St. Patrice of Bayeux (Patricius) was the sixth

bishop of Bayeux The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Baiocensis et Lexoviensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Bayeux et Lisieux'') is a diocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is coextensive with the Department of Calvados and is ...

in the 5th century AD. Patrice de Bayeux was born in

Bayeux Bayeux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts ...

in the suburb that corresponds to the present district Saint-Patrice, in a rich and

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

family and would have received a religious education. On the death of his parents, he would have given all his belongings to the clergy and the poor and transformed his birth house into a church (on the site of the present-day Saint Patrice church, which has since been completely rebuilt). Hermant puts forward the hypothetical hypothesis that the successive English invasions suffered by

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

and the city of Bayeux would have helped to replace his cult with that of his contemporary,

Patrick of Ireland Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...

. The life of Patrice de Bayeux remains uncertain and incomplete. According to

Patrice Lajoye Patrice Lajoye (born 26 July 1974) is a French religious studies scholar and comparative mythologist who specializes on the study of Celtic and Slavic paganism. The co-founder of the journal ''Nouvelle Mythologie comparée'', he currently works ...

, he could have been an abbot in Evrecy. It is not even certain that Patrice was really bishop of Bayeux, although he was represented alongside the other first bishops of Bayeux on the vaults of the cathedral.Les Saints lexoviens, Patrice Lajoye, Bulletin de la société historique de Lisieux, n°47, 2000
His relics were transported to the cathedral of Lisieux.

References

{{Authority control Year of birth missing Year of death missing 5th-century bishops in Gaul Bishops of Bayeux