E03132: Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Martin (2.27), recounts how Roccolen, who besieged Tours, was punished by *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) and died after he tried to cross the Loire River. At the same time an unnamed paralysed woman was cured in the church of Martin in Tours, and the swollen Loire prevented the enemy from crossing it; AD 575-576. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 576/581.

Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi) 2.27

In AD 575-576 Roccolen, sent by Chilperic, besieged Tours.

Postera autem die legatos ad civitatem mittit, ut homines, qui propter culpam minime vobis incognitam in sancti basilicam resedebant, extraherentur a clericis; quod si differebatur fieri, universa promittit incendio concremari. Haec nos audientes, maesti valde basilicam sanctam adimus et beati auxilia flagitamus. Statimque paralytica, quae per duodecim annos fuerat contracta, dirigitur. Ipse vero Ruccolenus ulteriorem ripam adgressus, morbo confestim regio sauciatur atque ab infirmitatibus Herodianis, quas enarrare longum videtur, allisus, et sicut cera a facie ignis guttatim defluens, quinquagesima die ab hydrope conflatus interiit. Sed nec hoc silebo, quod illo tempore alveus fluvii nutu Dei vel virtute beati viri absque pluviarum inundationibus repletus, hostem, ne civitatem laederet, transire prohibuit.

'On the following day he sent envoys to the city [who demanded] that the clerics expel the men who were seeking sanctuary in the saint’s church because of the misdeed that you know about; and Roccolen promised that everything would be consumed in a fire if there was any hesitation in doing this. When I heard these demands, I was very upset, and I went to the holy church and requested the assistance of the blessed [Martin]. And immediately a woman who had been crippled for twelve years was healed of her paralysis. But Roccolen himself advanced to the opposite bank [of the Loire River]. Immediately he was afflicted with the royal malady [of jaundice] and tormented with the ailments of Herod, which it seems tedious to describe; and just like a wax candle that drop by drop wastes away at the sight of a flame, fifty days later he was swollen from dropsy and died. But I will not be silent about the fact that at that time, either at the command of God or because of the power of the blessed man, the bed of the Loire was swollen even though there were no floods from rain, thereby preventing the enemy from crossing and harming the city.'

Text: Krusch 1969, 169. Translation: Van Dam 1993, 242-243, lightly modified (de Nie 2015, 591).