Saint of the Day – 1 May – Saint Amator (344-418) Bishop and Confessor of Auxerre, France, the Bishop of Auxerre from 388 until his death on 1 May 418. A married man who lived in complete chastity with his wife Martha, he was granted the grace of Miracles and expelling demons. A tireless shepherd, he worked to totally eradicate paganism from his region. Patronages of Auxerre, agaubst Epilepsy, of the mentally ill. Also known as – Amatore, Amatre, Amatus, Amadour.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Auxerre, St Amator, Bishop and Confessor.”
According to his Life, contained in a 9th Century manuscript but believed to have been written in the 7th Century by a Monk, Stephen Africanus, Amator was born in Auxerre in 344 of a wealthy merchant family and was educated by St Valerian, the City’s Bishop.
Although married by his parents’ will to the noble and wealthy Martha of the City of Langres, he lived with her in perfect chastity and became a Deacon.
St Amator performed many miracles and expelled the demons which inhabited the ruins surrounding the City. Upon the death of Helladius, St Valerian’s successor, he was elected as the Bishop and carried out his ministry with determination, eradicating the last traces of paganism from his See and miraculously overcoming the resistance of a certain Rutilius to cede his lands for the construction of the new Cathedral, dedicated to St Stephen the First Martyr.
A journey to Antioch to acquire the Relics of Saints Cyrus and Julitta and the selection of St Germanus, his successor, as Deacon and then Bishop, complete the picture of a zealous and far-sighted shepherd.
St Amator’s death on 1 May 418, after 30 years of Episcopate, gave rise to a cult which rapidly pread to Catalonia where Charlemagne sent a Relic of St Amator. The ancient Church, built over his Tomb in Rhe was destroyed during the Revolution and some of his Relics were dispersed.
St Amator is invoked above all as a healer of the mentally ill and of epileptics, who would lie on his Tomb seeking his intercession in prayer.
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