Libaria of Grand

Libaria of Grand is venerated in the Catholic Church as the first saint of Lorraine. According to tradition she was beheaded at Grand, by order of the emperor Julian, in the year 362. She is commemorated on 8 October. Our sources call her a Catholic saint.

She was beheaded in 362, together with her brothers Eloph and Eucharius, in the time of the emperor Julian, who had come to Gaul to restore pagan worship in the province. According to other sources, she was killed with three of her sisters. According to legend, the beheaded martyr lifted her head, washed it herself in the waters of a spring and laid it in a shroud.

According to other sources, Libaria came of a family of patricians in present-⁠day Haute-⁠Marne. Her parents, Baccius and Lientrude, had other daughters who became saints: Hoilde, Amée, Lintrude, Francule, Pusinne and the well-⁠known Menehould. Some reports say that they may have lived in the fifth century.

The first written testimony of the three saints who carried their heads, Dionysius, Livier of Marsal and Libaria, dates from 1035. Libaria is venerated at Grand, at Rambervillers and at Lépange-⁠sur-⁠Vologne. The name of the commune of Damlevières, in Meurthe-⁠et-⁠Moselle, comes from Dame-⁠Libaire. At Serres there is a chapel of Saint Libaria.