April 8 - Saint Perpetuus - Bishop - Confessor - 490 - Tours Died December 30, 490, or April 8, 491. Perpetuus, born of a senatorial family, became bishop of Tours c. 460. He dedicated the revenues of …More
April 8 - Saint Perpetuus - Bishop - Confessor - 490 - Tours
Died December 30, 490, or April 8, 491. Perpetuus, born of a senatorial family, became bishop of Tours c. 460. He dedicated the revenues of his estates to the relief of those in need. The poor, it is recorded, were his heirs (though apparently this will was a 17th century forgery): he left them pastures, groves, vineyards, houses, gardens, water-mills, gold, silver, and his clothing.
He also venerated his great predecessor Saint Martin, the soldier who had sliced his cloak in two and given half to a beggar. Martin was buried in a basilica in Tours and Perpetuus rebuilt and enlarged this fine building to house the countless pilgrims who flocked to his tomb.
One hundred twenty years later, Saint Gregory of Tours mentions that Perpetuus decreed that all the people in his diocese should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, save at a few church festivals. He also declared several Mondays in the Christian year as fasts, particularly in the time that became Advent. So great was Perptuus’s influence that these fasts were still being observed in the diocese of Tours over a century after his death. And so powerful was his memory that, 13 centuries after his death, some unknown forgers drew up a fake will for the saint, declaring: “You, my dearly beloved brothers, my crown, my joy, that is to say, Christ’s poor, needy, beggars, sick, widows, and orphans, you I hereby name and decree to be my heirs.” Though the will was a fake, the true spirit of Saint Perpetuus shines through it (Benedictines, Bentley, Husenbeth).
In art, Saint Perpetuus is a bishop directing the building of a church. Sometimes the sick may be shown being healed at his tomb or as his relics are carried in procession (Roeder).
MLA Citation
Katherine I Rabenstein. Saints of the Day, 1998. CatholicSaints.Info. 30 May 2020. Web. 8 April 2024. <catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-perpetuus-of-tours/>
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Died December 30, 490, or April 8, 491. Perpetuus, born of a senatorial family, became bishop of Tours c. 460. He dedicated the revenues of his estates to the relief of those in need. The poor, it is recorded, were his heirs (though apparently this will was a 17th century forgery): he left them pastures, groves, vineyards, houses, gardens, water-mills, gold, silver, and his clothing.
He also venerated his great predecessor Saint Martin, the soldier who had sliced his cloak in two and given half to a beggar. Martin was buried in a basilica in Tours and Perpetuus rebuilt and enlarged this fine building to house the countless pilgrims who flocked to his tomb.
One hundred twenty years later, Saint Gregory of Tours mentions that Perpetuus decreed that all the people in his diocese should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, save at a few church festivals. He also declared several Mondays in the Christian year as fasts, particularly in the time that became Advent. So great was Perptuus’s influence that these fasts were still being observed in the diocese of Tours over a century after his death. And so powerful was his memory that, 13 centuries after his death, some unknown forgers drew up a fake will for the saint, declaring: “You, my dearly beloved brothers, my crown, my joy, that is to say, Christ’s poor, needy, beggars, sick, widows, and orphans, you I hereby name and decree to be my heirs.” Though the will was a fake, the true spirit of Saint Perpetuus shines through it (Benedictines, Bentley, Husenbeth).
In art, Saint Perpetuus is a bishop directing the building of a church. Sometimes the sick may be shown being healed at his tomb or as his relics are carried in procession (Roeder).
MLA Citation
Katherine I Rabenstein. Saints of the Day, 1998. CatholicSaints.Info. 30 May 2020. Web. 8 April 2024. <catholicsaints.info/saints-of-the-day-perpetuus-of-tours/>
cybrotius