The life of St Severus the Priest
Pope Gregory the Great, writing not long after these events, records that Severus was out working his own vineyard, cutting grapes, when a messenger arrived asking him to come at once and bring the sacrament to a man dying nearby. Wanting first to finish the row he was on, Severus put off leaving, and by the time he reached the house the man had already died.
Struck with grief at having come too late, Severus wept over the body without restraint, and to everyone's astonishment the man suddenly returned to life. He told those gathered around him that demons had come for his soul, but that an angel had stopped them, saying he should be given back because the priest weeping over him deserved to see his tears answered, and that for the sake of that grief the Lord had granted him more time.
He is remembered, through Gregory's own account, as a priest whose delay and whose sorrow over it became, in the end, the very means of another man's life restored.
