Claudius of Besançon

Who was Claudius of Besançon?

Saint Claudius of Besançon, sometimes called Claude the Thaumaturge, was a priest, monk, abbot, and bishop. A native of Franche-Comté, Claudius became a priest at Besançon and later a monk. Georges Goyau in the Catholic Encyclopedia wrote that “The Life of St. Claudius, Abbot of Condat, has been the subject of much controversy.” Anglican Henry Wace has written that "on this saint the inventors of legends have compiled a vast farrago of improbabilities."

Nevertheless, Wace did not find reason to doubt that Claudius had come from the nobility. According to a long tradition from Salins-les-Bains, Claudius was born in the castle of Bracon near Salins, of a Gallo-Roman family named Claudia. This family had produced another Saint Claudius in the 6th century.

One of his biographers, Laurentius Surius, writes that Claudius was entrusted to tutors at a young age and that in addition to studying academic subjects, Claudius spent hours reading devotional works, particularly the lives of the saints. Until the age of twenty, he served as a border guard, but in 627 he was appointed as a canon by Donatus, bishop of Besançon.