Eucherius (c. 380c. 449) was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian church in

Roman Gaul Roman Gaul refers to GaulThe territory of Gaul roughly corresponds to modern-day France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and adjacent parts of the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century B ...

. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. From 439, he served as

Archbishop of Lyon The Archdiocese of Lyon (; ), formerly the Archdiocese of Lyon–Vienne–Embrun, is a Latin Church metropolis (religious jurisdiction), metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The archbishops of Lyon are also called Primate o ...

, and Henry Wace ranked him "the most distinguished occupant of that see" after

Irenaeus Irenaeus ( or ; ; ) was a Greeks, Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christianity, Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by oppos ...

. He is venerated as a

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

within the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

and the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Life

Eucherius was married to a Gallo-Roman woman named Galla. They had two sons: Veranus and

Salonius Salonius (c. 400 – 28 September 475) known as Salonius of Geneva was a confessor and bishop of the 5th century. He was a son of Eucherius of Lyon and Galla. He was educated at Lérins Abbey, first by Hilary of Arles, then by Salvianus and ...

, who were born c.400. According to some sources, they also had two daughters, Consortia and Tullia. After their sons were born, Eucherius suggested that they adopt a more ascetic life together.Antelmy, J. (1726). Assertio pro unico S. Eucherio Lugdunensi episcopo. Auctore Jos. Antelmio,... Opus posthumum. Accedit concilium Regiense sub Rostagno metrop. Aquensi, anni MCCLXXXV. Nunc primo prodit integrum, & Notis illustratum operâ Car. Antelmii: apud Ant. Claudium Briasson.
/ref> Galla and Eucherius' marriage evolved to a 'marriage of friendship' like others undertaken by other religious figures such as Paulinus and

Therasia of Nola Therasia Floruit, (fl. 381 - 408–10) was a Christian aristocrat from Spain. Through her marriage to Paulinus of Nola, she encouraged his conversion to Christianity and was influential in the early church, co-writing epistles and co-patron of th ...

. The family practised "unwealth" - where life was restricted to the minimum in order to support prayer and devotion. On the death of his wife Galla, as was common in the 5th century, Eucherius withdrew with his sons, Veranus and

, to the monastery of Lérins for a time. Both sons were later sent to visit Paulinus of Nola. There he lived a severely simple life of study, devoting himself to the education of his sons. Soon afterwards he withdrew further, to the neighbouring island of Lerona (now

Île Sainte-Marguerite Île Sainte-Marguerite (; , ) is the largest of the Lérins Islands, about half a mile offshore from the French Riviera city of Cannes, situated in the Bay of Cannes. The island is approximately in length (east to west) and across (north to so ...

), where he devoted his time to study and

mortification of the flesh Mortification may refer to: *Mortification (theology), theological doctrine *Mortification of the flesh, religious practice of corporal mortification *Mortification in Roman Catholic teaching, Roman Catholic doctrine of mortification *Extreme emb ...

. With the thought that he might join the

anchorites In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress); () is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. Anchorites are frequ ...

in the deserts of the East, he consulted

John Cassian John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman (, ''Ioannes Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; Greek: Ίωάννης Κασσιανός ό Ερημίτης; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated ...

, the famed hermit who had arrived from the East in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

. Cassian dedicated the second set of his ''Collationes'' (nos. 11–17) to Eucherius and

Honoratus Honoratus (; – 6 January 429) was the founder of Lérins Abbey who later became an early Archbishop of Arles. He is honored as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Life Honoratus was born in the north of Gaul to a consular ...

, the founder of Lérins. These describe the daily lives of the hermits of the Egyptian Thebaid and discuss the important themes of grace, free will and scripture. Though imitating the ascetic lifestyle of the Egyptian hermits, Eucherius kept in touch with men renowned for learning and piety: Cassian, Honoratus,

Hilary of Arles Hilary of Arles, also known by his Latin name Hilarius (c. 403–449), was a bishop of Arles in Southern France. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, with 5 May being his feast day. Life In his e ...

Claudianus Mamertus Claudianus Ecdidius Mamertus (died c. 473 AD) was a Gallo-Roman theologian and the younger brother of Saint Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne. Biography Descended probably from one of the leading families of the country, Claudianus Mamertus relinquishe ...

, Agroecius (who dedicated a book to him) and

Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Born into the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, he was son-in-law to Emperor Avitus and was appointed Urb ...

. The fame of Eucherius was soon so widespread in southeastern Gaul that he was chosen bishop of Lyon. This was probably in 434. It is certain, at least, that he attended the first council of Orange as metropolitan of Lyon in 441, and that he retained this dignity until his death. He was succeeded in the bishopric by his son Veranus, while Salonius became

Bishop of Geneva The Diocese of Geneva was a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese in part of Switzerland and Savoy from 400 to 1801, when it merged with the Diocese of Chambéry. The merged diocese was later broken up, due to changes in national bo ...

Works

Around 428, Eucherius wrote his epistolary essay ''De laude eremi'' ("in praise of the desert"), addressed to Hilary of Arles. His ''Liber formularum spiritalis intelligentiae'', addressed to his son Veranus, is a defence of the lawfulness of allegorical readins of the Bible, bringing to bear the metaphors in

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

and such phrases as "the hand of God." The term ''

anagoge Anagoge (ἀναγωγή), sometimes spelled anagogy, is a Greek word suggesting a climb or ascent upwards. The anagogical is a method of mystical or spiritual interpretation of statements or events, especially scriptural exegesis, that detects ...

'' (ἀναγωγὴ) is employed for the application of Scripture to the heavenly Jerusalem to come, and there are other examples of what would become classic medieval hermeneutics. Among Eucherius' other letters are his ''Institutiones ad Salonium'', addressed to his other son, and a letter to Faustus of Lérins describing his pilgrimage to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

.John Wilkinson, ''Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades'' (Ariel Publishing House, 1977), pp. 3–4 Eucherius' ''Epistola paraenetica ad Valerianum cognatum, de contemptu mundi'' ("Epistle of exhortation to his kinsman Valerian, On the contempt of the world") is an expression of the despair for the present and future of the world in its last throes shared by many educated men of

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, with hope for a world to come.

Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

thought so highly of its Latin style that he edited and published it at Basel (1520).

Notes

References

*Salvator Pricoco, 1965. ''Eucherii De Laude eremi'' (University of Catania) This edition establishes the best, most recent Latin text. * Bishop of Tours Gregory, Historia Francorum (The History of the Franks) (London, England: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1974). *Ford Mommaerts-Browne, "A Speculation", http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-ANCIENT/2004-03/1079586413. *

, The Letters of Sidonius (Oxford: Clarendon, 1915) (orig.), pp. clx–clxxxiii; List of Correspondents, Notes, V.ix.1. *K. Pollmann, "Poetry and Suffering: Metrical Paraphrases of Eucherius of Lyons’ Passio Acaunensium Martyrum," in Willemien Otten and Karla Pollmann (eds), ''Poetry and Exegesis in Premodern Latin Christianity: The Encounter between Classical and Christian Strategies of Interpretation'' (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007) (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 87). * (full English translation of ''De laude eremi'', in Appendix III)

External links

* Henry Wace
Eucherius
''A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature''
Edgar Henneke in ''The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge'':
Eucherius

(in English, translated by

Henry Vaughan Henry Vaughan (17 April 1621 – 23 April 1695) was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. His religious poetry appeared in ''Silex Scintillans'' in 1650, with a second part in 1655.''Oxfo ...

, 1654)
''De laude eremi''
(in Latin) at

The Latin Library The Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. It is run by William L. Carey, adjunct professor of Latin and Roman Law at George Mason University. The texts have been drawn from different sources, are not intended for rese ...

* ''De laude eremi'' (Latin Wikisource) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eucherius Of Lyon 380 births 449 deaths 5th-century bishops in Gaul Bishops of Lyon French Christian monks Gallo-Roman saints 5th-century writers in Latin 5th-century Christian saints Year of death uncertain Letter writers in Latin