ON ST. TETRADIUS, BISHOP.
Commentary
Tetradius, Bishop (St.)
I. B.
[1] The name of St. Tetradius is unknown in the published Martyrologies and Fasti. He is recorded on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March in the ancient manuscript Roman Martyrology, or that of St. Jerome, in these words: "And elsewhere, the deposition of Tetradius, Bishop." And in the very ancient Liessies manuscript: "And the deposition of Tetradius, Bishop." In Gaul the name of the Tetradii was illustrious. For several Bishops named Tetradius are found in the Gallic Councils. I do not recall, however, that the title of Saint was attributed to any of them except the Bishop of Bourges, according to Jean Chenu, himself a native of Bourges and therefore knowledgeable about the Saints of that region. He errs, however, when he writes that St. Tetradius died in the year 496, since he subscribed to the Council of Agde, held in the consulship of the most distinguished Messala, or the year of the common era 506, and to the first Council of Orleans in the year 509.
[2] I would scarcely doubt that this is the one who is inscribed in the cited Martyrologies. The former Martyrology, if it was collected by St. Jerome, as some maintain, was certainly augmented afterward, as we have often noted, since it contains the names of St. Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, of St. Brigid the Virgin, and of St. Severus the Priest, who were all contemporaries of Tetradius. Furthermore, St. Gregory of Tours calls the Tetradius of Bourges "of glorious memory" in book 2 of his Miracles, chapter 14, writing thus: "Then Sigwald, powerful with the King (Theoderic of Austrasia, son of Clovis I), migrated with all his household to the region of the Arverni by the King's command; where, while he unjustly coveted the properties of many, he greedily seized a certain estate which Tetradius of glorious memory, Bishop of Bourges, had bequeathed to the basilica of St. Julian, under the pretext of a false exchange."
[3] Chenu considers this to be the same Tetradius to whom Sidonius Apollinaris wrote epistle 10 of book 3, while the latter was not yet a Bishop, where he praises his learning, especially in law, to such an extent as to call him a most pure fountain of knowledge. The same Sidonius perhaps speaks of the same Tetradius in poem 24, writing thus:
"Thence the faithful Fidulus, ornament of good men, And by no means second to Tetradius In the endowments of character or the tenor of right, Receives you with holy hospitality."
I do not know why Claude Robert thinks the chronological reckoning does not allow that former epistle to be considered as written by Sidonius to this Tetradius, since he himself states that Sidonius died around the year 486, only twenty years before that first synod.