ST. DONATIAN, C. BISHOP OF RHEIMS, AND PATRON OF BRUGES

HE was the seventh bishop of Rheims, and died about the year 389. Charles the Bald having bestowed the relics of this saint on Baldwin, whom he had created earl of Flanders, to hold of him that rich province as a fief, in 863 the earl deposited them in the church of Bruges, which, thereupon, took the title of St. Donatian’s, being before called our Lady’s. It was made a bishop’s cathedral in 1559. See Flodoard, in Hist. Rhem.; Marlot, Hist. de Rheims, c. 1; Ant. Sanders Hagiogr. Flandr. p. 133. Molan. et Miræus.