Genesius of Clermont

Saint Genesius of Clermont was the twenty-⁠first bishop of Clermont in Auvergne (France) and reposed around the year 662. A later tradition makes him descend from a senatorial family of Auvergne. He received a fine education, gave up worldly prospects for the service of the Church and became archdeacon to Bishop Proculus. The parents of Saint Prix (Praejectus) entrusted their son's upbringing to him.

In 656 he succeeded Proculus in the see, against his own wishes. He was a pastor strict with himself and wholly devoted to his flock, and one source describes him as learned, gentle and loved by old and young, rich and poor. He worked for the keeping of Christian morals and founded a hospital at Clermont and the abbey of Manlieu.

After five years as bishop, fearing for his soul, he left secretly for Rome dressed as a pilgrim. The faithful sent a deputation to the Holy See, found him and persuaded him to return. He then built a monastery at Chantoin, a church and a hospice. He was buried in the church he had built at Clermont in honour of Saint Symphorian, which later took his own name. He died in the seventh year of his episcopate.

The Church commemorates him on 3 June as a saint of the West before the Great Schism (a saint of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.