering their nightly watches to God, was she absent? She answered that she was feeble in every part of her limbs, and could not walk at all. Then, being as it were supported by the man who was speaking to her, and led as far as the sepulcher, while in her sleep she pours forth prayer, it seemed to her as though a multitude of chains fell from her limbs to the ground; and, being awakened by that very sound, she felt that she had received the fullest health of all her joints. At once she rose from her little bed, and, all being astonished, crying out with thanksgiving, she entered the holy basilica. Some report also that she was accustomed to describe the appearance of the man who had addressed her: she said that he was tall of stature, shining in garment, remarkable in elegance, cheerful of countenance, with golden hair mingled with gray, unencumbered in gait, free of voice, most gentle in address; and that the whiteness of his skin shone beyond the brightness of a lily, so that out of the many thousands of men she had often seen, she had beheld none like him: whence to many it seems not absurd that the blessed Martyr appeared to her. And this woman was healed after eighteen years.

[15] A certain man, when in a riot which he had stirred up he had lost an eye, [a man injurious to the church, first blinded, then, repenting of the deed, healed:] tried to drag out of the basilica the man who had inflicted the blow: and while he does this, not only does he not receive back the light of his lost eye, but he even feels the other, which he had had sound, being blinded. Further, when he confessed his sins, saying: Deservedly has judgment without mercy befallen me, who did not show mercy — being prostrated before the holy sepulcher with the people who had then come to the festival, and forgiving him who had injured him, he received both sight and grace. And so it came about that he who had sought the Saint's help was protected, but he who did not believe was convicted; and thus both departed glad and amended.

XI.

[16] Another also, by a rash daring, yoking oxen on the Lord's Day, began to furrow a field, [a man who dared to work on the Lord's Day, and was punished, escapes unhurt by the Saint's favor:] and, taking up an axe to mend something in the ploughshare, immediately, his fingers being contracted, the handle stuck fast in his right hand. And when he was tortured with exceeding pain, after two years, coming to the basilica of the blessed Martyr, he faithfully celebrated the vigils: at once on that same Lord's Day his hand, being unbarred, let go the wood which it held against its will, bringing great discipline to the people, that what had been perpetrated on the Lord's Day should on the Lord's Day also be purged. But he, magnifying the glory of the Martyr, withdrew unhurt, nor thereafter dared to work anything on the day of the Lord's resurrection ^f.

XII.

[17] So also a certain Anagild [*], dumb and deaf and blind, a deaf, dumb, and paralytic man is healed. and enfeebled in the whole frame of his members, was cast down at the sacrosanct thresholds, namely that he might be fed by the alms of the devout, since he could not labor with his own hands for the sustenance of food. Therefore, when he had lain a whole year before the holy house, at length, being visited by the power of the blessed Martyr, he was healed of all infirmity.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere enim*

elsewhere renitent*

elsewhere Illidius*

elsewhere Anagilus*

CHAPTER III.

The punishments of various men who had inflicted injury upon the Saint or upon his church.

XIII.

It seems good to me that, as the sick who are cured by the Saint's power are recounted, The punishment of those who had despoiled the Saint's church, so also the wickednesses of unbelievers, confuted by his prayer, should be declared for the amendment of others, that they may not seek the like; because both make for the Saint's glory, that he both restores these to health, lest they be further tormented, and convicts those, lest they be condemned in the judgment to come. And since I believe that nothing concerning the hostility of king Theodoric ^a and the infirmities of Sigivald which befell him when he was set in Auvergne lies hidden from anyone, nevertheless, on account of the power of the blessed Martyr, it must be set forth more diligently, that credit may the more easily be given to what is said. Therefore, when the aforesaid king was hastening to the plundering of the Arverni, and, entering their border, was subduing all things to devastation, some part separated from the army broke out hostilely to the village of Brivas, rumor spreading that the inhabitants were gathered in the basilica with many treasures. And when they had come to the place, they find a multitude of both sexes, the doors being barred, sitting in that very church with their own goods. And when they could not enter, one, breaking a glass window like a thief, enters upon the holy altar [*] — since he who enters not by the door is a robber; thereupon, the folding doors of that house being unbarred, he lets in the army. But they, all the furniture of the poor being plundered ^b, together with the furnishings ^c of that basilica, and the rest of the people also who were within being led out, divided them outside not far from the village. Which things, when they had been reported to the king, he condemned some of them who were arrested to divers deaths. But he who, the house being broken into, was the head of this crime, fleeing, was consumed and perished by fire falling from heaven: upon whom, when many had gathered a heap of stones, being uncovered by thunder and lightning, he lacked earthly burial. But those of his accomplices ^d who, hiding from the king, returned into their own country, being seized by a demon, cruelly ended this life by divers deaths. Hearing these things, the king restored all that had been carried off thence. For he had commanded that no one should use violence within the seventh milestone from the basilica.

XIV.

[19] Then Sigivald ^e, very powerful with the king, migrated with all his household into the region of Auvergne by the king's order; [as also that of Sigivald for a farm carried off; but he, being afterwards restored, gives back double:] where, while he unjustly laid claim to the goods of many, he greedily seized a certain farm which Tetradius ^f, bishop of Bourges [*], of glorious memory, had left to the basilica of St. Julian, under the appearance of a shadowed exchange. But in the third month after he had taken it, being seized by a fever and made senseless, he laid his head down upon a bed. His wife, while she hung sorrowful over this end, was admonished by a certain priest that, if she wished to see him well, she should carry him away from the farm. And she, hearing this, carriages being prepared and a wagon made ready in which to carry him out, as soon as they had gone forth from the estate, immediately both were alike endowed with divine grace: for he obtained health, and she gladness from his recovery. They report also that it was revealed to a certain religious man that in the oratory of that estate St. Julian the martyr was conversing with bishop Tetradius, promising the bishop that he would recover the farm which he had left him for the remedy of his soul. And he reported that the appearance of the blessed Martyr was of the same sort as the paralytic woman had once described.

XV.

[20] But a certain shepherd, not by vigor but by name Ingenuus ^g, a man struck by lightning who had seized the goods of the Saint's church; while he acted unjustly in many matters against the basilica of the holy Martyr, his levity, the enemy fattening upon it, so grew strong that, coveting the tenant-farms ^h of the basilica which were nearest his own field, he did not fear to seize them. To whom, when the priest of the place sent some of the clergy as it were as envoys, that, having received an account of the matter, he might release what he had wrongly seized, he leaped forth as though against a hostile enemy, weapons being snatched up; and, the clergy being put to flight with arrows, he retained the Saint's goods in his own possession. Now it came to pass that the day of the passion of the glorious Martyr was drawing near; to which he, unmindful of his seizure and of the injury which he had inflicted upon the clergy, came to the village of Brivas five days before the solemnity. And while he was enjoying a banquet with gladness and exultation in the house of his hospitality, suddenly, lightning having flashed, the thunder sounded. And again, by a second fiery bolt slipping down from the heavens, he was struck, none however of the rest perishing. Then, for the example of all, like a burning flaming pyre, he was little by little consumed. At which miracle the people who had come together for the feasts of the Blessed one, beholding these things with wonder, were afraid; and it was enough for that man, that nothing further should befall him concerning the Saint's goods. And lest anyone think that this was done by chance, let him observe that among many harmless men one sacrilegious man perished.

XVI.

[21] I shall also unfold what the blessed Martyr wrought to confute the pride of the count Becco ⁱ. another who slandered a servant of that same church, He, when he was conducting public business ^k, and

being lifted up with boasting, was oppressing many against justice, it happened by chance that he lost a hawk which he had loosed and which long wandered in various directions. Likewise one of the servants of the basilica of St. Julian, while he was walking along the way, found another hawk, as it were straying: for that boy was a cup-bearer in the house of the basilica. And when it had come to Becco's ears that the boy was keeping a hawk he had found, he began to bring a false charge and to say: That one was mine, he says, and he has carried it off by theft. Then, avarice kindling him, he sent him bound into prison, resolving to condemn him on the morrow to the gallows. Then the priest, exceedingly sorrowful, hastens to the Saint's sepulcher, and, the chests being unlocked with groaning, taking ten gold pieces, offered them to Becco through faithful friends. Which he, spurning them as nothing, asserted with an oath that he would never let the boy go, unless he should receive thirty gold pieces from thence. And the priest, taking them from off the Saint's sepulcher, sent them to Becco; and, having received them, his greedy [*] cupidity being satisfied, he restored the boy unhurt.

[22] he is struck with a grave disease: But almighty God, who abides before the sun, according to the riches of his goodness humbled the slanderer. For when the course of that same year had passed, coming to the Saint's festivity with a throng of retainers, he entered the holy threshold. But when the lector came forward who was to recount the history of the blessed passion, as he unrolled the book and at the beginning of the lesson uttered the name of St. Julian, immediately Becco, with I know not what most foul cry, fell to the ground, and, bloodily foaming, began to utter divers cries. Thence, lifted up in the hands of his own men, he is carried back home from the basilica. Nor was it doubtful to his servants that these things had befallen him because of the injury done to the servant of the basilica. All the ornament also which he then had upon himself, both in gold and in garments, he bestowed upon the basilica, and thereafter sent many gifts; but until the day of his death he remained without his senses.

XVII.

[23] There was also a certain deacon who, the church being forsaken [], attached himself to the public treasury ^l, another, who had seized the church's sheep, and, having received authority from his patrons, perpetrated such crimes that they could scarcely be borne by the neighbors round about. Now it happened on a certain occasion that he was going round the mountain pastures where the sheep had gone for summer grazing, and was inquiring after the pasture-dues ^m which were owed to the treasury. And while he was unjustly despoiling divers persons, he beholds afar off the flocks which then were protected under the Martyr's name: rushing to them at a light run, like a ravening wolf he snatches away the rams. The shepherds of the sheep, confounded and terrified, say to him: Do not, we beseech thee, touch these rams, for they are subject to the lordship of the blessed martyr Julian. To whom he, mocking these words, is reported to have answered: Do you suppose that Julian eats rams? Thereupon, they being beaten with stripes, he carried off what he wished, not knowing, wretched man, that he who carries off anything from the houses of the Saints does injury to the Saints themselves, the Lord himself thus testifying: He that despiseth you despiseth me, and He that receiveth a just man shall receive the reward of a just man.*

[24] punished with death: But it happened that after many days, not by religion but by chance, he was hastening to the village of Brivas; and, cast upon the ground before the sepulcher, he is presently seized by a fever, and is oppressed by so great a force of heat that he could neither rise up nor call his servant. But his servants, when they had seen him lying prostrate longer than usual, drawing near said: Why art thou weighed down for so long a time? For thou hadst not so long a custom of praying, nor such devotion ⁿ. Now they used to say of him that whenever he had entered a church, murmuring a little while, and not even [*] with his head bowed, he would go out again. Then, when the servants called upon him and he could not return an answer, being lifted by their hands from the place, he is laid upon a bed in the cell which was nearest. Therefore, the fever growing strong, the wretched man cries out that he is being burned by the Martyr. And what he had at first kept silent, the torches of the soul's judgment being applied, he confesses his crimes, and with such voice as he could he begged that water be thrown upon him. And when water was brought in a small vessel and often poured upon him, smoke came forth from his body as from a furnace. Meanwhile his wretched limbs, as if burnt up, are turned to blackness. Whence proceeded so great a stench that scarcely any of the bystanders could endure it. Then, nodding with his hand, he indicates that he is easier; presently, as they withdrew, he breathed out his spirit: concerning whom there is no doubt what place he holds there, who departed hence with such a judgment.

XVIII.

[25] Another, during the vigil of the festivity, a thief cannot lead a horse away the whole night: laid hold by theft of the horse of a certain man who had by chance come to that same solemnity; and, having mounted, he hastens swiftly, namely that he who had lost the light of truth should not be found by the light, and that the night should hide the thievish fraud of one whose breast the darkness of cupidity had beset. For of such the Lord said in the Gospel: Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Therefore, as the sky whitened, he was saying: Now I am safe, for I am thirty leagues distant from the Saint's basilica; now I believe myself to be near my own house. While he silently revolved these things within himself, the darkness being removed from the heavens [*], he perceives that he was wandering about, near to that very village, among the people; and fearing lest his crime should be made public, with great caution he restored the horse to the place from which he had departed. Thus the wretch, held by the Martyr's power all night in a circuit round the village, was — as I believe — mocked by the author who had beset him, so that he could not take the road he wished to take. O wicked cupidity, what dost thou? Ever dost thou hurl thy lovers into confusion.

XIX.

[26] A certain man had lent a triens ^o to another, which after a few days had intervened he received back. [a man wishing to perjure himself in the Saint's church sticks fast, dumb and motionless:] But a year later, having met the man in the Saint's court, he demanded that his property be restored to him, as though he had not received it back. But the other, protesting, asserted that he had returned what he received. And when they had wrangled very long, he who had returned it says to his fellow: How long shall we both contend? Let us place this under the judgment of almighty God. Let us go to the Martyr's tomb, and let the holy power of the Patron decide what thou shalt say under the interposing of an oath. And he, not hesitating, and having entered the sepulcher, while he boldly raises his hands to swear falsely [*], unhappily grew stiff, wretched man. His voice sticks in his throat, his tongue is cramped in his jaws, he moves his lips empty of speech; and those very arms which he had raised for the support of a frustrated oath he could not at all draw back. At this, the crowd marveling, the crime being made public, the whole multitude of the people, bursting out with one voice, entreats the Lord's mercy and the blessed Martyr's help. But after four hours or more, returning to his senses, he made known by a public confession what he was unjustly demanding, and so departed whole.

XX.

[27] Often had he heard these things who brought violence upon the holy basilica; a thief of the church, unable to find the way out, falls asleep and is caught. but goodness could not soften a wicked mind once beset by vice, Solomon testifying: Wisdom entereth not into a malevolent soul []. The Saint's festivity had come, and behold a certain one of the people beholds the blessed basilica shining with immense ornaments. He covets with wicked mind what, on obtaining, he could not hide. Therefore, when the people had departed from the basilica after the evening thanksgiving, he, hiding himself in a corner of the basilica, lay concealed; and when silence had been given to all in nocturnal rest, and the shadowy gloom was covering the world, he rises from the corner, and, doubting nothing — since indeed [] he was driven on by Satan his companion — he leaped with swift running upon the railing of the blessed sepulcher, and, pulling down from the top a cross flashing with gems, cast it to the ground; and, gathering the little veils and small palls hanging round about the walls, he makes one bundle [*], and put it on his shoulders, and, the cross being lifted in his hand, he seeks again the place from which he had departed; and, the burden being placed at his head, oppressed by the sleep of sin, he fell asleep. But in the middle of the night the guards, going round the holy basilica, behold in the corner one gem of the cross shining like a heavenly radiance: astounded, they approach near with fear, and, a wax taper being brought, they find a person lying there with the stolen goods which he had not been able to carry away. At length, being held that night under guard, when morning came he made known all that he had done, asserting that he had fallen asleep weary, because, going round and round the basilica for a very long time with his bundle, he could not find the door by which to go out.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere altari*

elsewhere Bituricensis*

elsewhere auri, or auro*

elsewhere relicta ecclesia*

elsewhere ac*

elsewhere miserum*

that is, orbe*

elsewhere perjuret*

elsewhere in malevolam animam*

elsewhere qui a*

elsewhere voluculum*, that is, a little bundle

CHAPTER IV.

Various benefits granted to various persons by the Saint's favor.

XXI.

Many other things indeed he showed upon transgressors, A lost horse, the Saint being invoked, is found; but let these suffice [*] for restraining

their sloth; but now let us return to the joys of prosperities which he grants to the peoples with bountiful mercy. But first I do not think that ought to be put off which we have learned by much experience, namely what [] a faithful entreaty obtains with this Patron in the matter of lost goods: of which I have taken care to commemorate one only. A devout poor man had come to the festivity of the blessed Martyr; and, his horse ^a being loosed, he entered the sacred house, and, standing motionless at the vigils, passed the night with the rest in praying. But when the sky grew light, returning to his lodging, he did not find the horse which he had left; and, having sought it very long, he did not even learn the tracks of the direction in which it had gone. Two days having passed, therefore, he runs again through the pastures, questioning the inhabitants of the places, whether by chance anyone either held it captured, or had seen it taken by anyone. Thereafter, finding no kind of indication, anxious and sorrowful he returns to the Saint's sepulcher; and there, setting forth the causes of his grief and sorrow, he said: To thy thresholds, Holy One, I came, to bring nothing else than the vows of my littleness; I have carried off nothing unjustly, I have done nothing unworthy of thy solemnity: why, I say, have I lost my property? I ask that thou restore what is lost, that thou give back what is needful. Saying these things with weeping added, as he went out of the church, he beholds afar off his own horse [] being held by a certain man. Coming to him, while he inquires whence he is, or whence he has come, or from what time he has had this horse, he learned that it had been found at that very hour at which he had implored the aid of the blessed Martyr.

XXII.

[29] Now when a certain man of that place had lost an eye by a diabolical assault, a blind man enlightened at the sepulcher; and was sitting unhappily in his little lodging, bereft of light, and, being able to labor nothing with his own hands, had no hope of sustenance, there appeared to him a man in a vision [] of the night admonishing him to walk to the basilica of the Blessed one; and there, if he should devoutly make his suggestion [], he promises that help will be found. And he, delaying nothing, having seized a staff, with a boy supporting him, entered the holy place; who, after prayer was completed, went to the archpriest who then ruled that place, by name Publianus, beseeching that he would set the cross of Christ upon his blind eyes; for he was very religious. And when he, desiring to escape ostentation, avoided this, he is held by the blind man, and is not let go at all unless he should fulfil what he asked. Then he, prostrated before the sepulcher, very long implored the Martyr's suffrage. Then, his hand being brought to the blind eyes, immediately as he set the sign of the cross upon them, the man received sight. Marvel, I pray you, at the Martyr's power, to whom, since it is a small thing to work miracles by himself, now works publicly even by the hands of his disciples, the favor of his power lending assent. But neither was the merit of the disciple small, to whom these things are seen to have been granted.

XXIII.

[30] There was also at that time in the city of Auvergne my uncle Gallus ^b the bishop, the foot of St. Gallus healed; concerning whom it seems not to be omitted how in his youth he was aided by the Saint's power. And since I have very often commemorated ^c what destruction king Theodoric brought upon the region of Auvergne — when nothing of their own goods was left either to the elder or to the younger born, except the empty land which the barbarians could not carry away with them — in those times, therefore, my uncle of glorious memory, who afterwards, as I have said, ruled the church of Auvergne with the priestly burden, was an orphan, whose means were so plundered by the army that nothing at all remained. Being unencumbered, he too, with only a single little servant, would often travel as far as the village of Brivas on a journey afoot. Now it happened at a certain time, while he was treading this road, that, his shoes being loosed on account of the heat of the sun, walking with bare sole he trod upon a thorny stake, which ^d then, perhaps having been cut, still clinging to the earth with its point upright, was hidden among the green grass. And this, being fixed in his sole, and trodden upon and broken off, could not be drawn out downward. Therefore, a stream of blood flowing down, when he could not take a step, he implores the aid of the blessed Martyr; and, the pain being a little repressed, though limping, he accomplished the journey which he had begun. But on the third night, the wound festering, the greatest pain is stirred up. But he, taking refuge in the aid he had long since proved, is prostrated at the glorious sepulcher; and, the vigils being completed, returning to his little bed, while he awaits the Martyr's power, he is weighed down by sleep coming upon him. Then, rising up, he feels no injury of pain; and, his sole being looked at, the part of the stake which had entered is not seen: yet he felt that it had been plucked from his foot; and, diligently seeking that piece of wood in his bedding, he found it, marveling how it had come out. For he was accustomed in his episcopate to show the place of the wound, in which a great pit was still to be seen, testifying that in this had been the power of the blessed Martyr.

XXIV.

[31] But after much time the festivity of the blessed Martyr had come, Gregory's brother freed from a fever at the sepulcher, and my father with all his household was hastening to the joys of this solemnity. But while we were making the journey, my elder brother Peter ^e is seized by the burning of fevers, and is [] so gravely afflicted that he could neither be strong [] nor take food; and that whole journey is made with great sorrow, and the matter turns to a crisis, whether he should recover or [*] perish. At length with this labor we arrive at the place: we enter the basilica, we adore the burial-place of the most sacred Martyr; the sick man too is prostrated upon the pavement, entreating healing from the glorious Martyr. But after prayer was completed, returning to the lodging ^f, the fever quieted a little; and when night came, while we hastened to the vigils, he too asks to be carried thither; and, lying before the sepulcher all night, he implores the Martyr's suffrage. Then, the nocturnal watches being ended, he asks that they should either give him to drink of the dust which was gathered about the blessed tomb, or hang it about his neck. Which being done, all the burning of the fevers so quieted that on that very day he both took food, being whole, and walked wherever delight turned his mind.

XXV.

[32] But at the following festivity, while again with great joy we were hastening to the holy basilica, Gregory himself healed of a headache at the spring, my head, struck by the sun, began grievously to ache; which pain, increasing, generated a fever within, so that it allowed me neither to take food nor to speak. And when for two days I was consumed by this pain, on the third day we came to the basilica of St. Ferreolus, to which that spring, of which we made mention above, is adjacent. Now the basilica is distant from the village of Brivas about ten stades. And when we had come into that place, it pleased my mind to go on as far as the spring, trusting in the Martyr's power that if a light wave from it should be poured over me, I should presently be healed. And arriving, I pour forth prayer, I draw water, I cool my mouth, I pour it over my head; and immediately, as the waters ran down, the pain being put to flight I depart whole, and enter glad as far as the sepulcher of the glorious Martyr, marveling and giving thanks to the Martyr that he had deigned to visit me with his power before I deserved to behold his sepulcher.

XXVI.

[33] For there is [*] at this spring ^g, because the Martyr was struck there, where another too recovers from a fever: an exceptional power. A certain man seized by a fever, when he was at the last extremity, had a desire to draw of the water of the spring, to which also he faithfully begged to be carried; who, being taken up in the hands of his own people and set down in the place, immediately, as he received a draught of the water and poured it over his face and head, deserved to receive health; and, having been carried in by the hands of others, he returned by his own steps. And he was an inhabitant of this village, but his name has fallen out.

XXVII.

[34] But on a certain day a storm arising with a great onset of wind was descending rapidly upon the village of Brivas: the Saint's church struck by lightning, the people unhurt. for lightnings flashed from the clouds, and terrible thunders gave forth their voices, the earth is shaken with the crash, and nearly everything was thought to be burned by the flashing: the only expectation was in the power of the glorious Martyr. Nor was there delay: a heavy peal of thunder being given with the lightning, a fiery bolt enters through the opening by which the rope of that bell hangs down; and, two columns being struck, it dashed them in pieces; then, rebounding, it went out through the window which is above the holy tomb: yet by the Blessed one's guardianship it injured none of the people. O how great is the blessed Martyr's love toward his own nurslings! He suffered ^h the columns to be struck, he does not permit the ranks of the people; he allowed the glass to be broken, not the throng; he permitted the lightning to pass over his own sepulcher, lest there should be the destruction of the whole multitude. Therefore the bolt, driven out from the basilica of the holy Martyr, burned up heaps of hay, killed the cattle, destroyed the beasts of burden. But if anyone thinks these things fortuitous, let him rather marvel and be astounded at the power of the renowned Martyr, that the fire passing through the midst of the people harmed no one, but there only fulfilled its desires where it knew that it had license.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere sunt*

elsewhere quod*

elsewhere equum*

elsewhere visione*

elsewhere se gerat*

elsewhere teneret*

elsewhere agitur or angitur*

elsewhere bibere*

elsewhere an*

elsewhere etiam*

CHAPTER V.

Other marvels: the day of death revealed: relics carried into Campania and into the East, and churches built there, and miracles wrought.

XXVIII.

Now a certain cleric of Aredius ^a, abbot of Limoges, coming to the festivity, Entrance into the church divinely opened to a monk: by reason of the multitude of the people could not only not approach the holy tomb, but could not even enter into the basilica itself. And when, sorrowful, he had betaken himself to his lodging, lying down upon his little bed he fell asleep. Immediately a man stood by him in a vision, saying: Why art thou, he says, weighed down with sleep? Go quickly to the Martyr's church, and thou shalt find all things opened. And he, rising up struck with fear, believing the saying, hastens swiftly to prove whether the things indicated to him were true. And when he had come to the door, he found, the peoples being removed on every side [*], a way made as far as the holy altar and the tomb itself, with no one obstructing; and thus, approaching without any pressing of the crowd, prayer being poured forth, he returned with joy. And lest

anyone doubt, I call almighty God to witness that I learned these things from the mouth of that same abbot, with whose monk they were done.

XXIX.

[36] The people, ignorant of the time of this festivity, hung in sorrow, the day of the martyrdom revealed: not knowing the day on which the blessed Martyr ought to be honored for the glory of his virtue and passion; and this ignorance was drawn out down to the time of blessed Germanus, prelate of Auxerre. Now it came to pass that the aforesaid pontiff came to Brivas, and, being asked by the inhabitants at what time his sacred rites were celebrated, they answer that they do not know. Then he says: Let us pray, and perhaps the power of the Lord will reveal these things to us. And when they had done this, in the morning, the elders of the place being called together, he says that the festivity is to be celebrated on the fifth of the Kalends of the seventh month [*] ^b. From this the devout people now coming, rendering their vows to the prelate, carry back medicine both of soul and of body.

XXX.

[37] But the possessed, when they have come, for the most part vomit forth reproaches against the Saint of God, the possessed often freed at the sepulcher: asking why he summons other Saints to his feasts; and, confessing them by name, they acknowledge their powers and merits. For they say: Let it suffice thee, Julian, to torment us by thine own power; why dost thou provoke the rest? Why dost thou invite strangers? Behold Martin the Pannonian ^c, our continual enemy, who drove back three dead men from our caverns. Privatus of Gévaudan ^d is here, who would not deliver his sheep to the barbarians stirred up at our instigation. Ferreolus thy colleague from among the Viennese has come, who sent us punishment in thee, and protection to the inhabitants. Why dost thou call Symphorian of Autun ^e, why Saturninus ^f of Toulouse? Thou hast assembled a council, that thou mayest heap infernal torment upon us. As they say these and like things, they so present the Saints of God to human minds that it is doubtful to none that they dwell there: many of the sick, however, are cured by them, and depart whole.

XXXI.

[38] But that too is most worthy of record, what is the tameness of the cattle vowed in this basilica: the cattle grow tame in the Saint's church: how wanton calves, kicking horses, grunting swine [*], when they have entered the holy threshold, become quiet. For we have often seen high-stepping bulls, which, bound by fifteen men or more, were led with ropes and made such an onset upon the men that you would think they would even break the ropes themselves; but when they entered the holy house, they so quieted that you would judge them to be held as tame as lambs. We have seen also many entering through the midst of the throngs, with head bowed pushing the people aside with the muzzle, not with the horns, and, as though they were approaching the tribunal of a judge, having some feeling of fear: not kicking, not attacking anyone with the horn, not looking with grim eyes, but in all tameness hastening as far as the holy altar, and kissing it, and returning again with the same patience with which they had entered. So too the wantonness of the other beasts of burden, when it has come thither, all fury being laid aside, grows mild, so that you may behold them in the gentleness of doves with great wonder. But of those things which are vowed, it is by no means permitted to anyone to withdraw anything: no one presumes either to exchange or to buy before he comes to the basilica. For those who do this are often grievously shaken by divine vengeance; for either a fever threatens, or some evil creeps in, or a grave loss follows, or disease carries off that thing which he carried off. Rarely, however, does the matter pass without a present vengeance.

XXXII.

[39] Let it suffice to have spoken of those powers which either [] have been or are being wrought about the holy basilica: relics carried to a church built at Reims, a demon expelled on the way: now, discoursing briefly of those places in which his relics are held, it is pleasing, devotion urging, to make an end of this little book. A certain man in the province of Belgica Secunda, that is, in the suburb of the city of Reims ^g, zealously built a basilica in honor of the blessed Martyr, whose relics, after the building was completed, he sought faithfully and devoutly; which, having received, while he returns singing psalms along the way, he entered the Champagne of Reims. Now there was, not far from the road, the field of a certain rich man of Champagne, for whose ploughing a great multitude had gathered. Therefore, as the traveler drew near with these pledges, a certain one of the ploughmen began to be grievously tormented, and to say as though in an ecstasy of mind: Behold, he says, the most blessed Julian drawing near; behold his power, behold his glory: run, men, leave the oxen, let go the ploughs, let the whole company go to meet him. They, astounded, and not knowing [] what he was telling, while, stupefied, they marvel both at the cries and at the sayings of the person, immediately the wretched man, leaving the ploughshare in the fields, casting himself upon the ground and beating his palms, is carried at a swift run toward the side from which that man of the blessed Martyr was coming, crying out: Why, Holy One, dost thou thus torture me? Why, glorious Martyr, dost thou burn me? Why dost thou invade a region not owed to thee? Why dost thou traverse our dwellings? As he said such things, he came in turmoil to the place where the priest had already set up a tent; and, prostrated before the Saint's relics, he lay very long upon the ground [*]. Then, as the priest set that holy little casket upon him, immediately, blood bursting from his mouth, he was cleansed of the assault of diabolical error; and thereafter, proclaiming the Saint's power, he was a companion of this journey.

XXXIII.

[40] I shall relate what the report of faithful brethren declares concerning his relics in the East. [in the East, whither the dust of the sepulcher was carried, a demon driven out, and a church built:] In a certain city of the East, while a man was being tormented by a demon in the church, he foretold that relics of the blessed Martyr were in a ship. And when the ship had gained the harbor, he leaped up to it with bounds, and, rolling upon the ground before the ship, corruption bursting from his mouth and nostrils, the person was cleansed. And when these things had been announced to the bishop, he stirs [*] the people to go forth as far as the harbor with lighted tapers. Therefore the shipmaster, hearing it and weeping for joy, hastens to meet the bishop, asserting that he had taken nothing else from the Blessed one's basilica but a little dust which lay about the holy tomb; but almighty God, approving the man's faith, did not permit the Martyr's power to be hidden. Thereupon the bishop, taking up the relics, carries them with great honor as far as the holy church. And the merchant, beholding such marvels, built a basilica in honor of the Martyr, in which, placing the blessed relics, he thereafter saw many miracles wrought there.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere remotos … populos*

* that is, of September

* that is, swine

elsewhere ejus*

elsewhere ignari*

elsewhere homo*

elsewhere commonet or commonuit*

CHAPTER VI.

Relics translated to Tours, and a church built there and miracles wrought: perjurers punished.

XXXIV.

These things I myself experienced some time ago ^a. It happened that after my ordination I went to Auvergne; [A monastery with a church dedicated to the Saint among the people of Tours, and a possessed man freed when the relics were brought into it:] and, setting out, I went to the Blessed one's basilica; and, the festivity being completed, having torn off some fringes from the pall ^b which covers the holy tomb, believing that they would bring me protection, prayer being fulfilled I departed. But at the city of Tours the monks had built in honor of that same Martyr a basilica ^c, such as their means allowed, desiring that it be consecrated by his powers. And hearing that these pledges had been brought by me, they asked that the dedicated house might be enriched with the same remains. And I, taking the casket rather secretly, hasten to the basilica of blessed Martin as night began. Now a faithful man, who then stood at a distance, reported to me that, when we entered the basilica, he saw a beacon of immense light slip down from heaven and descend upon the blessed basilica, and thereafter as it were enter within. And when these things had been reported to us on the morrow by the faithful, we conjecture that it had proceeded from the power of blessed Martin. The most sacred relics therefore being laid upon the altar [], the night being watched with great chanting of psalms [], they were carried to the aforesaid basilica; and behold one of the possessed, striking his hands together upon himself, with open mouth, casting forth bloody spittle [], said: Why hast thou joined thyself, Martin, to Julian? Why dost thou provoke him into these places? Thy presence alone was punishment enough for us: hast thou called one like thyself to increase our torments? Why dost thou do these things? Why dost thou thus torture us with Julian?* While the wretch declaimed these and other things, the solemnities of the Masses being completed, as he dashed himself before the holy altar very long, corruption flowing forth from his mouth, he was freed from the infestation of diabolical fury.

XXXV.

[51] But neither do I think this should be kept silent [], what was done on that night before the holy relics were placed there. on the same night wine multiplied A monk of that place, while he rejoiced at the coming of the solemnity, and most readily invited each and every one to the little cellar ^d of the basilica, exhorting that all should faithfully keep vigil in the basilica, wine being drawn from the cask, began to pledge them with joy for devotion's sake, saying: The divine mercy bestows upon us a great patronage in the blessed Martyr; therefore I ask your charity that you keep vigil with me with one mind: for tomorrow his holy relics are to be placed in this spot. And when the night had been passed with sacred hymns and heavenly melodies, and the solemnities of the Masses also had been celebrated, the cleric [], exulting in the festivity, began again to ask those whom he had before invited to refreshment, saying: I give you thanks that you have thus stood unmoved for keeping vigil; but neither has the Martyr long deferred to reward good will by the grace of his power. For the cleric, entering the storeroom, found that the cask [*], which he had left nearly half empty, was overflowing through the upper opening, to such a degree that the abundance of the flowing wine led a stream along the ground as far as the door. And he, marveling at this, a vessel being set beneath, often carried it away full; but even when enough and abundantly had been spent from it, nothing at all was lacking, but until the morrow, all marveling, it always stood full.

[52] Now it was the III of the Kalends of the fifth month ^e. O admirable power of the Martyr, in the cask: since he brought forth from the cask a vintage without blossom; since it is customary that the gathered wines be stored in casks, he brought forth new must in a jar, into which not the grape [*] but power alone flowed down: the cask swells with liquid, the fruit

was not brought in, but created. This the Lord does for the glorifying of the Martyr, who, filling the Virgin's womb without seed, granted the Mother to remain in chastity: but here he abounds the more with a new fruit, since he offers Falernian for drinking without vine-stocks. In other vineyards the buds scarcely yet break forth; but in this cask the wine flows down by power; May is made equal to October, since it offers new cups; and it has more than October, since no vineyard is shown at hand, and Falernian wines are begotten in the house. For an unripe vintage comes without a winepress, which was found not on the vine-shoots but in hidden mysteries: the heap of grape-clusters is not pressed from the tree, and yet waves of wine flow down; Falernian wines are drawn, when no pressings are seen in the winepress; behold, no vine is beheld, and the cups are filled abundantly. But what do I say? For that heavenly power is not lacking to the faithful. For he who once at a wedding furnished wines from water, now abundantly offers the same to his own without the nature of any element; and he who satisfied five thousand men with two fishes, now restores multiplied gifts to good will. For at the time of his birth an angelic voice testified, saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. But now let us come to the works of power that follow.

XXXVI.

[53] A servant [*] of this monastery, long crippled, was unhappily dragged along. a crippled man healed there: But coming to that basilica of the Saint, he celebrates the vigils; which being completed, in the morning while he was returning to his bed, in the hands of those carrying him he was healed, his sinews being loosed.

XXXVII.

[54] A certain girl had blear eyes, and was nearly blinded by an excessive shower of flowing tears; whose father, having heard of the power of the glorious Martyr, hastens with her to the holy basilica; and, the vigils being celebrated, in the morning he set forth food and drink for the poor who were upon that register. a girl restored from blearness: But while they feasted, suddenly the girl cries out that she is being tortured with a pain of the head, and implores that a little sleep be granted her; and as she rested, while the guests were finishing [] the feast, she rose up and demanded to be led to the holy altar; and before [] she had been prostrated upon the ground and had attentively entreated the Lord's mercy, her tears being checked and her eyes cleansed of their blearness, she rose up glad; then, her father rejoicing, she is restored [*] home whole.

XXXVIII.

[55] Another, a very small boy, whose parents dwelt not far from that very basilica, a crippled boy freed from his malady: being crippled in all his limbs in the second year of his birth, was reared without hope of any good; who was so crippled that his knees could not at all be separated from his mouth. And his parents, when they had kept vigil at the holy basilica and had laid the little infant down before the most sacred relics, after a little while find him sitting and straightened in all his limbs. Thereupon, prayer being poured forth, they returned rejoicing to their home.

XXXIX.

[56] There is also in the region of Tours a village whose name is Gaudiacum ^f, perjurers punished. in which relics of the blessed Martyr are contained; which, though it is often illustrated by great powers, nevertheless for the most part exercises vengeance upon perjurers. For when anyone there, at the persuasion of the enemy of the human race, has sworn falsely, divine vengeance so pursues him that it presently becomes manifest either in the following of a loss, or in the losing of a kinsman, or in the wasting of a disease; yet the Martyr by no means allows the matter to remain unavenged: but neither there does the raw rusticity of the barbarians swear falsely with such [*] rash daring. Concerning which business let these things suffice, since it is long to record in order each of the things done about them.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere altarium*

* that is, with singing

elsewhere cruentos … sputos*

elsewhere silendum … quod, or sileri*

elsewhere monachus*

* that is, a smaller cask

elsewhere vina*

elsewhere servus*

elsewhere vigiliam*

elsewhere adplicarent*

before which, cum solo*

elsewhere reducitur and redit*

elsewhere jam*

CHAPTER VII.

A church built by St. Aredius and enriched with the Saint's relics, in which various miracles were wrought: relics kept in other places, and famous for miracles.

XL.

Now when Aridius the priest had come to me from Limoges ^a, [A church built by St. Aredius, in which is kept balsam made from the water of the Saint's spring:] a very religious man, of whom also I have made mention in the second book of the powers of blessed Martin [b], while I was carefully searching into his life and conduct, I began to inquire what marvels the most blessed Julian had brought forth there. For he had built a basilica in honor of the blessed Martyr, which he also illustrated with his relics. As therefore he is most modest, having long hesitated, at length and very unwillingly he set forth these things. When, he said, I first went to the basilica of blessed Julian, I took a little wax from the sepulcher; then, coming to the spring in which the blood of the blessed Martyr was shed, my face being washed with the waters, I filled a small flask from them for a blessing. I call almighty God to witness that, before I reached home, it was changed in color, thickness, and odor into balsam. But when the priest came to dedicate the house, and I had set forth these things, he would place nothing else for relics in the holy altar than the little vessel whose water had been changed into balsam, saying: "These are certain relics, which the Martyr has illustrated with the powers of paradise."

XLI.

[58] There are indeed many other things, of which, passing over very many, a paralytic healed; I disclose some. A certain sick man, feeble in all his limbs, being placed upon a wagon, was brought to his monastery. And when he lay by night in this vehicle before that same basilica, he suddenly sees it shining with a great splendor, and heard in it voices of men chanting psalms, as though of many men. While these things were going on, and he was pouring forth prayer, being as it were stupefied [*] and unmindful of his pains, as he drew near, the splendor which he had seen passed before his eyes. And he, the brightness being removed, returning to himself, felt that he had been restored to his former health.

XLII.

[59] A blind man also, being led by a support, approaching his sacrosanct altar, sight restored to a blind man; when he touched his eyes with the covering of the holy relics, received light: but the possessed also, covered with this pall, have often been cleansed; and the power of judges, as often as it acted excessively in that place, departed confounded.

XLIII.

[60] Now there hung above that altar a cross all gilded ^c, made with elegant workmanship; and it was so splendid to the sight that you would think it to be of purest gold. But when the barbarians came, being judged by a certain one to be of gold, [a cross carried off from the altar by theft weighs down the thief with excessive weight:] it was plundered and hidden in his bosom. But he who had taken it away is suddenly weighed down with so great a weight that he could not bear it at all; and immediately, being pricked by the Martyr's power and moved by penitence, he sent it back from the road and restored it to the holy place.

XLIV.

[61] After these things were done, he ^d sent his cleric, dust sought from the Saint's sepulcher for relics, saying: Go, he says, to the basilica of blessed Julian, and, pouring forth prayer, beseech that the sacristans may deign to grant thee some wax or dust from the sepulcher of him who lies there, that what is brought may be received by me with a blessing. And he, coming, demands and receives what had been commanded him. And when he wished to carry what he had received, he is weighed down with so great a weight that he could scarcely lift his neck: whence, shaken with great trembling, he is prostrated upon the pavement; and, again pouring forth prayer with tears, he rose up unharmed, and felt that he had received liberty to depart. Therefore, having taken the road, the sun growing exceedingly hot, he is seized with thirst.

XLV.

[62] But coming to an estate near the road, he approaches one cottage, and a demon driven out by it: asking for water; from which a young man coming out to give an answer, as soon as he saw him, fell to the ground and became as one dead. But his kinsfolk, running together, brought false charges against the men, asserting that their kinsman had been destroyed by their magical arts; and, taking up the youth, they raised him half alive. But he, slipping from their hands, striking his palms together, began, raving, to cry out and to say that he was being burned by the power of Julian the martyr. And the cleric, hearing this, having set upon his head the little casket with the holy pledges, full of faith began to pray more attentively; and he too, casting forth blood with vomiting, and the demon with it, departed cleansed. Thereupon the bearer, being strengthened in faith, going the whole way with psalms and thanksgivings, arrived, the Martyr leading him, at the place he had chosen. And from that time forward, as time went on, how many possessed persons, sufferers from the ague ^e, or those oppressed with divers diseases, were healed there by the Martyr's power, neither could their names be retained nor their number reckoned.

[63] a sick boy, to whom soothsayers were called, dies of his disease; Among the other notable examples of miracles to be received, we set down this also, which may correct the foolish and strengthen the wise. Therefore in the time of bishop Cautinus ^f, when, the sins of the people pressing on, the region of Auvergne was being devastated by the destruction of the plague which they call the inguinal, I sought the village of Brivas, namely that I, who could not protect myself by my merits, might be saved by the protection of blessed Julian the martyr. And while I dwelt in that village, one of our boys is seized by this disease; and, having laid himself down upon his bed

his head, he began to be grievously sick. Now there was a continual fever with rheum of the stomach, so that, if he took anything, he immediately cast it up. Nor was food a strengthening to him, but rather was thought to be his undoing. At length my people, when they saw him afflicted in the extreme, call in a certain soothsayer. And he, not deferring to come, approached the sick man and tries to exercise his art. He murmurs incantations, he casts lots, he hangs amulets about his neck, he promises life to one whom he himself had consigned to death. Now these things were being done without my knowledge; and when they had been reported to me, I am made most bitter, and with a heavy sigh I call to mind that which the Lord announces by the prophet Elijah to king Ozias ^g, saying: Because thou hast forsaken the Lord God of Israel and hast consulted the god of Accaron, therefore from the bed on which thou hast lain thou shalt not rise, but shalt surely die. For this boy, after the coming of the soothsayer, being kindled more violently by the fever, breathed out his spirit.

[64] After whose death, a few days having intervened, another boy began to labor under a like infirmity: another, having drunk the dust of the sepulcher with water, is healed: then I say to them: Go to the Martyr's tomb, and carry something thence to the sick man, and you will see the great works of God, and you will know what is between the just and the unjust, and between him that fears God and him that does not serve him. And going, they took a little of the dust lying about the sepulcher. And when the sick man had drunk of it with water, immediately he obtained his medicine; and, his strength being recovered and the fever quenched, he grew well. Understand now therefore, O all you who are unwise among the people; and after you have examined these things, know that they are nothing which the devil works to seduce the human race. Therefore I admonish that, if anyone is signed with the standard of the cross, if anyone is cleansed by the washing of baptism, if anyone, the old man being laid aside, now flourishes in the new man, he should set aside and neglect such things; but let him seek the patronage of the Martyrs, through whom the miracles of healings are celebrated; let him ask the helps of the Confessors, who are deservedly called the friends of the Lord [*], and he will obtain what he wishes.

XLVI.

[65] At that time, when, after the death of Proserius the sacristan ^h, roses divinely sprung up at the sepulcher, by which a possessed man was freed: Urbanus the deacon is ordained sacristan of this basilica, a wonderful thing appeared at the Saint's sepulcher. For, as the deacon was keeping watch on his bed, a sound was heard as though the door of the basilica were being opened. But after the space of many hours he heard it again being shut. After this, rising from his bed, a light going before, he approaches the Saint's tomb: wonderful to say, he saw the pavement strewn with glowing roses. Now they were very large, with the fragrance of an immense odor. He marveled also at roses within the very carvings of the railing: for it was the ninth month ⁱ; and these were so green as if you would think them plucked from green branches at that very hour and moment ^k. Then, having gathered them with great reverence, he laid them by more secretly, distributing thereafter medicines to many sick. For a certain possessed man, coming from the region of Tours, when he took a draught steeped from them, the demon being cast out, departed cleansed.

XLVII.

[66] There was a woman blind from birth, who begged to be presented by her parents at the tomb of blessed Martin; [a blind woman entreating St. Martin is admonished to go to the church of St. Julian,] where [] when she had come, being prostrate for three days at the railings which stand before the sepulcher of the holy prelate, she received an answer from without through a dream, the holy man saying to her: If thou desirest to receive light, seek the basilica of St. Julian, in which, while thou seekest [] the Martyr's protection, he, joined with Martin, together by the suffrages of their prayers will recall to thee the sight thou needest. And the woman, rising up and not knowing that relics of this Martyr were kept in the region of Tours, directs her way to the city of Saintes ^l.

[67] For Victorina ^m, a matron sprung from a noble stock, had built a basilica in the territory of her own estate, and goes to that one built in the district of Saintes, and is healed: and had laid up relics of the blessed Martyr. To this house, therefore, the woman coming, she prays for three days. But on the third day came the birthday of the Lord's Baptist; and while the people stood and listened to the teachings of the lessons, suddenly a great murmur arises. And the priest, who was celebrating the solemnities, wishing to repress the voices, asks what this was. To whom one of the bystanders says: The murmur cannot be softened, because the power of the Lord has brought forth a miracle. For behold, that woman who testified that she was born blind, blood bursting from her eyes, has received sight. Then all blessed God, learning together what had been done.

XLVIII.

[68] Nanninus ⁿ therefore, priest of the house of Vibriacum ^o, sought relics of this glorious Martyr, which, taken up by the order of the blessed pontiff Avitus [p], he carried with chanting of psalms as far as the basilica of St. Ferreolus, which [q] is situated far from that village; certain relics translated, and possessed persons freed, and when he had come to it, one of the possessed was cleansed. But going on and singing psalms, when he had come to the middle [*] hour, the wicked enemy [r] being driven off by the Saint's power, another girl departed cleansed.

XLIX.

[69] But coming to the place where the oratory was which he had built in honor of the Saint, he placed these pledges upon the holy altar. And there coming to him one with lost eyes [s], another feeble in the hand, prayer being fulfilled, the one receives light after darkness, the other the use of his hand after long idleness. A woman also by name Æterna [], vexed with her daughter by the wicked enemy, being cured at this altar, departed safe with her offspring. Sufferers from the ague also, not a few, were saved [] in that place. and many sick healed:

[70] But since it is not absurd that blessed Julian should impart gifts of healings with John or with Martin, with whom, victor over the world, he dances in heaven, I shall report further how he flourished with Nicetius of Lyon [t] with a like power. Therefore within the boundary of the territory of Tours a certain Litomeris built a basilica in honor of the holy Martyr; a blind man enlightened in a church of the territory of Tours. in which we, being called after the custom to bless it, placed relics of St. Julian the martyr together with those of Nicetius of Lyon. But not long after, a blind man coming, when he had faithfully poured forth prayer, deserved to receive sight. I have made mention of this blind man in the book of the life of St. Nicetius, since it is fitting that the common power of both Saints should join their writings [*] together. Therefore let the reader, attending to these miracles, understand that he cannot be saved otherwise than by the helps of the Martyrs and the rest of the friends of God. But I entreat the Lord's mercy through the patronage of the blessed martyr Julian, that, as an advocate standing before the Lord in the causes of his own nursling, he may obtain that, without the hindrance of any stain, I may accomplish the course of this life, and may hold blamelessly, faithfully practice, and manfully guard until the consummation of this life those things which I confessed in baptism. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

b. Namely chapter 39.

p. St. Avitus, bishop of Auvergne, succeeded Cautinus mentioned before. Of him we have treated in volume 4 of August from page 444.

q. Ruinart does not advise that not should be added in this place.

r. In printed texts and certain manuscripts, before the enemy, etc.

s. In the codex of Jumièges, and there coming to him one, the use of his eyes being lost.

t. For St. Nicetius I have already given a reference, volume 1 of April, page 95.

elsewhere stupefactus*

elsewhere hominem*

elsewhere Domini*

elsewhere quo*

elsewhere expetieris*

elsewhere meridianam*

elsewhere Acerna*

elsewhere sanati*

elsewhere scriptura*

ON SS. POLYENUS AND SERAPION AND JUSTILLA AND PERHAPS HERMES, MARTYRS AT ALEXANDRIA

ON SS. ELIAS AND STEPHEN THE DEACON AND POLLIO, MARTYRS AT ROME

ON SS. POLYENUS AND SERAPION AND JUSTILLA AND PERHAPS HERMES, MARTYRS AT ALEXANDRIA