GM 75

English

King Guntramn so dedicated himself to spiritual behavior that he abandoned the trappings of this world and spent his wealth on churches and the poor. It happened that, in accordance with his vow, he sent a priest to bring gifts to the brothers who served the saints at Saint-Maurice-d'Agaune. He ordered the priest to bring him relics of the saints upon his return. Then, after the priest fulfilled the king's command, while he was returning with these relics, he sought a boat at Lake Leman, through which the Rhone river flows. This lake is about four hundred stades long and one hundred and fifty stades wide. While the priest was returning, as I said, he boarded this boat. Suddenly a storm arose and whipped up the waves. Waves as high as mountains rose to the stars. When the prow sank, the stem of the ship was tossed in the air; when the stem was submerged, in tum the prow was tossed in the air. The sailors were frantic and in such danger wished only for death. The priest then saw that they were being overpowered by these waves and buried beneath the violent foam of the waves. He took from his neck the reliquary that held the relics of the saints and in his faith threw it into the swelling waves. With a loud voice he invoked the protection of the saints and said: 'Glorious martyrs, I request your power so that I may not die in these waves. I ask that you who always offer assistance to those who are dying instead deign to extend your right hand of salvation to me. Calm the waves, and with the strength of your assistance lead us to the shore we hope for.' As he said this, the wind died down, the waves subsided, and they were brought to shore. I heard this story from the priest himself. For some say that in Lake Leman the size of the trout reaches even the weight of one hundred [Roman] pounds.

Latin

Cum autem Gunthramnus rex ita se spiritalibus actionibus mancipasset, ut, relictis saeculi pompis, thesauros suos eclesiis et pauperibus erogaret, accedit, ut, misso presbitero, munera fratribus, qui sanctis Agaunensibus deserviunt, ex voto transmitteret, praecipiens presbitero, ut ad eum rediens sanctorum sibi reliquias exhiberet Igitur dum, impleta regis praeceptione, cum his regrederetur pignoribus, Limanni laci, per quem Rhodanus infinit, navigium petit. Extenditur autem lacus ille in longitudine quasi stadiis quadringentis, latitudinis vero in stadiis 150. Denique revertens presbiter, ut diximus, cum navigium hoc fuisset adgressus, subito tempestas exorta fluctus tollit; ad sidera surgunt undarum montes, et nunc puppis naviculae, prora dehiscente, fertur in altum, nunc iterum, dimersa puppi, prora tollitur in sublimi. Turbantur nautae, et nihil aliud nisi sola mors in periculo praestolatur. Tunc presbiter, cum videret, se his fluctibus obrui et spumis undarum ipsarum graviter operiri, extracta a collo capsula, quae sanctorum pignora contenebatur, undis tumentibus fidus obiecit, ac sanctorum praesidium clara invocat voce, dicens: 'Ne peream in his fluctibus, virtutem vestram depraecor, martyres gloriosi, sed potius, qui iugiter pereuntibus praebetis auxilium, mihi, quaeso, dexteram salutis porregere dignamini; fluctus obpraemite nosque ad litus optatum vestri adiutorii ope reducite'. Et haec dicens, cessante vento, decedentibus undis, ad litus evecti sunt. Haec ab ipso cognovi presbitero. In hoc enim stagno ferunt tructarum piscium magnitudinem usque ad centum librarum pondere trutinari.

Notes

• boat in a storm