ON ST. VENDIMIANUS, HERMIT, IN BITHYNIA.
After the year 500.
CommentaryVendimianus, Hermit, in Bithynia (St.)
I. B.
[1] St. Auxentius the anchorite, whose Life we shall give on February 14, trained many in piety, both men and women. Among these was St. Vendimianus, St. Vendimianus, disciple of St. Auxentius whom the Greeks venerate on the Kalends of February, though he is unknown to the Latin calendars. The Menaea say of him: "On the same day, the commemoration of our holy Father Vendimianus.
Vendimianus, a great tree of virtue, Planted on earth and transplanted to heaven."
He was a disciple of St. Auxentius; and after Auxentius died, he withdrew into a precipitous rock, he dwells on a rock on which he built himself a tiny dwelling, and in it he lived for forty-two years. When he was about to depart to Christ, he fell upon his knees and commended his spirit to God. We have not yet found anything else about him. The date of his death can be determined from the era of Auxentius. Auxentius is said to have died, when did he die? in the Latin Life published by Lipomanus and Surius, "in the reign of the pious and Christ-loving Zeno"; but in the Greek, "en te basileia tou philochristou
Leontos, in the reign of the Christ-loving Leo." That the latter is more probable we shall say below. Since, moreover, St. Simeon Stylites died in the fourth year of Leo, the year of Christ 469, as we said on January 5, and at that time appeared to St. Auxentius, who was still alive, it follows that St. Vendimianus, who survived Auxentius by forty-two years, died after the year 500; or after 516, if Auxentius lived into the reign of Zeno, who assumed power in the year 474.