Saint Renatus

[1] The first story of the lesser known Saint-René began when the Italian Saint Maurilius, the bishop of the French city of Angers (Anjou) in the 5th century, was one day called to assist a moribund child.

Feeling responsible for the loss, Maurice decided to expiate it, and left Angers in secret and embarked upon a ship, throwing the keys to the cathedral's treasury into the high seas.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Angers had found the keys inside the liver of a big fish which was caught by the local fishermen.

The tradition is based on a late life of St. Maurilius written in 905 by the deacon Archinald, and circulated under the name of Gregory of Tours, and it seems to have no real foundation.

[2] Renatus later succeeded Maurilius as the bishop of Angers, and came to sainthood himself, later as Saint René (French for reborn).

The second story of the better known San Renato is about a bishop in the 5th century who lived in the city of Sorrento, near Naples, in the province of Campania; therefore he was a member of the early Christian church.

[1] In the narrative, the saints appear to Duke Sergius I of Naples on the eve of battle against Moorish forces in 846 AD.

Since they seemed to be contemporaries, and were physically described by their contemporaries as being very similar (a bald old man, with a long beard) one single figure of devotion was born by common consent, and the legend was amplified by telling how the Bishop of Angers came to Sorrento in old age, and went to live as a hermit, and became the new Bishop of Sorrento.