Biography
Licinius of Angers
About Licinius of Angers
Licinius, known in French as Lézin, was bishop of Angers around the turn of the seventh century. The departmental archives place his episcopate between 592 and 608 and preserve Lizin as another form of his name. His birth is placed around 540 by the New Catholic Encyclopedia; estimates of his death range from about 606 to 610, with the diocesan office giving 608.
His biographies describe a man of wealthy, noble background who received his education at court and held civil authority before entering the Church. The New Catholic Encyclopedia identifies both an anonymous account from Angers and a later biography by Marbod of Rennes. Their stories about his withdrawal from court belong to that biographical tradition and should not be read as contemporary administrative records.
A more definite connection with the wider Church appears in the papal correspondence. According to the encyclopedia, Gregory the Great included Licinius among seven Frankish bishops addressed in 601, asking their assistance for monks travelling to support Augustine’s mission in England. It also notes a reference to friendship with Licinius in the testament of Bertram, bishop of Le Mans.
At Angers, Licinius’s memory was connected with the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste. Benjamin Lefèvre’s study of the city’s development discusses the early Life as the first narrative evidence for this church and for Sainte-Croix. It describes Saint-Jean-Baptiste as a funerary foundation intended for Licinius and occupied by a monastic community. Such evidence helps reconstruct the religious landscape, but its literary setting matters. The same Life includes a miraculous healing associated with Sainte-Croix, and Lefèvre notes substantial borrowings from other saints’ biographies.
Lefèvre also distinguishes the later Life of Mainbœuf, Licinius’s successor, which associates charitable establishments with Saint-Jean-Baptiste. This is later testimony about the bishop’s foundations, rather than a surviving charter written by Licinius himself.
The diocesan office remembers him for preaching, pastoral visits and attention to sick and poor people. It also explicitly records that slate workers, called perreyeurs, chose him as their patron.
Angers commemorates him on 13 February. Nominis also lists 1 November among his feast dates.
Wondering how to weigh the stories and sources? Learn how to read a saint biography.