Arator of Verdun

Arator is venerated as the fourth Bishop of Verdun, a see in northeastern Gaul (present-day France). He is commemorated by Orthodox Christians among the saints of the pre-Schism Western Church, with his feast observed on September 6. Local church tradition places him in a succession of early bishops at Verdun following Saints Sanctinus, Maurus, and Salvinus, the third bishop.

Historical documentation for the very earliest bishops of Verdun is limited. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that local traditions name Maurus, Salvinus, and Arator as occupants of the see after the legendary founding bishop Sanctinus, while identifying St. Polychronius (Pulchrone) — a relative and disciple of St. Lupus of Troyes — as the first bishop of Verdun confirmed by independent historical record. Arator thus stands in the period just before the diocese enters well-documented history, his episcopate falling within the turbulent decades of the mid-fifth century when Gaul was passing through the final fragmentation of Roman imperial authority.

Beyond his place in the traditional episcopal list and the approximate date of his repose around 460, no further biographical details about Arator have survived in the historical record. The brevity of what is preserved is itself characteristic of many Gallic bishops of this era whose memory was maintained through local veneration rather than written hagiography.