Brice of Tours

Saint Brice of Tours was a disciple of Saint Martin and his successor on the throne of Tours in France. He reposed in November 444.

According to legend he was an orphan taken in by Bishop Martin and raised in the monastery of Marmoutier; he became a monk and then Martin's archdeacon. The sources say that at first he was proud and ambitious, the opposite of his teacher. It is told that Martin prophesied that he would be his successor and would have many difficulties; the clerics of Tours asked that he be sent away, and Martin answered that if Christ could put up with Judas, he too could put up with Brice.

When Martin died in 397, Brice received the see. He was repeatedly accused of worldly ambition and other faults, but each time the Church's investigations cleared him. In the thirtieth year of his episcopate a nun who was a washerwoman in his household bore a child, and slander said it was his. He carried burning coals in his cloak to the tomb of Saint Martin and the cloak remained unburned, but the people did not believe him and forced him to leave the city. He spent seven years in Rome and the pope absolved him. He returned to Tours, where the last bishop appointed in his place had just died, and resumed his duties. He built a chapel of Saints Peter and Paul over Martin's tomb. He is said to have served with such humility that at his death he was venerated as a saint. His bones were carried by Gregory of Tours to Clermont and are now in the church of San Michele in Pavia.

He is a saint of the undivided Church and is commemorated on 13 November (New Calendar).