GC 60

English

St Nicetius, bishop of Lyon The confessor Nicetius died in Lyon. He was a man of total holiness, of great chastity in his life, and of outstanding charity. I am unable either to research or even to narrate his almsgiving and his deeds of kindness.66 After he sent his blessed spirit to heaven, he was placed on a funeral bier and brought to the church in which he was [to be] buried. And behold! A young boy who had been afflicted with blindness for a long time was mourning with the others and followed along with the assistance of a guide. While he was walking, it happened that a voice was carried to his ear and secretly whispered: ‘Go to the funeral bier, and when you have crawled beneath it, you will immediately receive your vision.’ But the boy asked the man who was leading him who it was who had whispered these words in his ears. The man said he had seen no one who had spoken to the boy. After the voice echoed in his ears a second and a third time, the boy knew that something unusual must be done. He asked to be led to the funeral bier. He approached, slipped into the crowd of deacons clothed in white, and entered where he had been ordered. Then, when he began to invoke the name of the saint, immediately his eyes were opened and he received his sight. Thereafter the boy was diligent in serving in the church at the tomb of the saint and in lighting the lamps. But he was oppressed and harassed by some of the great men in the city, so that he could have no stipend for sustenance. Often he begged for these necessities at the blessed tomb. The saint appeared to him in a vision and said: ‘Go to king Guntramn and carefully tell him what you are enduring. He will offer you clothing and food, and he will deliver you from the hand of your enemies.’ The boy was encouraged by this advice, went to the king, and took what he supplied.

Even now many miracles are granted at the tomb of the blessed confessor under the direction of Christ. There the chains of poor people are broken, the blind receive their sight, demons are made to flee, paralytics are restored to health, and those enduring the spasms of fevers are freed. Miracles are revealed in this place so often that it is tedious to record them in sequence. But one trustworthy man told me that a few days ago four blind men had received their sight there; recently he also saw a healthy man whom he had once known to be lame.

Latin

Nicetius quoque confessor in urbe Lugdunensi, vir totius sanctitatis, conversationis castissimae, caritatis eximiae, vita perfunctus est. Cuius elymosinae atque humanitates nec investigari tantum nec cuarrari a nobis possunt. Qui postquam beatum spiritum praemisit ad caelos, positus in feretro, ad basilicam in qua sepultus est ferebatur. Et ecce unus puerulus diuturna caecitate gravatus, cum reliquis plangens, adminiculo sustentante, sequebatur. Factum est autem, cum gradiretur, perlata est vox in aure eius, secretius dicens: 'Adpropinquare feretro, et cum subter ingressus fueris, protinus recipies visum'. Ille vero interrogat hominem, qui cum trahebat, quis esset, qui haec verba in auribus eius inferret. Negat ille quemquam videre, qui ei loquatur. Cumque bis et tertio haec vox aures illius verberasset, cognovit aliquid novi gerendum, et se ad feretrum postulat duci. Accedensque et inter albentium diaconorum turba perlapsus, quo iussus fuit ingreditur. Denique, ut nomen sancti invocare coepit, ilico reseratis oculis lumen recepit. Post haec puer erat assiduus in basilica ad sepulchrum sancti deserviens et lumen accendens; sed a quibusdam civititis maioribus obpraemebatur atque fatigabatur, ut nec victus alimoniam possit habere. Cumque saepius haec ad beatum inploraret sepulchrum, apparuit ei sanctus per visum, dicens: 'Vade ad Gunthramnum regem et ei quid patiaris diligenter enarra. Ipse enim tibi praebet vestitum et alimentum, eripietque te de manu inimicorum'. Denique hac admonitione firmatus puer, ad regem accedens, quae suggessit obtenuit. Sed et nunc ad sepulchrum beati confessoris multa miracula Christo auspice tribuuntur. Nam miserorum ibi catenae rumpuntur, caeci inluminantur, daemones effugantur, sanitati redduntur paralytici, perferentes accentus febrium liberantur. In quo loco tam frequenter ostenduntur miracula, ut ex ordine scribi perlongum sit. Tamen retulit mihi vir fidelis, quattuor ibi caecos ante paucos dies fuisse inluminatos, et hominem, quem clodum olim noverat, incolomem nuper aspexit.