ON ST. EOALD, BISHOP
OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 715.
A Collection on the Saint's name, age, cult, and elogia.
Eoald, Bishop, at Vienne in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Of St. Cadeold, or Edald, Bishop of Vienne, thirty-fourth in order, Bolland treated long since on the fourteenth of January, where he adduces very many formations of the name, so akin to our St. Eoald, namely Evald, Edald, Eold, that doubts arose whether that one should not be confounded with the present-day one, The Saint nearly synonymous with another Bishop of Vienne, who in Ado's Chronicle is called Eold, in his Martyrology Evold, sometimes Eoold, elsewhere Fold, just as the Martyrology of Canisius confounded them. But each is distinguished well enough by the express series of the praised Ado in his Chronicle, where Caldeold is placed as successor of Heidicus, and between him and the present-day Eoald, Dodolenus, Bobolinus, Georgius, Deodatus, and Blidramnus are plainly reported; however brief their governments must have been, namely from the year 696 to 718, in which Eold was already held Bishop of Vienne, and had then been so for some years, if the epistle of Pope Constantine to him, to be recited below, is true. The brothers of Sainte-Marthe place him fortieth in order after Claude Robert, Agratus, or Algratus, being rejected, whom Chenu numbers forty-first, placing our Saint in the forty-second place. The catalogue of Demochares is more imperfect. For Agratus stand Bosc in the Library of Fleury, Le Lièvre, and Chorier: but since he seems to have been altogether unknown to Ado, the negative authority of the latter in this part far prevails over those more recent ones, who describe things from one another, so long as from certain monuments, which are to be compared with Ado's Chronicle, the existence of that Agratus for that time is not proved. The Appendix to Ado's Martyrology, where on the fourteenth of October Agratus is mentioned, has not yet proved it.
[2] However many I have already mentioned who wrote of the Bishops of Vienne, in what year and for how long he sat is not defined certainly enough: no one has thus far arranged their exact chronological series. The age of Cadeold Bolland had brought back, from Ado's Chronicle, to the year 696, marked there by I know not whom, wherefore I have already said that many Bishops sat at Vienne in a short time, even while to the year 718, marked in the same Chronicle, the beginnings of St. Eoald were placed. Meanwhile, if all things be rightly considered, the Saint seems not only not then to have received the fillets, but not even to have reached that year. St. Eoald is interposed in Ado between two epochs not unknown. The first gather from the words of the Chronicle page 207: Charles son of Pepin, of another wife, when he was held captive by Plectrude, formerly wife of Pepin, by the help of the Lord escaped. These mark the year 715, and then, says the Chronicle, Eold was already held Bishop of Vienne. In passing I observe that the Emperor Leo is not rightly inserted in that place in the same Chronicle. A little after, having narrated the things which regard the Saint, he adds: King Dagobert, reigning five years, died. These lead us to the year 716, to which, at most, the death of St. Eoald can be deferred. I confess again that the periods of so many episcopates are very brief; but since from Ado's Chronicle nothing more certain can be drawn, these are to be adhered to thus far, until more distinct things be drawn out. And even so we prolong the episcopate of our Saint further than Bosc, Le Lièvre, and Chorier dared in the political state of the Dauphiné, book 1, page 203; of whom the latter attaches the entrance of St. Eoald to the year 710, determining nothing expressly about his death: but since he establishes Austrebertus, the second Bishop from our Saint, in the year 718, it is clear that he too vehemently compresses the times, and so, with the common opinion of the people of Vienne, consigns the death to the year 714. Our reckoning comes nearer to Henschenius, where on the twenty-sixth of May he tries to define the age of St. Bobolinus, who succeeded our Saint; namely through those shadows which up to now we have tried in vain to dispel.
[3] more certain is his cult: More certain are the monuments which exist concerning the Saint's cult. Him first the praised Ado reported into the Martyrology, rendered by himself a little fuller at Vienne, such as neither Usuard nor Notker saw, in these words: At Vienne, of Euold the Bishop, by whose industry the relics of the holy Martyrs of Thebes were brought to the city of Vienne; which same words we have described in the Usuardine Auctaria on the sixth of July from the Brussels codex, on which day he had to be placed among the Passed-Over. In the present-day auctaria he is also marked, and by other more recent ones is everywhere reported, but the source being shown, we neglect all those rivulets. More sparing than usual is Saussay in the Supplement: At Vienne, St. Evold the fortieth,
restorer of the metropolitan church under the name of St. Maurice. The Breviary of Vienne, printed in the year 1522, prescribes that the Saint's memory be kept in the Octave of the Apostles: Of St. Cold (for Eoald), Bishop of Vienne, Confessor, let it be done tomorrow, as in the common of one confessor. Prayer: Grant, we beseech, Almighty. In the Martyrology of the church of Vienne, and in the series of the Saints of the metropolis of the Allobroges, which exist among us in manuscript, he is adorned with this elogium: At Vienne, the birthday of St. Eoald, Confessor and forty-first Archbishop of Vienne. He, surnamed the great, born of the noble stock of the Kings of the Franks, gave a great specimen of his nobility, piety, and doctrine. For when he had attained the summit of the archbishopric of Vienne, he adorned his church with sumptuous buildings and relics; especially of the blessed Maurice and of his Theban legion, which he solemnly dedicated to the honor of the same most blessed Maurice and of his Theban fellow-martyrs. To whom Pope Constantine in the year 713 transmitted through the Archdeacon of Vienne a notable epistle, with a certain case, containing sacred relics, especially of the blessed Maurice. He himself at last died at Vienne, full of miracles and good works, in the year 714, on the Nones of July, and was laid in the greater church. His feast day is celebrated on the very Nones.
[4] nor are ancient elogia lacking. These things were culled from the above-praised Chronicle of Ado and from the epistle of Pope Constantine (he sat from the year 708 to 714), which Bosc brings forward, a faithful, I think, investigator of such monuments. Both I subjoin in their purity. Thus has Ado page 208: Then the holy Bishop Eoald increased the church of Vienne with goods. For he was a kinsman of the Kings of the Franks, and he also, within the city, in honor of the blessed Theban martyrs, Maurice and his companions, built a little house in the manner of a crypt, and there placed a not moderate part of the relics, whether of these Martyrs or of others. And from that time the goods of the church are titled under the name of the blessed Maurice, whereas of old the greater house too was in honor of the seven Maccabee martyrs, and the possessions of the same church, under their name, were offered by the faithful, and remained consecrated. Here I do not read that which Bosc and those more recent hand down, a basilica built in honor of the Theban martyrs by St. Eoald. Now hear the letters of Pope Constantine: Constantine the Bishop, to Eoald, Archbishop of Vienne. The relics of thy church, as thou didst ask, I have destined through thy Archdeacon: of the sponge of the Lord, of the garments of the Lord: of the chains of the Apostles, of the brazen frying-pan of the Maccabees, of the ashes of St. John the Baptist. All which we have shut up in a silver box, and under seal transmitted to thy Sanctity. We ask that they be venerated with that zeal with which they are known to have been transmitted to thy sanctity from the gift of the blessed Peter. And in another hand: May Jesus Christ, Brother, guard thee by sanctifying thee. It is a wonder that the composer of the above elogium found in that box relics of St. Maurice, which certainly were not to be fetched from Rome. But these and other things of this kind we readily pardon those writers, provided the things which we have thus far reported stand well enough.