Ferreolus

Holy Hieromartyr Ferreolus is counted as the first bishop of the city of Besançon in Gaul. He suffered on 10 June, in the year 212 or 215, together with Ferrutio, his companion in preaching.

According to tradition Ferreolus was a deacon or, in another view, a priest, a native of Athens. It is said that Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, a disciple of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, sent him and Ferrutio toward the end of the 2nd century to proclaim the Gospel at Vesontio (today Besançon) among the Sequani. They settled in a cave near a village later called Saint-⁠Ferjeux and began their preaching from there. By order of the Roman governor Claudius, who saw in their teaching a threat to public peace, they were beheaded.

Around 370 the relics of the martyrs were found. About 550 a church was built over the cave, and between 1890 and 1900 a basilica, in whose crypt the cave is preserved. Saints Ferreolus and Ferrutio are the patrons of Besançon. In the Catholic Church they are commemorated on 16 June, in Besançon also on 30 May, the day of the translation of the relics, by the Western calendar (new style). They are saints of the undivided Church.