Located near the river Loire , the city is famous for its cathedral , for a kind of lentil , for its lace-making, [ 4 ] as well as for being the origin of the Chemin du Puy, one of the principal origin points of the pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela in France.
In , the commune had a population of 18, Le Puy-en-Velay was a major bishopric by the early period of medieval France. Its foundation is largely legendary. Front was added to the list of the apostles to Gaul, who in tradition are described as being sent out to reorganize Christians after the persecutions that are associated with Decius , circa As with others of the group, notably Saint Martial of Limoges , later mythology pushed the activities of Saint Front and the priest George back in time.
It tells that George had been restored to life with a touch of Saint Peter 's staff. The expanding legend of this St. George, which, according to the Church historian Louis Duchesne is not earlier than the 11th century, then makes that saint one of the seventy disciples of the Gospel of Luke. It tells that he founded the church of the [civitas] que dicitur Vetula in pago Vellavorum , the city "called Vetula in the pays of the Vellavii " was how a document of termed it.
This was what the settlement of Ruessium began to be called during the 4th century. This was the first cathedral at Le Puy.
Following St. George the founder, later medieval local traditions evoke a legendary list of bishops at this chief town of the pays of Le Velay: Macarius, Marcellinus, Roricius, Eusebius, Paulianus, and Vosy Evodius , all of them canonized by local veneration. A bishop Evodius attended the Council of Valence in In the early s peasants of Le Puy, led by a carpenter named Durandus, formed a conspiratio sworn association called the Capuciati because of the white hoods they wore as a sign of their conspiratio.
