E07832: Gregory the Great, in his Dialogues (3.32), describes how *African confessors, whose tongues were cut out by the Vandals (S01481) in North Africa, were miraculously still able to speak. Written in Latin in Rome, c. 593.

Gregory the Great, Dialogues 3.32

Gregory states that in the time of the emperor Justinian there was a terrible persecution of catholics in Africa by the king of the Arian Vandals. The king ordered the African bishops to be silent on matters of faith, but they refused, since this would be interpreted as approval for heresy:

Nam cum eis in ipsa defensione ueritatis silentium indiceret, nec tamen ipsi contra perfidiam tacerent, ne tacendo forsitan consensisse uiderentur, raptus in furore, eorum linguas abscidi radicitus fecit. Res mira et multis nota senioribus, quia ita post pro defensione ueritatis etiam sine lingua loquebantur, sicut prius loqui per linguam consueuerant.

'For while he [the king] declared that they were to be silent in the defence of truth, they were not, however, silent against heresy, in case by silence they might perhaps seem to consent. Seized with rage, he had their tongues cut out at the root. It is a marvellous thing and well-known to many of our elders that afterwards, in the defence of truth, they spoke even without a tongue, just as before they had been accustomed to speak with their tongues.'

Quoting the opening of the Gospel of John, Gregory explains that since it was the Word of God which made all things, no one should be surprised if the Word could make speech without a tongue. He then describes meeting someone who had seen the confessors.

Hii itaque eo tempore profugi ad Constantinopolitanam urbem uenerunt. Eo quoque tempore, quo pro explendis responsis ecclesiae ad principem ipse transmissus sum, seniorem quendam episcopum repperi, qui se adhuc eorum ora sine linguis loquentia uidisse testabatur, ita ut apertis oribus clamarent: "Ecce, uidete quia linguas non habemus et loquimur."

'They therefore came at that time to Constantinople as exiles. At the time when I myself was sent there to give the responses of the church to the emperor, I met an elderly bishop, who bore witness that he had seen their mouths speaking without tongues, so that they shouted with open mouths, "Look, you see that we do not have tongues, and we speak."'

Gregory mentions that those who examined their mouths saw that their tongues had indeed been completely cut out, yet they could still form speech perfectly. However, one of them lost the capacity to speak after he 'lapsed into luxury' (in luxuriam lapsus), since those who are not continent in the flesh cannot speak without a tongue of flesh.

Text: De Vogüé 1978, 390, 392. Translation and summary: David Lambert.