Saint Faith

Veneration During the 12th century, Faith's cult (i.e., devotion and religious practices associated with her) was fused with that of Caprasius of Agen (Caprais) and Alberta of Agen, both associated with Agen. Caprasius' cult in turn was also fused with that of Primus and Felician, who are called Caprasius' brothers. Simon of Walsingham's 12th-century verse narrative of Saint Faith's life, La Vie de Sainte Foy, Dacian, Caprais, and Primus and Felician figure heavily.

One legend, retold in La Vie de Sainte Foy by Simon of Walsingham in the 12th century, states that during the persecutions of Christians by the prefect Dacian, Caprasius fled to Mont-Saint-Vincent, near Agen. He witnessed the execution of Faith from atop the hill. Caprasius was condemned to death, and was joined on his way to execution by Alberta, Faith's sister (also identified as Caprasius' mother It has since been repeatedly adapted and enriched, into the nineteenth century. The head itself, made of a different gold from the body—which is fashioned of thin plates over a yew wood—has been tentatively identified as an imperial portrait of the Later Roman Empire. Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has alternately theorized that the life-size golden face is a portrait or death mask of Charlemagne.

Part of her relics were moved to the monastery of Sant Cugat in Catalonia in 1365. However, the reliquary can be seen in the Abbey at Conques, in France.

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