However, when he learned through a vision one night that the burial spot (in a large necropolis outside the Roman city) was in fact the previously overlooked grave of Benignus, the bishop had the tomb in which the sarcophagus lay restored, and he built a basilica over it.

In the early eleventh century a larger church was built by its abbot William of Volpiano (died 1031).

The abbey church built by Gregory of Langres was superseded by a Romanesque basilica, which collapsed in 1272 and was replaced by the present Dijon cathedral, dedicated to Benignus, where the shrine survived an earthquake in 1280 and the French Revolution.

Polycarp of Smyrna had a vision of Saint Irenaeus, already dead,[5] in response to which he sent Benignus, as well as two priests and a deacon, to preach the Gospel in Gaul.

Benignus, now on his own, proselytized openly in different parts of Gaul, and performed numerous miracles despite the persecution of Christians.

Louis Duchesne[10] has proved that these acta are at the head of a whole group of legends which arose in the early years of the sixth century and were intended to demonstrate the early the beginnings of Christianity in the cities of that region (Besançon, Autun, Langres, Valence).