ON SAINT BOBOLINUS
BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
ABOUT DCCXVIII
A Collection of the cultus & age of the Saint: more recent Eulogies.
Bobolinus, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul (St.)
G. H.
There were two among the Bishops of Vienne called Bobolinus, both numbered among the Saints. Of these the first, also called Bobo, is venerated XIV June, Sacred cultus. but the second on this XXVI May; on which day his veneration is prescribed in the Breviary of Vienne struck in the year MDXXII, & the Ecclesiastical Office is taken from the Common of a Confessor Pontiff, with the Collect, Grant we beseech. The time of his See is indicated by Ado, The time of his See. with his predecessor & successor, & the wars then waged in Gaul, in this manner. King Chilperic & Ragamfrid seek Duke Eudo for help: against whom Charles Martel intrepid proceeds. Eudo by fleeing reaches Paris. Chilperic the treasures being taken across the Loire into Aquitaine snatched himself. King Chlothar, namely of the Austrasians, in that year died. That is of Christ DCCXVIII. These things being set is subjoined: After Eoldus the Bishop Bobolinus succeeded Bishop of Vienne. To him Ostrebertus a strenuous & noble man succeeds Bishop. Of these Eoldus (to others Euoldus & Eoaldus) is venerated VII July, & Ostrebertus (to others Austrebertus) V June. To him wrote an Epistle Pope Gregory II, given the day before the Kalends of September in the third year of Leo the Isaurian, therefore in the year of Christ DCCXIX: accordingly before that year S. Bobolinus had migrated to the heavenly life. John a Bosco in the Antiquities of Vienne says, that S. Babolinus presided Bishop of Vienne under the Emperor Leo & King Dagobert. This is Dagobert III, who as a boy & young man died in the year DCCXV, at which time Leo the Isaurian was not yet Emperor, created XXV March in the year DCCXVII. Yet S. Bobolinus could have flourished under each in his Episcopal dignity.
[2] The Acts are wanting. In the Ms. Martyrology of the Church of Vienne, which we received renewed by the zeal & labor of John Lievré, this eulogy is contained: The eulogy of Lievré, At Vienne the birthday of S. Bobolinus the Confessor & Archbishop the XLII. He governing his Church under Dagobert II King of the Franks, Leo II the Isaurian the heretic reigning, at length after labors & innumerable sweats, illustrious for miracles, exchanged death with life, laid up in his metropolitan Church. Saussay, in the Supplement of the Gallican Martyrology, composed for him this Encomium: At Vienne the deposition of S. Bobolinus, Bishop of that metropolitan city & Confessor, by name the second, who in the time of King Dagobert sitting, the souls entrusted to him, by the examples of the heavenly life which he bore on earth, he formed; & a path being smoothed through pure footsteps to eternal felicity, departing from the wrestling-place of virtue & the care of pastoral vigilance, into the assembly of the glory of the white-robed was assumed. & of Saussay. These things Saussay, which can be said of every holy Bishop. The memory of the same is inscribed in Ferrarius's general Catalogue of Saints, likewise in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Vienne collected by Demochares, John Chenu, Claude Robert, the Sammarthani, & John Lievré. But Nicolas Chorier in the Archbishops of Vienne, published in tome 1 of the Political State of Dauphiné Chapter XI, omits this Second Bobolinus: & asserts the first Bobolinus or Bobo to have died on this XXVI May, which day he adds is consecrated to him in the Church of Vienne. But these things are to be received of the second Bobolinus, since the other is venerated XIV June.