Saint Flavit

Who they were

According to a legend recorded in a ninth-century manuscript, Flavito was taken prisoner in Italy in the later sixth century and sold at Troyes to a man named Montanio, for whom he worked at Marcilly-le-Hayer. He resisted the advances of his master's wife, bore the slander that followed without complaint, refused to marry, and made his master's affairs prosper. Freed from servitude, he received the tonsure, was ordained a priest, and built an oratory where he lived as a hermit until his death on 18 December, in a year that is not recorded, according to tradition around 618.

He is venerated at Marcilly-le-Hayer, known in French as Saint Flavy, and at Villemaur-sur-Vanne, where a Benedictine abbey was dedicated to him and his relics are kept. He has been commemorated on 18 December since at least the eleventh century.

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

Hermit and former slave venerated in France as Saint Flavy; feast 18 December, according to legend.