E03128: Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Martin (2.24), recounts how a crippled, blind and deaf boy was healed at two feasts of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) in Tours, the second in November 575, first of his deafness and blindness, and then in his crippled limbs. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 575/581.

Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi) 2.24

At Bourges there was a blind and deaf boy who was crippled in all his limbs. He had been conceived sinfully on the night before a Sunday. His mother raised him and then gave him to beggars who displayed him to the people.

Anno aetatis suae undecimo advenit ad festivitatem beati Martini, proiectusque a foris ante sepulchrum miserabiliter decubabat. Transacta autem festivitate, visum auditumque recepit. Inde reduetus ad solitam consuetudinem, postulabat stipem. Post annum fere aut eo amplius venit iterum ad solemnitatem, positusque est in loco in quo prius iacuerat, decursisque solemnitatibus festis, directis omnibus membris, plenissimam obtenuit sanitatem. Quae nec credibilia fortasse videantur, ego eum sospitem vidi; nec audita ab aliquo, sed ab eius ore narrata cognovi.

'When he was in his eleventh year, the boy came to the festival of the blessed Martin. He was thrown from outside and lay in misery before the tomb. At the conclusion of the festival he recovered his sight and his hearing. Then he returned to his usual occupation and requested alms. After almost a year or more he came again to the festival and was placed on the spot where he had lain previously; when the celebrations of the festival were completed, all his limbs were straightened, and he received his complete health. Lest these events perhaps seem unbelievable, I saw this boy after he was cured, and I learned about these events not secondhand from someone else but as they were told by his lips.'

Gregory closes his chapter with a warning to married men not to have sex on the night leading to Sunday:

Satis est aliis diebus voluptati operam dare; hanc autem diem in laudibus Dei impolluti deducite. Quia qui in ea coniuges simul convenerint exinde aut contracti aut ephilentici aut leprosi filii nascuntur.

'It is enough to indulge your lust on other days, but observe this day in praise of God without pollution. For to those married people who come together on that day, children are born who are either crippled or suffer from epilepsy or leprosy.'

Text: Krusch 1969, 167. Translation: Van Dam 1993, 239-240, modified (de Nie 2015, 579-581).