Framboldus of Bayeux

Framboldus of Bayeux (Frambold, Franbolt, Frambaud) was the fifteenth bishop of Bayeux, from about 691 to 720, and is venerated as a saint in the Western Church. He is commemorated on 5 March.

His life remains mysterious: the place and date of his birth are unknown. Robert Cénalis, bishop of Avranches in the 16th century, says of him only that "his holiness spread a lively radiance". He had been a monk and abbot in the diocese of Le Mans. He is shown in a stained-⁠glass window in the north transept of the cathedral of Notre-⁠Dame at Bayeux and in a painting on one of the vaults of the choir. He was probably buried in the church of Saint-⁠Exupère at Bayeux, beside the first bishops of the city. He is also remembered in the church at Manneville, absorbed by Banneville-⁠la-⁠Campagne in 1828.

There is no evidence of his existence outside a 9th-⁠century episcopal list; Fisquet questions it, and Duchesne does not include him among the attested bishops. A local feast on 5 March was suppressed by the Concordat, but the tradition remained alive, and on 13 June 1861 its resumption was permitted. His supposed tomb was found in 1853, but doubts remain about its authenticity and the identity of the bones. The sources are therefore uncertain.