Demetrius

Saint Demetrius of Gap is, according to tradition, the one who brought the faith to the city of Gap and its first bishop; he died as a martyr. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and the Orthodox Church.

Tradition says that he was born in Roman Greece and was sent with a group of missionaries, by the apostles or their successors, to preach the Gospel in Gaul. It is thought that he may have been a disciple of the Apostle John, mentioned in his third epistle (3 John 12); by another view he came to Lyon with missionaries sent by Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, was a deacon at Vienne, brought the people of the western Alps to the faith, and settled at Gap. The success of his mission roused the anger of the pagan priests, who had him condemned to death.

His relics were first venerated in the church of Saint-⁠Jean-⁠le-⁠Rond at Gap. During the wars of religion they were carried to Sisteron by Bishop Pierre Paparin; in 1616 Bishop Charles-⁠Salomon du Serre brought them back, together with those of Saint Arnoux. In 1692, at the invasion of the Dauphiné, they were hidden beneath the floor of the cathedral altar. In 1764 his veneration was replaced by that of Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica. On 20 April 1845 Bishop Jean-⁠Irénée Depéry recognized the relics as authentic, restored the saint's veneration by an order of 29 September, and set his feast on 26 October, as in the old breviaries. The veneration is local.