Chapter VII.
“There was a
certain village in the country of the Senones which was every year
annoyed with hail. The inhabitants, constrained by an extreme of
suffering, sought help from Martin. A highly respectable embassy was
sent to him by Auspicius, a man of the rank of prefect, whose fields
the storm had been wont to smite more severely than it did those of
others. But Martin, having there offered up prayer, so completely freed
the whole district from the prevailing plague, that for twenty years,
in which he afterwards remained in the body, no one in those places
suffered from hail. And that this may not be thought to be accidental,
but rather effected by Martin, the tempest, returning afresh, once more
fell upon the district in the year in which he died. The world thus
felt the departure of a believing man to such a degree, that, as it
justly rejoiced in his life, so it also bewailed his death. But if any
hearer, weak in faith, demands also witnesses to prove those things
which we have said, I will bring forward, not one man, but many
thousands, and will even summon the whole region of the Senones to bear
witness to the power which was experienced. But not to speak of this,
you, presbyter Refrigerius, remember, I believe, that we lately had a
conversation, concerning the matter referred to, with Romulus, the son
of that Auspicius I mentioned, an honored and religious man. He related
the points in question to us, as if they had not been previously known;
and as he was afraid of constant losses in future harvests, he did, as
you yourself beheld, regret, with much lamentation, that Martin was not
preserved up to this time.
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