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Ss. Nicasius and Companions of Reims
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Ss. Nicasius and Companions of Reims
Ninth Archbishop of Rheims, and His Companions, Martyrs
Nicasius of Reims and companions were killed when the city was attacked in the fifth century. Butler remembers the bishop’s care for his people and the witness of his sister Eutropia.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source
Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 14, “Ss Nicasius, Ninth Archbishop of Rheims, and His Companions, Martyrs,” pp. 282-283.
Nicasius was bishop of Reims when an invading army attacked the city in the fifth century. Butler describes his efforts to encourage the people and protect members of his flock. He did not withdraw from their danger, but remained among them as the violence reached the streets.
The account names his deacon Florens and lector Jocond among those killed with him. His sister Eutropia is also remembered for refusing to surrender her Christian faith and chastity. The notice preserves these companions as distinct people sharing the city’s trial.
Their burial and later veneration remained part of the religious memory of Reims. Butler records the churches associated with their relics and discusses different historical explanations of the invasion. This reading follows the central account of their witness without settling the disputed identity of the attackers or the exact year of the deaths.
Historical note
An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 source. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.
The source discusses competing accounts of the invasion. No exact year or army is treated here as certain. Reims is the modern spelling of the source’s Rheims.
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