SATURNINO (SERNIN), bishop of TOLOSA, saint, martyr. — First bishop of Toulouse in the mid-3rd century. Feast: 29 November.
According to the Historia passionis (BHL, 7495–99), written at the beginning of the 5th century, S. is said to have reached his see in 250 (cf. also Gregory of Tours, Hist. Francorum, I, 30; ed. W. Arnd-B. Krusch, in MGH, Script. rerum Merov., I, p. 48) and to have been put to death on the occasion of a popular tumult, gathered on the Capitolium for a sacrifice. Spotted while passing nearby on his way to his little church, he was seized and led before the sacrificial altar, at which he refused to participate.
He was then tied to the bull that was to be sacrificed; goaded, it rushed down the staircase of the Capitolium, furiously dragging the unfortunate bishop, whose head was immediately smashed. The mutilation of the corpse ceased when the rope binding him to the animal broke; gathered up by two pious women, he was buried in a deep pit. In the second half of the 4th century, Bishop Hilary searched for his tomb and built an oratory on the site; his successors, Silvius and Exuperius, erected a sumptuous basilica a short distance away, rebuilt in 570 by Duke Launebode (cf. Venantius Fortunatus, Carmina, II, 11; PL 88, 99). The present extensive basilica of St-Sernin, begun in the 11th century (Urban II consecrated its choir and high altar in 1096), was completed in the 13th century (cf. A. Aurioi - R. Rey, La basilique de St-Sernin de Toulouse, there 1930).
Neither the year (it is thought that 250 refers to the martyrdom [Duchesne, Griffe, etc.]) nor the day of the death of s. S. is known, although the Hieronymian Martyrology and subsequently the Roman Martyrology place his dies natalis on 29 November, the birthday of the famous Roman martyr of the same name. S. does not appear in the Roman liturgical books; there is, however, in the Hadrianic Gregorian Sacramentary of cod. Ottob. lat. 313 (ed. H. A. Wilson, London 1915, p. 292) a Preface for s. S. the Roman, which must refer to the bishop of Toulouse. He is instead commemorated on 29 November in the Visigothic Orationale (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 the Mozarabic calendars (ed. M. Férotin, Le liber Ordinum, there 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 these must be added the episcopal blessing for the feast of s. S., discovered by G. Morin (Un recueil gallican inédit de « Benedictions episcopales » en usage à Freising aux VIIe-IXe siècles, in Rev. bénéd., 29 [1912], pp. 187–88). For the liturgical books of Toulouse and the surrounding regions dating from 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 commemorated on 25 June; this evidently concerns the translation of 1258, since the Hieronymian Martyrology assigns to 30 October the translation of the body of s. S. at the beginning of the 5th century, carried out by Exuperius following an imperial rescript. This event is commemorated on 1 November in the Mozarabic Sacramentary (ed. M. Férotin, cols. 460–64; cf. P. Batiffol, Un souvenir du royaume visigoth de Toulouse [412-507] dans une messe mozarabe, in Etudes de liturgie et d'archéol. chrétienne, Paris 1919, pp. 180–92 and Griffe, 1951) and in the Mozarabic calendars (ed. M. Férotin, Le liber Ordinum, cit., pp. 484–85). Various cities of Gaul possessed relics of S. Everything related about him, beyond the few details concerning the martyrdom and the tomb contained in the Historia passionis, is legendary, including the apostolic character of his mission, mentioned by St Caesarius of Arles (cf. Libellus de mysterio Sanctae Trinitatis, 17; ed. G. Morin, II, Maredsous 1942, p. 179), and his eastern origin, alluded to in the Missale Gothicum through contamination with a prayer relating to Christ.