ON ST. DESIDERATUS, BISHOP OF CLERMONT IN GAUL.
CIRCA AD 600.
CommentaryDesideratus, Bishop of Clermont in Gaul (St.)
I. B.
[1] St. Desideratus was the nineteenth Bishop of the Arverni in Gaul, not the thirtieth, as Constantine Ghinius writes, following Demochares. He had a church dedicated to his name, which is mentioned in book 1, On the Saints of the Churches the church of St. Desideratus, Bishop, and Monasteries of Clermont, chapter 18. To which chapter Jean Savaron makes these annotations: To whom (St. Desideratus) St. Avitus, the first of this name, gave way. The history of St. Avitus near the end: The citizens of the city of the Arverni election, immediately placed a man of most holy life, Desideratus by name, on the pontifical Chair, etc. He is numbered among the Saints. The manuscript Martyrology of Clermont, on the third day before the Ides of February: veneration, At the city of the Arverni, the deposition of Blessed Desideratus, Bishop and Confessor. Molanus in his additions to Usuard: At Clermont, of St. Desideratus, Bishop and Confessor. Besides the Breviary and Missal, the Order on the same day: Of Desideratus, Bishop and Confessor, everything the same as above in the feast of Blessed Sigo, etc. So says Savaron, feast, who also mentions him in the Origins of Clermont, in the Catalogue of Bishops.
[2] When this church was destroyed, as the same author indicates, the body of St. Desideratus was translated to the basilica of St. Illidius, Relics in the church of St. Illidius, about which the same book On the Saints and Churches, chapter 11 states: In the church of St. Illidius, the altar of St. Clement, the altar of St. Mary, where St. Illidius and St. Desideratus, etc. Savaron cites the Illidian tablet, which has it thus: St. Desideratus, Bishop, Martyr. But the Fasti cited above, and moreover Galesinius, Ferrarius, Ghinius, and Saussay on this day, call him Confessor. Claude Robert and Jean Chenu mention him in the Catalogues of the Bishops of Clermont. Savaron confesses that the Acts are unknown. date. Since his predecessor, St. Avitus, was a contemporary of St. Gregory of Tours, it follows that he lived around the year 600.