Martin’s Power Restored

“But plainly, as we found by experience, he made good many times over the grace that had been lessened for a while. Afterward I saw a possessed man brought to him at the gate of the monastery, and before the man touched the threshold, he was cured.

“I heard someone lately testifying that when he was sailing on the Tuscan Sea, on the course that leads to Rome, whirlwinds suddenly arose, and everyone on board was in extreme danger of losing their lives. Then a certain Egyptian merchant, who was not yet a Christian, cried out, ‘God of Martin, save us!’ At once the storm was stilled. They held their intended course, and the calmed sea stayed perfectly tranquil. [a]

“Lycontius, a believer who was one of the deputy governors, had a violent disease afflicting his household, and sick bodies lay all through his house, sad evidence of an unheard-of calamity. He begged Martin’s help by letter. At that time the blessed man declared that what was asked would be hard to obtain, for he knew in his spirit that the house was then being scourged by God’s appointment. Yet he kept up unbroken prayer and fasting for seven whole days and as many nights, until at last he obtained what he was praying for. Lycontius, having experienced God’s kindness, quickly hurried to him, both to report what had happened and to give thanks that his house had been delivered from all danger. He also offered about seventy pounds of silver. The blessed man neither refused it nor accepted it, but before the money touched the threshold of the monastery he had, without a moment’s hesitation, set it aside for ransoming captives. And when the brothers suggested that some part of it should be kept back for the expenses of the monastery, since it was hard for all of them to get the food they needed and many of them badly lacked clothing, he replied, ‘Let the church both feed and clothe us, so long as we are not seen to have provided for our own needs in any way.’ [b]

“At this point many miracles of that famous man come to my mind, which are easier for us to admire than to tell. You all know that what I say is true: many of his deeds cannot be set out in words. Here is one, for example, which I hardly think I can relate exactly as it happened. One of the brothers (you know his name, but who he was must be kept hidden, so as not to bring shame on a godly man) had found plenty of coals for his stove. He drew up a stool and was sitting beside the fire with his legs spread wide and his private parts exposed, when at once Martin perceived that something improper was being done under that sacred roof, and he cried out in a loud voice, ‘Who is dishonoring our dwelling by exposing himself?’ When our brother heard this and felt in his own conscience that it was he who was being rebuked, he immediately ran to us almost fainting and confessed his shame; and this came about only through the working of Martin’s power.