Saint Serenus of Marseilles

Saint Serenus was the 10th Bishop of Marseille. He is known for an exchange of letters with Pope Gregory the Great. He lived until 601. The correspondence between the Pope and the Bishop of Marseille concerned the Church's position regarding images in churches and the journey undertaken by Saint Augustine, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, and the monks accompanying him to England. He reportedly died near Biandrate in the Diocese of Vercelli while returning from Rome, where he had been required to discuss his iconoclastic views regarding the veneration of images. He was buried near the Benedictine abbey of San Nazzaro Sesia. His body, rediscovered in the Middle Ages, was transported to the parish church of Biandrate.