E02321: Gregory of Tours, in his Histories (8.33), records a great fire in Paris in 585. A woman has a vision, in which the fire starts by the church of *Vincent (deacon and martyr of Saragossa and Valencia, S00290), but nobody believes her. Three nights later the conflagration begins. *Germanus (bishop of Paris, ob. 576, S01166) appears to prisoners in gaol, frees them, and saves them from the flames; they flee to the church of Vincent, where Germanus' tomb is situated. An oratory of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050), built where the saint during his lifetime had cured a leper, is miraculously spared the flames, along with its builder, his wife, and their property. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 585/594.

Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 8.33

Extetit igitur in his diebus apud urbem Parisiacam mulier, quae dicerit incolis: 'Fugite, o! ab urbe et scitote eam incendio concremandam'. Quae cum a multis inrideretur, quod haec aut sortium praesagio diceret aut vana aliqua somniasset aut certe daemonii meridiani haec instinctu proferret, respondit: 'Nequaquam est ita, ut dicitis; nam in veritate loquor, quia vidi per somnium a basilica sancti Vincenti veniente virum inluminatum, tenente manu caereum et domus negutiantum ex ordine succendentem'. Denique post tertiam noctem, quod haec mulier est effata, inchoante crepusculo, quidam e civibus, accenso lumine, in prumptuario est ingressus, adsumptoque olec hac ceteris quae necessaria erant, abscessit, lumine secus cupella olei derelicto. Erat enim domus haec prima secus portam, quae ad mediam diem pandit egressum. Ex quo lumine adpraehensa domus incendio concrematur, de qua et aliae adpraehendi coeperunt. Tunc deruente igne super vinctus carceris, apparuit eis beatus Germanus, et comminuens trabem atque catenis, quibus vincti tenebantur, reserato carceris osteo, vinctos abire permisit incolomis. Ille vero egressi, se ad basilicam sancti Vincenti, in qua sepulchrum habetur beati antestitis, contulerunt. Igitur cum per totam civitatem huc adque illuc flante vento flamma ferritur totisque viribus regnaret incendium, adpropinquare ad aliam portam coepit, in qua beati Martini oraturium habebatur, qui ob hoc aliquando factum fuerat, eo quod ibi lepram maculosi hominis osculo depulisset. Vir autem, qui eum intextis virgultis in sublime construxerat, confisus in Domino nec de beati Martini virtute diffisus, se resquae suas infra eius parietis ambivit, dicens: 'Credo enim et fides mea est, quod repellat ab hoc loco incendium, qui saepius incendiis imperavit et in hoc loco leprosi hominis cutem, osculu medente, purgavit'. Adpropinquante enim illuc incendium, ferebantur validi globi flammarum, qui percutientes parietem oraturii, protinus tepiscebant. Clamabat autem populus viro ac muliere: 'Fugite, miseri, ut evadere possitis. Ecce iam igneum pondus super vos diruit, ecce favillae incendii cum carbonibus tamquam validus imber ad vos usque distenditur! Egredimini ab oraturio, ne cum eodem incendio concremimini'. At illi orationem fundentes, numquam ab his vocibus movebantur. Sed nec mulier se umquam a fenestra, per quam interdum flammae ingrediebantur, amovit, quae erat spe firmissima de virtute beati antestitis praemunita. Tantaque fuit virtus beati pontificis, ut non solum hoc oraturium cum alumni proprii domo salvaret, verum etiam nec aliis domibus, qui in circuitu erant, nocere flammis dominantibus permisisset. Ibique cecidit incendium, quod ab una parte pontes coeperat desaevire. Ab alia vero parte tam valide cuncta conflagravit, ut amnis finem inponeret. Verumtamen aeclesiae cum domibus suis non sunt adustae. Agebant enim, hanc urbem quasi consecratam fuisse antiquitus, ut non ibi incendium praevaleret, non serpens, non gliris apparuisset. Nuper autem, cum cuniculum pontis emundaretur et coenum, de quo repletum fuerat, auferretur, serpentem gliremque aereum repperierunt. Quibus ablatis, et glires ibi deinceps extra numerum et serpentes apparuerunt, et postea incendia perferre coepit.

'About this time a woman resident in the town of Paris made the following pronouncement to the townsfolk: 'You must know that the whole of this town is about to be destroyed by a conflagration. You had better evacuate it.' They mostly laughed at her, saying that she had had her fortune told, or that she had dreamed it, or that she had been possessed by the noontide demon (daemonium meridianum). 'None of what you say is true,' she answered. 'What I tell you is what is really going to happen. I saw in a vision a man coming out of Saint Vincent’s church, radiant with light, holding a wax candle in his hand and setting fire to the merchants' houses one after another.’ Three nights after she had given this warning, just as twilight was falling, a worthy citizen lit a light, went into his storehouse to fetch some oil and other things which he needed, and then came out again, leaving the light behind quite near to the cask of oil. The house was the first one inside the city-gate, which was left open in the daytime. It caught fire from the light and was burnt to ashes. The flames spread to the other houses. Soon the town gaol was alight: but Saint Germanus appeared to the prisoners, broke the great wooden beam and the chains by which they were held fast, undid the prison gateway and made it possible for those who had been locked up to escape. As soon as they were out they fled into Saint Vincent’s church, where the tomb of Saint Germanus is to be found. The wind veered this way and that, so that the flames were carried through the whole city and the conflagration raged completely out of control. Soon it moved near to another city-gate, the one which had an oratory of Saint Martin, put up some time ago to commemorate the fact that it was there that he had cleansed the leprosy of some diseased individual by means of a kiss. The man concerned had constructed this oratory out of wattle-work (intextis virgultis). Putting his trust in God and his hope in Saint Martin’s miraculous power, he now moved all his worldly goods inside the oratory walls; 'It is my firm belief,’ he said, ‘and to this I pin my faith, that he who more than once overruled the flames and who on this very spot cleansed the skin of a leper with his healing kiss will drive the fire back from this place.’ The flames came nearer and nearer and great gobbets of fire were borne on the wind but as they struck against the oratory walls they immediately lost their heat. The townsfolk shouted to the man and his wife: 'Run, poor wretches, and escape while there is still time! Look! A great mass of fire is coming straight at yon! Can't you see? The burning sparks and red hot embers are spreading towards you like some great shower of rain. Come out of the oratory! If you don’t, you will be burnt to a cinder, and your oratory, too!' They took no heed of what was being said to them, but continued in prayer. The woman stood firm at the window, through which the flames kept entering, for she was protected by her invincible faith in the miraculous power of the saintly Bishop. This was so great that not only did he save the oratory and the house of his servant but he prevented any harm from being done by the relentless flames to the dwellings which stood all round it. The conflagration, which had begun to rage at one end of the bridge, stopped at this spot. On the other side it burned everything completely, so that only the river put an end to it. However, the churches and the houses belonging to them were not burned. It used to be said that this town of Paris was, as it were, hallowed from antiquity, so that no fire could overwhelm it, and no snake or rat appear there. Only a short time before, when a drain by the bridge was being cleaned out and the mud which blocked it was being taken away, they discovered a snake and a rat made of bronze. They removed them both: and from this time onwards an inordinate number of rats and snakes made their appearance. Subsequently the city began to be plagued with fires.'

Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 401-403. Translation: Thorpe 1974, 465-467.