Maximinus

Holy Hierarch Maximinus is regarded, according to tradition, as the second bishop of Besançon, in the third century.

His name appears in second place in the old lists of the bishops of Besançon, between Linus and Paulinus; according to some sources he would be the fourth bishop after Ferreolus. The oldest reports, from the eleventh century, say that he led a hermit's life six miles from the city and was buried there. According to a tradition of little certainty, attested only from the fifteenth century, he was consecrated bishop by Pope Caius and died on 31 May, assisted by his disciple Paulinus, who succeeded him in the see. The tradition was tied to a chapel in the woods at Foucherans, where a feast was kept on 29 May, the day of Saint Maximinus of Trier. In 1695 Daniel Papebroch maintained that Maximinus and Paulinus, honoured at Besançon as bishops of the city, were in fact the holy bishops of the same names from Trier, wrongly entered in the list of Besançon.

In 1761 his name was removed from the breviary of Besançon, and in 1777 the chapel was pulled down and the relics taken away, but popular veneration continued. In 1864 a new chapel was raised at Foucherans and the service was allowed on 29 May. Pope Leo XIII confirmed his veneration by a decree of 24 November 1900. He is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured in the Catholic Church.