Constantius of Lyon, in his Life of *Germanus (bishop of Auxerre, ob. c. 448, S00455), recounts how the saint healed the adopted son of the court eunuch Acolius, at Ravenna (mid to late 440s). Written in Latin at Lyon (south-east Gaul) between c. 460 and c. 480.
E06023
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Constantius of Lyon, Life of Germanus of Auxerre 39
For a full account of Constantius' Life of Germanus, see E05841.
This incident takes place while Germanus is in Ravenna, shortly before his death; it follows Constantius' account of the resurrection of the son of Volusianus (E05967).
Acoli eunuchi tum praepositi regalis cubiculi alumnus iam iuuenis, liberaliter institutus, huiusmodi daemonio uexabatur quod per menstruum tempus, redeuntibus incrementis lunaribus, captiuos suos caduca allisione prosternit. Interuentu reginae uel procerum sancto uiro praesentatur et traditur. Quem diu examinatum purgare die eadem distulit, cum soleret furiosissimos daemones prima manus inpositione depellere. Ita enim miserandi iuuenis medullas et interiora penetrauerat ut quasi uas proprium certis temporibus possideret. Recludi eum secum nocte constituit. Tum uero ex interioribus latebris manifestus erupit et quasi inter tormenta conpositus tempus indicat, quo ab ineunte aetate ceperat innocentem. Itaque iussus egreditur, purgatusque adulescens post diem palatio reformatur.
'A eunuch named Acolius, at that time Imperial Chamberlain, had an adopted son to whom he had given an excellent education but who was now plagued by a demon. It was the kind that strikes down its victims every month at the new moon, by causing them to keep falling to the ground. The Empress through her courtiers arranged for him to be taken to the holy man and put into his charge. After a long examination of him, he put off the exorcism to the next day, although he ordinarily expelled even the most rabid demons at the first laying on of hands. He did this because this demon had entered so deeply into the very inmost parts of the wretched youth that during the periods of possession it practically made his body its own. That night he arranged for the boy to occupy the same room as himself. Then, indeed, the demon burst out openly from its inner lair. As if in torture it revealed how it had first taken possession of its victim in the innocence of early childhood. Now at the Bishop's order it went out of him, and the next day the youth was back in the palace, purged.'
After describing this miracle, Constantius briefly reports (§ 40) that Germanus' actual mission in Ravenna, to intercede for the Armoricans, had ended in failure after they renewed their rebellion. He then describes how Germanus was warned in a dream of his approaching death: E08586.
Text: Borius 1965.
Translation: Hoare 1954.
Miracle during lifetime
Healing diseases and disabilities
Exorcism
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Officials
Eunuchs
Demons
Source
Germanus of Auxerre (PCBE 4, 'Germanus 1', pp. 878-883) was the most important and revered episcopal saint of 5th-century Gaul. The Life of Germanus was written some years after his death (traditionally dated to 448, but perhaps earlier) 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 event occurs when Germanus is visiting the western imperial capital of Ravenna in order to intercede for the rebellious inhabitants of Armorica. Germanus died during his stay in Ravenna, at a date which is nowhere recorded directly but which the balance of evidence suggests was in the second half of the 440s, though the specific year traditionally given (448) may not be the correct one.Acolius (PLRE II, 'Ac(h)olius 2') is described by Constantius as praepositus of the royal bedchamber (praepositi regalis cubiculi), the office normally referred to as Praepositus of the Sacred Bedchamber (praepositus sacri cubiculi): essentially the head of the domestic staff of the palace, a position invariably held by a eunuch in the later empire. In Constantius' account, Acolius is a figure influential enough for the examination of his adopted son (alumnus) by Germanus to be arranged by the empress and courtiers (interuentu reginae uel procerum), and wealthy enough to pay for the embalming of Germanus' body (E05847).
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
08/05/2025
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00455 | Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, ob. 445/450 | Certain |
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