Aredius of Limoges

Aredius von Limoges (* approx. 511 in Augustoritum , today Limoges , department Vienne , France; † 25 August 591 in Attane , today Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche , department Haute-Vienne ), also Aredius von Attane French Arède d 'Atane or Yrieix , formerly also Yriez , Erice or Hérie , was the holy founder and abbot of the Attane monastery. His feast day is August 25th.

He lived and worked in the Franconian Empire . His birthplace Augustoritum , city of holy Martial (3rd century), was one of the main places of the former Roman province Aquitania prima , which was occupied by the Visigoths from 471 and after the victory of Clovis I (466-511) in the battle of Vouillé (507) was incorporated into the Frankish Empire . Clovis's grandson Theudebert I († 547/548) played a decisive role in the battles for supremacy that flared up again after Clodwig's death and ultimately strengthened the borders in the south of the empire, who succeeded his father as part-king in 533 the part of the Frankish Empire later called Austrasia ruled.

Vita

Aredius, son of the Gallo-Roman landowner Jucundus and the Pelagia, enjoyed a Christian upbringing. He was sent to the court of Theudebert I by his parents and made chancellor there before he entered the clerical position - shaped by the encounter with Nicetius , the Bishop of Trier . After the death of his father and brother, he returned to his homeland to help his mother run the family estates south of Limoges in Attane (Saint-Yrieix-sur-Perche). He founded in the years around 564/572 one under the monastic rule of St. Basil Asked monastic community later branches in Vigeois (Limousin) and Excideuil (Périgord). He went on several pilgrimages, which led him to Brioude to the grave of Julianus von Brioude , to Poitiers and Tours and was on friendly terms with Radegundis († 587), Gregory of Tours († 594?) And Venantius Fortunatus († 600 / 610).

In 584 he acted as a mediator between the Merovingian king Guntchramn and Duke Desiderius of Aquitaine (see Treaty of Andelot ).

Aredius died very old in the monastery he founded in Attane and was buried in the local church. The monastery, which was converted into a secular collegiate monastery under Charlemagne , later took the name Saint-Yrieix-d'Attane, together with the surrounding settlements, and later the name Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche.

See also: Saint-Yrieix , St-Hérie (Matha)

Relics

The church of Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche keeps a silver-gilt head reliquary, an identical reliquary is in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

literature

• Alban Butler; Abbé Godescard (translation): Vies des Pères, des martyrs et des autres principaux saints . Volume 7. Vedeilhié, Villefranche-de-Rouergue 1769, p. 674 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Paul Maureille: Aredius (Saint Yrieix), homme politique et homme de Dieu . In: Lemouzi: Revue franco-limousine , ZDB -ID 339286-7 , 5/40, 1971.
• Bruno W. Häuptli :  Aredius of Limoges. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 27, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-393-2 , Sp. 50-52.

Web links

• Aredius of Limoges (saint Yrieix) at Nominis (French)
• Aredius from the Limousin in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints