Saint Itherius of Nevers

From all sides people flocked to him, and the sick returned relieved of their infirmities, because God blessed the remedies of his servant. As for him, far from attributing to himself the glory of the healings he performed, he urged the sick whom he had healed to reserve all their gratitude for God. However, fearing that vainglory might take hold of his heart, he withdrew to a deserted and uncultivated place. Soon his retreat was discovered, and people came to him from all parts as before.

The report of his holiness and the wonders he performed reached Nevers , whos e Churc h was widowed by the death of its bishop. The clergy and the people asked for Ithier to replace him. The latter, fearing to resist the divine will, consented. He was therefore ordained priest and received the pontifical unction around 690. Upon entering his episcopal city, he met at the gates of the city a man who had been crippled for many long years; he healed him on the spot of his infirmities; he also delivered a possessed person on this occasion. After having made the virtues that had been noticed in him in his retreat shine upon the pontifical seat, he died full of merits, around the year 695 or 696.

The inhabitants o f Noge nt point out, at the edge of this parish, a fountain near which, they assert, was the dwelling of Saint Ithier's parents. It is there that the Saint spent the first years of his life. A cross has been planted there and, for many centuries, the inhabitants of Nogent and the surrounding areas have gone there in procession during public calamities. The sick also flock there to obtain, through the intercession of the holy bishop, the healing of their ailments.

The feast of Saint Ithier was celebrated in Nogent on June 17, when this parish was part of the diocese of Sens; since it has depended on that of Orléans, the feast of Saint Ithier only takes place on July 9. The ancient martyrology of Nevers marks his death on the 25th of the same month; however, his feast is celebrated in the diocese of Nevers on July 8. This variation must have been the result of several translations of the relics of our Saint.

It seems certain that he died in Berry; his body was transported to Nogent, his native land. In the 11th century, his cult was already widespread. Several churches in Berry were placed under his invocation, among others the collegiate church of Saint-Ithier in Les Aix-d'Angillon. In 1403, John, Du ke of Berry, gave to this collegiate church a portion of the head and an arm of the holy bishop, relics he had obtained from the prior of Nogent . The collegiat e church of Sully-sur-Loire also recognized him as its patron. When the Huguenots entered Nogent, they dispersed the relics of the holy bishop. Before the Revolution of 1793, there remained in Nogent only a single finger that had been brought back there in 1656 from the treasury of the collegiate church of Sully-sur-Loire.

T aken from th e Hagiologie Nécernaire, by Mgr Crennier.