Saint Eucherius of Lyon

Eucherius (c. 380 – c. 449) was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian church in Roman Gaul. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. From 439, he served as Archbishop of Lyon, and Henry Wace ranked him "the most distinguished occupant of that see" after Irenaeus. He is venerated as a saint within the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Eucherius was married to a Gallo-Roman woman named Galla. They had two sons: Veranus and Salonius, 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. Galla and Eucherius's marriage evolved to a 'marriage of friendship' like others undertaken by other religious figures such as Paulinus and Therasia of Nola. 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 Salonius, 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), where he devoted his time to study and mortification of the flesh. With the thought that he might join the anchorites in the deserts of the East, he consulted John Cassian, the famed hermit who had arrived from the East in Marseille. Cassian dedicated the second set of his Collationes (nos. 11–17) to Eucherius and Honoratus, 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.