Vivianus of Saintes

Vivianus was the first known bishop of the city of Saintes in France, in the fifth century, counted a saint in the old Church of Gaul. He is commemorated on 28 August. His Latin name is sometimes Bibianus, and in France he is known as Vivien.

The Latin name Bibianus, in a time and a region where the sounds b and v were mixed, gives it a place of its own among names. The French form Vivien seems to have come from a confusion with another name, as can be seen from the Occitan names of some villages called Saint-⁠Vivien in French, among them Saint-⁠Vivien in Dordogne and Paussac-⁠et-⁠Saint-⁠Vivien, called Sent Bebian in Occitan. In those parts of Périgord, however, the distinction between v and b has been kept.

Vivianus was born of a pagan father and a Christian mother. When Bishop Ambrose died, he was chosen in his place as bishop of the city of Saintes, at the beginning of the fifth century according to one source. He died around the year 460 according to the same source, or around 490 according to another, and was counted among the saints.

A short Life of him, from the middle of the sixth century, was edited by Krusch in 1896. Gregory of Tours, in the sixth century, also speaks of Vivianus and refers to a book already written about his life, which tells most of his miracles. The first basilica, raised at his tomb, seems to have been built in the sixth century, to cover the tomb. It was replaced by a priory, destroyed in the Wars of Religion. On the probable site of the bishop's tomb stands today the church that bears his name.