Avitianus’s Demon and the Fallen Temple

“But to go back to Avitianus. Everywhere else, and in all the other cities, he showed signs of horrible cruelty, but at Tours alone he did no harm. Yes, that beast, who fed on human blood and the slaughter of unfortunate people, showed himself gentle and peaceable in the presence of the blessed man. I remember that Martin came to him one day, and when he had entered his private room, he saw a demon of amazing size sitting behind his back. Martin blew at it from a distance (if I may, out of necessity, use a word that is hardly Latin). Avitianus thought he was blowing at him, and exclaimed: ‘Why, holy man, do you treat me like this?’ But then Martin said: ‘It is not at you, but at the one who leans over your neck in all his frightfulness.’ The devil gave way and left his familiar seat. And it is well known that from that day on Avitianus was milder, whether because he now understood that he had always been doing the will of the devil who sat beside him, or because the unclean spirit, driven from his seat by Martin, had lost the power to attack him. The servant was ashamed of his master, and the master no longer drove his servant on. [a]

“In a village of the Ambatienses, that is, in an old fortress that is now largely inhabited by brothers, there is, as you know, a great idol temple built with much labor. The building had been made of the most highly polished stones and fitted with turrets, and rising high in the shape of a cone, it kept alive the superstition of the place by the majesty of the work. The blessed man had often ordered Marcellus, who was settled there as presbyter, to destroy it. Coming back after some time had passed, he rebuked the presbyter because the idol temple was still standing. Marcellus pleaded in excuse that such an enormous structure could hardly be thrown down by a troop of soldiers or by the strength of a large crowd of the public, and much less should Martin think it easy to do with weak clergy or feeble monks. Then Martin turned to his well-known aids and spent the whole night in watching and prayer. As a result, in the morning a storm arose and threw the idol temple down to its very foundations. Now let this account rest on the testimony of Marcellus. [c]