Maximinus of Trier

Saint Maximinus of Trier was bishop of Trier in Germany, a defender of Orthodoxy against Arianism and host of Saint Athanasius the Great in exile. He reposed in 346 by the most reliable sources, though our calendar gives 352. He is commemorated on 29 May.

He was born at Silly near Poitiers in France and was a brother of Saint Maxentius of Poitiers. He became bishop of Trier in 333, its sixth, and was close to the courts of Constantine II and Constans. He received Athanasius as an honoured guest twice during his exile from Alexandria, in 336 to 337 and again in 343, and also Saint Paul of Constantinople, exiled by the Arian emperor. In the Arian controversy he had begun on the side of Paul; he took part in the synod of Sardica convoked by Pope Julius I around 342. When four Arian bishops came from Antioch to Trier to win Constans to their side, Maximinus refused to receive them and induced the emperor to reject their proposals. He also opposed Arianism at the councils of Milan and Cologne, and was one of the most courageous bishops of his time.

He was buried in the cemetery outside the northern gate of Trier, in the multi-⁠chambered crypt of a church dedicated to John the Evangelist, later rededicated as Saint Maximin's Abbey, one of the oldest in western Europe. Gregory of Tours attests the cult offered there. He is invoked against perjury, loss at sea and destructive rains; his cult was strongest around Trier and in Alsace. Medieval legend conflated him with Maximinus of Aix, added to the Seventy Apostles.