Liborius of Le Mans

Saint Liborius of Le Mans was the second bishop of Le Mans in Gaul, and he reposed in 390 or 397, according to tradition on 23 July. He is patron of the cathedral and archdiocese of Paderborn in Germany. The calendars say he led the see from 348 to 390.

Little is known of his life, as of other fourth-⁠century saints. He was a Gaul, influenced by Latin culture, and is said to have been bishop for forty-⁠nine years, to have built churches in the neighborhood, and to have ordained, in the course of 96 ordinations, 217 priests and 186 deacons. Saint Martin of Tours assisted him when he was dying, and so he is looked to as a patron of a good death. He was buried in the Apostle Basilica of Le Mans, beside his predecessor Julian, founder of the bishopric, and miracles are said to have occurred at his tomb.

In 835 Bishop Aldric placed some of his relics in an altar of the cathedral, and in the following year, on the instructions of Emperor Louis the Pious, sent his body to Bishop Badurad of Paderborn, whose diocese, founded in 799 by Pope Leo III and Charlemagne, had no saint of its own. From this arose a "love bond of lasting brotherhood", considered the oldest contract still in force; the two churches bound themselves to help each other by prayer and material assistance. Since the thirteenth century he has been prayed to against gallstones (the first healing of this kind was that of Archbishop Werner von Eppstein in 1267), which gave rise to his attribute of three stones on a Bible, and he is invoked against colic and fever. A legend says that a peacock guided the bearers when his body was brought to Paderborn; in the city a week-⁠long festival, Libori, begins on the Saturday after 23 July. In 1977 Archbishop Johannes Joachim Degenhardt established the Saint Liborius Medal for Unity and Peace. He is commemorated on 23 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.