BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT SATURNINUS OF TOULOUSE

      Saint Saturninus of Toulouse

Also known as

• Cernín
• Sadurní
• Sadurninho
• Sarnin
• Satordi
• Saturdi
• Saturnin
• Saturnino
• Serenín
• Sernin
• Zernin

Memorial

• 29 November
• 30 October (translation of relics)

Profile

Born to the third century Roman nobility. Missionary to Gaul, the Pyrenees, and the Iberian peninsula. Worked with Saint Papoul. He converted many, including the farmer now known as Saint Honestus who joined him as a missionary. Imprisoned in Carcassone by the prefect Rufinus, Saturninus and his group were freed by an angel. He became the first bishop of Toulouse in modern France), where he teamed with SaintMartial to perform miraculous healings. Converted and baptized Saint Firminus of Amiens.

When Saturninus began his work in Toulouse, the local pagan priests stopped receiving oracular messages from their gods. One day in 257, when the priests were hopelessly frustrated, Saturninus passed by in the street. The priests blamed the bishop, and ordered the crowd of heathens to seize him and force him to offer sacrifice to their gods. The idols fell to pieces in front of the bishop, and the crowd murdered him.

Born

• Patras, Greece

Died

• dragged to death by a bull c.257 in Toulouse, France
• two Christian women gathered up his remains and buried them in a ditch
• a church called the Taur (bull) was built where the bull stopped
• relics at the basilica at Toulouse

Patronage

• against ants
• against bovine spongiform encephalopathy
• death anxiety
• against fraud
• against headaches
• against mad cow disease
• against nausea
• against pain
• against plague
• against scrapie
• against smallpox
• against syphilis
• bullfighters
• smallpox patients
• —
• Burgo de San Cernin, Navarra, Spain
• Minderau, Germany
• Motte-Saint-Jean, Burgundy, France
• Pamplona, Spain
• Roche-Vineuse, Burgundy, France
• Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, Catalonia, Spain
• Sant Sadurni d’Osormort, Catalonia, Spain
• Sant Sadurni de l’heure, Catalonia, Spain
• Sardinia, Italy
• Navarre, Spain
• St-Sernin-d’Apt, France
• St-Sernin-du-Bois, Burgundy, France
• St-Sernin-du-Plain, Burgundy, France
• Toulouse, France
• Vauban, Burgundy, France
• Weissenau, Germany

Representation

• bishop dragged by a bull
• bishop with a bull at his feet
• bull, cross and mitre