St. Clarus of Vexin

Clarus, also remembered by the French name Clair, was an English priest who went to live in the Vexin region of France. Butler describes years of prayer and the preaching of the truths of salvation to the people around him.

The traditional account says that a woman of rank sought him for an unlawful relationship. When he refused, she employed two men to kill him. For this reason he was honoured as a martyr of chastity. Butler places the event near the River Epte without making this short reading depend on an exact year.

His name endured in the town of Saint-Clair and in the devotion of pilgrims who visited his shrine and the nearby hermitage associated with his death. Butler records particular veneration in the dioceses of Rouen, Beauvais and Paris, as well as another Norman town bearing his name. These places preserve the memory of a priest remembered for preaching, retirement and fidelity under threat.