Anthemius van Poitiers

Who they were

Antemio was a bishop of Poitiers whose dates are uncertain, generally placed in the fifth century. He appears in medieval manuscript lists of the twenty-three early bishops of the see before the sixth century, a list in which many names are legendary; he comes after Saint Gelasio and before Saint Massenzio, who died in 515.

Nothing is known of his life. A seventeenth-century note by Bishop Chasteigner de La Rochepozay places his death at a village in Saintonge while he was preaching, and his burial at Jonzac. His feast was kept at Poitiers on 3 December until it was folded into a common feast for all the diocese's sainted bishops.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Early, little-documented bishop of Poitiers counted among the largely legendary bishops before the sixth century; feast 3 December (now a common feast for the diocese's bishops).