E00061: Gregory of Tours writes the Life of *Nicetius (bishop of Lyon, ob. 573, S00049): it presents the saint as a chaste man obedient to his mother, a righteous judge, and an intemperate miracle worker. From Gregory's Life of the Fathers, written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 573/594. Overview of Gregory's Life of Nicetius of Lyon.

Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers, Book 8 (Life of Nicetius of Lyon)

Summary:

Preface: Those who will be great in religion, are predestined for this, and often identified as such even before birth. Such was Nicetius. Gregory has a book of his miracles, but it says nothing of his birth and entry into the religious life, so Gregory will add what he knows [see E00059].

§ 1: Nicetius was born into a family of senatorial rank. His mother prevented his father from becoming bishop of Geneva, because she knew that the child in her womb would be one. He lived with his mother even after joining the church, and shared the work of the servants. As a boy, he was healed by *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, S00050) [see $E00063].

§ 2: Aged thirty he became a priest, but continued to work with the servants. He taught all the children of the household to read and sing the liturgy; he was scrupulously chaste. When Gregory was about seven, Nicetius once took him into his bed, but covered himself carefully with his garment to avoid any contact between the two of them.

§ 3: Sacerdos, bishop of Lyon and uncle of Nicetius, on his deathbed in Paris asked King Childebert to appoint Nicetius as his successor, which duly happened. As a bishop Nicetius was involved in a conflict over jurisdiction with the local count. He always pardoned offences, as Gregory himself witnessed.

§ 4: He forbade a deacon to sing in church, because he sensed in him a demon, which he then expelled.

§ 5: In the twenty-second year of his episcopate, Nicetius died. At his funeral, 'a blind man entreated to be placed under his bier' (caecus quidam se sub feretro flagitavit adduci) and was at once cured [this miracle is also recorded by Gregory in Glory of the Confessors 60; $E02673]. A priest who complained that Nicetius had left nothing to the church where he was buried, was visited at night by the saint, accompanied by *Justus (bishop of Lyon, ob. c.390, S02411) and *Eucherius (monk, and bishop of Lyon, ob. 449/451, S01995), and struck in the throat [see $E00064]. Bishop Priscus [Nicetius' successor], who was an opponent of his, gave Nicetius' cape (which ought to have been treated as a relic) to a deacon, who turned its hood into socks and was divinely punished by having his feet burned [see $E00062].

§ 6: Gregory deacon, Agiulf, on his return from Rome with relics of saints, visited Nicetius' grave, read a register of his miracles, and witnessed the many people seeking his help; he took some herbs from the grave and used them to cure fevers [see $E00065]. John, a priest of Tours, returning from Marseille, saw the pile of broken fetters around the grave [see $E00068], himself witnessed miraculous cures at the shrine, and told of miracles in Geneva when relics were processed through the city.

§ 7: A man who had killed his brother's murderer prayed to Nicetius from prison. The saint appeared to him in a vision, and freed him [see $E00068].

§ 8: Nicetius' bed is venerated and used to cure the sick. An oil-lamp burned by it for forty days without needing to be replenished. The bishop of Troyes came for relics of the saint, and, while transporting them, several people were cured. Gregory himself was given a face-cloth (facietergium) that Nicetius had on the day he died; Gregory used threads from this to consecrate an altar at Pernay in the Touraine, where a blind man was then cured. He has used such threads also for the altars of other churches [see $E00067].

§ 9: A poor man used a letter subscribed by Nicetius to help him in his begging. The man was robbed of six gold coins, but still had the letter. The thief was confronted and asked to swear his innocence while touching the saint's handwriting; when he approached to do this, he was miraculously struck down. On admitting his guilt and agreeing restitution, he was cured [see $E00098].

§ 10: The pile of broken fetters at his tomb testify to how many prisoners he has freed; Syagrius, bishop of Autun, testified that one night he freed prisoners in seven different cities [see $E00068]. Water mixed with dust from his grave cures the sick.

§ 11: Gregory tells how he placed relics of Nicetius [certainly part of the cloth mentioned in § 8] in the altar of a recently built church at Pressigny, in the Touraine. Three possessed women from Berry, on their way to the shrine of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050), entered this church; Nicetius drove out their devils. A certain Dado, returning from the expedition to St-Bertrand-de-Comminges [against the usurper Gundovald in 585], promised the saint part of his loot, because his life had been spared; when he offered only one of the two silver chalices he had promised, the saint appeared to him in a dream, and made him donate then both. A man who arranged to keep vigils to pray for Nicetius' support over the year, failed to attend them; he was struck with fever and died. Gregory could recount more miracles, but thinks he has written enough.

§ 12: The Life of Nicetius that Gregory mentioned in his Preface itself effected a miracle: a deacon of Autun with an eye disease wished to visit Nicetius' shrine; he was given a copy of the Life to confirm his view that the saint could work miracles; he placed this to his eyes, and was cured [see E00059].

Text: Krusch 1969, 240-252. Summary: Bryan Ward-Perkins