E00357: Gregory of Tours, in his Life of *Leobardus (recluse of Marmoutier, later 6th c., S00175), recounts the death of the saint, and his burial in his cell at Marmoutier (north-west Gaul). From Gregory's Life of the Fathers, written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 573/594.

Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers 20.4

Leobardus living in his cell, became weaker and weaker.

Quadam autem die, dum nimium fessus haberetur, nos ad se vocari praecepit. Ad quem accedentes, postquam funeris sui necessitate deflevit, euglogias a nobis peccatoribus flagitavit. Quibus acceptis, austo mero, ait: "Tempus meum iam impletur, iubente Domino, ut me ab huius corporis vinculis iubeat relaxari, sed adhuc paucis diebus erit spatium. Verumtamen ante diem sanctum paschae vocandus ero". O beatum virum, qui sic servivit Creatori omnium, ut suum obitum revelatione divina cognosceret! Erat enim mensis decimus, quando haec est effatus. Duodecimo autem mense coepit iterum graviter aegrotare. Advenit dies dominica, vocat ministrum suum et ait: "Praepara quiddam cibi, quod accipiam, quia valde defessum me sentio". Illo quoque respondente: "Praesto est, domine", ait ad eum: "Egredere foris et aspice, si iam, celebrata solemnia, populus de missis egreditur". Hoc autem dicebat, non quod cibum capere vellet, sed ut transitu suo nullus testis adesset. Quo egrediente et revertente, cum ingressus fuisset cellulam, invenit virum Dei extensum corpore, clausis oculis, spiritum exalasse. Unde manifestum est, eum ab angelis susceptum, qui hominis adesse noluit suum sacer herus ad transitum. Haec cernens minister ille, elevavit vocem in fletu. Sicque, concurrentibus reliquis fratribus, ablutus ac vestimentis dignis indutus, in sepulchro, quod ipse sibi in antedictam cellulam sculpserat, reconditus est, quem in consortio sanctorum adscitum, nulli fidelium haberi reor incertum.

'On one day when he was particularly tired he called us to him. We went, and after having wept for the necessity of his death he begged us, a sinner, to give him communion. He received it, and drank the wine, and said, "My time is finished. God ordains that I shall be delivered from the bonds of this body, but it will take some days. I shall be called by Him before the holy day of Easter." O happy man, who served the Creator of all things so faithfully that he knew by divine revelation the moment of his death! It was the tenth month of the year when he said these things, and in the twelfth he fell ill again. One Sunday he called his servant to him and said "Prepare me some food to take, for I am very weak". And he replied, "I shall do it, master". And he said, "Go see if the office is finished and if people are leaving Mass." He said that not because he wished to take food but so that nobody might witness his death. The servant returned, and when he entered the cell he found the man of God, his body stretched out, his eyes closed, and his spirit departed. Which proves clearly that the angels took him, since the holy hero wished nobody to be present at his death. At the sight the man who had served him cried out and wept. The other brothers ran up. The body was washed, and dressed in a suitable way, and he was put into a tomb which he himself had cut out of the rock in his cell. No faithful person will doubt that he is in the company of the saints.'

Text: Krusch 1969, 293-294. Translation: James 1991, 129-130.