Saint Domitian of Joux

At the age of twelve, he was sent to a Christian school to learn sacred and profane letters. In the meantime, he lost his father, who was put to death by the Arians out of hatred for the religion; his mother died of grief shortly thereafter. Domitian then resolved to leave the world: he disposed of his patrimony, shared all his fortune among the indigent of Rome, and retired while still very young to a Rome Birthplace of Maximian. religious house to embrace the monastic state in his native city. Later (426), the factions that agitated the State disturbed the solitude of the cloisters: Domitian then decided to withdraw to the Gauls. He arrived in Marseille, where he met a pious ecclesiastic named Salvia n, who ha Marseille Birthplace of the saint. d him enter the abbey of Saint-Honorat of Lérins, in the diocese of Fréjus. Saint Bitarius withdrew him from there to confer abbaye de Saint-Honorat de Lérins Famous monastery where Domitian stayed. the priesthood upon him (428), but h Saint Bitaire Saint who conferred the priesthood upon Domitian. e returned to Lérins and only left a few years later to found, in the place then called Axance, today Bourg-Saint-Christophe (Ain), a small oratory which he dedic Axance Site of the first foundation of an oratory by Domitian. ated to Saint Christopher.

He devoted himself there to fasting, prayer, vigils, and the celebration of the holy mysteries. As the number of his disciples grew day by day, he abandoned the oratory of Axance, which he entrusted to a priest along with the gardens he had formed there and the vineyard he had planted, and built, on a plateau overlooking the founta Bebron Principal monastery founded by Domitian. in of Bebron, a monastery and two oratories, one in honor of the Blessed Virgin, the other in honor of Saint Christopher, martyr. Some time later, having converted a wealthy local lord named Lations from Arianism to the Catholic faith, the latter gave Domitian lands and money, which allowed him to enlarge his monastery of Bebron. Saint Rambert, having been pierced by a lance in the vicinity by the orders of the cruel Ebroin, was buried there, and since then the monastery of Domitian took the name of Saint-Rambert de Joux Saint-Rambert de Joux Principal monastery founded by Domitian. .

After such fine works, weakened by age and austerities, Domitian rendered his soul to God. His mortal remains were placed in a beautiful sarcophagus which his monks placed near the altar dedicated to Saint Genesius, martyr. A portion of the relics of this solitary saint was transported to the priory of Saint-André-en-Forez Saint-André-en-Forez Priory that received a portion of the relics in 1878. around the year 1878, under the epis copate of Sa saint Gébuin Bishop of Lyon during the translation of the relics. int Gebuin, Bishop of Lyon. There no longer exist today of these precious remains anything but a few fragments which are in the church of Saint-Rambert (Loire).

An abridgment of the life as gi ven by Mgr Mgr Depéry Author of the Hagiological History of Belley. Depéry, in his Hagiological History of Belley, and the Acta Sanc Acta Sanctorum Monumental hagiographic collection by the Bollandists. torum, in the first volume of July.

An abridgment of the life provided by Mgr Depéry in his Histoire hagiologique de Belley, and the Acta Sanctorum, in the first volume of July.