CONCERNING SAINT DOMNOLUS BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 627.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
Concerning his cult, age, & acts.
Domnolus, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul (S.)
G. H.
To the Sacred memory of this holy Bishop is inscribed in the Ms. Martyrologies of Ado of Lobbes, of Liège of S. Lawrence, & others; likewise in that printed at Mosander, The name in the Feasts & Rosweyde, but by this latter relegated to the Appendix: as well as in the Ms. of Brussels of S. Gudula, & the Ms. Florarium of the Saints, & likewise in the Martyrology of Cologne & Lübeck printed under the year 1490, almost everywhere with these words: At Vienne S. Domnolus the Bishop. But a greater eulogy is in the Ms. Martyrologies of the Church of Vienne, where these things are read: At Vienne the birthday of S. Domnolus the Confessor, & twenty-ninth Archbishop of Vienne. This man was a most worthy Pastor, & especially accustomed in redeeming Christian captives, just as is read of old of B. Paulinus Bishop of Nola. a eulogy in the Ms. of Vienne He also, while Phocas was emperor, & Clodoveus King of the Franks reigning, by work & counsel aided the cause of the Divine Gregory the Great, that he might confirm the English island & greater Britain in the faith, whence the Divine Gregory himself is called Apostle of England. But this same our Domnolus, powerful in miracles, happily died in the Lord, & with his Predecessors was entombed. These things there, of which the first words in the Chronicle of the said Ado at the times of Phocas are thus had: & in Saussay. Domnolus, Bishop of Vienne, then flourished, a vigorous man & most pious in redeeming captives. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology adorns him with this eulogy: On the same day 16 June at Vienne of the Allobroges S. Domnolus, Bishop & Confessor, who succeeding S. Desiderius crowned with the rewards of his labors, showed to this Church new lights of virtues: & overflowing especially with charity, in redeeming captives he expended very much abundance & labor. Hence enriched with heaps of piety, he received from the Lord the promised reward of the merciful.
[2] We gave the Acts of S. Desiderius on 23 May, & we said that he departed from life in the year 608, which was the eighth year of the Emperor Phocas, two years after he was killed. But among the Franks the name of Clodoveus was wrongly intruded by the author of the Vienne Annals, which I mentioned, by no means ancient, & that in place of Clotaire the Second, by divine power he defends S. Rusticula who then reigned with his grandsons Theodebert & Theodoric. With this King Clotaire S. Rusticula, Abbess of the monastery of S. Caesarius of Arles (whose Acts will be elucidated on 16 August) condemned by false assertions, & placed under custody. But God revealed through His Holy Spirit to a certain Apostolic man, Bishop of the city of Vienne, by name & merits Domnolus, that he should at once go to the King, & announce to him, that he had a grave offense of God, because by unjust judgment he had condemned the handmaid of Christ; & at once that he was to be bereaved of his son for so unmerciful a command. But hearing these things the King & Queen, with great honor & reverence began to venerate her, & ordered her to return to her own place. These & other things are more fully explained in her Acts. S. Domnolus was succeeded by S. Etherius, who while still under the same King Clotaire, dead in the year 628, & his son Dagobert, is said to have presided over the Church of Vienne, as above at his birthday on 14 June we said: so that S. Domnolus could not have lived long after the year 620, if he lived so long.