During the consulship (in 250 AD) of the Emperor Decius and Vettius Gratus, according to Gregory of Tours, who calls him Stremonius, Pope Fabian sent out seven bishops from Rome to Gaul to preach the Gospel: Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Martial to Limoges, and Austromoine to Clermont.

[3] A tradition states that Saint Austremonius ordered Nectarius of Auvergne to Christianize the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central.

The local view found its origin in a life of St. Austremonius written in the 10th century in the Abbey of Mozac, where the body of the saint was transferred in 761.

There is a further elaborated Vita of the late 11th century, with new episodes, made at the same time as a forgery of a charter of Pippin (the Short or one of two kings of Aquitaine being intended).

The possibility that the major dioceses of Gaul each needed an apostolic figure, and that where the historical details had lapsed (compare Gatien of Tours) one had to be supplied, to serve local pride, should not be entirely dismissed.