Avitus

• Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, archbishop of Vienne in Narbonian Gaul; born about the middle of the 5th century.
• His father belonged to a family of senatorial rank. His mother, Audentia, was, in all probability, a sister of M. Maecillius Avitus, emperor of the West, 456.
• A student’s life attracted Avitus more than did wealth and rank, and at an early age he bestowed his patrimony upon the poor and retired into the seclusion of a monastery close to the walls of his native city.
• He gained so high a reputation for piety and learning that in 490, upon the death of his father, Isychius, he was elected to succeed him in the archbishopric.
• The fame of Avitus rests partly upon his poetry and partly upon the important part he was called to play in the controversies of his time.
• He was a strong contender against Arianism and ardently defended the primacy of Rome.
• In 499, Vienne was captured by Gundobald, the Arian king of the Burgandinians. He maintained good relations with the king, though he failed to convert him.
• However, he won King Sigismund, Gundobald’s successor, from Arianism to Orthodoxy.
• In 517, he presided over the Council of Epaon, which

confirmed the Burgundinians’ conversion to Orthodoxy.

• He died and was buried in the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul at Vienne, where the greater part of his youth had been spent.

• The extant works of Avitus are as follows: 1. Poems
• De spiritalis historiae gestis: Five Latin poems on subjects drawn from Genesis and Exodus, the first three of which are an early example of the theme of the creation, the original sin, the flood, and the crossing of the Red sea.
• De Virginitate: A poem in praise of virginity. 2. Letters
• A collection of 91 letters, several of historical interest.
• The Collatio Episcoporum contra Arianos coram Gundobaldo rege: Contains arguments of anti-Arian Trinitarian theology.
• Many of his letters were linked to his pastoral responsibilities and reflected questions of organization, discipline, and doctrine. 3. Homilies
• 72 short fragments of homilies and sermons.
• These remains contain much that is valuable with reference to the history of the Church in the 5th century.
• A homily,de Festo Rogationum. 4. Treatises
• Avitus published treatises in confutation of the

Nestorian, Eutychian, and Sabellian heresies; he also wrote against the Pelagian errors of Faustus of Riez, abbot of Lerins, and converted many Jews who had settled in his diocese.