AVITUS, Alcimus Ecdicius, Saint. — Bishop of Vienne in the Dauphiné, born c. 450, died shortly after 517. He belonged to a senatorial family of bishops, and the emperor Avitus may have been a relative. His father preceded him on the see of Vienne.
As bishop he was one of the pillars of the Gallican episcopate of his time: to him is owed the conversion of the kingdom of Burgundy to the Catholic faith. Through the authority of his learning and the refinement of his manners he won the heart of King Gundobald and then converted his son Sigismund. To both he addressed many letters (a good number of which survive) on various biblical and doctrinal questions. Moreover, several of his writings are directed against the Arianism of the invading peoples and related doctrines; one is expressly directed against the semi-Pelagianism of Faustus of Riez. The Council of Épaone of 517, which he presided over, completed with wise provisions the work of converting Burgundy.
Avitus had written many epigrams, scattered in the tumult of the siege of Vienne in 500. Shortly before 507 he himself prepared an edition of his other writings, which consist of two poems, 86 letters, three complete homilies and many fragmentary ones. The principal poem, De spiritualis historiae gestis, recounts in the first three books the events of Genesis up to the Fall, and in two more the Flood and the Exodus; the subject is thus that of the lost and regained paradise, and Books IV and V essentially develop the symbols of redemption. Unlike many of his predecessors, Avitus did not content himself with a paraphrase of the biblical text but treated the material very freely with an original poetic conception, new in this genre of poem, and one that foreshadows Milton. The language is that correct for his time, the style that of a good imitator of the classics; yet even here the tastes of his age do not render him immune to mannerism. The same merits and defects are found also in De consolatoria laude castitatis ad Fuscinam sororem and De virginitate sacrata.
The Letters reflect the religious concerns of the time and deal mostly with theological topics. Many are addressed to King Gundobald and his son Sigismund. Notable are Letter 4, against the theories on grace from Lérins, and Letter 34 to the Roman senators Faustus and Symmachus on the Council of 499 and the election of Pope Symmachus, in which occurs the celebrated exclamation: “At si papa Urbis vocatur in dubium, episcopatus iam videlibitur, non episcopus, vacillare.” Of the 35 Sermons only three survive intact, two of them for the spring Rogations (v.), instituted shortly before by Bishop Claudius Mamertus. These are the earliest memorial and the first commentary on that institution. Feast: Feb. 5.