ST. ALCIMUS ECDITIUS AVITUS was of a senatorian Roman family, but born
in Auvergne. His father, Isychius, was chosen archbishop of Vienne upon
the death of St. Mammertus, and was succeeded in that dignity by our
saint, in 490. Ennodius, in his life of St. Epiphanius of Pavia, says of
him, that he was a treasure of learning and piety; and adds, that when
the Burgundians had crossed the Alps, and carried home many captives out
of Liguria, this holy prelate ransomed a great number. Clovis, king of
France, while yet a pagan, and Gondebald, king of Burgundy, though an
Arian, held him in great veneration. This latter, for fear of giving
offence to his subjects, durst not embrace the Catholic faith, yet gave
sufficient proofs that he was convinced of the truth by our saint, who,
in a public conference, reduced the Arian bishops to silence in his
presence, at Lyons. Gondebald died in 516. His son and successor,
Sigismund, was brought over by St. Avitus to the Catholic faith. In 517,
our saint presided in the famous council of Epaone, (now called Yenne,)
upon the Rhone, in which forty canons of discipline were framed. When
king Sigismund had imbrued his hands in the blood of his son Sigeric,
upon a false charge brought against him by a stepmother, St. Avitus
inspired him with so great a horror of his crime, that he rebuilt the
abbey of Agaunum, or St. Maurice, became a monk, and died a saint. Most
of the works of St. Avitus are lost: we have yet his poem on the praises
of virginity, to his sister Fuscina, a nun, and some others; several
epistles; two homilies On the Rogation days; and a third on the same,
lately published by Dom Martenne;[1] fragments of eight other homilies;
his conference against the Arians is given us in the Spicilege.[2] St.
Avitus died in 525, and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the
5th of February; and in the collegiate church of our Lady at Vienne,
where he was buried, on the 20th of August. Ennodius, and other writers
of that age, extol his learning, his extensive charity to the poor, and
his other virtues. See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. l. 2. His works, and
his life in Henschenius;[3] and Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 242.
Footnotes:
1. Martenne Thesaur. Anecdot. t. 5, p. 49.
2. Spicil. t. 5.
3. F. Sirmond published the works of St. Avitus, with judicious short
notes, in 8vo., 1643. See them in Sirmond's works, t. 2, and Bibl.
Patr. His close manner of confuting the Arians in some of his
letters, makes us regret the loss of many other works, which he
wrote against them.