Vincentian of Rouffiac

Vincentian of Rouffiac (in popular speech Viance) was a hermit in the Limousin region in the 7th century. He was born in 623 and reposed in 672, according to some sources. He is venerated in the Western Church.

He was raised at the court of the dukes of Aquitaine, but chose the life of a hermit and withdrew into a forest at Rouffiac, near Limoges, where he remained to the end. The year of his repose is given by some sources as 672 or 674 and by others as 730. The bishop of Limoges ordered his body carried to a place now called Saint-⁠Viance, in the Corrèze. There the priest Savinian, a friend of the saint, raised a church in his honor. An angel appeared to him and commanded him to fetch Viance's body to bury it in his church. On the way the funeral procession, drawn by oxen, was attacked by a bear which killed one of the oxen; then, the story says, the bear itself took the ox's place at the cart.

He is commemorated on 2 January. The later parts of the story are legendary.