ON ST. VIVENTIOLUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT LYONS IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 520.
A Collection on the cult, deeds, and age.
Viventiolus, Bishop and Confessor, at Lyons in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Bede is everywhere cited, as one who mentioned St. Viventiolus, under the name of Inventiolus, on this day; but that Bede is none other than the supposititious or Plantinian one, Known in several sacred Fasti, whose characteristic marks are recognizable: where he is added to the text of Ado, perhaps from Notker, who nevertheless rightly called him Viventiolus, and most probably borrowed him from Rabanus; for in both he is announced in the same words: At Lyons of Gaul, the deposition of Viventiolus the bishop: but elsewhere I have sufficiently shown that Notker chiefly transcribed the Martyrologies of Ado and Rabanus. To Rabanus therefore seems to be owed the first notice of the festivity, which whether it was rightly placed by him or wrongly, I do not define: perhaps as the year, so also the day is uncertain, of which among the people of Lyons no more certain notice is had than that which is suggested to us by Severtius concerning the Bishops of that city, from the inscription of the Nicetian church, carved on his subterranean tomb, which we shall here subjoin from him toward the end, which if it be not older than the year 1308, can scarcely make sufficient faith concerning the true day of death; but we easily suppose an older one, and that from that tomb it passed to others.
[2] For the rest, as regards the other ancient Martyrologists, Bede and Florus, also added to the Hieronymian ones. the Little Roman, Ado or Usuard, it is certain that St. Viventiolus was not marked by them, whom it is a wonder to read added to so many Hieronymian ones, even the minor ones, whence perhaps Rabanus himself received him, accustomed to transfer several Saints from that Martyrology into his own. In the additions of Bede from the Tournai codex, for Viventioli is written Vincentii, as also in the writers cited by Severtius, where also Viventii: better in the Barberini one, the already-given formula of announcement being everywhere kept, which is that of the supposititious Bede; and the same nearly passed also into the Usuardine supplements, of the Vatican one under number 5449, of the Lübeck-Cologne Edition, of Greven and Molanus, in some of which the name, as well as above,
is distorted. The Ms. Florarium, Galesinius, Ghinius, or other more recent ones I do not enumerate, since they everywhere sound the same, but the brief elogia of Galesinius and Ghinius contain nothing which need not be said more fully below. Let the announcement of the modern Roman suffice, not on the XII of June, as the ignorant Gallican Legendist erred, but on this day: At Lyons, of St. Viventiolus the bishop.
[3] The elogia of Saussay and Raynaud deserve to be added, to which we shall then add the things which the Sammarthani pursued at somewhat greater length concerning St. Viventiolus. The elogia of Saussay Thus the praised Saussay speaks: On the same day at Lyons, the deposition of St. Viventiolus, Bishop of that same metropolitan see and confessor, who, set over this noble church after St. Lupicinus, on account of the ornaments of his most eminent doctrine and sanctity, put forth the greatest lights of the pastoral office: and when also, for the sake of vindicating sacred discipline and repairing sincere piety, several assemblies of the Gallican church having been gathered, but signally the synod of Epaon, and also that of Meaux, he had been present as a bright star of sanctity and wisdom, he promoted the foundation of the Agaunian monastery, which at his exhortation the most pious King Sigismund issued, and set over its governance St. Ambrose, abbot of the island of Barbara, and had shown [and] leveled to his flock, by his most pure conversation and vigilant care, the way of the heavenly fatherland; he himself, seeking eternal rest, happily fell asleep in Christ, whom he had faithfully served through the whole course of his life.
[4] In style rather than in substance the things differ from this elogium which Raynaud commemorates concerning the same Saint in his Little Index of the Saints of Lyons, and of Raynaud asserting also that he is cited with praise in the Council of Meaux, and is held ascribed to the Council of Epaon, or Agaune, or as Ivo cites, of Hippo, that is of the equestrian Colony, not far from Belley. That Council was celebrated by the effort of the holy king Sigismund in the year of Christ 509, from which it is clear concerning the age and time of the see of this holy Bishop; whose name is held inserted in the sacred Roman tables and those of Bede on the XII of July. That he was a most learned man Massanius makes known, from Agobard affirming; of how great erudition St. Viventiolus was, his own and others' writings about him made attested. He is held subscribed to the foundation of the Agaunian monastery made by St. Sigismund the king, from which it is gathered that St. Ambrose was translated to Agaune by St. Viventiolus, concerning whom Ado on the II of November. Whether this is rightly gathered, I see is doubtful enough; nor is the foundation itself, whose instrument the Sammarthani produce, sufficiently indubitable. The other things in which Saussay as well as Raynaud err will be made manifest from what follows.
[5] somewhat more fully and elegantly Let the Sammarthani now be heard, who number St. Viventiolus as archbishop of Lyons in the 26th order, in a series somewhat different from others, for by Claude Robert he was placed 27th, by Severtius and others 29th: but to examine or restore these things more laboriously is not of this place. Thus they have it: St. Viventiolus was a friend of Avitus Bishop of Vienne and of Apollinaris prelate of Valence, to whom, while still a presbyter, Avitus augured the episcopate, epistle 17. For when, as Sirmond observes concerning him in the aforesaid notes, he had come to Lyons from the Jura desert, and had visited Apollinaris, brother of Avitus, the new bishop, sick there, he was zealous also to console Avitus himself, a messenger having been sent. For which reason he gives him thanks, and at the same time for a chair sent: in whose place he wishes him a cathedra, that is an episcopate, which afterward he obtained at Lyons. Avitus persuaded him by the same epistle, that he should take up the school of Eugendus, destitute of a rector, which is now the monastery of St. Claude, on Mount Jura, that, approved in the second grade of presbyter, he might be advanced to greater governance, that is to the first grade of Bishops.
[6] explained by the Sammarthani. And so the episcopate of Lyons, which had been augured to him, he at last obtained, as the epistle of Avitus 52 shows, "To Viventiolus the bishop." That he obtained this honor of the Chair, the councils also to which he subscribed show; that of Epaon in the year 517, and the first of Lyons under king Sigismund, which was celebrated, as it seems, in the same year, Viventiolus presiding, against Stephen, who by a nefarious daring associated himself with his kinswoman. He is cited also in canon 83 of the Council of Meaux, and is found subscribed to the foundation of the Agaunian monastery made by Sigismund. But when he had been invited by him to the festivity of the church of Lyons, he excuses himself in epistle 58, that from Vienne, on account of the coming of the Princes, he cannot be absent. For the solemnity of St. Justus was most celebrated, as Sidonius intimates, book 5, epistle 17. We had come together at the sepulcher of St. Justus, the procession had been before dawn, the solemnity annual, the people immense, whom the most capacious basilica could not hold. And as Sirmond rightly observes, in the same notes, from which here not a few things, the Bishops of neighboring sees were accustomed to invite one another to the celebrations of their cities, of which custom there is a distinguished example in Basil the Great, epistle 291, where to the annual day of the Martyrs of Cæsarea he invites not only the neighbors, but the Bishops of the whole Pontic diocese.
[7] Truly these things from the notes of Sirmond, whose also are the following words of the Sammarthani: Nor is there greater notice of the deeds of the Saint But of how exquisite doctrine Viventiolus was a man, we learn from Agobard, in the book on Jewish superstitions. Viventiolus, he says, bishop of the church of Lyons, of what doctrine he was, not only his own, but also others' writings about him testify. But neither of his own, nor of others' writings pertaining to him, do others survive, besides the epistles of Avitus just cited, to which can be added the other courteous ones 32, 60, and 64; from which nevertheless nothing is drawn out, by which the deeds of our holy Viventiolus could be greatly illustrated. For the rest, the things which have hitherto been collected from various sources receive not a little light from the Acts of St. Alcimus Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, already praised, on the V of February diligently weighed by Henschenius, where Avitus himself is reported to have designated St. Viventiolus, chosen from the flock of the presbyters of God, as bishop to the people of Lyons; and a little after is subjoined the history of the persecution which the holy Bishops suffered on account of the deserved penance inflicted on Stephen, concerning which the Council of Lyons itself in the Collection of Labbe can be seen. But these things are so common to all, that nowhere does anything occur concerning the singular Acts of St. Viventiolus; which is what is here especially sought by us.
[8] I had hoped that I would find an ampler notice of the deeds of St. Viventiolus in Severtius, it is found in Severtius, filling not a few rather long pages under his title; which when I unrolled more attentively, I at last obtained this, that I understood the burial of the Saint: for the rest he is wholly occupied in turning over very many things, which again suit all the Bishops of the Synod of Epaon and others, as well as St. Viventiolus. And especially the author laboriously inquires in what place the aforesaid Epaon or Epaon council was held, to which he ascribes four different epochs, though a single one of the year 517 suffices, as you have abundantly demonstrated in the preliminary Commentary on the cited Acts of St. Avitus, so that here it is not necessary to do what has been done. Nor need a new inquiry be instituted concerning Epaon, or rather Epaon the parish, which, sought in vain by Chifflet, Severtius, and others, you will find there most probably described, whatever concerning that place I have read even more recently disputed. But however these things be, to say it once for all, these things pertain no less to the other Bishops than to St. Viventiolus, whose Acts would that survived, or at least some monuments from which something could be established concerning his age, virtues, the beginning, duration, and end of his episcopate, or the certain year of his death; concerning which Severtius supplied nothing at all, nor was it permitted me to draw out anything from any other source: the year about 520 I received from Castellanus, who conjectures it probably enough. This alone now remains, that from the last paragraph of Severtius the burial of St. Viventiolus be subjoined.
[9] who mentions almost only the burial. But after these extraneous things, he says, we at last deservedly make our step to Viventiolus our archbishop; namely to his sepulcher, of whose inscription we began to speak above, and which he here testifies he unearthed from a Ms. copy, according to the metrical treatises begun on that matter under Rusticus the archflamen; in which nevertheless he does not recognize the metrical rules. After St. Rusticus and before Priscus, described thus, the epigraph had it: Likewise in another altar following was the tomb of Bl. Viventiolus, as appeared by the verses placed under it on the marble stone. A man mighty in merits and our Priest, in this tomb lies Viventiolus. The voice of the organ, the herald of the word, the ornament of the brethren of the Church, and a mirror to the peoples, he was, leaving no grade of the divine Office which he did not merit, and he bore it from the world: and a certain line which cannot be read. At Lyons, among the feasts of the Saints, let this too be to you a festive and most celebrated day. The approved bodies of two brothers rest, Prelates equal in merits, and co-heirs of Christ. Good Father, diadem of all Bishops, assent to our prayers, and being invoked remember us. And at the end of the tomb is written the IV of the Kalends of July, with which agrees the Calendar of the book of Prime. Thus far the text as Severtius relates it, truly disturbed and dislocated, to which in other letters he subjoins: Transcribed in the year 1308. Nothing more. Nor is there at hand for us anything to add to these. New conjectures concerning Epaon see in the Ephemerides of Trévoux in the year 1715 from page 232.
Annotations* Sacerdos (Priest)
* Antistites (Prelates)