ON SAINT DODOLINUS,
Bishop of Vienne in Gaul.
SEVENTH CENTURY.
CommentaryDodolinus, Bishop of Vienne, in Gaul (Saint)
G. H.
[1] The Synod of Chalon was held in Gaul under King Clovis II: but in what year of his reign, is not clear. It is referred by Sirmond to the year 650: who in the Notes teaches that it was held at least before the year 658. To this Synod Landalen, Bishop of the Church of Vienne, subscribed in the second place. Whether Landalen is Dodolinus? His predecessor is held to be Caldeoldus: whom Ado in the Chronicle asserts to have ruled the Church of Vienne until the times of King Theodoric. But because
Ado's Chronotaxis is obviously confused around the times of King Clovis II and his sons, it is perhaps also confused regarding the series of bishops; since it is established that under Clovis Landalen was Bishop, whom Ado does not mention, but substitutes Dodolen: whom later writers assert to be one and the same with him who is called Landalen in the Council, and call him Dodolinus or Dolinus. His cult, That he is holy and is so held, both in the Martyrology and in the Breviary of Vienne, Pierre-François Chifflet our colleague has taught us; and we ourselves copied in Gaul the Catalogue of the holy Bishops of the Church of Vienne, among whom is placed Saint Dodolinus under Theoderic. John du Bosc, in the Antiquities of Vienne Holy and Senatorial, page 40, has this: "Saint Dolinus was made Pontiff of Vienne, when Leo or Leontius were ruling the Romans, and Theoderic the Franks, and Sergius was Pope. Saint Dolinus died on the Kalends of April." Citing du Bosc and the records of the Church of Vienne, Ferrarius inscribed the same in his General Catalogue: and asserts that he flourished under Pope Sergius and King Theoderic about the year 688, with the Emperor Leontius omitted, who began to reign some years after the death of King Theoderic. John Chenu copies du Bosc in his Catalogue of the Archbishops of Vienne, and John le Lievre in Antiquities of Vienne, chapter 23, calls him Saint Dolinus, and then subjoins this: "Our Saint Dolinus, having endured great labors and hardships for the salvation of the souls committed to him, died in the said seventh century, on the Kalends of April: and was deposited with his elders or predecessor Bishops." Saussay, in the supplement of the Gallican Martyrology, has this: "At Vienne, of Saint Dodolenus or Landolenus, otherwise Dolinus, Bishop of that metropolis, famous in the Council of Chalon about the year 658; and more noble for the merits of pastoral virtues, glorious especially for the titles of singular piety." Whether Landalen and Dodolinus or Dolinus are to be held distinct, let the men of Vienne inquire. Concerning Saint Caldeoldus, whom they commonly set down as his predecessor, we have treated on January 14, and there copied the letter of Pope John V given to him.