Landericus of Paris

Bishop of Paris around 650, he governed during one of the famines that struck northern Gaul in the middle of the seventh century. The chronicles credit him with an act the Church has never held a sacrilege but its opposite: he had the liturgical furniture, the sacred vessels and even the ornaments of his cathedral sold to buy grain. Tradition ascribes to him the founding of the hospital of St Christopher, which would become the Hôtel-Dieu of Paris, the oldest hospital in the capital — but the tradition crediting him dates only from the seventeenth century, and the first attested care buildings are of 829. Little else is known, save that he subscribed a charter for the abbey of Saint-Denis. He died around 661 and was buried in the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois.