Gohard of Nantes

Saint Gohard of Nantes (also called Gunhard) was a bishop of Nantes in the ninth century and lord of Blain. He was born at Angers. During his episcopate the battle of Blain took place, in 843, the first major battle between the Franks and the Bretons; the damage caused by these struggles was compounded by the raids of the Vikings.

On the feast of Saint John the Baptist, a month after the defeat at Blain, the Vikings reached Nantes. Gohard was celebrating the Liturgy in the cathedral before a large congregation when they attacked and killed the priest and his people. Legend says that Gohard took up his severed head and walked down to the Loire, where a boat carried him to Angers. His body was buried in the collegiate church of Saint Peter at Angers, the city where he was born. He was canonised in 1096. The Romanesque crypt of Nantes Cathedral is dedicated to him and was redesigned shortly after his canonisation to house relics brought from Angers; a side chapel of the cathedral also bears his name. His feast is on 24 June, and the Orthodox calendar commemorates him on 25 June, as a saint of the West before the Great Schism (a saint of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.