E02763: Gregory of Tours, in his Glory of the Confessors (100), tells of the tomb of *Felix (bishop of Bourges, ob. c. 580, S01311) in Bourges (central Gaul): miracles effected there attract devotees; twelve years after Felix's burial, the sarcophagus is given a new and finer lid and his body and clothing are found to be uncorrupt; dust scratched from the old lid cures fevers. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 587/588.

Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Confessors 100


Post transitum autem Felicis Biturigi episcopi, cum ad eius tumulum, quod marmore scalptum Phario super terram erat positum, caecus quidam lumen oculorum, fugatis tenebris, recepisset, cognovissetque plebs amicum Dei, quem in corpore positum, obsistentibus mundanis caliginibus, cognoscere adplene non meruit, coepit in orationum assiduitate eius limina penetrare. Sed quoniam, ut diximus, sarcofagum marmoreum viliore lapide obtectum erat, sagacitas civium et praesertim episcopi meliore sarcofagum operturio texit, id est ex marmore Heracleo. Amoto ergo viliore lapide, post annum fere duodecimum invenerunt corpus beati confessoris ita inlaesum, ut nulla dissolutio in corpore, nulla putredo repperiretur in veste; sed ita erant cuncta integra, ac si [ipsa], ut ita dixerim, hora tumulo putarentur ingesta. Sed nec ibi quidem misericordia Domini defuit, ut lapis repulsus non remaneret inglorius. Ferunt enim, quod multi erasi potatique ex eo pulveris modicum, tam a quartanis quam tertianis sive cotidianis febribus celeriter liberantur.

'After the death of bishop Felix of Bourges his tomb, which was sculpted from Parian marble, was placed above ground. When a blind man, after his darkness vanished, received sight in his eyes at the tomb of Felix, the people acknowledged him as a friend of God whom they did not deserve to recognise fully when he was placed in a body because the mists of this world were an obstacle. They began to cross the threshold [of his shrine] with frequent prayers. But since, as I said, the marble sarcophagus was covered with a less expensive stone, the wisdom of the citizens and especially of the bishop covered the sarcophagus with a better lid, that is, one made from Heraclean marble. When they removed the less expensive stone, they found that the body of the confessor, almost twelve years after [his death], was so untouched that no decay was found in the body and no corruption in his clothing; but everything was so intact that, as I said, it was all thought to have been placed in that tomb at that hour. But the compassion of the Lord was not lacking there, so that the stone that was rejected did not remain without any glory. For they say that many people scratched off and drank a bit of dust from it, and as many were quickly delivered from quartan fevers as from tertian and daily fevers.'

Text: Krusch 1969, 362. Translation: Van Dam 2004, 76, lightly modified.