Hesychius I (bishop of Vienne)

Saint Hesychius or Isicius (French: Isice or Hésychius; died c. 490) was a bishop of Vienne in the Dauphiné, France. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Life

Origins

Hesychius or Isicius (occasionally also Isique^[1] or Ysile^[2]) is mentioned in the first extant list of the bishops of Vienne, the Catalogue of bishop Ado of Vienne (799-875)^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

He married Audentia, with whom he had two sons, Avitus, his successor in the episcopal seat of Vienne, and Apollinaris of Valence, who became bishop of Valence.^[1]^[7] He was apparently related to Sidonius Apollinaris,^[7] prefect of Rome and later bishop of Clermont.

According to the historian Bernard Bligny (1979), Hesychius belonged to "one of the principal Gallo-Roman families of 'Bourgogne', the Hesychii, a branch of the Syagrii", of whom several members were bishops of Vienne (three) and Grenoble (four).^[8]

Episcopacy

According to tradition, confirmed at least in part by the historian Ulysse Chevalier in his Notice chronologico-historique sur les archevêques de Vienne (1879), Hesychius was a senator before governing the diocese of Vienne.^[1]^[3] The Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse states that he was descended from a family of the senatorial nobility and was closely related to the Emperor Avitus.^[7]

In his Chronique (VI) Bishop Ado mentions Hesychius as the reigning bishop when Saint Severus of Vienne dedicated a church in Vienne at the time of the death of Saint Germanus of Auxerre.^[5]^[3] Lucas however maintains that whereas the dedication must have taken place in 448 and Severus' death in 450, Hesychius' episcopacy was later, probably between 475 and 490.^[6]

Hesychius seems to have died in about 490;^[3] his son Avitus succeeded him as bishop of Vienne.^[7]

Cultus

Saint Hesychius occurs in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum under the date of 16 March.^[5]^[3] (The website Nominis.cef.fr gives for Saint Ysile the date of 15 March).^[2] He is also celebrated in the diocese of Grenoble-Vienne on 1 July , together with Saint Martin and all the bishop saints of Vienne.^[9]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Charvet 1761, p. 807.
^ ^a ^b Nominis.cef.fr: Saint Ysile
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Chevalier 1879, p. 7.
^ Duchesne 1894, p. 146.
^ ^a ^b ^c Duchesne 1894, p. 186.
^ ^a ^b Lucas 2018, pp. 247–270.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse: Avit (saint) by Catherine Santschi
^ Bligny 1979, p. 22.
^ Diocèse de Grenoble-Vienne: Histoire

Sources

Bligny, Bernard (1979). Histoire des diocèses de France:Grenoble (in French). Vol. 12. Paris: Éditions Beauchesne. p. 22.
Charvet, Claude (1761). Histoire de la sainte église de Vienne (in French). Lyon: Chez C. Cizeron.
Chevalier, Ulysse (1879). Notice chronologico-historique sur les archevêques de Vienne: d'après des documents paléographiques inédits (in French). Vienne: E.-J. Savigné.
Duchesne, Louis (1894). Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule. Provinces du Sud-Est (tome premier) (in French). Paris: Thorin et fils.
Lucas, Gérard (2018). "Adon de Vienne, Chronique, especially the 'Tableau récapitulatif de la liste des évêques de Vienne jusqu'à Avit'". Vienne dans les textes grecs et latins: Chroniques littéraires sur l'histoire de la cité, des Allobroges à la fin du Ve siècle de notre ère (in French). MOM Éditions. p. 247-270. ISBN 9782356681850.