St Taurin

Saint Taurinus
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Major shrine	Évreux
Feast	August 11

Saint Taurinus of Évreux (died ca. 410), also known as Saint Taurin, is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. His legend states that he was the first bishop of Évreux. He evangelized the region and died a martyr.

His largely legendary life is known through a manuscript of the 10th century, itself based on a ninth-century text. The legendary life was written by a monk named Deodatus, who added details according to the standard passiones of the time. The life of Saint Taurinus states that an angel appeared to Taurinus’ mother Eustycia (Eusticie) to announce that her son would have a great destiny. His godfather was Pope Clement I, who entrusted Taurinus to Denis the Areopagite (misidentified with Denis, first bishop of Paris), who in turn was considered one of the first disciples of Saint Paul. Thus, the legend assured that there was an "apostolic succession" from Paul directly to the episcopate of Évreux.

The garbling of dates and traditions thus ensures that it is impossible to date the time of Taurinus' episcopacy, although scholars usually place it at the beginning of the fourth or in the middle of the fifth century.

His legend further states that Taurinus faced a demon at Évreux that took three shapes: that of a lion, a bear and a buffalo. These metamorphoses either represented various deadly sins, or represented the official Roman religion (lion), the worship of Diana (bear), and the local agrarian-based religions (the buffalo). According to Orderic Vitalis in his Historia Ecclesiastica, Taurinus expelled the demon from the local temple of Diana, and when it obeyed his order to break its own idols it was not immediately cast into the Pit, but was instead punished by remaining in the place where it had ruled while seeing the people it had tormented saved. He reported that it was known by the local people as Gobelinus, and still haunted Évreux, appearing in various shapes, but hurt no-one.

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