Biography
Nectarius of Auvergne
About Nectarius of Auvergne
Nectarius, known in French as Nectaire, is remembered among the missionaries of Auvergne. Nominis associates him with Austremonius, Baudime and Auditeur, while warning that their supposed arrival in apostolic times cannot be confirmed. His local Catholic feast is 9 December.
The cathedral of Clermont identifies his earliest textual appearance in the eleventh-century Third Life of Austremonius. That narrative makes Nectarius a priest and companion of Austremonius. The cathedral’s account expressly acknowledges the absence of historical information about his life.
The medieval mission story belongs to a broader tradition about Austremonius. Georges Goyau traces that tradition to a tenth-century life composed at Mozat and rewritten at Issoire. Its apostolic chronology differs from Gregory of Tours’s account of Austremonius as a missionary to Gaul around 250.
In Nectarius’s legend, a Greek named Ypace travels to Rome, receives baptism from Peter and accompanies Austremonius to Gaul. At Mont Cornadore he restores the local lord Bradulus to life. The cathedral presents these episodes as legend, also illustrated in a carved capital at Saint-Nectaire.
His later devotion centers on the place associated with his burial. The twelfth-century church of Saint-Nectaire was a priory of La Chaise-Dieu. In 1498, an elevation of his remains occasioned a new high altar by Pierre Brassac; it later served as a reliquary cupboard in the north transept.
The Norwegian Catholic account identifies Nectarius as a traditional co-patron of Saint-Nectaire together with Auditeur.
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