E04051: Gregory of Tours, in his Miracles of Martin (3.50), recounts how Lupus, a priest of Bordeaux with a quartan fever, came to the church of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) at his feast in July 586, probably in Tours, and took home two candles from the shrine. He lit the candles, drank the ashes of the papyrus wicks mixed with water, and was cured. While hurrying to the church, he had met a Jew who questioned the power of Martin and was then afflicted with the quartan fever. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 586/588.

Gregory of Tours, Miracles of Martin (Libri de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi) 3.50

Lupus Burdegalensis urbis presbiter quodam tempore graviter a quartano typo vexabatur, ita ut, accedente febre, neque cibum neque potum sumere possit. Interea advenit festivitas sancti Martini antestitis. At ille, celebratas cum reliquo clero vigilias, mane praecedit omnes et ad basilicam sancti festinat. Dum autem properat, obvium habuit Iudaeum; quo inquerente, quod pergeret, respondit: 'Typum quartanum incurri, et nunc ad basilicam sancti propero, ut me virtus eius ab hac infirmitate discutiat'. Qui ait: 'Martinus enim nihil tibi proderit, quem terra obpremens terreum fecit; casso eius aedem expetis; non enim poterit mortuus viventibus tribuere medicinam'. At ille dispiciens verba serpentis antiqui, abiit quo coeperat, et prostratus coram sanctis pignoribus, orationem fudit, repperitque ibi duas candelulas ex cera ac papiro formatas. Quibus adsumptis, ad domum exhibet, inluminatisque eis, favillam papiri cum aqua munda hausit, mox sanitatem recepit. ludaeus vero ab hac infirmitate correptus, per anni spatium ventilatus est; sed mens iniqua nec tormentis inutari potuit umquam.

'Lupus was a priest of the city of Bordeaux. He was once so severely afflicted with a quartan fever that when the fever was present, he was unable to swallow either food or drink. Then it was time for a festival of the bishop Saint Martin. After Lupus celebrated vigils with the other clergy, in the morning he preceded everyone else and rushed to the saint’s church. As he was hurrying, he met a Jew who asked where he was going. Lupus replied: "I am suffering from a quartan fever, and now I am rushing to the saint’s church so that his power might save me from this illness." The Jew said: "Martin will be of no use to you, because the dirt pressing down on him has made him into dirt. In vain do you go to his shrine; a dead man will not be able to provide medicine for the living." But Lupus ignored these words of the old serpent [i.e. the Devil] and went where he intended. He knelt before the holy relics, offered a prayer, and found there two small candles made of wax and papyrus that he took and brought home. He lit the candles, drank the ash of the papyrus with clear water, and soon recovered his health. But the Jew was afflicted with this illness and disturbed by it for a year; yet his wicked mind was never able to be converted through these torments.'

Text: Krusch 1969, 194. Translation: Van Dam 1993, 278, modified (= de Nie 2015, 745-747).