Gratus of Aosta

Gratus of Aosta was a fifth-century bishop of Aosta, the principal city of the Aosta Valley in the western Alps, and is venerated as the patron saint of the city. As a pre-schism Western saint he is commemorated in the Orthodox calendar on September 7, the day recorded for his repose. He belongs to the period of an undivided Church and is counted among the Latin saints of the early Roman patriarchate.

The earliest secure historical notice of Gratus places him at the synod of Milan in 451, where, while still a priest, he represented his bishop, Eustasius of Aosta. His signature appears on the letter that the assembled bishops sent to Pope Leo the Great affirming their condemnation of the Eutychian heresy, which had been rejected at the Council of Chalcedon in the same year. Gratus succeeded Eustasius as bishop of Aosta sometime after 451; later tradition counts him as the second bishop of the see.

As bishop, Gratus is associated with the translation of relics in his city around 470, including those of Innocent, numbered among the martyrs of the Theban Legion, ceremonies at which bishops of Agaunum and Sion are said to have been present. He died around 470 and was buried at Aosta. His tomb inscription, preserved in the church of Saint-Christophe, records his rest in peace as bishop. A diffusion of his cult followed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.