GC 49

English

St Severus, priest

St Severus is associated with this city [of Cieutat] and its territory. The descendant of a noble family, he was ordained a priest. He built one church in the countryside of an estate at Saint-Justin that belonged to him and another church of God in another village; he fortified both with the relics of saints. When the Lord’s day [Sunday] came, he celebrated mass in one place and then journeyed to the other. The distance between the churches was about twenty miles. On every Lord’s day this was his duty. It happened that on one Lord’s day, while he was traveling and hurrying very quickly by kicking his horse with his heel, the branch of a medlar tree struck his head. Severus knew he had been hurt and said: ‘May the God at whose bidding you sprang from the ground command you to wither.’ Immediately the tree dried up all the way to the roots of its sap. Severus proceeded where he was going; after celebrating the liturgy he stayed in the same place for three days. On the fourth day he returned. When he saw the withered tree, he said: ‘Woe am I, who in the bitterness of my heart cursed this tree. Behold how it has dried up!’ He dismounted, knelt at the roots of the tree, and said to the Lord: ‘Almighty God, at your bidding everything is governed and under your control the unborn are created, the created live, and the dead are renewed. By trusting in your command of salvation we believe that we live after the death of this body because of resurrection in the future. Order this tree to live again and be as it was earlier.’ Immediately moisture rose up from the ground as if through some arrangement of arteries and was circulated through all the branches of the outstretched tree as bountiful nourishment. The tree softened its dry knots and its leaves sprouted. The bystanders marveled that the tree was again living. Severus had such great power and charity that, as noted above, he made his own houses into churches and he spent his own resources on feeding the poor. In one of the churches he placed his own tomb in which he was [eventually] buried. For he was accustomed to pick the blossoms of lilies when they bloomed and to attach them to the walls of his church.

Latin

His urbe et termino sociatus sanctus Severus, et ipse presbiter ordinatus, nobili stirpe progenitus. Nam in rure domus Sexciacensis, quod in eius possessione subsistebat, eclesiam aedificavit; exinde iterum in alia villa aliud aedificavit templum Dei, utrumque tamen sanctorum reliquiis communivit. Cum autem dies dominicus advenisset, celebratis missis uno in loco, ad alium pergebat. Erat autem inter utrasque eclesias spatium quasi milia viginti. Hoc ei erat opus per singulas dominicas dies. Factum est autem quadam dominica, dum hoc iter tereret et velocius, cornipedem calce verberans, properaret, caput eius ramus mespoli arboris percuteret. At ille iniuriam sentiens, ait: 'Arescere te iubeat Deus, cuius nutu de terra egressa es'. Et confestim aruit arbor usque in ipsis virtutis suae radicibus. Hic vero accedens quo ibat, celebrata solemnia, fuit in eodem loco tribus diebus. Quarta autem die regressus, cum vidisset arborem aridam, ait: 'Vae mihi, qui in amaritudine cordis maledixi huic arbori. Ecce enim, qualiter aruit!' Et descendens, prostravit se ad radices eius et ait ad Dominum: 'Deus omnipotens, cuius nutu omnia gubernantur, cuius imperio non nata creantur, creata vivunt, mortua reformantur, cuius salubre praeceptum tenentes, vivere nos post mortem corporis huius credimus per futuram resurrectionem, tu praecipe, ut revirescat haec arbor et sit sicut antea'. Et statim quasi per aliquam venarum dispositionem humor a terra consurgens, per totos arboris patulae ramos uberi inrigatione diffunditur, laxansque nodos arentes, prorumpentibus foliis, revixisse ab adstantibus est mirata. Magna enim fuit virtus ac elymosina, ita ut, superius dictum est, de domibus suis eclesias faceret ac facultates suas in cibos pauperum erogaret. In una vero earum sepulchrum suum deposuit, in quo et sepultus est. Solitus erat namque flores liliorum tempore quo nascuntur collegere ac per parietes huius aedis appendere.