Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Wandelbert. Authority: — The Acts written about 420, as they mention the building of the church of S. Saturninus by Exuperius, B. of Toulouse, 4°5 ‘4 1 5, and Exuperius is spoken of as a “ saint,” so that he must have been dead.] SATURNINUS is said to have gone to Gaul at the command of Pope Fabian in 245. In 250, when Decius and Gratus were consuls, S. Saturninus fixed his episcopal see at Toulouse. Fortunatus says that he converted many by his preaching and miracles. We know nothing more of him till his martyrdom. The author of the Acts, who wrote about sixty years after his death, says that he assembled his flock in a small church, and that the Capitol, in which was the chief temple of the city, lay in the road between his house and the church. As he was one day passing, the priests drew him into the temple, and declared that if he would not do sacrifice they would have him put to death. Saturninus refused to give worship to stocks and stones. A bull had been 1 Only known from the fabulous Acts of Pope S. Marcellus (Jan. 16). brought to the temple for sacrifice, and they tied his feet to the tail of the beast, which plunged about with him and then ran down the hill from the Capitol, dragging Satuminus with it and dashing his head against the stones. The cord broke eventually, but not before Saturninus was dead. Two Christian women hastily buried the body in a wooden coffin, in a moat, and there it lay till Constantine gave peace to the Church, when it was exhumed, and Hilary, bishop of Toulouse, built a chapel over it. The martyrdom perhaps took place in the reign of Valerian, in 257, but it is difficult to fix its date from want of sufficient information in the Acts. The imagination of legend writers has added greatly to this simple and authentic narrative. A Life much more calculated to gratify the popular taste was forged, and the forger audaciously and unscrupulously asserted that he drew his facts from the lips of Honestus and Gratian, the disciples of Satuminus. According to this impudent fabrication, which receives general credence at Toulouse, Saturninus was the son of ^Egeus, king of Achaia, and Cassandra, daughter of Ptolemy, king of Nineveh. He became a disciple of S. John the Baptist, followed Christ, was one of His most devoted disciples, and after the Ascension attached himself to S. Peter, who sent him into Spain and Aquitain. He preached at Pampeluna and Toulouse. In Spain he converted two girls, the daughters of the king of Huesca, and when their father was indignant at their deserting the established religion, they eloped from Huesca with Saturninus, who left his disciple Honestus to rule the Church of Toledo.

As he was about to be tied to the tail of the bull, Saturninus besought two priests who attended him to remain with him to the last. They, however, were so frightened that they ran away, and Saturninus thereupon cursed Toulouse, that no priest, a native of that city, should ever mount its S. Radbod.

episcopal throne: an imprecation which, we are assured, has been ratified.1 An angel appeared to the martyr, to console him for this base desertion, and prepare him for a succession of hideous tortures, of which the early writer of the Acts knew nothing. At the prayer of the saint all the idols fell and were broken to fragments, and the idolaters pelted the martyr with the bits. As the bull dragged him down the stairs of the Capitol, his brains were dashed out. The two princesses of Huesca diligently collected them into a vessel, and then ran after the bull to mop up the scattered blood of the martyr, and finally bury his body. These maidens— whom Fortunatus merely calls a woman and her servant— receive veneration in the church of Toulouse as “ Les deux Pucelles,” two holy virgins. For their attention to the remains of the saint they were soundly scourged, and they then fled Toulouse, and took refuge in a village near Castelnaudary, now called after them Mas des SaintesPucelles, where they died and were buried. Their relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] were afterwards translated to Toulouse. The relics of S. Saturninus are shown at Toulouse in the cathedral. In art he is represented with a bull.