His mother Félicité lamented her sterility until one night an angel appeared to Romain's father announcing that a child would be born in his house.

This was common for young aristocrats of the time - those who went were known as nourris, meaning that they effectively carried out domestic duties to the court in return for some education, before being sent back to the provinces as bishops or counts.

When the episcopal seat of Rouen became vacant, the college of canons voted for Romanus and the king consented to their choice, offering Romain a cross.

Today they are often transferred to the following Sunday, in contravention of the date decreed for the feast by archbishop Guillaume Bonne-Ame in around 1090.

Four Lives of Saint Romain exist - one is a Latin verse version of the 8th century, another is a prose life addressed to the archbishop of Rouen by the doyen of Saint-Médard de Soissons.