Feastday: August 12
Death: 732
Martyr and Benedictine abbot of Lerins, off the coast of Provence, France. According to tradition, Porcarius had a vision that the monastery was about to be attacked by Saracen raiders. The youngest monks were sent away to safety while he, with the remaining brethren, were massacred a short time later. The only survivors were four monks carried off into slavery in Spain or perhaps North Africa.
Porcarius (French: Porcaire or Porchaire) is the Latin word for "swineherd" and was occasionally used as a masculine given name in the early Middle Ages. Since porcarii were often slaves, "only elite couples [named their children Porcarius], and they probably did it ironically." In the 7th-century hagiography Martyrium Prisci et sociorum, for example, the aristocratic landowner Porcarius is introduced while boar hunting. The Spanish name Suarius may have a similar origin.
Known bearers of the name include;
- Porcarius I (fl. c. 490), abbot of Lérins
- Porcarius of Poitiers (d. c. 600), abbot of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand
- Porcarius II (d. c. 732), abbot of Lérins, martyr
- Porcarius (fl. 1150), brother of Peter Abelard and monk of Buzay Abbey
