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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 4, 36. Of the Holy Nicetius of Lyons

Sacerdos, bishop of Lyons, died at Paris¹ after the Council which degraded Saffarac; and the holy Nicetius, whom he had himself chosen, as I have related in the book of his life,² received the bishopric. He was a man excellent and holy in all his ways, and chaste in all his life. The charity which the apostle bade men use towards all to the utmost of their power³ he exercised in all things as far as in him lay; men saw that the Lord Himself, who is the true Love, was manifest in his heart. For even if he were moved to anger against any man for his negligence, the moment he amended his way he received him back to favour as if he had never taken offence. He chastised the transgressor but forgave the penitent; he was generous in almsgiving and strenuous in toil; he diligently gave his mind to the erection of churches, the building of houses, the sowing of fields, and the planting of vineyards, but these things did not distract him from prayer. After twenty-two years in the bishopric he passed to the Lord;⁴ to-day great miracles are wrought at his tomb for those who implore his aid. For by means of oil from the lamp which is daily lit at his tomb he has restored light to the eyes of the blind; he drives out evil spirits from the bodies of the possessed; he restores health to paralysed limbs, and in these present times is held a great protector by all the infirm.

Bishop Priscus, his successor, and Susanna his wife began to persecute and put to death many who had been familiar friends of the man of God, not because they had yielded to any fault, or were proved guilty of any crime, or detected in theft, but simply because Priscus himself was inflamed by jealous malice at their loyalty to Nicetius. He and his wife poured forth much abuse against the holy man of God; and though it had been a rule long observed by previous bishops that no woman should enter the church house, Susanna and her maidens freely entered the cell in which sainted men had slept. But by all these things the divine Majesty was at length aroused, and took vengeance on the house of Bishop Priscus. For his wife, suddenly possessed of a demon, was driven in madness through the whole city, with her hair about her shoulders, while she confessed the saint of God, whom in her sane days she had denied, to be the friend of God, and called on him to spare her. The bishop himself was attacked by a quartan fever and seized with tremors. Even when the fever had left him, he still remained dazed and trembling. His son and his whole household were blanched and dull of aspect, so that none might doubt that they were stricken by the miraculous power of the saint. For the bishop Priscus and his house had ever railed with impious voice against the holy man of God, proclaiming any one their friend who poured forth abuse against him. At the beginning of his bishopric, he ordered the height of the church house to be increased. There was a deacon whom the saint of God, while he yet lived, had often deprived of communion for the sin of adultery, and even ordered to be flogged many times without ever being able to reform him. This man mounted to the roof of the house and began to uncover it, saying: ‘I render Thee thanks, Christ Jesus, that after the death of the most wicked Nicetius, it hath been given me to tread this roof under my feet.’ Hardly were the words out of his mouth when the beam on which he was standing yielded beneath his tread, and he fell to the ground crushed to death. The bishop and his wife continuing to act perversely in many things, the saint appeared to a certain man in a dream, saying: ‘Go and tell Priscus to amend his evil deeds and to do that which is good. And to the priest Martin thou shalt say: “Because thou hast consented to these works, thou shalt be chastised; and if thou wilt not amend thy frowardness, thou shalt die.”’ When this man awoke, he said to a certain deacon: ‘Go, I pray thee, forasmuch as thou art a friend in the bishop’s house, and tell these things either to the bishop, or to Martin the priest.’ The deacon promised that he would speak, but thought better of it, and would not give the message. But in the night, when he had yielded to slumber, the holy man⁵ appeared to him and said: ‘Wherefore hast thou not spoken that which the abbot told thee?’ and thereat he struck him on the throat with his clenched fists. As soon as day dawned, the deacon’s throat was painfully swollen, and he went to the men and told them all that he had heard. But they made light of what he said, and declared it all the phantasy of dreams. The priest Martin then fell sick of a fever, and after a spell recovered; but as he continued to flatter the bishop, consenting still to his ill deeds, and to the abuse which he vented against the saint, he relapsed into his fever and gave up the ghost.

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