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==Life==
Remigius was born in 437, traditionally at [[w:Cerny-en-Laonnois|Cerny-en-Laonnois]], near [[w:Laon|Laon]], [[w:Picardy|Picardy]], in northern Gaul, into the highest levels of [[w:Gallo-Roman culture|Gallo-Roman ]] society. He is said to have been the son of Emilius, count of Laon (who is not otherwise attested) and of Celina, daughter of the Bishop of Soissons, which Clovis had conquered in 486.
After studying at Reims for awhile, devoting himself to secular and sacred learning, he withdrew to a small house near Laon, to live in reclusion and prayer. However when a bishop was needed in Rheims, the clergy and people, having noted Remigius for his learning and sanctity, in addition to his high status, carried him off from his hermitage and made him their bishop in his twenty-second year, in 459 AD, though still a layman.
The holy bishop soon became renowned throughout northern Gaul. He converted heretics, brought Arian heretics back to the Orthodox Faith, cared for the many who suffered at the hands of barbarian marauders. Wherever he went, miracles attended him. He healed the sick and once, when a town was on fire, threw himself into the flames and quenched them. Birds would come to his table whenever he ate, and he would share his meal with them.<br>
In 482 the young warrior Clovis became leader of the Frankish tribes in that region. Though he was a pagan, he knew and admired St Remigius, and was married to a Christian, St Clotilde (June 3). Once, when his army faced defeat by the Alemanii, Clovis prayed to "the God of Clotilde and Remigius' and won a great victory. This answer to his prayers convinced him of the truth of the Christian Faith, and he asked St Remigius to instruct him. Two years later he gathered all his chieftains in Rheims to attend his baptism. The baptism was accompanied by many miracles, seen by all in attendance. Two of the king's sisters and three thousand of his lords and soldiers were baptized at the ceremony. This event is considered the birth of France as a Christian nation.<ref group="note">Later, after Clovis' success in the [[w:Battle of Vouillé|Battle of Vouillé]] in 507 AD over the Visigoths of Alaric II, the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I made him a consul. (Moreton-Macdonald, John Ronald, A History of France, Vol.1, (The MacMillan Company, 1915), 38.)</ref>