Constantius of Lyon, in his Life of *Germanus (bishop of Auxerre, ob. c. 448, S00455), recounts how the empress Galla Placidia had a wooden platter given to her by Germanus set in gold and how a loaf she received from him had miraculous healing powers. Written in Latin at Lyon (south-east Gaul) between c. 460 and c. 480.
E06022
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Constantius of Lyon, Life of Germanus of Auxerre 35
For a full account of Constantius' Life of Germanus, see E05841.
This passage comes after E08584. After describing Germanus' arrival at Ravenna, Constantius mentions that the bishop of the city was Peter (Chrysologus) and that the rulers were Galla Placidia and her son Valentinian (III).
Qui omnes uenerabilem sacerdotem certantibus studiis pro diuino amore suscipiunt. Ambiunt principes, occurrunt proceres; ecclesia cum exultatione complectitur. Ad diuersorium sacerdotis regina uenerabilis uas argenti amplissimum, refertum cibis delicatioribus sine ulla carnis admixtione, transmisit. Quod susceptum ea ratione distribuit ut cibos a ministris suis traderet ipse uero uindicaret argentum, remittens loco muneris patenulam ligneam panem ordeaceum continentem. Quod illa utrumque cum ingenti gratulatione conplexa est, quod et argentum suum transisset ad pauperes et illa escam beati uiri cum ministerio abiecti uasculi suscepisset. Nam et lignum postea auro ambiit et panem multis remediis et uirtutibus reseruauit.
'All these personages, for the love of God, vied with one another in the reception that they gave to the revered Bishop. Princes courted him, nobles went out to meet him, the body of the faithful was in transports of joy. The revered Empress sent to his lodgings a huge dish of silver laden with many kinds of delicious food, all prepared without meat. He accepted the gift, distributed the food to those who served him and kept the silver, sending back in its place a little wooden platter with a barley loaf on it. The Empress treasured both, immensely delighted, both because her silver had passed through his hands to the poor and because she had received for herself the holy man's food on so humble a dish. Indeed, she afterwards had the wood set in gold and kept the bread for many healings and miracles.'
Constantius next describes how Germanus miraculously released some prisoners in Ravenna (E08585).
Text: Borius 1965.
Translation: Hoare 1954, modified.
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsContact relic - other object closely associated with saint
Privately owned relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Women
Monarchs and their family
Cult Related ObjectsPrecious material objects
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
Germanus travelled to Ravenna in the summer of a year between about 445 and 450 (the exact year is not recorded). His stay in the western imperial capital forms a significant part of Constantius' narrative (§§ 35-42), as he depicts the honour shown to Germanus by the emperor Valentinian III and his mother Galla Placidia (though only the latter plays a prominent part in the narrative). Since Placidia died in November 450, it is her presence which provides the terminus ante quem for Germanus' journey and his own death. Constantius' claim that the bread given to her was kept and subsequently brought about 'many healings and miracles' (multis remediis et uirtutibus) makes it a very rare, if not unique, instance of a piece of food being treated as a relic.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
29/04/2025
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00455 | Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, ob. 445/450 | Certain |
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