Nazarius of Cuixà

Nazarius of Cuixà (Nazari) was a Benedictine monk, venerated as a saint at the monastery of Sant Miquel de Cuixà in the Catalan Pyrenees. He is probably a legendary saint. He is venerated in the Western Church and commemorated on 12 January. He is said to have reposed in 745, but the sources do not agree.

The name appears in old sources tied to the monastery, such as the sanctoral of the Cuixà gospel book, kept at Perpignan, where Nazarius has his own feast, like other saints of Cuixà. There is no earlier testimony and no news of him in other sources. His body is said to have rested at Cuixà, and Abbot Oliba moved it, with others, to the crypt of the Crib, at the feet of the icon of the Mother of God, where he was venerated with a local cult extended to the diocese of Elne. He would thus have lived toward the end of the 9th century, when the monastery was already founded; the Catalan Encyclopedia, however, supposes that he lived much earlier, dying about 745.

The scant news is carried by medieval and modern hagiographies. Domènec summarizes that Nazarius was of Hispanic origin and, disillusioned with the world, resolved to live a religious life. He became a monk, probably Benedictine. He became famous for his charity and piety, with which he attended the needy who came to the monastery. It is told that, while he was feeding the poor, a fire broke out in the oven, and throwing his habit into it he put out the fire, and the habit suffered no damage. Some sanctorals say, without basis, that he became abbot of Cuixà and bishop of Elne, but the sources show it was not so. On the altarpiece of the parish of Rigardà (Conflent) there are carvings of him and of other saints of Cuixà: Germain, Flamidian of Conflent and Valentine.