According to local tradition he was one of the seventy-two Disciples of Christ, by birth a Jew, who came with Saint Peter from Palestine to Rome and subsequently became the Apostle of Auvergne, Berry, Nivernais, and Limousin.

Gregory of Tours, born in Auvergne in 544 and well versed in the history of that country, looks upon Austremonius as one of the seven envoys who, about 250, evangelized Gaul; he relates how the body of the saint was first interred at Issoire, being there the object of great veneration.

[2] Among the bishops of Clermont should also be mentioned: Pierre de Cros (1301–04), engaged by Thomas Aquinas to complete his Summa; Étienne Aubert (1340–42), later Pope Innocent VI (1352–62); Guillaume du Prat (1528–60), founder of the Clermont College in Paris, and delegate of Francis I of France to the Council of Trent; and Massillon, the illustrious orator (1717–42).

On the other hand, the city of Riom in the diocese of Clermont was the birthplace of Jacques Sirmond, the learned Jesuit (1559–1651), Confessor to Louis XIII and editor of the volumes on the ancient councils of Gaul.

Other natives worth mention were the Abbé Jacques Delille, poet and Academician (1738–1813); and François Dominique de Reynaud, Comte de Montlosier, the publicist (1755–1838), who was a member of the Estates General of 1789 for Clermont-Ferrand and a Royalist in the Convention, famous for his memoir against the Jesuits and for his being refused a Catholic burial by Bishop Ferou.

The famous Jesuit paleontologist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was born only seven miles from Clermont, in the Château d'Orcines; his publications were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church.

The Diocese of Clermont can likewise claim a number of monks whom the Church honours as saints, viz: St. Calevisus (Calais, 460–541), a pupil in the monastery of Menat near Riom, whence he retired to Maine, where he founded the Abbey of Anisole; St. Maztius (died 527), founder at Royat near Clermont of a monastery which became later a Benedictine priory; St. Portianus (sixth century), founder of a monastery to which the city of Saint-Pourçain (Allier) owes its origin; St. Étienne de Muret (1046–1124), son of the Viscount of Thiers and founder of the Order of Grandmont in Limousin, and St. Peter the Venerable (1092–1156), of the Montboissier family of Auvergue, noted as a writer and Abbot of Cluny.

[4] These included the Benedictine abbeys of Saint-Austremoine d'Issiore,[5] Ebrulles,[6] La Chaise-Dieu,[7] Saint-Allire-les-Clermont,[8] Manlieu (Grand-lieu),[9] Mauzac près de Riom,[10] Menat,[11] Saint Symphorien, Thiers,[12] and Aurillac.

The institution grew in numbers and prestige until 1762, when an ordinance of the Parlement of Paris of 27 February forbade the municipal officers of Clermont from choosing the masters and regents of the College from among the Jesuits.

All monastic vows were abolished by the Constituent Assembly in the Autumn of 1789, and on 10 October 1789 all the properties and lands of the Church were confiscated for the benefit of the people.

[34] The fourth and current cathedral was founded in 1248 by Bishop Hugues de la Tour, who laid the first stone before his departure for Crusade.

It was reestablished in accordance with the Concordat of 1801 by Bishop Du Valk de Dampierre in April 1803, with only one dignity, the Grand Chantre, and ten canons.

[41] The Grand Seminaire de Clermont was the idea of Bishop Louis d'Estaing (1650-1664), whose principal concern was the improvement of the condition of the clergy of his diocese.

In 1653 the bishop entered into an agreement with the Abbey of Saint-Alyre for the conversion of an unused priory in Clermont for his seminary, in exchange for a tax abatement.

[42] In 1980 the Grand Seminaire de Clermont was forced to close its doors, due to the small number of ordinands.