November 4 -- Feast of Saint Perpetuus

NB. Dragon at the feet of adult

Charles the Bold, the last Valois Duke of Burgundy, took the head and other relics of Saint Perpetuus from Dinant, where the good saint died.  I don't know anything especially notable about Perpetuus, but he was the twenty-third bishop of Tongren, and after his death they called him a saint.  It might have been a low standard in those days, since every other monarch seems to have been crazy for relics, but that shouldn't reflect badly on today's saint. 

When Burgundy slid toward the French after Charles died, the relics were returned to Dinant.  They rested there until the French Revolution, when saints' relics all over the country were desecrated, smashed, and scattered.  To prevent Perpetuus from falling to such a fate, he was moved to Germany and kept in a safe place.  It was in fact, so safe a place that no one remembers where it is.  He is probably still there today, and may well remain there until Judgment Day.  His relics may not be venerated, and we may not remember anything else about him, but at least he is perpetually secure in his sainthood.  Well done, friends, well done. 

Charles the Bold, by the way, is also in a reliquary, but this one is still in Liege, at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, whence it was transferred from the Cathedral of Saint Lambert and Notre Dame.