Contentius (died 510) was

bishop of Bayeux The Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Baiocensis et Lexoviensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Bayeux et Lisieux'') is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is coextensive with the Department of Calvados and is a ...

from 480 until his death. He is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

. His

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

is 19 January.

Biography

According to Father Elie, he was Bayeusain, and his hermitage was located at Blay, near Bayeux. His great reputation for holiness brought him many visits from

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

s who came to him for spiritual comfort. However, the inhabitants managed to have him named

to succeed Saint Manvieu.Les saints normands - Manoelle Miquel-Regnauld - Éditions Charles Corlet - 2003 - () In this function he fought against the

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of an idol as though it were a deity. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the Abrahamic ...

that still existed in this country, as well as against the

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

s who traded it. He has been attributed several

miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...

s, one of which, on the way to Sees, he made water from the ground to Athis-de-l'Orne to quench his companions. He died in 513. First buried in the church of Saint-Exupére, he was transferred in 1162 to the Benedictine abbey of Fécamp. His relics were then transported to

Argentan Argentan () is a commune and the seat of two cantons and of an arrondissement in the Orne department in northwestern France. As of 2019, Argentan is the third largest municipality by population in the Orne department.

where they escaped the Huguenots in 1562. The translation of his right femur in the church of Saint-Contest was done in 1896 during a great ceremony. A municipality of the Caen conurbation is called

Saint-Contest Saint-Contest () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. History Excavations at the Clos de Bitot site in 1984 uncovered four Gaulish kilns and evidence of domestic animal use, particularly dogs. ...

and the town of Mayenne is called

Contest CONTEST is the United Kingdom's counter-terrorism strategy, first developed by Sir David Omand and the Home Office in early 2003 as the immediate response to 9/11, and a revised version was made public in 2006. Further revisions were publish ...

Notes

510 deaths Bishops of Bayeux 5th-century bishops in Gaul 6th-century Frankish bishops 6th-century Christian saints Year of birth unknown {{France-bishop-stub