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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 8, 33. Of the Fire in the City of Paris

In these days there dwelled in Paris a woman who said to the inhabitants: ‘Fly from the city, for know that it shall be utterly destroyed by fire.’ Many mocked her words, declaring that she spoke thus because she had consulted the lots, or had dreamed dreams, or been possessed by the demon of noon; but she answered them: ‘It is in no wise as ye say; for I speak sooth, having seen in a dream a man radiant with light, coming forth from the church of the holy Vincent¹ with a taper in his hand, and setting on fire the houses of the merchants one after the other.’ The third night after the woman’s warning, as evening set in, a certain citizen took a light and went into a storehouse to fetch oil and other things that he needed; when he went away, he left the light behind him, near the oil-cask. The house was that nearest the southern gate of the town. It caught fire from this light, and was burned down, firing in its turn the neighbouring houses. The flames spread to the jail, whereupon the holy Germanus appeared to the prisoners, broke the beam and chains which held them, and flinging open the door, suffered them to go forth unscathed. They betook themselves to the church of the holy Vincent, where is the tomb of the blessed bishop.² The flames were carried by a veering wind in all directions through the city, and the fire, now in its full fury, was master of the town. So it drew near another gate, where there was an oratory of the blessed Martin, once erected there because at this spot he had cured a leper’s skin by a kiss. The man who had constructed it of wattle-work, raising it to some height, now put his trust in the Lord, and nothing doubting of the power of the holy Martin, took refuge within its walls with all his goods, saying: ‘I believe, and hold firm faith, that he who many a time commanded fires to cease, and here with a healing kiss cured the leper’s skin, even he will now drive back the flames from this place.’ The fire came near, great globes of flame swept on, but straightway, as they struck the sides of the oratory, lost their heat. The people cried out to the man and his wife: ‘Fly, poor victims, while yet ye may! See how the mass of flame cometh rushing down upon you; see how the sparks and coals of fire, like a mighty storm, spread even unto the place where ye are! Come forth from the oratory, lest with it ye also be consumed.’ But they two prayed without ceasing, unmoved by all these voices, the woman never stirring from the window through which from time to time the flames now entered, so strongly was she armed with firm faith in the holy bishop. And such was his power, that not only did it preserve the oratory and the dwelling of his servant, but also the houses round about, for it never suffered these to be harmed by the victorious flames. Here therefore ceased the fire which had begun to rage on one side of the bridge. On the other side it swallowed up all so fiercely that only the river stayed its course, though the churches with the houses belonging to them were not burned.

It used to be said that this town was, as it were, a hallowed place from of old, and that no fire might have mastery over it and neither snake nor rat might there appear. But not long before, when they were cleaning out a drain by the bridge and removing the mud that choked it, they had discovered a brazen serpent and a brazen rat. They took both away; and ever afterwards serpents and rats innumerable were seen, and the city began to suffer from fires.

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