EUCHERIO of LIONE. — Born into a prominent family, he held important public offices, but around 410 he renounced secular life and, accompanied by his wife Galla and his sons Salonio and Verano, sought refuge in the monastery founded by Onorato on the island of Lerino (today St-Honorat) in southern France, later moving with his wife to the nearby island of Lero (today Ste-Marguerite). Around 434 he was elected bishop of Lione, and in this capacity took part in the First Council of Orange. He died between 450 and 455 (cf. Gennadio, De viris ill., 63).
His authority must have been considerable, as is attested by the fact that Cassiano dedicated the second part of his Collationes to him and Onorato, and by the correspondence exchanged by E. with Sidonio Apollinare, Ilario, Rustico, Paolino di Nola, and Salviano. According to Claudiano Mamerto (De statu animae, II, 9), E. was «magnorum saeculi sui pontificum longe maximus».
E.’s literary production includes, in addition to two ascetic writings (De laude heremi ad Hilarium Livinarum presbyterum epistula; Epistula paraenotica ad Valerianum cognatum de contempta mundi et saecularis philosophiae), two exegetical works that were fairly well known in the Middle Ages: 1) Formulae spiritualis intellegentiae, dedicated to his son Verano, in which he gives numerous examples of allegorical interpretation of Scripture; 2) Instructiones, in two books, dedicated to his son Salonio and containing, respectively, explanations of difficult passages of Scripture and explanations of Greek and Hebrew names.
Of an abstract from Cassiano’s Collationes, only fragments survive in a Greek version (cf. Gennadio, loc. cit.; Fazio, Biblioth., 197). E. was probably the author of a Passio Agamnesium martyrum.
The attribution to him of other writings is disputed (some homiliae; Commentarii in Genesim and In libros Regum; De situ Hierosolymitanae urbis atque ipsius Iudae epistola ad Faustum presbyterum).
BIBLI.: Editions: PL 50, 987-1214, edited by C. Werke in CSEL 31, 1. Studies: A. Mellier, De vita et scriptis 2. Eucherii, Lughanensis episcopi. Lione 1878; A. Gaulloud, St. Eucher, Livius et l'église de Lous au Ve sievie. here 1881; M. Schuster, La Hieronymus und Eucherius, in Philologische Wochenschrift, 47 (1929), pp. 198-92; P. Courcelle, Les lettres grecques en Occident, Parigi 1943, p. 216 ff.