The Miracle of St. Firmin (north portal and clôture)

In the lower lintel six bishops sit on either side of an architectural canopy: these are the early bishops of Amiens with the box (châsse) containing the relics of Saint Firmin at the center. At the center of the upper lintel Bishop Sauve is guided by a ray of light from heaven (it looks like a rope coming down) to the tomb: Saint Firmin's body, emanating a sweet odor) is found intact. Men and women and children from the neighboring cities of Beauvais, Cambrai, Arras and Thérouanne are drawn by the sweet odor to participate in the miracle. The box (châsse) containing the relics is carried in procession back to Amiens. As it approaches the city boys climb trees and strew fronds on the road (echoing the Triumphal Entry of Christ to Jerusalem). On the left a young man follows: the heat has caused him to remove his overcoat. On his head is a foliate crown: this is the Green Man (l'homme vert) who features in the liturgy of celebration of the Feast of the Invention of the saint.

Text from the Acta Sanctorum

Since people did not know where the body of Christ's holy martyr lay, thanks to the instructions of the Holy Spirit [Bishop Sauve] came to the place where Christ's martyr lay and, raising his eyes to heaven, with indescribable terror he saw as if a ray of light coming from a lofty throne lighting the place where Saint Firmin Lay. Grateful for this sign of divine mercy he began quickly and very reverently to dig and to open to tomb of the holy martyr. The odor that emanated was so sweet and alluring it was as if all kinds of colors and scents were crusted together and the countryside was alive with the beauty of various flowers. He [Sauve] raised him up from the tomb and set out for the city [of Amiens], the people bearing the holy martyr. Crowds of people rushed up on the way, throwing their clothes on the road and crying in a loud voice: "Hosanna in the highest; blessed is he who omes in the name of the Lord." The most blessed bishop Sauve placed [the body] in the eastern crypt of the splendid church he had constructed in honor of the said martyrs and buried him with dignity and honor, embellishing the tomb with gold and gems.

Everyone there thought that white lilies and live roses and other green plants and flowers were beautifully sprouting from inside the tomb, and the more people that came to the holy miracle the greater became the odor and it flowed over the entire diocese of Amiens widely spreading its pleasant stream to the other cities of the diocese. And the entire populations of the cities of Thérouanne, Cambrai, Noyon and Beauvais, satiated at that time by the sweetness and delicacy of that wonderful odor thought that they had come to the delights of paradise.​

And then, as the venerable Bishop Sauve ... raised Firmin from his tomb, the substance of all the elements was changed, and such a boiling heat came into the world that all the people present, stupified and in a state of ecstacy, where amazed.