Valerianus is the name attached in a single MS. to a discourse frequently printed among the works of St. Augustine, but no author bearing this designation has been commemorated by Gennadius, by Isidorus, nor by any other compiler of ecclesiastical biographies. Cemelium was a village in the neighbourhood of Nice, the episcopate of which was, by a decree of Pope Leo the Great, conjoined with that of Nice, so that after that period it did not form an independent diocese -- a fact which determines one limit with regard to the age of Valerianus. He is believed to be identical with the Valerianus to whom, in common with other bishops of southern Gaul, a letter was addressed by Leo touching the ordination of the bishop of Vaison (Episcopus Vasensis), and he is further believed to be the Valerianus who assisted at the councils of Ries (A. D. 439) and Arles (A. D. 455), but these and other suppositions rest upon no basis more stable than simple conjecture.

Ten years afterwards Sirmond discovered in a MS. belonging to the monastery of Corvey on the Weser nineteen discourses, together with an purporting to be the production of Valerianus Episcopus. Although the codex in question did not contain the homily nor indicate the site of the bishopric of this Valerianus, Sirmond concluded from the style that the whole of these pieces must unquestionably be ascribed to Valerianus Ceemeliensis.