After several attempts at execution were ineffective, such as being thrown to two bears in the amphitheatre and being burnt at the stake, he was finally beheaded on a rock overlooking the banks of the Paillon; his body was then pushed off a cliff.

Bernard Gui reported in the fourteenth century that the body of the martyr had been deposited in a crypt under the church named Confessio.

Three of these fragments feature an inscription commemorating the restoration of the tomb of Saint Pons under the rule of Charlemagne whose title (King of Franks and Lombards) and reign make it possible to pinpoint the event to between 774 and 800.

Members of the local nobility, seeking to redeem their sins, endowed the abbey with agricultural land, olive groves, vineyards, shops, warehouses, and houses.

In the Middle Ages, the abbot of the monastery of Saint Pons occupied a prominent position among the nobility of Nice as one of the richest and most powerful men in the county.

The honorific rights allowed the abbot to be solemnly received in the abbey church and occupy the place of honour in the choir.

He joined the property and revenues of the abbey to his estate and mortgaged them in order to guarantee the loans needed to finance major public works in Piedmont, Savoy, and Nice.

During the French revolution of 1789, the monastery was converted into a military hospital for wounded Italian soldiers and vast estates were auctioned.

Monseigneur Colonna, the bishop of Nice, acquired an Imperial Decree from Napoleon I on 12 April 1808, granting permission to establish a small seminary in the abbey.

By virtue of the Treaties of Vienna and Paris in 1815, the County of Nice was returned to the King of Sardinia and all French laws were repealed and replaced by the pre-existing Sardinian legislation.

After long negotiations between Pope Leo XII and King Charles Felix of Savoy, a concordat of 14 May 1828 restored all ecclesiastical property and revenues.

Following extensive renovations, the bishop of Nice, Monseigneur Galvano, installed the Oblates of Mary Immaculate of Pignerole in the abbey.

A Sardinian law on 29 May 1855 suppressed several religious congregations including the Oblates of Mary, although they were allowed to remain at the abbey of Saint Pons as long as they lived.