E00307: According to the Book of Miracles of St Stephen, written in Latin in Uzalis (North Africa) in the 420s, a woman suffering facial paralysis touches with her head the relics of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030) in a church in Uzalis, c. 420.

Book of Miracles of St Stephen 2.2.6

This chapter tells a story of a noble woman from Carthage (North Africa) suffering from facial paralysis. Her healing goes through several stages, the final one in Uzalis, at the relics of Stephen.

Duodecimo igitur die ex quo cum sua ad amicum Dei Megetia uenerat matre, dum orat ad locum sacratae memoriae, pulsans fidei pietate, non solum affectu cordis, uerum etiam motu corporis, ipsa ostiola memoriae impulsa patefecit, ac uim faciens regno dei, caput suum interius intromisit, et super cubile sanctarum reliquiarum confixit, lacrimisque suis omnia illic lauit atque rigauit.

'Twelve days after she and her mother had come to the friend of God [i.e. Stephen], Megetia was praying at the place of the holy memoria, and driven by the power of her faith she was knocking, not only by affection of her heart, but also by the movements of her body, and she finally threw open the little door of the memoria against which she had pushed. And doing violence to the kingdom of God, she inserted her head inside and put it on the place of rest of the holy relics, and she rinsed and dampened everything there with her tears.'

Text: Meyers 2006, 326. Translation: Robert Wiśniewski.