Rigobert baptized Charles Martel, but Charles afterwards had him brutally driven from the see[1] and replaced, for political reasons, by the warlike and unpriestly Milo, who was already Archbishop of Trier.[2] Rigobert took refuge in Aquitaine and then retired to Gernicourt, in the Diocese of Soissons, where he led a life in the exercises of penance and prayer.[3]
He died about the year 743, and was buried in the church of Saint Peter at Gernicourt, which he had built. Hincmar translated his relics to the abbey of Saint Theodoric, and later, to the church of Saint Dionysius at Reims. Fulk, Hincmar's successor, removed them into the metropolitan Church of Our Lady of Reims, in which the greater part is preserved in a rich shrine, though a portion is kept in the church of Saint Dionysius at Reims, and another portion in the cathedral of Paris, where a chapel bears his name.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Reims". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
