Austremonius of Clermont

Gregory of Tours writes that in the middle of the third century, under the emperor Decius, seven bishops were sent from Rome to evangelise Gaul; Austremonius was given the Auvergne. He settled at Clermont, founded the local church there and died, according to the same source, in peace. The following centuries were not content with that. He was furnished with a Roman senatorial origin, a martyrdom, then a rank as disciple of the apostles, and the abbey of Issoire long disputed his relics with Volvic and Mozac — three monasteries, three bodies, three traditions. Historians keep to Gregory. What remains is that the diocese of Clermont, one of the oldest in France, holds him for its founder, and that his feast falls on 1 November, the day the Church keeps all the saints at once.