For the Roman emperors Maximinus, see Maximinus Thrax

Maximinus Thrax

Maximinus Thrax , also known as Maximinus I, was Roman Emperor from 235 to 238.Maximinus is described by several ancient sources, though none are contemporary except Herodian's Roman History. Maximinus was the first emperor never to set foot in Rome...

 or Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus

Maximinus

Maximinus II , also known as Maximinus Daia or Maximinus Daza, was Roman Emperor from 308 to 313. He was born of Dacian peasant stock to the half sister of the emperor Galerius near their family lands around Felix Romuliana; a rural area then in the Danubian region of Moesia, now Eastern Serbia.He...

. For the 6th century Saint Maximin, see Mesmin

Mesmin

Saint Mesmin is a French saint associated with the Bishopric of Orléans. He provided direction to Leonard of Noblac. Saint Euspicius was his uncle....

.

Saint Maximin (born at Silly near Poitiers

Poitiers

Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...

; — Poitiers 12 September 346) was the fifth bishop of Trier, according to the list provided by the diocese's website, taking his seat in 341/342. Maximin was an opponent of Arianism

Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...

, and was supported by the courts of Constantine II

Constantine II (emperor)

Constantine II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 340. Co-emperor alongside his brothers, his short reign saw the beginnings of conflict emerge between the sons of Constantine the Great, and his attempt to exert his perceived rights of primogeniture ended up causing his death in a failed invasion of...

 and Constans

Constans

Constans , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 350. He defeated his brother Constantine II in 340, but anger in the army over his personal life and preference for his barbarian bodyguards saw the general Magnentius rebel, resulting in Constans’ assassination in 350.-Career:Constans was the third and...

, who harboured as an honored guest Athanasius twice during his exile from Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, in 336-37, before he was bishop, and again in 343. In the Arian controversy

Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...

 he had begun in the party of Paul of Constantinople; however, he took part in the synod of Sardica convoked by Pope Julius I

Pope Julius I

Pope Saint Julius I, was pope from February 6, 337 to April 12, 352.He was a native of Rome and was chosen as successor of Mark after the Roman seat had been vacant for four months. He is chiefly known by the part he took in the Arian controversy...

 (ca. 342), and when four Arian bishops consequently came from Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

 to Trier with the purpose of winning Emperor Constans to their side, Maximinus refused to receive them and induced the emperor to reject their proposals.

Veneration

Maximin was interred in the cemetery outside the northern gate of Trier, where his remains were joined by later bishops in the multi-chambered crypt of a church dedicated to John the Evangelist

John the Evangelist

Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...

, later rededicated as St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier

St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier

St. Maximin's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Trier in the Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-History:The abbey, traditionally considered one of the oldest monasteries in western Europe, was held to have been founded by Saint Maximin of Trier in the 4th century. Maximin St. Maximin's Abbey was a...

. Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours

Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...

 already attests to the cult of Maximin in the church of Saint John Evangelist and the cult offered at his grave. The Abbey — destroyed by Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 in 882, and rebuilt, then entirely re-built in the 1680s, secularised in 1802, bombed in World War II and since largely demolished — was one of the oldest in western Europe.

In iconology Maximin was identifiable portrayed as a bishop, with book, model of a church, and, borrowing from the legend of Corbinian

Corbinian

Saint Corbinian was a Frankish bishop. His feast day is September 8. The commemoration of the translation of his relics is November 20.-Life:...

, a bear carrying the Saint's travelling pack. As a patron, Maximin was invoked as protection against perjury, loss at sea and destructive rains. His cultus was strongest in the region around Trier and in Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

.

Medieval legend conflated him with a Maximinus, who was added to the Seventy Apostles referred to in the Gospel of Luke. That Maximin was said to have accompanied Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

 and a company of the faithful to Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

, miraculously sped by a frail boat without a rudder or a mast. The thirteenth-century telling of the legend can be read in Jacobus de Voragine

Jacobus de Voragine

Blessed Jacobus de Varagine or Voragine was an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler, of Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend, a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval church that was one of the most popular...

's Legenda Aurea The cultus of Mary Magdalene and this Saint Maximin in Provence was centered at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It lies east of Aix-en-Provence, in the westernmost point of Var département. It is located at the foot of the Sainte-Baume mountains: baume or bama is the Provençal...

. Other communes in France named Saint-Maximin

Saint-Maximin

Saint-Maximin is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* Saint-Maximin, in the Gard département* Saint-Maximin, in the Isère département* Saint-Maximin, in the Oise département...

commemorate one or the other Saints Maximin.

External links

• Bistum Trier Official website of the Diocese of Trier
• Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon: "Maximin von Trier"
• (Ekkart Sauser) Schaff-Herzog, Biographisch-Bibliographische Kirchenlexikon: "Maximinus"