E00156: Gregory of Tours, in his Life of *Nicetius (bishop of Lyon, ob. 573, S00049), tells of two men punished by the saint: a participant in a military expedition who failed to deliver, to the saint's church at Pressigny in the Touraine (north-west Gaul), booty vowed to ensure his safety, and his brother who failed to attend Christmas vigils held to invoke Nicetius' support. From Gregory's Life of the Fathers, written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 573/594.

Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers 8.11

Gregory has explained how he placed relics of Nicetius in the altar of a newly built church at Pressigny in the Touraine, and how, at that church, three possessed woemn were cured by Nicetius

(Ch.11) (...) Dado [igitur] unus ex his pagensibus, cum in hostilitate illa quae Convenas acta est accessisset et plerumque in periculis mortis inruerit, vovit, ut, si domui reverteretur incolomis, ad memoratam eclesiam exornandam in honore beati Niceti aliqua ex his quae adquesierat largiretur. Rediens igitur, duos calices argenteos detulit vovitque iterum in itenere, ut hos eclesiae conferret, si ad propria sospes accederet. Ad domum igitur accedens, unum tantummodo dedit, alium fraudare procuravit, dans cooperturium Sarmaticum, quo altari dominico cum oblationibus tegeretur. Apparuit autem viro vir beatus per somnium, dicens: "Quousque dubitas et votum implere dissimulas? Vade [igitur]", inquid, "et calicem alium, quem vovisti, redde eclesiae, ne pereas tu et domus tua! Coopertorium vero, quia rarum est, non ponatur super munera altaris, quia non exinde ad plene tegitur mysterium corporis sanguinisque dominici". At ille exterritus, nihil moratus, votum quod voverat velociter adimplevit.

Huius hominis frater ad vigilias dominici natalis advenit, monuitque presbiterum, dicens: "Vigilemus unanimiter ad eclesiam Dei atque exoremus devote beati Niceti potentiam, ut, eo obtenente, huius anni curriculum cum pace ducamus". Quod presbiter audiens, gavisus iussit signum ad vigilias commoveri. Quo commoto, adveniente presbitero cum clericis et reliquo populo, hic gulae inhians, moras veniendi innectebat; misitque saepius presbiter ad eum arcessiendum. Quibus respondebat: "Paulisper sustenete, et venio". Quid plura? Transactis vigiliis, data luce, hic qui prius commonuerat ad vigilias non accessit. Presbiter vero, inpleto officio, commotus contra hominem, ad metatum eius properat, quasi eum a communione suspenderet. At ille correptus febre, sicut vino, ita divino exurebat incendio; nec mora, viso presbitero, datis vocibus, cum lacrimis supplicabat, sibi paenitentiam tradi.
Cumque eum presbiter increparet, dicens: "Merito a sancti Niceti virtute exureris, ad cuius eclesiam venire ad vigilias neglexisti"; inter sermocinantum conloquia spiritum exalavit. Facta quoque hora tertia, cum populus ad missarum solemnia conveniret, hic mortuus ad eclesiam est delatus. Quod virtute sancti antestitis actum nemo ambigere potest. Haec enim nobis ipse exposuit presbiter.


'(Ch.11) (...) Dado, one of the peasants who had joined the great expedition against St-Bertrand-de-Comminges, and who had several times been in danger of death, made a vow that if he returned home safe and sound he would give in honour of St Nicetius, for the adornment of the same church, some of the goods that he had acquired. Thus he was returning home, and was bringing with him two silver chalices, and again he vowed that he would give them to the church if he arrived home safely. But when he did return he gave only one of them, and in order to excuse the fact that he was keeping the other he gave a Sarmatian cloth to cover the altar of the Lord and its offerings. But the blessed man appeared to him in a dream, and said to him "How long do you hesitate, and pretend to fulfil your vow? Go and give to the church the second chalice which you promised, lest both you and your family perish. As for the cloth, since it is thin, let it not be placed on the gifts of bread and wine on the altar, because it cannot sufficiently cover the mystery of the body and blood of Our Lord." The man was frightened, and hesitated no longer, and promptly fulfilled his vow.

A brother of this man came to the Christmas vigils, and spoke to the priest, saying "Let us keep the vigils together in the church of God, and let us prey devoutly to the power of the blessed Nicetius, so that through his intercession we may pass the year in peace." Hearing this the priest joyfully ordered the signal for vigils to be given. This was done, and the priest came in with the clergy of his church and the rest of the people. But this man, a slave to gluttony, did not hurry to come. The priest sent to him several times, but he only replied "Wait a little. I am coming". What more need I say? The vigils were completed and the morning arrived, and he who had first thought of the celebration was not there. The priest finished the office and angrily hastened to the man, thinking to suspend him from the holy communion. But the man had been corrupted by fever, just as he had been by wine, and he burned with a divine heat. As soon as he saw the priest he begged him with tears to impose a penance on him. The priest rebuked him, and said "It is right that you burn by the power of St Nicetius in whose church you neglected to come to the vigils", and in the midst of these words the man died. Then, at the third hour, as the people were reassembling in the church for solemn Mass, the dead man was brought into the church. Nobody could doubt that it had all been accomplished by the power of the holy pontiff. The priest himself told it to us.'

Text: Krusch 1969, 260-251. Translation: James 1991, 62-63.