Domninus of Vienne

ON ST. DOMNINUS OF VIENNE, BISHOP IN GAUL,

SIXTH CENTURY.

Domninus, bishop of Vienne in Gaul. (S.)

C. D. S.

Of this bishop Ado of Vienne in his Chronicle at the year 527: The bishop of Vienne Dominus (so he calls him) flourished. The memory of St. Domninus, preserved in Ado and in the martyrologies, He was renowned as much in divine as in secular arts, a lover of the poor, a redeemer of captives, and most approved in life Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, volume II, p. 317.. He is recorded thence, at the 3rd day of November, with the name variously altered, in not a few martyrologies, namely in the Leiden codex of the Hieronymian recently published by us: At Vienne, of Dominus, bishop; in a certain codex of the Adonian, but in a more recent hand: At Vienne, of St. Teoninus, bishop and confessor, and in the appendix of the same Adonian in Giorgi's edition: At Vienne, of St. Domninus, confessor and glorious bishop; in the Lübeck-Cologne edition of the Usuardian: At Vienne, of St. Dominianus, glorious bishop and confessor, and in the edition of Greven: At Vienne, of St. Domninus, bishop and confessor; finally in the more recent Roman:

At Vienne, of St. Domnus, bishop and confessor. To which are added Saussay, Castellano and the martyrologies of Paris, Auxerre and Évreux published in the last century.

[2] and also in a certain For all who besides have consigned anything to writing about St. Domninus [Cited in Leblant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle, volume II, p. 55, n. 405. To which add B. Hauréau, Gallia Christiana, volume XVI, p. 23.], even for Ado, whether directly or through other intermediate documents, the one source seems to have been a certain contemporary inscription, which they commonly suppose to have been his epitaph, yet more correctly, with the distinguished Edmond Leblant Volume cited, p. 56., you will conclude that it was set up while Domninus himself was still living, from the word pauper which is read in the title and from the words offert, with which the second verse ends, and ministrat at the end of the next to last, and from the whole of the last: whether this was done by the agency of those who had been benefited by him or redeemed from captivity, or by the zeal of some noble man, a devotee and chief intimate of the saint, or perhaps also by decree of a public magistrate, to show gratitude in the name of the whole community, because the bishop (for this seems to be indicated by this elogium) lavished all his private property on foundations and pious works.

[3] perhaps contemporary with him Nicolas Chorier says Recherches sur les antiquités de la ville de Vienne, p. 293. that this inscription no longer exists, but is found only copied in old cartularies. John a Bosco (du Boys) first published it among the Antiquities of Vienne Bibliotheca Floriacensis, p. 34., and from him the distinguished Edmond Leblant took it Volume cited, p. 56., indicating that there was very suspect to him the dedication subjoined to the inscription in the papers of John a Bosco in the name of a certain Flavius (so the editor emended the word flaminis which was read in his apograph) Lacanius, a consular man, and besides that the name of this Flavius does not occur in the consular fasti, and that he must accordingly be reckoned of the number of those to whom the honour of the fasces was customarily granted either from nobility of family or from the favour of the emperors. These things having been noted beforehand, we now set the inscription itself under the eyes of readers; which they will easily observe is not without errors.

DOMINUS PAPA, IN NOMINE CHRISTI PAUPER EPISCOPUS.

Domninus res suas Deo qui mente devota

Omnigenam Christo dignis virtutibus offert,

Mente castus et lege pius, facundia dives,

Nescius injusti, doctusque rescindere culpas,

Intemerata fide divina in sede locandus,

Nil proprium possidens redemit quos possidet hostis,

Vestitum, pastum, potum tectumque ministrat.

Solus eris jussu Domini data morte superstes.

Ex voto Flavius Lacanius vir consularis cum suis fecit de proprio basilicam, secretaria atque porticum.

[Lord Pope, in the name of Christ a poor bishop. Domninus, who with devoted mind offers his goods to God, offers to Christ every kind of worthy virtue, chaste in mind and pious in law, rich in eloquence, knowing nothing of injustice and skilled at cutting away faults, to be set with unblemished faith on a divine seat, possessing nothing of his own he redeemed those whom the enemy possesses; he supplies clothing, food, drink and shelter. You alone will survive, by the Lord's command, the death that is given. By vow Flavius Lacanius, a consular man, with his family made at his own expense the basilica, the sacristies and the portico.]

[5] but wholly obliterated in his own church. Of the relics of St. Dominus I have found nothing noted anywhere, nor, apart from what was cited above from the martyrologies Number 1., anything of his cult. And what you may wonder at more, in the Breviary of the province of Vienne printed in the last century Grenoble 1783. there is indicated on the 7th day of November an office with a proper lesson of the second Nocturn of that Domninus of Grenoble who in the year 381 in the Council of Aquileia condemned Palladius the Arian and who is also reported to have died on the 3rd day of November Gallia Christiana, volume XVI, p. 219.; but of St. Domninus of Vienne not only is no proper office inserted, but not even among the Holy Bishops of the Province of Vienne, whose common feast was kept on the 3rd day of November, seven of whom are distinctly listed in lesson VI, is Domninus cited. But neither in the more recent calendar and Proper of the church of Grenoble Edition of the year 1868., to which the church of Vienne is now joined, is any mention held of St. Domninus of Vienne, but only of the one of Grenoble.