Sidonius

Saint Sidonius of Aix (also called Cedonius or Restitutus) is regarded, according to tradition, as the successor of Saint Maximinus as bishop of Aix-⁠en-⁠Provence. What is told of him comes from Provençal tradition and from a Life written in the fifteenth century; historians today do not agree with its beginnings in the first century.

According to tradition he was the man born blind healed by the Lord (John 9), though that episode is more often linked with Saint Celidonius, first bishop of Nîmes; the name Restitutus ("the restored") would point to the sight given. He then followed Saint Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, Martha, Maximinus and the other companions, who reached Gaul by ship at Saintes-⁠Maries-⁠de-⁠la-⁠Mer. He lived for a time in retirement in the wilderness near Aix, then was asked by the Tricastini to be their shepherd and became the first bishop of Saint-⁠Paul-⁠Trois-⁠Châteaux, where he built an oratory dedicated to the Mother of God beside two springs; the place is now called Saint-⁠Restitut. At the death of Maximinus, about the year 80, he succeeded him as second bishop of Aix. The fifteenth-⁠century Life, however, says that he set out for Rome and stopped to convert the people of Alba, where he is said to have died, and that his body was brought back to Provence.

His relics were placed in the crypt of the basilica of Saint Mary at Aix, in the same crypt as Saint Maximinus, and were recently rediscovered together with Dominican documents proving their authenticity. Some think that Restitutus (commemorated on 7 November) may be a different saint. The commemoration of Sidonius is on 23 August. Some historians now date his life to the fourth century.