Reverianus of Autun

Holy Hieromartyr Reverianus (Revenerius) of Autun was bishop of Autun and a martyr of the third century, who died on 1 June 273. Our sources show him venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. He is commemorated on 1 June; the Russian source also gives 22 August (according to the Roman Martyrology and the calendar of the Church of Lyon) and 26 November (according to Martin of Autun, with Saint Amator).

According to tradition, Reverianus was of Italian origin and was sent by Pope Felix I to preach the Gospel to the Aedui, a Gallic people of Gallia Lugdunensis, being considered the apostle of the Morvan. According to Usuard, he was persecuted in the reign of the emperor Aurelian. Tradition says that his preaching and conversions came to the attention of the emperor Aurelian, who was then visiting the province of Sens. He was beheaded together with his companion, Paul of Autun, and ten other followers.

According to one source, the name Reverianus is not mentioned by earlier writers, and the first bishop of Autun seems to have been Reticius, present at the synod of Rome in 313 and at Arles in the following year. Reverianus may have been revered as a bishop because he was the leader of a group of preachers. He may not have been put to death at Autun itself but at the site of Saint-⁠Révérien, the town that bears his name. According to a tradition at Nevers, he was put to death outside the walls of that city. Another tradition, kept by the abbey of Notre-⁠Dame of Nevers, says that he died with his companions near this site, near the spring that still bears his name.

In the fourth century, when the Edict of Milan (313) granted Christians freedom of worship, a monastic cell was built over the graves of these martyrs. In 866 the cell became the oratory of Saint Reverianus, granted by Charles the Fat to the chapter of Nevers, having previously been under the jurisdiction of the Benedictines of the abbey of Saint-⁠Martin of Autun. In 1076 the monastery became affiliated with Cluny, and in the thirteenth century the church of Saint Reverianus was built in the Cluniac style. Of his relics only a piece of his head has been preserved, at Villy-⁠le-⁠Moutier, a village east of Beaune. Until 1836 his head was carried in procession to the church of Saint-⁠Nicolas in Beaune in times of great drought, and crowds from the city and the surroundings prayed for rain. A stone statue of the fifteenth century depicts the saint holding his head.