Saint Avitus of Vienne

Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus (c. 450 – February 5, 517/518 or 519) was a Latin poet and bishop of Vienne in Gaul. His fame rests in part on his poetry, but also on the role he played as secretary for the Burgundian kings. Avitus was born of a prominent Gallo-Roman senatorial family related to Emperor Avitus. His father was Hesychius, bishop of Vienne, where episcopal honors were informally hereditary. His paternal grandfather was a western Roman emperor whose precise identity is not known. Apollinaris of Valence was his younger brother; their sister Fuscina became a nun. Avitus was probably born at Vienne, for he was baptized by bishop Mamertus. About 490 he was ordained bishop of Vienne. In 499 Vienne was captured by Gundobad, king of the Burgundians, who was at war with Clovis, king of the Franks, where he came to the attention of that king. Avitus, as metropolitan of southern and eastern Gaul, took the lead in a conference between the Catholic and Arian bishops held in presence of Gundobad at Sardiniacum near Lyon. He won the confidence of King Gundobad, and converted his son, King Sigismund to Catholicism. A letter of Pope Hormisdas to Avitus records that he was made vicar apostolic in Gaul by that pontiff; and in 517 he presided in this capacity at the Council of Epaon for restoring ecclesiastical discipline in Gallia Narbonensis. Avitus appears also to have exerted himself to terminate the dispute between the churches of Rome and Constantinople which arose out of the excommunication of Acacius; his later letters suggest that this was accomplished before his death. Upon his death, Avitus was buried in the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul at Vienne.