ON SAINTS EOLADIUS AND AGRICOLA, BISHOPS OF NEVERS IN GAUL
Sixth Century.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Eoladius, Bishop of Nevers in Gaul (St.) Agricola, Bishop of Nevers in Gaul (St.)
Author G. H.
[1] Nevers, a fortified and wealthy city of Gaul on the Loire River, where it absorbs the river Nievre, venerates many enrolled among the Saints—either Martyrs who shed their blood for the faith of Christ, or Bishops of illustrious and proven holiness. Among these, the memory of St. Agricola, Bishop, is recorded on this day in many Martyrologies; to him we join his predecessor Eoladius, following Saussaye.
[2] The manuscript Martyrology of Usuard, which is preserved among the ancient codices of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, has the following for the 4th before the Kalends of March: At Nevers, of St. Agricolus, Bishop and Confessor. Thus St. Deicolus, also called Deicola, is called an Abbot, whose Acts we gave on the 18th of January. The manuscript Martyrology of the Cologne Carmel records the same thus: At Nevers, of Blessed Agricola, Bishop. Similar entries are found in Maurolycus and Galesinius, who cites a manuscript codex, and Ferrarius who follows them; but these, like Felicius, name him Agricolaus. The same is commemorated by Hermann Greven in his supplement to Usuard, in which Avernis is erroneously printed for Nivernis. Saussaye in his Gallic Martyrology celebrates him with this eulogy: At Nevers, of St. Agricola, Bishop of the same city and Confessor, who, born at Alise in Burgundy, consecrated the first fruits of his youth to God through the practice of a devout life. Gradually growing in years and merits, enlisted in the sacred militia, he so excelled in piety and learning that, upon the death of St. Eoladius, Bishop of the same See, he alone of all was judged worthy—on account of the distinguished marks of his holiness—to take his place. Having therefore received the unsought honor and assumed the burden, he discharged his duties admirably, shining before his flock with the splendor of his virtues. And when he surpassed nearly all the most holy Bishops of his age in the glory of the episcopal panoply, and had attended certain synods of Celtic Gaul through his zeal for restoring Christian discipline, at last, having worthily fulfilled his pastoral care and laden with the greatness of his merits, he was called to eternal joy. So far Saussaye. In the manuscript Florarium, the memory of Agricolaus, Bishop and Confessor of Nevers, is observed on the 17th of March.
[3] Concerning St. Eoladius, the same Saussaye in his Supplement for the 4th before the Kalends of March writes the following: At Nevers, of St. Eoladius, Bishop and Confessor, who, a great light of the Church, attended the Council of Lyons in the year 570, and after his blessed death shone in the church of St. Stephen, where he was buried, with the rays of consummate blessedness. The same Saussaye, on the 8th of June, after recording in the Supplement the eulogy of St. Itherius, Bishop of Nevers, adds: Other Bishops of proven holiness sat in the See of Nevers before Blessed Itherius, of whom some, having fixed birthdays, are designated for worship on their proper days; others, though equally distinguished for their merits, are by no means assigned a fixed day in the sacred records—namely, Saints Patricius, Eulalius, and Eoladius, whose blessed memory, lest it be lost from the series of the Saints of Gaul, it seemed pious and fitting to inscribe their names in these sacred tables. Which, as we have seen, he did for St. Eoladius on the 26th of February, the day on which St. Agricola his successor is venerated.
[4] The same Eoladius is honored with the title and appellation of Saint by the writers of the catalogue of the Bishops of Nevers no less than Agricola. First, Vide Coquillius published a double catalogue at the end of the History of Nevers; but in both he calls the predecessor of St. Agricola "Saint Eulalius, or Aerladius," ascribing the acts of two bishops to one and the same person. John Chenu and Claude Robert in their catalogues distinguish them better. St. Eulalius is numbered the 4th Bishop of Nevers, whom St. Severinus, Abbot of Agaunum, visiting in the time of Clovis, the first King of the Franks, found deaf and mute and cured by his prayers, so that he celebrated Mass on the same day, as is told in his Life on the 11th of February, page 549, numbers 10 and 11. Saussaye in the Supplement and Coquillius, page 39, report that this Eulalius is venerated on the 26th of August, where, by another error, Coquillius makes him the successor of St. Agricola. But after St. Eulalius died, either under Clovis I or in the years immediately following his death, the Church of Nevers was governed by Tauricianus, who attended the Synod of Epaone in the year 517; then by Rusticus, who subscribed to the third Synod of Orleans in the year 535 or the following; and rather by Aridius, who attended the fifth Synod of Orleans in the year 547 and the second Synod of Paris around the year 555, where Aridius is written—for whom Clementinus is read in Coquillius, Chenu, and Robert, but he was the Bishop of Apt who subscribed to both Councils. Euphronius is substituted by Chenu and Robert, and is said to have subscribed to the privilege of St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris, for the monastery of St. Vincent, in the fifth year of Charibert, the year of Christ 565. His successor was then St. Eoladius, who subscribed to the second Synod of Lyons in the year 566 in these words: Eoladius, in the name of Christ, Bishop of the Church of Nevers, have subscribed. Claude Robert reports that the following verses were inscribed on his tomb in the church of St. Stephen:
Whoever you are who hasten from the west, whoever from the east, You have in this tomb a body to venerate. The Bishop Eoladius, once Father of this city, Rejoicing, here awaits the coming of the Lord.
[5] By John Chenu he is called St. Eolalius, or Eoladius; concerning how many years he sat or when he departed this life, nothing is established. His successor was St. Agricola, called by some Agricolus and Agricolaus, in French S. Arigle. He attended the Councils of Macon I, Lyons III, and Macon II in the years of Christ 581, 583, and 585, respectively. He also attended the assembly of Bishops at the court of King Guntram and, with others, confirmed the excommunication previously pronounced by the Bishops assembled at Poitiers against Chrodield and the other nuns who had departed from the monastery of St. Radegund in the year 589. The rescript then sent by the Bishops assembled at Guntram's court was published by Gregory of Tours, book 9 of the History of the Franks, chapter 41.
[6] The body of St. Agricola is reported by Coquillius and Claude Robert to have been deposited in the parish church of St. Vincent, which formerly had an Abbey annexed to it and is now dedicated to St. Agricola.