May 29 + Saint Maximinus of Trier

Maximinus (also known as Maximin) was a known miracle worker and apologist for orthodox Catholicism and was called one of the most courageous bishops of his time by St. Jerome. He was one of those pastors whom God raised in the most dangerous times to support His Church.

Nobly descended, Maximinus was born in Poitiers, France and was related to Maxentius, the Bishop of Poitiers before St. Hilary. The reputation of the sanctity of St. Agritius, the Bishop of Trier, which was then the capital of the Western Roman Empire, drew the young Maximinus to that city, and after a most virtuous education, he was admitted to holy orders. Upon the death of Agritius, Maximinus was chosen as his successor in 332. When St. Athanasius was banished to Trier in 336, Maximinus received him, not as a person disgraced, but as a most glorious confessor of Christ, and thought it a great happiness to enjoy the company of such an illustrious saint.

Athanasius stayed with him for two years; and his works bear evidence to the tireless vigilance, heroic courage, and exemplary virtue of Maximinus, who was before that time famous for the gift of miracles. St. Paul, Bishop of Constantinople, being banished by Constantius, found also a retreat at Triers, and in Maximinus a powerful protector. By his counsels, he precautioned the emperor Constans against the intrigues and snares of the Arians, and on every occasion discovered their artifice, and opposed their faction.

Maximinus was one of the most illustrious defenders of the Catholic faith in the council of Sardica in 347, and had the honor to be ranked by the Arians with St. Athanasius, in an excommunication which they pretended to fulminate against them at Philippopolis.

Maximinus is the Patron Saint of Trier, invoked for the protection against perjury, loss at sea and destructive rains.