Martin at Avitianus’s Door

“You knew the savage and boundlessly bloodthirsty ferocity of Avitianus, the former courtier. He entered the city of the Turones in a furious mood, with lines of people loaded with chains following him with sorrowful faces. He ordered various kinds of punishments to be made ready for putting them to death, and, to the great astonishment of the city, he arranged them for that grim work on the following day. When Martin learned of this, he set out all alone, a little before midnight, for the palace of that beast. But in the silence of the dead of night, when everyone was at rest, there was no way in through the bolted doors, so he lay down before that cruel threshold. Meanwhile Avitianus, sunk in deep sleep, was struck by an angel who came upon him and said: ‘Is the servant of God lying at your threshold, and you go on sleeping?’ When he heard these words, he rose from his bed greatly disturbed, called his servants, and cried out in terror: ‘Martin is at the door. Go at once and undo the bolts, so that the servant of God may come to no harm.’ [a]

“But they, as servants generally do, went scarcely past the first threshold. Laughing at their master as someone fooled by a dream, they declared that there was no one at the door. They judged simply from their own character that no one could be keeping watch through the night, and much less did they believe that a priest was lying at another man’s threshold in the horror of that night. Well, they easily persuaded Avitianus that their story was true. He sank back into sleep. But before long he was struck more violently than before, and he cried out that Martin was standing at the door, and that because of it he was allowed no rest of mind or body. When the servants were slow to move, he himself went out to the outer threshold, and there he found Martin, just as he had thought. The wretched man, struck by so great a display of virtue, exclaimed: ‘Why, sir, have you done this to me? There is no need for you to speak. I know what you want. I see what you require. Leave as quickly as you can, or the anger of heaven may consume me for the injury done to you. I have already suffered enough punishment. Believe me, I have firmly made up my mind what I should do now.’ So after the holy man had gone, he called his officials and ordered all the prisoners to be set free, and soon afterward he himself went on his way. In this way Avitianus was put to flight, and the city rejoiced and felt itself free.