Saint Pontius

He received the young man with kindness, made the religion known to him, admitted him first among the catechumens, and shortly after plunged him into the salutary waters of baptism. Pontius, having become a Christian, had the joy of giving the faith to the one who had given him life; he converted his father along with his entire household. After the death of his father the senator, Pontius, who was called to succeed him and who already enjoyed the affection of the prince and the esteem of all his colleagues, d isdained all thes e advantages, and giving all his goods to Pope Saint Fabian to be distributed to the poor, he made the resolution to dedicate his life to the preaching of the Gospel.

He left Rome after the murder of Philip, at the moment when the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus broke out. He went to Cimie z, a city situated at the foot of the Maritime Alps, which was later destroyed by the Lombards, and near the ruins of which the city of Nice was buil t. Th e president Claudi us, who knew Pontius, having come to Cimiez to execute the orders that the emperors had given to destroy the Christian name down to its last roots, had him brought before him to force him to sacrifice to the gods. Pontius replied that, being a Christian, it was impossible for him to perform this kind of sacrifice. He was therefore suspended on the rack, exposed to bears, and placed on a pyre; but, having not been harmed by them, he accomplished his martyrdom by the edge of the sword.

The sepulcher of the Martyr was frequented by a great concourse of people, as well as by Saint Valerian, Bishop of Cimiez, who flourished in the time of Pope Saint Leo, and who delivered three homilies in praise of Saint Pontius, patron of his church. Later, Char lemagne had a Benedictine abbey erect ed over his tomb, near Nice; its location is occupied today by a convent of the Oblates of Mary. The cu rrent church wa s built by the Benedictine monks and completed around 1739; at about the same time, the small chapel was rebuilt which, on a rock one hundred meters from the monastery, indicated the precise place where Saint Pontius had suffered martyrdom. This chapel, destroyed by the Revolution, was not rebuilt. The church of Saint-Pons, in the diocese of Nice, no longer possesses anything but insignificant fragments of the relics of its Patron.

In 936, Raymond Pons, Count of Toulouse , built a monastery in honor of his patron, to whom he had great devotion, at Thomières, in the diocese of Narbonne, which was erected into an episcopal see by Pope John XXII. The greater part of the body of Saint Pontius was transferred to this church, but these relics were destroyed by heretics in the 18th century.

The Proper of Nîmes, from which we borrow the legend of Saint Pontius, makes no mention of the conversion of the two Philips, of whom our Saint was the instrument according to the most authoritative authors: the Church herself in fact admits it in her Martyrology; we can therefore, we too, admit it, without fear of offending reasonable criticism.

Proper of Nîmes and Notre Dame provided by the Rev. Fr. Pierre Cartes, Oblate of Mary at Saint-Pons-Nîmes.