Today's saintAll livesNovember saints
BO

Devotional card

St. Brice of Tours

Saint-specific image not yet available.

This devotional card is shown because a saint-specific image is not yet available.

Saints and feasts

St. Brice of Tours

Bishop and Confessor

Brice succeeded St. Martin as bishop of Tours after a difficult beginning in religious life. Butler recalls his conversion, exile and restoration to his see.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Pastoral office: Bishop of Tours
The notice identifies him as St Martin’s successor without requiring its inconsistent printed succession year.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XI (November), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; November 13, “St Brice, Bishop and Confessor,” p. 300.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1846)Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XI (November), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; November 13, “St Brice, Bishop and Confessor,” p. 300.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XI (November), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; November 13, “St Brice, Bishop and Confessor,” p. 300.

Brice was a native of Tours and a monk under St. Martin. Butler does not present his early religious life as blameless. The notice describes pride and sloth that tried Martin’s patience, followed by the conversion through which Brice became his successor as bishop.

His episcopate included serious opposition. Accusations against him led to his expulsion from Tours and a long period at Rome. Butler remembers the patience of his exile and his eventual return to the see. His later service is described as a life of holiness continuing until his death.

The short notice points to St. Gregory of Tours as its source and records the lasting veneration of Brice in France and England. This reading preserves its account of repentance and perseverance while leaving aside a plainly inconsistent printed year for his succession to Martin.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 sources. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

The printed succession year is inconsistent with Martin’s lifetime and is not repeated.

Carry this reading into prayer

Act of Charity

Ask God for love of Him and your neighbor, and carry this reading into your own life.

Pray now →

Keep reading

Nearby saint lives

Move through the calendar without leaving the saint library. These nearby feast-day lives help keep the reading trail connected.

Previous feast

St. Didacus of Alcalá

November 13

Next feast

St. Mitrius of Aix

November 13

Browse November saintsBrowse all saint livesGo to today's feast
More prayers, novenas and litanies

More devotions

Continue in prayer

Choose a connected devotion or a clearly labeled general prayer.

Choose a novena

Find a novena for your intention

Browse existing novenas by the need you want to bring to prayer.

Choose a novena

Pray with all the saints

Litaniae Sanctorum

Invoke the communion of saints with the traditional Latin Litany of the Saints.

Pray the Latin litany

Keep learning

What is prayer?

Read question 1099 and its complete answer in the Baltimore Catechism.

Read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5