Constantius of Lyon, in his Life of *Germanus (bishop of Auxerre, ob. c. 448, S00455), recounts how, by applying consecrated oil, Germanus healed victims of an outbreak of plague caused by a conspiracy of demons. Written in Latin at Lyon (south-east Gaul) between c. 460 and c. 480.
E06019
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Constantius of Lyon, Life of Germanus of Auxerre 8
For a full account of Constantius' Life of Germanus, see E05841. This passage follows the one discussed in E07550.
Quodam tempore conspiratione terribili beato uiro bellum quoddam daemones intulerunt. Quem cum multiplici infestatione temptatum, indutum fidei lorica inexpugnabilem repperissent, conceptam machinam ad plebis excidium contulerunt. Nam primum paruuli, deinde maiores natu, repente tumefactis intrinsecus faucibus interibant, ut, inruente morte, aegritudinis spatium uix triduo traheretur. Ita more furentis gladii populus delebatur. Nihil opis humana prouisio conferebat, et paene sero plebs trepida ad diuinum praesidium per antistitem decucurrit. Qui protinus oleum benedixit, cuius tactu ita intrinsecus tumefacta tabescebat infirmitas, ut statim meatus peruius et anhelitum et cibum deficientibus ministraret, tantaque celeritate remedium caeleste succurrit quanta inruerat inlata pernicies. Quod admissu malignorum spirituum contigisse, unus ex obsessis, dum a sancto uiiro purgatur, euomuit, omnesque in fugam uersos eius oratione confessus est.
'At one time there was a fearful conspiracy of demons to wage a kind of war on the man of blessings himself. When they found him immune, thanks to the breastplate of faith, to all their assaults, they contrived a device for the destruction of his flock. First the children, then their elders, began to succumb to a swelling in their throats which brought about death after an illness of less than three days. His congregation was being wiped out as if they were being slaughtered by the sword. No human measures brought any relief and, when it was almost too late, the panic-stricken people appealed to their bishop for divine aid. Immediately he blessed some oil and, at its touch, the internal swelling went down and a passage was thereby opened for breathing and swallowing. The heavenly remedy effected a cure as rapidly as the onslaught of the disease had brought death. One of those who had been possessed bawled out when he was being exorcised that all this had been brought about by the entry of demons, and acknowledged that they had been put to flight by the holy man's prayer.'
This passage is followed by the one discussed in E07551.
Text: Borius 1965, 134-6.
Translation: Hoare 1954.
Miracle during lifetime
Healing diseases and disabilities
Exorcism
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Demons
Source
Germanus of Auxerre (PCBE 4, 'Germanus 1', pp. 878-883) was the most important and revered episcopal saint of 5th-century Gaul. He died between about 445 and 450. The Life of Germanus was written some years later by Constantius, a literary figure, possibly a cleric, attested in Lyon in the 460s and 470s (PCBE 4, 'Constantius 3', pp. 521-522). The precise date when he composed the Life is not documented, but it must have been sometime between the 460s and the early 480s. For full discussion of the authorship and date of the Life of Germanus, see its overview entry: E05841.Discussion
This incident is narrated during part of the Life (§§ 7-11) in which Constantius narrates miracles that took place in Germanus' see of Auxerre (most of the Life is devoted to events that take place elsewhere). This account of Germanus' healing of the victims of an outbreak of plague at Auxerre is notable for the claim that the plague was the result of conspiracy (conspiratio) of demons directed against Germanus, and for Germanus' use of oil he had blessed as a means of healing.Bibliography
Editions:Borius, R., Constance de Lyon, Vie de saint Germain d'Auxerre (Sources chrétiennes 112; Paris: Cerf, 1965), with French translation.
Levison, W., Vita Germani episcopi Autissiodorensis auctore Constantio, in: Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici V (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 7; Hannover and Leipzig, 1919), 246-283.
English translation:
Hoare, F.R., The Western Fathers (London, 1954), 283-320. Reprinted in T.F.X. Noble and T. Head (eds.), Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (University Park PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 75-106.
David Lambert
15/05/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00455 | Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, ob. 445/450 | Certain |
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