SATURNINUS (SERNIN), bishop of TOULOUSE, saint, martyr. – Protovescovo of Toulouse of the mid-3rd century. Feast day: November 29.
According to the Historia passionis (BHL, 7495-99), written at the beginning of the 5th century, St. Saturninus is said to have reached his see in 250 (cf. also Gregory of Tours, Hist. Francorum, I, 30; ed. W. Arndt-B. Krusch, in MGH, Script. rerum Merov., I, p. 48) and to have been put to death during a popular tumult, gathered on the Capitolium for a sacrifice. Spotted while passing nearby on his way to his small church, he was seized and brought before the altar of sacrifice, which he refused to take part in.
He was then tied to the bull to be sacrificed; goaded, it rushed down the steps of the Capitolium, furiously dragging the poor bishop, whose head was immediately dashed to pieces. The desecration of the corpse ceased when the rope binding him to the animal broke; collected by two pious women, he was buried in a deep pit. In the second half of the 4th century, Bishop Hilary sought his tomb and built an oratory on the spot; his successors Silvius and Exuperius erected a sumptuous basilica nearby, rebuilt in 570 by Duke Launebode (cf. Venantius Fortunatus, Carmina, II, 11: PL 88, 99). The present vast basilica of St-Sernin, begun in the 11th century (Urban I consecrated its choir and high altar in 1096), was completed in the 13th century (cf. A. Auriol - R. Rey, La basilique de St-Sernin de Toulouse, ivi 1930).
Neither the year (though 250 is thought to refer to the martyrdom [Duchesne, Griffe, etc.]) nor the day of St. Saturninus’ death is known, despite the fact that the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and later the Roman Martyrology place his dies natalis on November 29, the feast day of the famous Roman martyr of the same name. He does not appear in the Roman liturgical books; however, there is in the Gregorian Sacramentary (Adrianum) of codex Ottob. lat. 313 (ed. H. A. Wilson, London 1915, p. 292) a Preface for St. Saturninus of Rome which must refer to the Toulouse saint. He is instead commemorated on November 29 in the Visigothic Orational (late 7th–early 8th century: ed. J. Vives, Barcelona 1946, pp. 26-28), in the Liber mozarabicus Sacramentorum (ed. M. Férotin, Paris 1912, cols. 29-33), in Mozarabic calendars (ed. M. Férotin, Le liber Ordinum, ibid. 1904, pp. 488-89), and at the beginning of Advent in the Missale Gothicum (8th century: ed. H. M. Bannister, London 1917, pp. 39-40), to which may be added the episcopal blessing for the feast of St. Saturninus, discovered by G. Morin (Un recueil gallican inédit de «Benedictiones episcopales» en usage à Freising aux VIIe-IXe siècles, in Rev. bénéd. 29 [1912], pp. 187-88). For the liturgical books of Toulouse and surrounding regions after the 9th century, cf. V. JALABERT, LOUIS, Les Sacramentaires..., III, Paris 1924, p. 412 (index); id., Les Bréviaires..., V, Paris 1934 (index); where the feast of the “revelatio” is recorded on June 25; this evidently refers to the translation of 1258, since the Martyrologium Hieronymianum assigns to October 30 the translation of the body of St. Saturninus at the beginning of the 5th century, carried out by Exuperius following an imperial rescript, an event recalled on November 1 in the Mozarabic Sacramentary (ed. M. Férotin, cols. 460-64; cf. P. Batiffol, Un souvenir du royaume visigotique de Toulouse [412-507] dans une messe mozarabe, in Études de liturgie et d'archéol. chrétienne, Paris 1919, pp. 180-92 and Griffe, 1951) and in Mozarabic calendars (ed. M. Férotin, Le liber Ordinum, cit., pp. 484-85). Various cities in Gaul possessed relics of St. Saturninus. Everything told about him, beyond the few details of his martyrdom and burial contained in the Historia passionis, is legendary, including the apostolic nature of his mission, recalled by St. Caesarius of Arles (cf. Libellus de mysterio Sanctae Trinitatis, 17: ed. G. Morin, II, Maredsous 1942, p. 179) and his supposed Eastern origin, hinted at in the Missale Gothicum through contamination with an oration relating to Christ.