Early Life and Conversion
According to the sources, Lupus was born around 383 at Toul in the Western Roman Empire, the son of a nobleman named Epirocus. Orphaned in infancy, he was raised by his uncle Alistocus. Tradition holds that he was the brother of Saint Vincent of Lérins, and through his marriage to Pimeniola he became brother-in-law to Saint Hilary of Arles.
Learned and eloquent, Lupus worked as a lawyer of considerable reputation and held estates in the region of Maxima Sequanorum. After six years of marriage, he and Pimeniola parted by mutual agreement to take up the religious life, described in one account as a mutual vow of perpetual continency. He sold his estates, distributed the proceeds to the poor, and entered the monastery of Lérins under Saint Honoratus, where he remained for about a year.
Bishop of Troyes
Around 427, after Honoratus had become Bishop of Arles, Lupus was raised to the see of Troyes. The sources agree that he was reluctant, initially declining the office before eventually relenting. He would govern the diocese for some fifty-two years.
During his episcopate he founded the community later known as the Abbey of Saint-Loup de Troyes, where his remains were afterward deposited.
The Mission Against Pelagianism in Britain
In the autumn of 429, at the request of the British bishops, the Council of Arles sent Lupus together with Saint Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to combat the Pelagian heresy that had taken root among the British clergy. By prayer, preaching, and (as the sources relate) miracles, the two bishops are said to have banished the heresy, returning to Gaul after Easter of 430.
Lupus's part in this mission left a lasting memory in Wales, where he became known as 'Bleiddian' and appears in Welsh literature, particularly in association with Llanblethian in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Attila and Later Years
The sources recount that in 451, when Attila and the Huns threatened Troyes, Lupus went out to meet them at the head of a procession, dressed in full episcopal regalia, and that the city was spared. Scholars describe these accounts as hagiographical rather than strictly historical, and one source dates the episode to 453.
Afterward, Romans accused Lupus of having aided the Huns' escape, and he was forced for a time into hermitage in the mountains before being recalled to his see. He reposed at Troyes around 479.
Relics and Shrines
The remains of Saint Lupus were deposited in the Abbey of Saint-Loup de Troyes, which he had founded during his lifetime. A fragment of his skull is preserved in the treasury of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Troyes.
