Hierarch Pavatius (Pavace) of Le Mans

IMPORTANT NAME CORRECTION AND HONEST CAVEAT: the previous spelling "Pavin" matches no source found — the correct Latin name is Pavatius (French: Pavace), transliterated "Pavatsy" in the Orthodox Encyclopedia. The stub's date "September 13" is unsupported by any source (Western tradition gives July 24). No credible evidence of veneration in the Russian Orthodox Church was found: he is absent from the list of 15 ancient Western saints approved by the ROC Holy Synod on March 9, 2017, and from other official calendars; the only reference to a "Pavakiy of Le Mans" as a saint appears on an unverifiable amateur website with internally contradictory life dates.

Pavatius (also Pavace) is a semi-legendary figure among the earliest bishops of Le Mans (Cenomanum) in Gaul. He is known almost exclusively from the "Actus pontificum Cenomannis" ("Acts of the bishops of Le Mans"), compiled in the mid-9th century under Bishop Aldric (832–857) to bolster the see's claims, and judged by scholars (notably Louis Duchesne) to contain a large fictitious element.

According to this tradition, Pavatius served in youth as a deacon under St. Julian, the first bishop of Le Mans, and later became the third bishop himself, allegedly holding the see under both Emperor Maximinus (235–238) and Emperor Aurelian (270–275) — a chronology implying a lifespan of over two centuries, which historians reject as absurd. Catholic tradition places his death on July 24 after a 43-year episcopate and credits him with taming a dragon that had ravaged the region. Per Duchesne, the verifiable history of the Le Mans see begins only with Bishop Victurius (mid-5th century).