St. Veranus of Cavaillon

As a priest of France, Veranus devoted his energies to serving God and saving and sanctifying souls. In the course of his pastoral labors, he worked several miracles that gave him a widespread reputation for holiness. Fearful of the attention drawn to him, Veranus withdrew to live in solitude in the mountain wilderness of Vaucluse. He subsequently embarked upon a pilgrimage to Rome. While passing through Sardinia on the way back from Rome, he obtained the conversion of an entire town (Albenga) to the Christian faith. After returning to France, he was chosen to become bishop of Cavaillon. In 585, at a Church synod in Macon, he manifested extraordinary zeal in defending the Church's ecclesiastical discipline. There is a legend that Veranus captured and expelled a winged dragon that had been terrorizing the region near his hermitage in Vaucluse. Making the sign of the cross, he commanded the creature "by the living and eternal God" never to harm anyone again. In the Middle Ages, mothers often prayed to Saint Veranus for the health of their small children.