ON SAINT JULIAN, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul.
ABOUT THE YEAR 532.
CommentaryJulian, Bishop of Vienne, in Gaul (Saint)
G. H.
[1] Among the very many Bishops of the city of Vienne in Gaul enrolled in the sacred calendars is Saint Julian, the 20th Bishop, who flourished in the sixth century of Christ, and signed the Council of Orléans on the 9th day before the Kalends of July, in the 22nd year of King Childebert the Lord; and so in the year 531, as we have elsewhere proved. He succeeded Saint Avitus, Time of his See, whom we have proved to have died about the year 525 in his Acts, illustrated on February 5, in the preliminary Commentary no. 6. Justin the elder was reigning then, who died in the year 527; under whose empire Julian flourished as Bishop of the Church of Vienne, as Ado, Bishop of Vienne, attests in the Chronicle. Justinian succeeded Justin in the empire, under whom in the same Ado, Domninus Bishop of Vienne flourished, whom Saint Pantagathus succeeded, also Bishop of the Church of Vienne, who signed the Council of Orléans III in the 27th year of King Childebert the Lord. That is the year of Christ 526. We have elucidated the Life of Saint Pantagathus under April 17. From which we conclude that Saint Julian did not survive long after the year 531, perhaps dying in the year 532 on this April 22.
[2] On this day certainly Ado, Bishop of Vienne himself, his name inscribed in the Calendar. inscribed him in his Martyrology in these words: "At Vienne, of Saint Julian the Bishop and Confessor": which words have been transferred to many other MS. and printed Martyrologies, and are repeated in the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck, printed in the year 1490; also in the Auctarium of Grevenus to Usuard, and in the MS. Florarium; in which two last the same words are repeated also on the previous day, April 21, but in Grevenus there is the name Lucianus for Julianus, set by the fault of copyists; since there was no Bishop of Vienne named Lucianus.
[3] Ecclesiastical Office. In the Breviary of the Archiepiscopal Church of Saint Maurice of Vienne, printed there in the year 1522, an Ecclesiastical Office is prescribed of Saint Julian the Bishop and Confessor, and all things are recited from the Common, with the prayer, "Grant, we beseech you, almighty God," etc., and in the Calendar April 22 is indicated. In the MS. Catalogue of the Holy Bishops of the Church of Vienne, written by us at Vienne in the year 1662, Saint Julian is indicated as under the Emperor Justinian. We have a double MS. Martyrology of Vienne, in which this is contained: "April 22, at Vienne the birthday of Saint Julian the Confessor, twentieth Archbishop, who in the time of Theodoric King of the Franks, with Pope John I sitting, ruled the Church of Vienne; and full of virtues rested in peace, buried with his ancestors." In another MS. he is said to have rested "full of miracles." Saint Julian was made in the time of Saint John I the Pope, who died in prison at Ravenna in the year 526, on May 27: but Theodoric, who then was living, was not any King of the Franks, but of the Ostrogoths, who then was reigning in Italy and Provence, who died in the same year as Pope John, but somewhat later, on the very Kalends of September.