Saint Aunaire

He went to Tours, accompanied by only two servants and without his parents' knowledge, had his hair cut at the tomb of Saint Martin, and took the humble habit of the clerics. His parents, distressed that he was no longer at court and not knowing what had become of him, found no one who could give them news of him. Saint Syagrius, bishop of Autun, having learned what had happened, had Aunaire brought from Tours, kept him near him, took care of his education, and had him pass through all the degrees of the clergy, so that after the death of Saint Etherius, the people and clergy of Auxerre unanimously chose h Auxerre City and episcopal see of the saint. im to succeed him. His consecration took place in Auxerre itself on the feast day of Saint Germanus, July 31, 573.

The full merit of the new pastor was soon known: he showed his love for the citizens, made his vigilance over the clergy felt, proved his charity toward the poor, and distinguished himself in everything concerning the service of God. His face, say the authors of his life, resembled that of an angel, his speeches were of pathetic eloquence, and he was easily accessible. He ordered that prayers be said every day in each of the parishes of his diocese, fixed the hour at which all archpriests and abbots would celebrate the night office every Sunday, attended the councils that met in Paris (573) and Mâcon (583 and 585), and assembled a synod in h is episcopal city, Mâcon (583 et 585) Ecclesiastical assembly of 585 that exonerated Theodore. around 585, for the notification and execution of the canons of the last council of Mâcon that we have just cited. He himself added forty-five disciplinary statutes to it.

The name of Saint Aunaire is found among those of the bishops who, in 589, worked for the pacification of the troubles that occurred in the monastery of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers. This pious prelate was honored with t wo letters fro pape Pélage II Predecessor of Gregory the Great, mentioned as an alternative. m Pope Pelagius II, and died on September 25, 603, leaving several lands from his patrimony to the church of Saint-Étienne and to that of Saint-Germain, where he was buried. His episcopate had lasted thirty years, one month, and twenty-three days.

Aunaire was truly the head of a family of Saints: he had as a brother the venerable Austrin, Bishop of Orléans, and his sister Austrégilde or Agie, honored with a public cult, was the mother of Saint Léo, Archbishop of Sens. He had the good fortune to raise in his clergy Saint Outrille or Austrógile, who became Archbishop of Bourges, and, in his monastery, the famous Valeri, later abbot of a monastery located in the diocese of Amiens.

We owe to the zeal of this prelate two works that he had written by a priest named Étienne Africain, on the life of Saint Amè tre and Saint saint Germain Saint cited as a model of public confession for Gervin. Germain: the first of these works is in prose, and the other in verse. Constance, a priest of Lyon, had already written this latter life in prose.

In 1567, the Huguenots Huguenots Group that desecrated the saint's relics in 1567. profaned the relics of the holy bishop of Auxerre.

Gallia Christiana nova; Godescard; Baillet.