Saint Torpes

Now, it happened t hat N ero had a temple and a statue to Diana erected in the city of Pisa : he went in person to attend the dedication of this temple and ordered all his servants to worship the goddess. Tropez refused to do so and even took the liberty of demonstrating to the emperor the inanity of the worship of idols. The courageous Christian was not unaware of how Nero treated those who displeased him: he therefore resolved to prepare himself for the supreme struggle and went to ask for baptis m from a holy priest named Anthony who was hiding in a cave in the vicinity of Pisa. There, an angel appeared to him and strengthened his soul. Upon his return to Pisa, Nero had him summoned to obey; but the energetic Christian re mained uns hakeable: he was handed over to Sattelicus, one of his close associates, who had received the mission to put him to death.

Sattelicus threw him into prison and left him there for two days without food: this term expired, he had him tied to a column where the executioners scourged him so inhumanely that soon his whole body was nothing but a bloody wound. But behold, during the execution, the column wavered on its base and in its fall crushed the judge and fifty of the assessors or spectators. Sylvin, the s on of Sattelicus, then condemned the Martyr to the wheel, then to the torture of the beasts: the leopard to which he was exposed came to die at his feet, and the leopard that was released upon him came to caress him . At thi s sight, Evellius, one of the emperor's counselors, converted and had the happiness, later, to crown his life with martyrdom in Rome.

Sylvin, transported with rage, had Tropez led outside the gates of Pisa where his head was severed: this was on the 3rd of the Kalends of May; however, his feast is celebrated today because of the marvelous translation of his body. This sacred deposit having indeed been thrown into a damaged boat without sails and without rowers, instead of sinking into the waves, arrived on the coasts of Fréjus, and ran aground in the Gulf of Grimaud. It was collected by the Christians of the region. When the era of pagan persecutions had passed, a church was raised at the place where the relics of Saint Tropez were. The gulf, where the boat had landed, took the name of the Saint: it was the same for the town and the priory that were built later at the same place. T he religious of Saint-Vic tor of Marseille possessed the church of this Saint from the year 1056; the priory, which they had established there, was later placed in commendam.

As for the relics of the Saint, they were sought in vain on two different occasions during the course of the 18th century.

The attributes of Saint Tropez in the arts are the skiff steered by an angel from Pisa, in Provence, the lion, and the leopard.

A.A. S.S.; Propers of Fréjus; History of Saint Paul, by Abbé Vidal; local notes provided by the parish priest of Saint-Tropez.