Rigobert of Reims

Saint Rigobert of Reims was a monk and abbot of the monastery of Saint-⁠Pierre at Orbais and then bishop of Reims in Gaul. He reposed around 745; some sources give 750.

According to some sources he succeeded Saint Rieul on the see and baptized Charles Martel. Later, for political reasons, Charles harshly drove him from the see and replaced him with Milo, a warlike man who was already archbishop of Trier. Rigobert took refuge in Aquitaine and then withdrew to Gernicourt in the diocese of Soissons, where he lived in penance and prayer, in a church of Saint Peter that he had built. When he was recalled to Reims, he came to terms with the bishop installed by Charles and remained a hermit.

He was buried at Gernicourt. Later Hincmar moved his relics to the abbey of Saint Theodoric and then to the church of Saint Dionysius at Reims; the greater part is kept in a shrine in the cathedral of Notre-⁠Dame at Reims, and a portion in the cathedral of Paris, where a chapel bears his name. He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 4 January (new style).