~497 - 580

In 532 Agricola became bishop of Chalon-sur-Saone, France. According to his contemporary, Saint Gregory of Tours, he was characterized by his great simplicity and spirit of self-denial. He never sat at table for a meal, but rather fasted all day until the evening, when he took what little nourishment he allowed himself standing. Out of devotion to the faithful he served, Agricola expended his resources enlarging the churches in his diocese and adorning them, particularly with marble and mosaics. In 580, he died and was buried within the Chalon-sur-Saone church of Saint Marcellus. In 879, the year in which Agricola’s body was moved to a new location within the same church, a man who had been blind for ten years experienced a recurrent dream in which he was exhorted to go to the tomb of Agricola to obtain a miraculous cure. The man set out for the church, bringing as a votive offering a small quantity of wax. On the way, he began to recover his eyesight, which was fully restored by the time he reached the tomb. Thereafter he spent three days offering thanksgiving for this miracle.