Trophimus of Arles

When did Trophimus die?

Trophimus of Arles is dated d. c. AD 250 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Trophimus in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

Which early sources mention Trophimus?

Trophimus of Arles is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Pope Zosimus, The Hieronymian compilers and Gregory of Tours. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Trophimus from?

The archive associates Trophimus of Arles with Arles.

Who were Trophimus’ contemporaries?

The archive links Trophimus of Arles to 3 other figures, including Denis of Paris, Saturninus of Toulouse and Paul of Narbonne. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

[Rome grants Arles its primacy on the ground that from Trophimus the streams of the faith flowed out to all Gaul.]

The letter of Pope Zosimus to the bishops of Gaul, 22 March AD 417, granting the see of Arles primacy over the Gallic provinces on the strength of its foundation by Trophimus — the earliest document to make that claim. Printed in Migne, Patrologia Latina 20 among the letters of Zosimus; critical text in the Collectio Arelatensis, ed. Wilhelm Gundlach, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae III (1892). No public-domain English translation exists.

[First attested ~340 years later — Gregory of Tours, writing c. 594, is the earliest record of the mission he dates to the age of Decius.] At this time seven men were ordained as bishops and sent into the Gauls to preach… These bishops were sent: bishop Catianus to Tours; bishop Trophimus to Arles; bishop Paul to Narbonne; bishop Saturninus to Toulouse; bishop Dionisius to Paris; bishop Stremonius to Clermont; bishop Martial to Limoges.