E00067: Gregory of Tours, in his Life of *Nicetius (bishop of Lyon, ob. 573, S00049), tells of the healing powers of Nicetius' bed in Lyon (central Gaul), and of a lamp that burned miraculously there; Gregory used threads from a cloth used by Nicetius to consecrate altars in the Touraine (north-west Gaul). From Gregory's Life of the Fathers, written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 573/594.

Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers 8.8

In this chapter Gregory begins with two miracles effected by objects that had been close to Nicetius:

Gratum est illud addi miraculis, quid accensus ad lectum eius fecerit cicendilis, quia ingentia sunt, quae hic sanctus in caelis habitans operatur in terris.Igitur lectulus quo sanctus quiescere erat solitus saepius miraculis adornatur inlustribus, quique grandi studio ab Aetherio nunc episcopo fabricatus, devotissime adoratur non inmerito, cum frigoritici saepius sub eo siti, conpresso vapore ac frigore, salvantur, ceterique infirmi ibidem proiecti protinus sublevantur. Palla etenim speciosa tegitur, ligni in ea iugiter accenduntur. Unus igitur ex his per quadraginta dies totidemque noctes, ut ipse aedituus adseruit, absque ullius fomenti adiutorio perduravit splendens, in quo nec papirus addita, nec gutta olei est stillantis adiecta, sed in ipsa quod primum statutum est conpositione permansit in luce praeclara.

Huius sancti reliquias Gallomagnus Tricassinorum pontifex devotus expetiit; quae cum psallendo deducerentur, et caecorum oculi inluminati sunt earum virtute, et aliorum morborum genera meruerunt recipere medicinam. Ad nos quoque facietergium dependentibus villis intextum, quod sanctus super caput in die obitus sui habuit, est perlatum; quod nos tamquam munus caeleste suscepimus. Factum est autem, ut post dies plurimos ad benedicendam eclesiam in parochia Paternacense urbis Toronicae invitaremur. Accessi, fateor, sacravi altare, decerpsi fila de lenteo, locavi in templo; dictis missis, facta oratione, discessi. Paucis deinde diebus interpositis, advenit ad nos ille qui invitaverat, dicens: "Gaude in nomine Domini, sacerdos Dei, de virtute beati Niceti antestitis. Nam noveris, quia ostendit magnum miraculum in eclesia quam sacrasti. Caecus enim erat in pago nostro diuturna nocte detentus, cui apparuit vir quidam per visum noctis, dicens: "Si vis sanus fieri, prosternere in orationem coram basilica sancti Niceti altare, et recipies visum". Quod cum fecisset, disruptis tenebris, lumen ei virtus divina patefecit". Posui, fateor, de his pignoribus et in aliis basilicarum altaribus, in quibus et inergumini sanctum confitentur, et fidelis oratio saepius promeretur effectum.


'To these miracles I am pleased to add the one which he did with a lamp which burned near his bed; for the things which the holy man, living in the heavens, now works upon the earth are truly great. The bed, then, on which the saint was accustomed to rest, which had been constructed with the greatest of care by Aetherius, now a bishop, has been made famous by many notable miracles. People adore it with deserved devotion, for those who are taken with fever are only to be placed there and warmth returns and they are cured from their chill. Many other ill people are cured when they are laid out on it. It is covered with a fine cloth, and lamps are kept alight around it permanently. One of them continued to burn for forty days and forty nights, as the guardian (aedituus) assured us. It burned brilliantly without any maintenance, without any new papyrus for the wick, or a single drop of oil; but it remained in its pristine state, bright and shining.

Gallomagnus, bishop of Troyes, came with great devotion to ask for relics of the saint, and while they were being transported with the singing of psalms their virtue opened the eyes of the blind, and many other sick people obtained cures. Someone brought us a face-cloth with hanging tassels which the holy man had on his head the day of his death. We received it as a gift from heaven. It happened some days later that we were invited to bless a church in the parish of Pernay in the diocese Tours. I went there and consecrated the altar; I took some threads from this cloth and placed them in the church, and having said the Masses and the prayers I left. Several days later he who had invited us came to find us, and said "Rejoice in the name of the Lord, priest of God, because of the power of the blessed Bishop Nicetius, for you are going to learn of the great miracle which he has worked in the church which you consecrated. There was in our area a blind man, restrained for a long time in the dark night of blindness, to whom appeared in a dream one night a man who said to him 'If you want to be cured, go and prostrate yourself in prayer at the church, at the altar of St Nicetius (prosternere in orationem coram basilica sancti Niceti altare), and there you will receive your sight.' When he had done this the darkness vanished, and divine power gave him back the light." I have placed more of these relics in the altars of other churches (in aliis basilicarum altaribus), and there those possessed confessed the saint, and prayer full of faith often obtained its effect.'


Gregory closes the chapter with a third miracle: of a servant/slave of Phronimius, bishop of Agde, cured of epilepsy at the shrine. It was seven years after his cure 'when the bishop [Phronimius] gave him to me' (quando eum nobis episcopus praesentavit.)

Text: Krusch 1969, 248-249. Translation: James 1991, 58-60, lightly modified.