Exuperantius

Holy Martyr Exuperantius is the third patron of the city of Zurich, together with Saints Felix and Regula. According to the legend he was their servant and, like them, a soldier of the Theban Legion, killed in the persecution of Diocletian; his death is placed after the year 302.

The legend says that after his head was cut off, Exuperantius carried it up the bank of the River Limmat, ahead of Felix and Regula, then knelt down and lay at rest. There the three saints were buried, and in the 9th century the Grossmünster was built; on the island in the Limmat where their beheading is said to have taken place the Wasserkirche was raised. In the old legend of Felix and Regula, written toward the end of the 8th century, Exuperantius does not appear; he is attested in documents only on 21 January 1257, and his veneration as third patron grew from the 13th century, when a citizen bequeathed his lands in 1264 on condition that Exuperantius be included in the liturgy. Some scholars regard him as a variant of Saint Exuperius of Agaunum. The three saints are commemorated on 11 September, by the Western calendar (new style).