Their story
St Gregory the Great tells the story of Servulus, a beggar paralysed from infancy who could not stand, sit up, lift his hand to his mouth, or turn over. His mother and brother carried him to the porch of St Clement's church in Rome, where he lived on alms. Whatever he could spare he gave to other poor people.
He asked visitors to read the Scriptures to him and learned them by heart, and he spent his time singing hymns of thanks. As he lay dying, about 590, he asked the poor and pilgrims around him to sing psalms. Then he suddenly cried, 'Silence; do you not hear the sweet praises sounding in heaven?' and died. He was buried in St Clement's. Gregory told the story in a sermon to his people as a rebuke to the healthy and comfortable.
