St. Remigius (c. 437-533), Bishop of Reims and "Apostle of the Franks," baptized the Frankish king Clovis I on Christmas Day, 496 — the single act that made Christian France. Born at Cerny-en-Laonnois near Laon into the highest level of Gallo-Roman society, he was elected Bishop of Reims at twenty-one while still a layman and held the see for over seven decades, until his death on January 13, 533.
The baptism of Clovis was the pivot. After the king's victory over the Alemanni at Tolbiac, Clovis — urged by his Burgundian wife Clotilde — fulfilled a vow to accept the God of his wife if granted victory. Remigius baptized him at Reims on December 25, 496, with some three thousand Frankish warriors following their king into the font. "Bow your head in meekness, Sicamber," Remigius is said to have told him, "adore what you have burnt and burn what you have adored." A later legend, first recorded by Archbishop Hincmar in the ninth century, held that a dove descended from heaven bearing a vial of sacred chrism — the Sainte Ampoule — for the anointing. That miraculous oil became the chrism of every French coronation for the next thousand years, and Reims became the coronation city of the kings of France.
Remigius established bishoprics at Tournai, Cambrai, Thérouanne, Arras, and Laon, extending the Church's structure across the former Roman Gaul that Clovis now ruled. He held a synod at Reims in 517 and converted an Arian bishop at it. He died on January 13, 533, aged about ninety-five, and was buried at Reims. His relics were translated to the Abbey of Saint-Remi in 1099 — an event witnessed, among others, by the young Bruno of Cologne, who was studying at Reims and would later found the Carthusian Order.
His principal feast in the West is October 1, the date of the translation of his relics, kept in the 1960 General Roman Calendar and in the local calendars of France and the Archdiocese of Reims. The Eastern churches keep his memory on January 13, the date of his death. He is patron of France and of the diocese of Reims.
Relics
Remigius's relics rest in the Basilique Saint-Remi at Reims, enshrined in a nineteenth-century tomb in the choir, reconstructed after revolutionaries desecrated the original on October 7, 1793. Faithful Catholics had hidden the remains from destruction, and they were restored to the basilica after the Revolution.
Sources
St. Remigius — Catholic Encyclopedia. (New Advent) Saint Remigius — Wikipedia.
