Felmase

Felmase, called Felmase I to distinguish him from two later bishops of the same name, was the first bishop of Maurienne, toward the end of the 6th century. He is regarded locally as a saint, without synodal canonization.

Around 575 the Burgundian king Guntram took the Maurienne valley, which until then had depended on the bishop of Turin. The king raised the valley to a diocese around 579, and Pope Gregory the Great opposed this without success. The see was placed at Saint-⁠Jean-⁠de-⁠Maurienne, where, according to tradition, relics of Saint John the Baptist were kept. Felmase was chosen as the first bishop and seems to have been consecrated at the council of Chalon in 579 by the metropolitan of Vienne. At the council he signed as bishop of the city of Segusina, that is of Maurienne.

A 10th-⁠century manuscript about Saint Thecla calls him a saint. The Church has not canonized him; his veneration rests on the voice of the people of the diocese. Papal bulls of Lucius III and Clement III, from the 12th century, mention him as a man of good memory. Our sources give no fixed feast day for him.