Spérie de Cahors

Who they were

Speria, also called Esperie or Exuperia, was a Christian of the eighth century. She was born in 740 and died a martyr in 760.

Her body was buried in a forest, where a chapel with a crypt was later built over her tomb. In the eleventh century the chapel was replaced by a Romanesque church, and the village of Saint-Cere grew up around it; she is honoured there, in the church of Sainte-Sperie and in its crypt. Her day is 12 October.

The miracles

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

Why that counted as sanctity

A young martyr of the Quercy whose tomb drew the village of Saint-Cere around it.