Emmeram of Regensburg
Bishop and martyr
Feast: 22 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Emmeram, of a noble family of Aquitaine, was ordained priest at Poitiers and may briefly have been its bishop. Hearing that the Bavarians were still pagans, he travelled up the Loire, through the Black Forest and down the Danube to Ratisbon.
For three years he preached and converted the people and won a name for holiness. Setting out for Rome, he was attacked and cruelly tortured by envoys of the Duke of Bavaria, and died soon after at Ascheim, towards the end of the seventh century. His remains were taken to Ratisbon.
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 missionary to the Bavarians who died a martyr.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Emmeram
- Wikidata Q277600 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Emmeram of Regensburg (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.