Saint Gatian of Tours

Gatian was the first bishop of Tours, and everything we know about him comes from a single source: the *Historia Francorum* of Gregory of Tours, written in the sixth century. Gregory tells us that around the middle of the third century seven missionaries set out from Rome to bring the Gospel to Gaul — sent, he says, by Pope Fabian around 245. Among them were Denis, who would become the first bishop of Paris, and Gatian, who settled in Gallia Lugdunensis. In Tours he preached for about fifty years, and it wasn’t easy at all: the story says he met great hostility and for a long time had to celebrate in secret, in caves, with very few faithful. He died between 301 and 307, and the diocese he had founded with so much effort would have, eighty years later, a bishop named Martin who made it famous all over Europe. A century and a half later it was one of his own successors, Bishop Perpetuus, who had his remains moved to a more fitting church. The cathedral of Tours bears his name: Saint-Gatien. If your name is Gatian, today is your name day.