Auraeus, St.
AURAEUS, ST.
Fifth-century bishop of Mainz, Germany. rabanus maurus and the oldest sources link Auraeus and his sister, (St.) Justina, as martyrs in the time of Attila (c. 451).
gams places Auraeus's martyrdom at the time of the destruction of Mainz by the Vandals (406). The monk Sigehard (thirteenth century) wrote of SS. Auraeus and Justinus as the patron saints of Heiligenstadt. Justinus is called a deacon in a Heiligenstadt MS printed by the Bollandists, and he is sometimes called a subdeacon. Some would recognize in Justina and Justinus two persons, but such a coincidence of names in the circumstances of our information on Auraeus is unlikely.
Feast: June 16.
Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum June 4:37–79. p. gams, Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae (Graz 1957) 289. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq, and h. i. marrou (Paris 1907–53) 11.1:26.
[w. a. jurgens]