Trophimus (Greek Trophimos, 'nourishing') is named in the New Testament as a Gentile Christian of Ephesus who travelled with Paul on the third missionary journey (Acts 21:29) and who was the immediate cause of Paul's final arrest in the Temple — the Jewish authorities of Jerusalem mistakenly believed that Paul had brought the Gentile Trophimus into the inner court of the Temple, which would have been a capital offense for the Gentile and a major sacrilege. Paul mentions Trophimus again in his last surviving letter (2 Timothy 4:20), noting that he had left him sick at Miletus during his final journey to Rome.
The Provençal tradition — preserved continuously at Arles from the medieval period — holds that Trophimus was sent to Gaul as a missionary by Peter himself around AD 46, and established the See of Arles, becoming the first Bishop of the Gallican Roman provincial capital. The Cathedral of Saint-Trophime at Arles (rebuilt in the great 12th-century Provençal Romanesque style, with the celebrated portal that is one of the masterpieces of Romanesque sculpture) is one of the foundational pilgrimage cathedrals of southern France.
Modern critical scholarship is divided on whether the Provençal-apostolic tradition can be reconciled with the New Testament Trophimus (the chronology is difficult — the New Testament Trophimus is alive in AD 67 at Miletus, while the Provençal tradition has him already established at Arles by AD 46); some scholars argue for two distinct figures conflated in the medieval tradition. The Provençal cult at Arles is, however, continuous and substantial since at least the 5th century.