Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Usuardus. Authority: — A narrative of the martyrdom in Flodoard (d. 966).] Nicasius, bishop of Rheims in 400, built the basilica of Our Lady, now the cathedral, and transferred to it the episcopal throne from that of the church of the Apostles, now called the church of S. Symphorian.

In 407 a flood of Vandals and Alans poured over Gaul [roughly modern France and Belgium], entered Champagne, and besieged Rheims. The inhabitants defended their city with heroism. Their efforts were in vain: the invaders burst through the gates, and clambered the walls, and began a general pillage and massacre. A Vandal cleft the skull of S. Nicasius at the door of his cathedral. Eutropia, the sister of the bishop, was reserved for another fate, but fearing this more than death, she boxed the ears of her captor, kicked and struggled, till he lost his temper, and cut her down. With Nicasius suffered his deacon Florentius, and his lector Jucundus. The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Nicasius and his sister were laid in the church of S. Agricola, called afterwards by his name. This church was pulled down in 1793.

Pec. x+ In the nave of the cathedral of Rheims is a marble slab marking the spot where stood the ancient gates of the church, and where S. Nicasius suffered martyrdom. Only a few fragments of the bones of the saint are preserved in the cathedral of Rheims, most having been lost at the Revolution.