Apollinaris of Valence

Who they were

Apollinaris, born at Vienne in 453 of a family of nobles and saints, was ordained priest at about twenty. In 486 he became Bishop of Valence, a see left vacant for fifty years after a scandalous bishop.

Under his care the diocese soon recovered: abuses were corrected and morals reformed. Exiled and imprisoned for a year for defending marriage against a royal official's incest, he came home at sixty-four. He died in 520 after an episcopate of thirty-four years.

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

A bishop who restored a neglected diocese to faith and good life.

Connected on this site

• Avitus of Vienne Saint Brother or sister
• Hesychius I Saint Parent, Father
  “The Roman Martyrology remembers him on 12 November as a senator who became bishop of Vienne, father of Saints Apollinaris of Valence and Avitus of Vienne.” — this site's research