Rieul of Senlis

Saint Rieul (Regulus), hieromartyr, was the first bishop of the city of Senlis in Gaul and fell asleep around 260. He is commemorated on 30 March. Little is known with certainty of his life, and tradition has mingled with legend.

Life

According to one tradition, Regulus was a Greek and was sent to preach the Gospel in Gaul by Pope Clement, together with Saints Denis of Paris, Rusticus and Eleutherius. Other accounts count him among the companions of Denis of Paris and Lucian of Beauvais who are said to have brought Christianity to Senlis, in the region of the Oise.

According to a description of his ministry, he travelled through the surrounding forests and villages, among cottages and hamlets, to announce the Gospel and to meet other missionaries. He consecrated two churches for the new Christians, one dedicated to the Mother of God, the other outside the gates of the city under the protection of Saints Peter and Paul. He built many oratories in his diocese and governed Senlis with persevering care for more than forty years.

One name, two bishops?

Rieul of Senlis is sometimes confused with Regulus of Arles. Historians are divided. Some think they are one and the same, and the martyrology names him bishop of Arles who died at Senlis. The Bollandists made them two distinct saints. A historian of the Valois region held that relics kept in two places, Arles and Senlis, show they are two bishops, though relics of the same saint often lie in several places.

Relics and tradition

His relics, kept in the cathedral of Senlis, were examined in 1999 by the carbon-14 method. The result showed a 65 percent probability that the body died between 320 and 445, and a much lower one for the years 260 to 320. If this is indeed the body of Rieul, the preaching in the region of Senlis would have to be moved to the fourth century, which fits the history of the region better. Excavations show that a Gallo-⁠Roman temple in the Halatte forest near Senlis remained active in the third century and was destroyed around 385 or 390.

A popular legend, told by Gérard de Nerval in his memoirs of 1854, says that a crowd gathered to hear Rieul was disturbed by the croaking of frogs in a nearby pond, until the saint bade them be silent. The tale is still tied to his name.

His memory is kept on 30 March.