Aper of Toul

Saint Aper of Toul (Aprus) was the seventh bishop of Toul in Gaul, serving from 500 to 507. He was the brother of Saint Apronia and, by tradition, was born near Trier, though the local hagiography names him as a native of the Troyes region.

He was a man of the law and, by some accounts, worked as an advocate; he left that calling and became a priest. When Bishop Ursus died, the faithful of Toul asked for Aprus as their shepherd. He gave away his goods to the poor and lived humbly in his diocese, struggling against the paganism of the countryside; he preached above all at Grand in the Vosges, a place of pagan pilgrimage.

He began the building of a great church outside the city, dedicated to Saint Maurice, but reposed before he saw it finished, around 507. The faithful buried him in that church, as he had wished. His relics were hidden during the invasions of the tenth century and found again in 978; Bishop Gerard then brought them into Toul. In Lorraine about forty churches bear his name.

He has been honoured at Toul since the tenth century and is commemorated on 15 September, as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.