Saint Germanus of Auxerre

Saint Germanus of Auxerre , d. 448, Gaulish churchman, bishop of Auxerre (after c.418). St. Patrick was under his tutelage for 12 years. Popes Celestine I and Leo I sent him to England (429, 447) to combat Pelagianism; on the first occasion he was accompanied by the deacon Palladius, first recorded missionary to Ireland. On his second trip, Germanus led the Britons in the defeat, located by tradition near Mold, Wales, of an Irish and Pictish marauding party. As it was Easter, the war cry was Alleluia, and the battle is called the Alleluia Victory. Germanus was popular in Celtic Britain. Feast: July 31.

Germanus of Auxerre, St (d. 446), bishop of Auxerre; he was leader of the British force which won the Hallelujah Victory over the Picts and Saxons, and his shrine became a famous pilgrimage centre.

Germanus of Auxerre, St Soldier, bishop, and church emissary who visited Britain in AD 429 to counter heresy. In the early 5th cent. the teachings of Pelagius were proving popular in Britain. In 429 the Roman ecclesiastical authorities in Gaul dispatched Germanus to Britain to combat Pelagianism by preaching the true faith—Divine Grace—in British churches and the countryside. Before becoming a bishop Germanus had been a soldier, and he defeated Picts and Saxons in a battle where he gave his troops the battle‐cry ‘Alleluia’.