CONCERNING SAINT EUANTIUS, OR EVENTIUS, BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
The Year of Christ 586.
CommentaryEuantius, or Eventius, Bishop of Vienne (Saint)
By the Author I. B.
[1] After Philip, says Ado in his Chronicle, Euantius, a holy man, was raised to the episcopate at Vienne. He, with Saint Priscus, and Artemius of Sens, and Remigius of Bourges, and with other holy Bishops, Saint Euantius, Bishop of Vienne, perfectly confirmed twenty ecclesiastical chapters. With whom also sat Syagrius, Bishop of Autun, a man of the highest sanctity.
[2] Ado here confuses two Councils of Macon at which Saint Euantius was present. The first was convened both for public affairs and for the needs of the poor, he attends the First Council of Macon, year 581, as is stated in the preface, at the summons of the most glorious Lord King Guntram, in the twenty-first year of his reign, namely the year of Christ 581. Present were Priscus of Lyon, Euantius of Vienne, Artemius of Sens, Remigius of Bourges, Syagrius of Autun, and sixteen others. Nineteen canons were enacted, most of them pertaining to the propriety of sacred things and persons. The second was held in the twenty-fourth year of Guntram, the year of Christ 584, and there were present all the Bishops who served with the honor of the episcopate in the kingdom of the glorious Lord King Guntram, also the Second, year 584, as is stated in the Preface. There those twenty famous canons on ecclesiastical affairs were established, praised by Ado. But Remigius, Bishop of Bourges, had by then died, and his successor Saint Sulpicius Severus subscribed to the Council.
[3] the Third Council of Lyon, year 582 Between those two Councils, the Third Council of Lyon was celebrated in the twenty-second year of Guntram, the year of Christ 582, to which Euantius also subscribed. Two years later, at the command of the most glorious King Gunthram, that of Valence, year 584, a Synod was held in the city of Valence on the tenth of the Kalends of June: of whose Acts there survives only the confirmation of those things which both the King himself and his wife of good memory, Queen Austrechildis, or their daughters, maidens consecrated to God, that is, Clodebergis of good memory, and Clodehildis, had conferred on holy places. To that confirmation also our Euantius subscribed along with sixteen other Bishops.
[4] His other deeds are unknown to us. Our Christopher Brouwer thinks this is the Eventius, or Euantius, or Aventius, whom Venantius Fortunatus, writing in book 3, letter 2, to Euphronius, Bishop of Tours, perhaps a disciple of Saint Euphronius, Bishop of Tours: orders to be greeted with these words: I humbly beg that my lord in all things most sweet, your son Eventius, be greeted for me repeatedly. There is no reason why we should refute the learned man's conjecture: but neither anything to confirm it. Less appealing is what Henricus Canisius doubtfully asks, whether our Euantius is Euantius the Abbot, whose letter he recites in volume 5 of Antiquae Lectiones, part 2, against those who judged the blood of animals to be unclean, while the flesh was clean; which persons he writes were found in certain parts of Saragossa.
[5] Saint Euantius died in the eleventh year of King Childebert of Austrasia, or the year of Christ 586. he died in 586. So Gregory of Tours, book 8, chapter 39. A grievous plague was then devastating that very province. Euantius, Bishop of Vienne, also died, and in his See the Priest Virus, from the senatorial order, was substituted at the King's choice: and many of the clergy departed from this world in that year. Lievraeus, Boscius, Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints, and Chenu report that he died on the Ides of January, did he die on January 13? but Chenu wrongly cites Ado to confirm this. Saussaius also records him on that day in his Supplement to the Martyrology; but adds: whom ancient sacred tablets especially indicate should be venerated for the memory of his sanctity on the third day of February. he is venerated on February 3. So Ado himself, Bishop of Vienne, in his Martyrology: At Vienne, Saint Eventius, Bishop and Confessor. Saussaius in his Martyrology, Florarius, Galesinius, and certain manuscripts record him on the same day. But Bede the Vulgate, Molanus and Hermann Greven in their additions to Usuard, the Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490, the manuscripts of Saint Mary of Utrecht and Saint Gudula of Brussels, celebrate him with this encomium: At Vienne, Saint Eventius, Bishop and glorious Confessor.