LUPUS OF SENS, ST.

Bishop; b. Orléanais, France, c. 573; d. Brienon (11½ miles southeast of Sens), Sept. 1, c. 623. Lupus (or Leu or Loup) was educated and ordained by his maternal uncles, the bishops of Orléans and Auxerre. In 609, when the bishop of Sens died, the king, at the request of the people, appointed the saintly Lupus to replace him. As an adherent of Sigebert of Austrasia, Lupus was exiled by Chlotar II (613) to Vimeu in the canton of Picardy, where he converted many pagans. Pardoned by Chlotar the following year, he returned triumphantly to Sens, stopping in Paris for the council of 614. He was buried in the monastery of Sainte-Colombe-lès-Sens, which he had founded in Sens. In 853 his relics were transferred to the new church. His cult was of special renown during the Middle Ages. Among the many churches and monasteries dedicated to him in France are Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles in Paris (1235), Saint-Loup of Naud (Provins), and Saint-Loup of Esserent, near Senlis. He is invoked by epileptics.

Feast: Sept. 1.

Bibliography: Vita Lupi, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum (Berlin 1826–) 4:176–187, late (790) but of value. Acta Sanctorum Sept. 1:248–265. g. vielhaber in Analecta Bollandiana 26 (1907) 43–44. h. bouvier, Histoire de l'église et de l'ancien archdiocèse de Sens, 3 v. (Paris 1906–11) v.1. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56) 9:22–24. Martyrologium Romanum, ed. h. delehaye (Brussels 1940); v. 68 of Acta Sanctorum 374–375.

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