E00535: Gregory of Tours, in his Glory of the Martyrs (35), tells of the tomb of *Clemens/Clement (bishop of Rome, martyr of the Crimea, S00111) on the seabed, which is uncovered by the sea only on the day of his feast; a child left there by mistake was found asleep and unharmed a whole year later. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 580/594.

Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs 35

Clemens martyr, ut in passione eius legitur, anchora collo eius suspensa, in mari praecipitatus est. Nunc autem in die solemnitatis eius recedit mare per trea milia; siccumque gradientibus iter praebens, usque ad sepulchrum martyris pervenitur. Ibique vota reddentes, orantes populi, regrediuntur ad litus. Factum est autem, ut in una solemnitatum mulier cum filio parvulo in loco accederet. Aepulante autem ea post acta solemnia, obdormivit infans. Dum autem haec agerentur, ecce sonus subito factus est accedentis pelagi. Dehinc oblita mulier subolis sui, coepit velociter cum reliquo populo petere ripam. Igitur insequenti maris accessu, postquam ad litus venerat, meminit se filium reliquisse. Tunc cum fletu magno deiecta terris, miseram se clamitans, litora vocibus replebat atque discurrebat per circuitum riparum, si forte enecatam prolem eiectamque litori quis conspicasset. Sed cum nihil inveniret indicii, tandem consolata a propinquis, ad propria reducitur, totum annum in luctu ac lamentatione deducens.

Recurrente autem anni circulo, venit iterum ad expectandam martyris solemnitatem, fortassis de infantulo aliqua invenire possit indicia. Quid plura? Recedente mare, anticipat omnes ad ingrediendum, et ipsa prima praecedit ad tumulum. Cumque prostrata solo orationem explesset, erecta sursum, genis ubertim fletuum imbribus madefactis, dum divertit in parte altera vultum, aspicit filium in eo loco, ubi eum dormientem reliquerat, in ipso adhuc sopore teneri. Aestimans autem, eum esse defunctum, accedit comminus, quasi collectura cadaver exanime; sed cum eum dormire cognovisset, excitatum velociter, expectantibus populis, incolomem levavit in ulnis. Interrogansque inter oscula, ubi per anni fuisset spatia, nescire se ait, si annus integer praeterisset; tantum dormisse se suavi sopore in unius noctis spatio aestimabat.

'As can be read in [the account of] his suffering, the martyr Clement was thrown into the sea with an anchor tied around his neck. Now, however, on the day of his festival the sea recedes three miles and offers a dry path to
people who walk and travel all the way to his tomb. There people make vows, pray, and then return to shore. During one of his festivals it happened that a woman came to the shrine with her small son. After the celebration of the festival, the woman was feasting and her young son fell asleep. While all this was happening, behold, suddenly the roar of the approaching sea was heard. The woman forgot about her son and began to run to the bank with the other people. The incoming sea followed. After she came to shore, she remembered she had left her son. She wept and threw herself to the ground, crying how miserable she was and filling the shores with her laments. She ran along the edge of the banks, on the chance that someone had seen a lifeless little boy tossed up on shore. But when she found no trace, she was consoled by her relatives and led to her own home. She spent an entire year weeping and mourning.

After the year went through its cycle, she came again to the festival that she had waited for; perhaps she would be able to find some trace of her little boy. Why say more? As the sea receded, she was the first to enter and the first to arrive at the tomb. After she knelt on the ground and prayed, she stood up, her cheeks moist from excessive crying. Then she turned her eyes in another direction and saw her son in the spot where she had left him asleep. He was still asleep. She thought that he was dead and approached nearer, as if to pick up a dead body. But when she saw that he was asleep and then suddenly woke up, she picked him up safe in her arms. All the people were watching. As she kissed him she asked where he had been for the past year. He said he did not know that an entire year had passed; he thought that he had dozed in such a sweet sleep for the space of one night.'

There follows another miracle of Clement (see $E00536).

Text: Krusch 1969, 60. Translation: Van Dam 2004, 35.