VJ 23

English

At that time my uncle Gallus was bishop of the city of Clermont, and the story of how, in his youth, he was helped by the power of the holy man should not be omitted. I have often recounted the kind of devastation that King Theod-eric visited upon the region of Clermont, when neither the nobles nor the common people were left with any property except the empty land which the barbarians were unable to take with them.

In those days, my uncle of glorious memory, who later, as I said, ruled the church of Clermont as bishop, was an orphan, whose properties had been so thoroughly plundered by the army that almost nothing was left in the barns. He used to go with only one servant boy to the village of Brioude, often on foot.

One day while he was on this journey he had taken off his shoes because of the heat of the sun and was proceeding barefoot, when he stepped on the point of a thorny twig that, having perhaps been cut, had stuck to the ground and lain hidden in the green grass, its point alone projecting. This thorn pierced his foot, came out on the other side and, having been broken off, could not be pulled out. Since a stream of blood flowed from it and he was unable to walk, he called upon the aid of the blessed martyr. When the pain had subsided a little, he continued the journey he had undertaken, limping.

Three nights later, the wound began to putrefy, and an extreme pain afflicted him. Turning then to the help that he had recently experienced, he prostrated himself at the glorious tomb, finished his vigil, returned to his bed, and while waiting for the martyr's power to manifest itself, fell asleep. When he arose after this, he felt no painful injury and, inspecting his foot, did not see the part of the thorn that had entered it, but felt it to have been removed. When he looked for it carefully in his bed, he found it, and wondered how it had come out.

During his episcopate he used to show people the site of this wound, where a large scar could still be seen, and asserted that in it a powerful deed of the blessed martyr had occurred.

Latin

Erat enim tunc temporis apud urbem Arvernam patruus meus Gallus episcopus, de quo non videtur omitti, qualiter in adolescentia sua fuerit a sancti virtute iuvatus. Et quia saepius commemoravi, quale excidium Arvernae regioni rex Theodoricus intulerit, cum neque maioribus neque minoribus natu aliquid de rebus propriis est relictum praeter terram vacuam, quam secum barbari ferre non poterant. His ergo temporibus gloriosae memoriae patruus meus, qui postea, ut dixi, sacerdotale fasce Arvernae rexit eclesiam, pupillus erat; cuius facultates ita direptae sunt ab exercitu, ut nihil prorsus remaneret in promtu; ipse quoque cum uno tantum puerulo usque Brivatinsim vicum plerumque itinere pedestri discurrebat. Accedit autem quodam tempore, dum hoc iter tereret, ut, laxatis prae calore solis calciamentis, nuda incedens planta, sudem calcaret spineum. Qui tunc fortassis incisus adhuc terrae haerens, erecto acumine inter herbas virides latitabat. Qui defixus plantae et superegressus effractusque deorsum extrahi nequebatur. Igitur defluente sanguinis rivo, cum gressum facere non valeret, beati martyris inplorat auxilium, paululumque dolore conpraesso, licet claudicando, iter quod coeperat expedivit. Tertia vero nocte, conputrescente vulnere, dolor maximus incitatur. Ille vero ad experta dudum praesidia confugiens, sepulchro gloriose prosternitur; expletisque vigiliis, regressus ad lectulum, dum virtutem martyris praestolatur, somno incumbente depraemitur. Deinde consurgens, nullam doloris sentit iniuriam, aspectaque planta, pars sudis, quae ingressa fuerat, non videtur; evulsam tamen sentiebat a pede. Quod lignum diligenter inquirens, in stratu suo repperit, admirans, qualiter fuisset egressum. Solitus namque erat in episcopatu suo locum vulneris ostendere, in quo magna adhuc fossa conspiciebatur, obtestans, in hoc beati martyris fuisse virtutem.