Saint Exuperius of Bayeux (Exupère), also known as Spirius (''Spire, Soupir, Soupierre''), is venerated as the first
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 ...
.
The date of his episcopate is given as 390 to 405, but local legends made him an immediate disciple of
St. Clement, who lived during the 1st century, and that
St. Regnobertus was Exuperius' disciple.
[Catholic Encyclopedia: Bayeux]
/ref> This legend was found in breviaries
A breviary () is a liturgical book used in Christianity for praying the canonical hours, usually recited at seven fixed prayer times.
Historically, different breviaries were used in the various parts of Christendom, such as Aberdeen Breviary, ...
of the 15th century.Catholic Encyclopedia
''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...
'', “the Bollandists
The Bollandist Society (; ) is an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century have studied hagiography and the cult of the saints in Christia ...
and M. Jules Lair
Jules–Auguste Lair (25 May 1836 – 16 May 1907) was a French lawyer, businessman and scholar.
At the École des Chartes he studied palaeography, and was offered a position with the Archives Nationales (France), National Archives, but he decide ...
found little ground for this legend; it was only towards the middle of the fourth century that St. Exuperius founded the See of Bayeux; after him the priest St. Reverendus worked to spread Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
in these parts.”[Henry Wace, ''A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines'' (1880), 439.]
Veneration
In the times of the invasion of the Vikings
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9 ...
Exuperius’ relics
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...
were translated
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
from Bayeux, and eventually were deposited at Corbeil; the Saint-Spire cathedral in Corbeil-Essonnes is dedicated to him.Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
by the revolutionaries in 1793
The French Republic introduced the French Revolutionary Calendar starting with the year I.
Events
January–June
* January 7 – The Ebel riot occurs in Sweden.
* January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to ...
.
He is sometimes called a bishop of Corbolium (Corbeil) as a result of this translation.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Exuperius Of Bayeux
Bishops of Bayeux
Gallo-Roman saints
405 deaths
Year of birth unknown