Orientius from Auch

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Orientius ( French Orient or Orens ; * Osca / Huesca (Spain); † around 440 in Auch ) was a late antique Latin poet who is in all probability identical to the Orientius of Auch , a bishop venerated as a saint, who was handed down from the 5th century the city of Auch (Augusta Ausciorum) in southern Gaul ; its feast day is May 1st.

Life

Three saints' lives written later are the only sources for the life of Orientius. He is said to have been born in Huesca (Osca) into a wealthy family; He received his training at schools in Bordeaux (Burdigala) , Toulouse (Tolosa) and Tarragona (Tarraco) . He is said to have distributed the paternal inheritance to the needy; he himself lived as a hermit near Lavedan - there and elsewhere he healed the sick. The residents of Auch are said to have chosen him to succeed their late bishop. In 438 he is said to have been sent on behalf of the Visigoths as an envoy to the Western Roman military leader ( magister militum ) Flavius ​​Aëtius . Some sources speak of a subsequent martyrdom , others mention his return and the resumption of the hermit life - however, a delegation from his diocese asked him to return to his office; shortly afterwards he died.

plant

Orientius is the author of a poem in elegiac distiches under the title Commonitorium , which is divided into two books and comprises 1036 verses. Among other things, it deals with the turmoil that Gaul suffered from the beginning of the migration from a Christian perspective . The work, whose references to older poets such as Virgil and Ovid reveal the classic formation of the author, is kept in elegant hexameters and can be taken as evidence that in Gaul in the 5th century literature was still written under difficult conditions: That Commonitorium is considered to be one of the most important late Latin poems.

Editions

  • Orienzio, Carme esortativo (Commonitorium) . Testo con introduzione e traduzione di Carmelo A. Rapisarda. Catania 1960; nuova edizione riveduta, Catania 1970.
  • S. Orientii Episcopi Illiberitani Commonitorium . Nunc primàm typis excussum, emendatum & Notulis illustratum a Martino Delrio Societatis Jesu Presbytero. Joach. Trognaesius, Antwerp 1600, online ; second edition: S. Orientii Episcopi Illiberitani Commonitorium . Iterum emendatum, ac Notis secundis illustratum a Martino Delrio Societatis Jesu Presbytero. Antwerp 1604, online . †

Adoration

To St. Orientius, several churches in the south of France are consecrated - including the churches of Saint-Orens in Saint-Perdon ( Landes ), Saint-Orens in Ponson-Debat-Pouts , ( Pyrénées-Atlantiques ), Saint-Orens in Maubec and Saint Orens in Montauban ( both in the Tarn-et-Garonne department ) and the Saint-Orient church in Sireuil ( Charente department ). In addition, the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Orens in the city of Auch, which was largely destroyed during the French Revolution, should be mentioned. The small town of Saint-Orens-de-Gameville in the Haute-Garonne department bears his name.

presentation

Representations of the saint are unknown.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Orientius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Latin poet, bishop and saint
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century
DATE OF DEATH 5th century