Saint Patient of Lyon

The greatness and solidity of our holy prelate's virtue appeared no less in all his other actions. He knew how to combine the rules of abstinence with those of propriety, which obliged him to receive well those who presented themselves at his table. This wise temperament served him in winning the hearts of those he sought to draw to God. Thus, King Gundobad, son of Chilpe roi Gondebaud Uncle of Clotilde, King of the Burgundians, murderer of Chilperic. ric and uncle of Saint Clotilde, who resided in his city, was accustomed to praising the meals he provided, and the queen would speak with admiration of his sobriety and his fasts. Everything grew under his hand in the house of the Lord over which he had stewardship; only the number of heretics diminished day by day, through the application he brought to converting them. The Burgundians, masters o f the countr Bourguignons Germanic people settled in the Lyon region. y, were Arians by sect, and most followed the impieties of the Photinians, who had pushed Arianism to the furthest extremes. Saint Patient brought a great number of them back to the Catholic Church through the strength of his preaching and the gentleness of the conduct he maintained toward them.

Our Saint built new churches; others were restored and embellished under his care. It is to him, in particular, that the construction of the primitive church of Saint-Irénée is attributed, as well as the transformation into a rich sanctuary of the grotto where Saint Zacharias had deposited the bodies of the glorious Martyrs. An ancient inscription, preserved by the Bollandists, and which was read before the 16th century on the mosaic floor of this sanctuary, leaves no doubt in this regard: "Here, under one roof, are built two temples of which Patient was the founder. A ray of light coming from above illuminates the bodies of the martyrs, once buried in a deep grotto. The lower sanctuary shines, while the top of the edifice rises with majesty into the air. He walks surely toward heaven who prepares for Christ, on earth, such magnificent dwellings." This was indeed that crypt, remarkable for the richness of its ornaments, of which historians have left us a description, and which, later, was indignantly profaned and almost entirely destroyed by the Calvinists.

But nothing equals the magnificence of the restorations he carried out at the main Basilica of the Maccabees, if indeed, as the text of Saint Sidonius seems to imply, he did not rebuild it entirely. The solemnity of the dedication lasted eight days, during which Faustus, Bishop of Riez, famous for his oratorical talent, was heard frequently.

Saint Patient had two other churches built, those of Saint-Romain and Saint-Pierre le Vieux. The former occupied the place where, according to tradition, the waters that fell from the hill, stained with the blood of the Confessors of the faith after the massacre ordered by Severus, had formed a kind of lake before flowing into the Saône. The latter was intended to perpetuate the date of the day on which this massacre had taken place. It was the eve of the feast of Saint Peter, Apostle. It is believed that Saint Patient also built the church of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Saturnin, whose foundation historians date to the year 490.

Saint Patient attended the Council of Arles in the Arles Ecclesiastical metropolis of the province to which Constantine belonged. year 475, assembled through the efforts of Leontius, bishop of that city. It is said that some time later he assembled another council in Lyon, and that he produced a work there in which he had gathered and reduced ecclesiastical dogmas. This, however, is not easy to verify, any more than the alleged subscription of our Saint and the other bishops to the letter of Faustus. We know of no writings of his; however, the forty-eighth homily of those bearing the name of Eusebius of Emesa is commonly attributed to him. It is a refutation of the errors of the Photinians and the Arians. But it can be said that the Church is indebted to him for the Life of Saint Germanus of Auxerre, which he had written by Const Constance Priest of Lyon and author of the Life of Saint Germanus of Auxerre. antius, a priest of his clergy.

He died around the year 491, and perhaps on September 14, the day on which his feast is celebrated in Lyon. It is also the day on which his name was marked in the modern Roman martyrology. There is no mention of him in the ancient ones. His body was buried, or at least transported to the church of Saint-Just. His relics were found there long after; they were kept there religiously until the 16th century, when they were dissipated along with many others, during the troubles of the Huguenots who ruined the church of Saint-Just.

Les grands souvenirs de l'Église de Lyon, by D. Meyrin; Bulliet. — Cf. La France Pontificale, by Fliquet; La France Littéraire, by D. Binet.