Remigius was born to a noble Gallo-Roman family of the Champagne. Elected bishop of Reims at twenty-two — an unusually young age, by acclamation — he ruled the see for over seventy years, the longest episcopate in early medieval France.
He is principally remembered for the baptism of Clovis on Christmas Day 496 (or 508), traditionally at Reims. By the famous account, as Remigius approached the font he found the holy chrism was missing; a white dove descended from heaven bearing a small ampulla of oil ('la Sainte Ampoule'). This holy oil was used to baptize Clovis and was subsequently used in the coronation of every King of France until Charles X — over a thousand years.
Remigius's words to the kneeling Frankish king at the moment of baptism — 'Adore what you have burned, and burn what you have adored' — became one of the most quoted lines of French Catholic history. His relics were translated to the great Basilica of Saint-Remi at Reims in 852.