Saint of the Day – 1 November – Saint Austremonius (3rd-4th Century) Bishop

Saint of the Day – 1 November – Saint Austremonius (3rd-4th Century) Bishop of Clermont, France, and Apostle of Auvergne, Missionary. Born in the 3rd Century and died in the early 4th Century of natural causes. Patronage – the Archdiocese of Clermont. Also known as – Austromoine, Stramonius, Stremonius.

The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Clermont in Auvergne, France, Saint Austremonius, the first Bishop of that City.”

Most of what is known about our Saint Austremonius, is deduced from a few brief sentences in the writings of St Gregory of Tours. According to this authorit, he was one of the seven Bishops sent from Rome into Gaul during the years in the mid 3rd Century.

He laboured tirelessly for the conversion of the pagans in Auvergne and is believed to have been the first Bishop of Clermont. Another tradition states that Austremonius was martyred by a Jewish rabbi for converting the man’s son, however this is not repeated in the Martyrology.

Also sent to preach the Gospel in Gaul were Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, Denis to Paris and Martial to Limoges.

At Clermont St Austremonius converted the Senator Cassius of Clermont and the pagan priest Victorinus. He also sent St Serenus to Thiers, St Marius to Salers and Antoninus into other parts of Auvergne, to further the evangelisation of Gaul. A tradition states that Saint Austremonius instructed St Nectarius of Auvergne to Christianise the peoples living on the plain of Limagne.

Austremonius was a contemporary of the three Bishops of Aquitaine, who attended the Council of Arles in 314.

Veneration of Saint Austremonius found its origin in a biography of the Saint written in the 10th Century in the Abbey of Mozac, where his body was transferred in 761. The Vita was rewritten and amplified by the Monks of Issoire, who retained the Saint’s head as a Relic. There is a further elaborated Vita of the late 11th Century. The tomb was opened in 1197.

St Gregory of Tours, who was born in Auvergne in 544 and was well versed in the history of that country, looks upon St Austremonius as one of the seven envoys who, about evangelised Gaul. He relates how the body of our Saint was first interred at Issoire, being there the object of great veneration, before the body, though not the head, was translated to Clermont, where he is greatly venerated as the Patron of that Diocese.