Apollinaris of Valence
Bishop of Valence
Feast: 5 October (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Apollinaris, born at Vienne in 453 of a family of nobles and saints, was ordained priest at about twenty. In 486 he became Bishop of Valence, a see left vacant for fifty years after a scandalous bishop.
Under his care the diocese soon recovered: abuses were corrected and morals reformed. Exiled and imprisoned for a year for defending marriage against a royal official's incest, he came home at sixty-four. He died in 520 after an episcopate of thirty-four years.
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
A bishop who restored a neglected diocese to faith and good life.
Connected on this site
- Avitus of Vienne Saint Brother or sister
- Hesychius I Saint Parent, Father
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Apollinaris of Valence
- Wikidata Q4780247 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Apollinaris of Valence (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.