Agricola of Chalon

Agricola of Chalon (Agricole) was born around 497 into a senatorial family and was elected in 532 bishop of Chalon-⁠sur-⁠Saône, where he long shone for his virtues. Gregory of Tours praises him as a wise man of polished mind, with great zeal and skill in preaching and an austere life: throughout his life he took a single meal, at sunset, and rose from it before the sun went down. He was small of stature but very eloquent. He distinguished himself by raising many buildings: he built and adorned several churches, with columns, varied marble and mosaic paintings, and built a hospital for lepers. Towards the end of his episcopate he moved to the church of the hospital the relics of Saint Desideratus (Didier).

He signed, as Agroecola, the acts of the councils of Orléans (538, 541, 549), of Paris (552) and of Lyon (570). He died in 580, at the age of eighty-⁠three, after forty-⁠eight years of episcopate, and was buried in the church of Saint Marcellus; in 878 his relics were moved to the church of Saint-⁠Pierre by Bishop Gerebald. His successor was Flavius, referendary of King Guntram. He is commemorated on 17 March in the Roman Martyrology, in the Western calendar (new style). A saint of the undivided Church, venerated in the West.