St. Benignus, Priest and Martyr


[Apostle of Burgundy.] AMONGST the holy Roman missionaries who preached the faith in Gaul, in the third century, St. Benignus laid the foundation of the church of Burgundy, and received the crown of martyrdom near Dijon, probably in the reign of Aurelian, who, in 272, raised a cruel persecution against the Christians, and after his victory over Zenobia in the East, waged war in Gaul, and led Tetricus, the Gaulish general, in triumph. This emperor is said to have built the town of Dijon, which was a place of no great note till long after this it became the seat of many of the sovereign dukes of Burgundy; since which time, there are few gayer cities in France. St. Gregory of Tours relates several miracles that were wrought at the tomb of St. Benignus in this town, and says that his mother, by watching all night before it in prayer, on the eve of his festival, on the 1st of November, obtained of God that her whole family in Auvergne was preserved from a pestilence called lues inguinaria. In the life of St. Anno, Archbishop of Cologn, we are told that the relics of St. Benignus were afterwards translated into Germany. The abbey of St. Benignus at Dijon was founded in the sixth century. See St. Gregory of Tours, l. de Glor. Mart, c. 51, 55. Tillemont, t. 3, p. 422. The Acts of St. Benignus are of no authority.	1