AUNACARIO (AUNARIO), saint. - Of noble family, educated at the court of King Gontranno of Burgundy, he was admitted to Holy Orders by Siagrio, bishop of Autun. Raised to the episcopal see of Auxerre (561), he took part in the Synod of Paris in 573 and in those of Mâcon in 583 and 585, and himself convened a council in his see (c. 578), of which 45 highly important canons remain (PL 72, 761-68), intended to restore clerical discipline and eradicate pagan superstitions. He died in 605. There remains to us a letter of his to an African priest, Stefano, in which he asks him to rewrite the lives of his predecessors Amatore and Germano. There are also two letters addressed to him by Pelagio II in 580 and 585 (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1048, 1058). Towards the end of his episcopate, a cleric of Auxerre gave the Hieronymian Martyrology the form that it still retains today. Feast day: 25 Sept.
(property of Enc. Catt.)