ON ST. CADEOLDUS, OR EDALDUS, BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
Around the year of Christ 696.
CommentaryCadeoldus, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul (S.)
[1] St. Cadeoldus is recorded as having been the thirty-fourth Bishop of Vienne in Gaul. Concerning him, Ado in his Martyrology, the commonly received Bede, Molanus and the Carthusians of Cologne in their Additions to Usuard, Galesinius, and Ferrarius write: The feast of St. Cadeoldus, "At Vienne, of Cadeoldus the Bishop." Wion and Hugo Menard add: "and Confessor, a man of admirable sanctity and frugality." Dorganus also records him in the Benedictine Martyrology. His name is variously rendered: His name, for in the commonly received Ado he is Caœldus; in the MS. of St. Laurence of Liege, Caocoldus; in the MS. Florarium and the Bavarian MS. of Bede, Caeoldus; in the Carthusians of Cologne, Eoldus; in Molanus and the German Martyrology, Caldeoldus; in Claudius Robert, Caldeolus, Cadeolus, Edaldus; in Jean Chenu and Jean du Bosco in the Bibliotheca Floriacensis, Edaldus, Eualdus, Cadeoldus, Cadeolus; in Wion, Cadeoldus, Cadoldus, Caldeolus; in Antoine Démochares, Caldeolus and Landalenus; in the rest, Cadeoldus.
[2] An error has crept into the catalogue of Bishops of Vienne found in Démochares, Chenu, Robert, and du Bosco, where Edictus is said to have succeeded Sindulfus, His successor, Cadeoldus to have succeeded Edictus, then Dadolenus, Bobo, and George. Sindulfus was present at the Council of Reims under Sonnatius around the year of Christ 630; Landalenus at the Council of Chalon around 650. To Edictus, Pope Agatho or his successor Leo is said to have sent letters at the beginning of the year 682, as we said above in his life on January 10, no. 5. From this one may conclude that Landalenus, as Démochares maintained, is not the same person as Cadeoldus; or certainly that he did not succeed Edictus, but rather Dadolenus, called Dolinus, Dolomus, or Dodolinus by others, and that Dadolenus should seemingly be placed before Edictus. Saussay in his Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology on April 1 thinks that Dadolenus and Landalenus are the same person, as we shall say on that day; but on January 14 he writes that Cadeoldus succeeded Edictus.
[3] While Cadeoldus was administering the Church of Vienne, Justinian held power in the East, His era. and among the Franks Clovis, son of Dagobert, and Theodoric, as du Bosco writes; and St. Willibrord was consecrated Bishop by Pope Sergius, and Justinian was also deprived of the empire. But regarding Clovis he seems to err, for Clovis, son of Dagobert, died in the year 660, when Cadeoldus, Edictus's successor, had not yet attained the episcopate. He should rather have written Clovis III, son of Theodoric; for he was raised to the throne in the year of Christ 690, the sixth year of Justinian Rhinotmetus, and held it until 694, the seventh year of Pope Sergius, when Justinian was exiled with his nose cut off. In the following year, Willibrord was consecrated with the episcopal insignia by the same Sergius.
[4] Du Bosco recites this letter of Pope John V—who sat from July 22, 685, to August 2, 686—to Edaldus, or Caldeoldus: Relics of St. Paul sent to him by the Pope. "Bishop John to Edaldus, Archbishop of Vienne. Concerning the rites of the Mass, about which you inquired in your letters, let your charity know that they are performed differently in different Churches: for the Church of Alexandria does one thing, that of Jerusalem another, that of Ephesus another, and that of Rome another. Your Church, which received the foundation of its holy way of life from Rome, ought to observe its custom and institutes. We have sent you the use of the venerable pallium through your holy Presbyter Felix, not wishing to deprive you of the ancient gift of Blessed Peter; at the same time sending some of the hair of St. Paul, that his intercession might be a consolation to your Church—he through whose disciple it first received the honor of religion. May the blessing of the Apostles guard you from the shower of the wicked." The disciple of St. Paul whom the Pontiff here commemorates as the first herald of the Gospel among the people of Vienne is St. Crescens, of whom we shall treat on December 29 and June 27. Jean Chenu says that Pope John sent precious gifts to Cadeoldus—namely, the relics of St. Paul the Apostle. As for his statement that Cadeoldus subscribed to the Council of Chalon, as also Wion reports, we have already said this seems less probable. Ferrarius, on January 19 in his Notes, holds this letter to be from Pope John IV, who sat from the year 639 to October 2, 641.
[5] Wion says: "From a monk and Abbot of Grimane, as is recorded in the life of St. Clarus the Abbot in Surius, volume 1, he was made Bishop of Vienne." Chenu also says: Whether he was a monk. "A monk of the Order of St. Benedict and Abbot of Grimon at Vienne, he was appointed successor to St. Edictus in the bishopric of Vienne." Saussay reports the same. In the life of St. Clarus, January 1, chapter 2, no. 3, the following is found: "At that time the vigorous and God-pleasing Bishop of the Church of Vienne was Cadoldus. The monasteries both of men and of nuns living under holy profession, which he governed with pious strictness, both within the city and outside its walls, were principally these: the monasteries of Grignane, founded by the holy Bishops of the city; in the largest of which the bones of the most blessed Martyr Ferreolus were venerated. The convent of the Blessed Virgin Columba, having thirty nuns." And after several more are enumerated: "Other venerable habitations of Saints living in community, numbering about sixty, situated quite properly under the care of the Bishop in the diocese of Vienne." From this no one could conclude that he was a monk, unless it were attested elsewhere—still less that he was Abbot of Grignane rather than of St. Peter, St. Marcellus, St. Vincent, or some other of the monasteries there enumerated. As for what Saussay writes—that Cadeoldus built some of these monasteries and nourished them all—this cannot be inferred from the life of St. Clarus; but it can be that he fostered and governed them all with the greatest piety and singular prudence.
[6] Jean du Bosco writes that St. Cadeoldus died on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February; on which day Ferrarius records: "At Vienne in Gaul, of St. Edaldus the Bishop." The rest assign him to the nineteenth day before the Kalends of February. Another Eoaldus, or Euoldus, was Bishop of the same Church, of whom we shall treat on July 7.