bishop of Rouen. Educated at the court of Clotaire II, Romanus became a bishop in 630 and eliminated, as far as he could, all traces of idolatry from his diocese. The Rouen Chapter exercised a ‘Privilege of St Romanus’ whereby a condemned criminal was released from the death sentence and carried the shrine of Romanus in procession. This custom survived until the French Revolution. Feast: 23 October in France, Rome, Sarum, and several English monasteries.
AA.SS. Oct. X (1861), 74–103; B. T. A., iv. 183.