Saint Constantino de Gap

Constantine (died at Gap, 5th or 6th century) was a bishop of Gap during the 5th or 6th century, venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. Constantine is mentioned in the Hieronymian Martyrology on April 12 with the words: In civitate Vuappingo depositio Constantini episcopi — "In the city of Gap, the deposition of Bishop Constantine." The same entry is recorded in the Roman Martyrology on the same date: At Gap in Provence, France, Saint Constantine, bishop. Although his commemoration is very ancient, the period in which this bishop lived is uncertain. Scholarly studies are not unanimous, as they tend to identify him with two different bishops who lived a century apart: the first around the middle of the 5th century, and the second in the first decades of the 6th century. Furthermore, sources report different variants of the name (Constantine, Constans, Constantius, or Constantianus), which further complicates the matter. The authors of Gallia christiana, Gallia christiana novissima, and La France pontificale identify the saint of Gap with the bishop Constantine, Constantius, or Constantianus documented on three occasions, though without the indication of his see: at the Council of Riez in 439 and in two letters from Pope Leo the Great in 449 and 450. To these three instances, Gallia christiana and La France pontificale also added the Council of Orange in 441 and the Council of Vaison in 442; these were later removed after the discovery of the conciliar acts, which confirmed that the bishop who took part in those councils was Constantius of Carpentras, not Gap. The authors of the Acta Sanctorum, the Bibliotheca Sanctorum, and Louis Duchesne believe that all the aforementioned sources refer to the bishop of Carpentras rather than a non-existent bishop of Gap.