Saint Nestor of Palencia

Nestor of Palencia (died c. 65) is a legendary figure whom a late tradition, documented in historiographical works of the 16th and 17th centuries, claims to have been the first bishop of Palencia. His feast day is celebrated on March 4, coinciding with the feast of the Martyrs of Chersonesus, real martyrs of the 3rd and 4th centuries from whom the forger took the names. In fact, the saint's history is of local scope and has never been recognized by the Church; consequently, Etherius of Barcelona does not appear in the calendar of saints or the Roman Martyrology. The names that appear there are those of the saints of Chersonesus. Furthermore, the late appearance of the legend meant that, in this case, it did not take root in the city, where it has never had any popular devotion or recognized cult. The first source to cite him was the purported chronicle of Flavius Lucius Dexter, son of Pacian of Barcelona, which was actually a forged chronicle written at the end of the 16th century by the Jesuit Jerónimo Román de la Higuera and first published in 1619. The skill of the forgery was such that it was taken by many authors as an authentically ancient work written in the 5th century, and its claims, most without any real historical foundation, passed into other serious works to the point of seriously altering the chronology of the events narrated and causing cathedral chapters, municipal councils, and others, believing what was said, to begin to pay homage to or name as patrons non-existent saints, which took root in popular tradition. Toward the middle of the 17th century and in the 18th century, other authors took it upon themselves to demonstrate the falsity of this chronicle and the works inspired by it, but the traditions, legends, and cults initiated had already taken sufficient root, and the people continued to consider some of these stories as authentic, up to the present day, despite their implausibility.