Saint Austremonius

Almost all the inhabitants of Clermont gave themselves to Jesus Christ. The priest of the false gods himself, Victorinus, yielding to the ex hortations of th sénateur Cassius Auvergnat senator converted by the saint. e senator Cassius (he is called Cassi in Auvergne), with whom Saint Austremoine was lodging, embraced the faith of Jesus Christ; then Saint Austremoine, entrusting the Church saint Urbice Successor of Austremonius to the see of Clermont. of Clermont to Saint Urbice, went to bring the benefit of the Gospel to the Nivernais; in a short time, he gathered in that country an ample harvest of souls, the direction of which he entrusted to Saint Patrice; after which he returned to Clermont. After thirty-six years of apostolic labors, he definitively placed Saint Urbice in his stead o n the s Issoire Place of retreat, martyrdom, and the first tomb of the saint. ee of Clermont, and retired near Issoire to a small cell where he spent the last days of his life in meditation and penance, without, however, ceasing to convert as many souls as he could. He gave baptism to Lucins, son of the governor of Issoire, and this father was so irritated by it that he sent henchmen to kill the old apostle; the latter, having been warned, fled toward the mountains; but he was overtaken and his head was cut off near Tremol (perhaps Tremouville-Saint-Loup, Puy-de-Dôme, arrondissement of Issoire, canton of Latour).

The body of the holy bishop was buried at the andore which, subsequently, became the town of Issoire. It remained there for more than two hundred and fifty years in a kind of oblivion, although the p eople of the surroundin saint Grégoire de Tours Historian and bishop, primary source for the narrative. g area, says Saint Gregory of Tours, strongly suspected that it was the tomb of their first bishop. The same historian recounts details regarding the manner in which his cult became public, which he obtained from Cantin himself, bishop of Clermont.

« Cantin Cantin Deacon and later bishop of Clermont who organized the saint's cult. was still only a deacon when he was placed in charge, in that capacity, of the chapel where the body of Saint Austremoine rested. The room where he slept adjoined this chapel; one night, it suddenly happened that he heard voices singing canticles near the Saint's tomb, and, at the same time, he perceived a bright light surrounding it; he wished to examine this prodigy more closely, and he saw that the choir, whose singing had struck his ear, was composed of a multitude of people dressed in white and holding torches in their hands. The next day, he had the Saint's tomb surrounded by a balustrade, and from then on, they began to render him the honors due to his merit. The favors obtained through his intercession proved that Cantin had not allowed himself to be carried away by a vain illusion ».

In 670, Saint Avitus, Bishop of Clermont, transferred the body of Saint Austremoine to the abbey of Volvic, and nearly one hundred years later, in 76 Pépin Sovereign who had the monastery of Mauzac rebuilt for the relics. 4, Pepin had the monastery of Mauzac, near Riom, rebuilt, where the Saint's body was deposited; his head alone remained at Volvic; it appears, however, that it was later transported to Issoire. The tomb of Saint Nectaire and that of Saint Auditeur, one of his companions in the preaching of the Gospel, enrich the beautiful Byzantine church of Saint-Nectaire (Puy-de-Dôme), the work of the Benedictines who had a priory in this region dependent on the monastery of La Chaise-Dieu.

One can represent in a single group this entire holy phalanx of generous missionaries who came, at the peril of their lives, to plant the standard of the faith in the land of the Arverni.

Propre de Saint-Flour and local notes.