Sulpicius of Bayeux

Sulpicius of Bayeux is honored as a bishop of Bayeux in Normandy in the 9th century. Very little is known of his life, and his existence is not certain.

According to legend, he came from the village of Livry, where Saint Gerbold, another bishop of Bayeux, had founded a monastery in the 7th century, though nothing can confirm or refute the place of his birth. According to one historian, he succeeded Carveniltus in the see around the year 840. It is said that, while visiting his diocese or after withdrawing into solitude at Livry, he was killed by the Danes during the Viking invasions of the middle of the century. His body is said to have been taken by Simon, abbot of Celles, on his way back from Mont-⁠Saint-⁠Michel, and brought to the abbey of Saint-⁠Ghislain in Hainaut. In 1662 the monks there returned a part of the relics to the abbey of Saint-⁠Vigor-⁠le-⁠Grand. The chapel of Saint-⁠Sulpice at Livry is said to have been built where he was slain, and several springs in Calvados, which tradition says heal, bear his name.

It is unlikely that he was truly bishop at his death, in 844, since the episcopate of Baltfridus is attested from 843 to 858. His day of remembrance is 4 September. He is a local saint of the West; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.