#6 - France - 44,000,000 Catholics
A long standing tradition claims Mary of Bethany, her sister Martha, and Lazarus, along with some companions who were facing persecution in the Holy Land crossed the Mediterranean, landing in southern France, near Arles. In fact, the Provençal tradition claims Lazarus himself was the first bishop of Marseille. But the first actual written records of Christians in France date from the 2nd century, when Saint Irenaeus detailed the deaths of ninety-year-old bishop Pothinus of Lugdunum (that is, Lyon) and other martyrs of the 177 persecution in Lyon. A few centuries later, in 496, Remigius baptized Clovis I, who has been considered to be the founder of France.
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