Their story
Lupus, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Saône, flourished around 610. He was born to honourable parents and won his people's hearts by his generous charity, his self-denial and his tenderness to the sick.
Châlons was short of drinking water and its soil was dry and sandy. The story goes that one hot day Lupus stood with his ivory staff watching the haymakers, who were exhausted, and knowing the muddy river water was unfit to drink, he struck his staff into the sand. A clear spring bubbled up, and it is said to flow still.
As he was dying he sent for the governor of Châlons and begged him to pardon the wretched prisoners waiting under sentence of death. The governor roughly refused. After Lupus died, his funeral passed the prison and the bier was set down there. The prisoners reached their hands through the bars, crying pitifully, and legend says their chains fell off at once and the doors flew open, setting them free.



