Florentinus of Arles

Saint Florentinus of Arles, a venerable father, was born around 483 and was the first abbot of the monastery of the Holy Apostles in Arles, founded in 547 by Bishop Aurelian. He reposed on 12 April 553, aged 70, having led his monastery for five years and six months.

These facts are known from the verse epitaph on his tomb in the church of the Holy Cross at Arles. The epitaph is counted among the oldest Christian examples of its kind. His successor as abbot was Redemtus.

The saint's body was first moved, 35 years after his death, to the church of Saint Peter, and later, after that church was destroyed, to the new church of the Holy Cross, which succeeded the monastery of the Holy Apostles. That church kept many of his relics until the French Revolution. He is a saint of the undivided Church, remembered in the West on 12 April and honored at Arles on 21 May.