ON ST. THEODULUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT SION IN GAUL.
IN THE YEAR 806.
A brief account from the Martyrologies and from Gallia Christiana.
Theodulus, bishop and confessor, at Sion (St.)
J. B. S.
Sion (commonly Sion and Sitten) on the borders of Helvetia at the sources of the Rhone Cult is the chief city of the district of the Valais (Vallais), well enough known, so that there is no need to describe it here on occasion of this holy bishop Theodolus or Theodulus; concerning whom what is said is very little; nay, I confess that I doubted whether a place among the Saints was due to him, although he had been marked by Molanus, since I have more than once observed that he followed sacred calendars not sufficiently safe. But the General Catalogue of Ferrarius gave me courage, not so much by its own authority as by the documents which it cites, namely the records of the church of Sion itself, and likewise of Aosta and of Chur, in which I judged that I could trust more than in those things which he perhaps confuses concerning the age of the Saint, whom he asserts to have flourished under Clovis about the year 487, and yet to have received from Charlemagne the prefecture of the Seduni for himself and his successors.
[2] and age. More rightly did Castellan define his age in this announcement, which we have translated from the French into Latin: At Sion, of St. Theodulus the bishop, who translated the relics of St. Maurice. Of that translation we do not here inquire; concerning his age he judges better, when he referred his death to the year 806 with the Sainte-Marthes in Gallia Christiana, from which alone we shall here give what it has been possible to find concerning the Saint. There it is read thus: St. Theodulus, of Burgundy, of Grandmont, bishop of Sion, first prince, count, and prefect of the Valais, who received that same county and prefecture of the Valais from the emperor Charlemagne in the year 802, which lordship he gave to him and to the succeeding Prelates to be possessed in perpetuity, and they enjoy it peaceably even in these times. From the archives of the church of Sion. He departed in the year 806. You will note here that it may be doubted whether this Theodulus is not to be confounded with the Theodore or Theodulus above; but since many controversial matters were there weighed, I do not yet see that it is so very certain that there was only one of that name.