Saint Renatus

Saint Renatus (Italian: San Renato, French: Saint-René) is the name of a French and an Italian saint of the Catholic Church who is claimed to be the same person. There are different stories of two saints with by the name Renatus, who were later merged into a single one based on their described similarities and contemporaneity. Both are venerated in Italy and France. They were: Saint Renatus of Sorrento (San Renato di Sorrento), and Saint Renatus of Angers (Saint-René d'Angers). Part of their stories seem to be a legend, part incomplete and part deficient historically documented.

Due to the Angevin domination of Naples from the 13th to the 15th century, and the fact that they were both bishops and saints from the same age, the personality of Renatus of Sorrento was linked with the figure of Renatus of Angers.

Saint Renatus of Angers (Saint-René d'Angers) The first story of the lesser known Saint-René began when the Italian Saint Maurilius, the bishop of the French city of Angers (Anjou) in the 5th century, was one day called to assist a moribund child. Unfortunately he was detained by a pressing task in the church, and arrived too late to minister the sacrament of baptism to the child. Feeling responsible for the loss, Maurice decided to expiate it, and left Angers in secret and embarked upon a ship, throwing the keys to the cathedral's treasury into the high seas. He then went further to England, to work as the royal gardener. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Angers had found the keys inside the liver of a big fish which was caught by the local fishermen. They traced the whereabouts of the bishop to England and convinced him to return to their city. Arriving at Angers, Maurilius prayed at the dead child's tomb, and, in a miracle, the child resuscitated, smiling, "fresh as the flowers growing on the tomb". Because of this Maurilius baptized the boy as Renatus. The tradition is based on a late life of St. Maurilius written in 905 by the deacon Archinald, and circulated under the name of Gregory of Tours, and it seems to have no real foundation.

Renatus later succeeded Maurilius as the bishop of Angers, and came to sainthood himself, later as Saint René (French for reborn).

Saint-René is mostly venerated in France on November 12.

Saint Renatus of Sorrento (San Renato di Sorrento) The second story of the better known San Renato is about a bishop in the 5th century who lived in the city of Sorrento, near Naples, in the province of Campania; therefore he was a member of the early Christian church. The Life includes a description of the saints obtained from painting hanging at the time in the cathedral of Sorrento.

Trivia About a millennium after the saints lived, René of Anjou, named after Saint-René and born in the castle of Angers became King René I of Naples (near Sorrento). He was known as the Good King René (French Le bon roi René).