SAINT FIRMIN, BISHOP OF AMIENS, M.

IF we may rely on his acts, he was a native of Pampelone, in Navarre, initiated in the Christian faith by Honestus, a disciple of St. Saturninus of Toulouse, and consecrated bishop by St. Honoratus, successor to St. Saturninus, in order to preach the gospel in the remoter parts of Gaul. He preached the faith in the countries of Agen, Anjou, and Beauvais, and, being arrived at Amiens, there chose his residence, having founded there a numerous Church of faithful disciples. He received the crown of martyrdom in that city, whether under the prefect Rictius Varus, as Usuard says, or in some other persecution from Decius, in 250, to Dioclesian, in 303, is uncertain. Faustinian buried him in his field called Abladana, where Firmin II. (who is honored on the 1st of September) built the first church under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin. St. Salvius, in the beginning of the seventh century, translated his relics into the cathedral. St. Godefrid made another translation of them about the year 1107, and bishop Theobald put them into a gold shrine about the year 1200. See Gall. Chr. Nova, t. 10, p. 1150. Tillemont and Stilting.