29 November: Saint Saturninus, Martyr
Steadfast in Faith
The main information about the life of Saturninus comes from the Passio Saturnini, an anonymous text written around the mid-5th century—therefore composed roughly two hundred years after his martyrdom. According to this account, Saturninus arrived from Africa and reached Toulouse around the year 250, during the consulate of Decius and Gratus, where he was chosen as leader of the local Christian community.
At that time, according to the author of the Passio, the presence of Christians in Gaul was still very small, while pagan sanctuaries were frequented by large numbers of devotees intent on offering sacrifices.
Newly arrived in the city, Saturninus nevertheless succeeded in forming an initial group of believers thanks to the power of his preaching. His presence soon aroused hostility among pagans: every morning, in fact, on his way to a small place of prayer that belonged to him, he had to pass in front of the Capitol, the main temple dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. There the priests sacrificed a bull to obtain divine omens. Tradition recounts that the mere presence of the Bishop disturbed the haruspices, making their prophecies impossible to decipher; irritated, the priests blamed him for the problem.
One day an enraged crowd surrounded him, demanding that he personally offer a bull on the god’s altar. Saturninus, steadfast in his faith, refused. At that point, those present seized him, tied him to the bull’s neck, and forced the animal to run down the temple steps. Dragged violently, the Bishop soon died from his grievous injuries. His body, abandoned on the road, was later gathered by two pious women who buried it “in a very deep pit.”
About a century later, Saint Hilary built a small wooden chapel on the burial site, though the structure did not survive over time. The memory of the location faded until, in the 6th century, Duke Leunebald discovered the martyr’s relics and had a church erected on the spot, dedicated to Saturninus. Initially known as Saint Sernin-du-Taur, it took on its current name, Notre-Dame du Taur, in the 14th century.