che sii benedetto, e prega Dio per noi!” The boy sank back on his pillow with a heavenly smile, and a second time expired. On 16th March every year a festa is held in the family chapel within Palazzo Massimo in memory of this miracle.[98]
It is related in the life of S. Theodosius the Cenobite, written by Bishop Theodore of Petra[99] (536), that a large sepulchre having been made near the monastery, S. Theodosius said: “The tomb is now finished indeed, but who will be the first among us to occupy it?” Whereupon a certain monk named Basil, falling upon his knees, prayed that this honour might be his, and within the space of about a month, without pain or disease, he passed away as a man who takes his rest in sleep. Yet for full forty days afterwards S. Theodosius, at matins and at the other hours, saw the dead monk still occupying his place in the choir. It was he alone who saw the monk, but others, especially one Aetius, heard his voice. Whereupon Theodosius prayed that all might see the apparition of Basil, and assuredly the eyes of all were opened so that they beheld him in his wonted place in their midst. When Aetius would joyfully have embraced the figure it vanished from his touch, saying the words: “Hold, Aetius. God be with you, my father and my brethren. But me shall ye see and hear no more.”
It was the custom of S. Gregory, Bishop of Langres,[100] to rise from his bed at night, when everyone else was fast in repose, and going quietly into the church to spend several hours at his devotions. This was long unobserved, but it so happened that one night one of the brethren lay awake, and he observed the bishop on his way down the corridors. From curiosity he stole softly after him, and presently saw him enter the Baptistry, the door of which seemed to open to him of its own accord. For some time there was silence; and then the voice of the bishop was heard chanting aloud the antiphon, when immediately afterwards many voices took up the psalm, and the singing, decani and cantori, continued for the space of three hours. “I, for my part,” says S. Gregory of Tours, “think that the Saints, whose Relics were there venerated and preserved, revealed themselves to the blessed man, and hymned praises to God in company with him.”
Examples of later date when under exceptional conditions dead persons have returned to life, are not infrequently to
