The oratory takes its name from Saint Céneré (or Cerenico), a Benedictine monk born in Spoleto in the 7th century; he was sent by Pope Martin I to preach in Merovingian Gaul with his brother, Serenicus, and with him he arrived in the diocese of Le Mans, in Saulges, around 649–650. He founded a Christian community which built the .
