Saint of the Day – 12 September – Saint Sacerdos/Saint Priest (487-552) Bishop of Lyon – the 27th encumbent of this high Office in Lyon, our Saint Priest (the meaning of Sacerdos) was highly visible at the Councils and in the construction and renovation of Churches, Monasteriest and was highly favoured by the King. In fact, as the Advisor to King Childebert, it is believed that he influenced the King to found a Hospital, between the Saint-Paul Church and the first Pont du Change. Born in 487 in Burgundy, France and died on 11 September 552 in Paris, where he had arrived for a the meeting of a Council. Also known as – Saint Priest, Sardot, Sacerdote, Serdon.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Lyon, the decease of St Sacerdos, Bishop.”
Sacerdos belonged to a noble family of the Kingdom of Burgundy. Tradition tells us he was married and had a son. , Aurelien who became the Sainted Archbishop of Arles. A specific Epitaph also states that he was buried in the tomb alongside his son.
His Episcopate, temporally speaking, was entirely under the reign of Childebert, the 1st King of the Franks, who reigned in Lyon between 534 and 558.
Sacerdos did not participate in the Council of Orléans in 541 but presided over the Council held on 28 October 540, in the same City. The 24 Canos of that Council addressed various topics, including the condemnation of Monophysitism and Nestorianism; the limitation of the use of excommunication; the requirement of the master’s consent for the Ordination of a slave and the care of prisoners and lepers. This Ccouncil also ratified, with a specific and detailed Canon, the foundation of the hospice erected by the King in Lyon.
During his Episcopate, the construction of the Church of Saint Paul and that of Saint Eulalia, originally connected to a Monastery of Nuns, which later became the Church of Saint George. Toward the end of hisreign, he ordered major renovations to be carried out at the Monastery of Saint Peter.
A detailed account by St Gregory of Tours of his death in Paris has survived. Sacerdos was in Paris to participate in the Council convened by the King after the deposition of Bishop Saffaracus of Paris. St Gregory tells us that the King, having a special affection for Bishop Sacerdote, who had fallen ill in Paris, visited him during his illness. At that meeting, the Bishop requested the King to appoint his nephew, Nicetius (sT),as his successor to govern the Diocese of Lyon.
Sacerdote died at the age of 65, on 11 September 552.
His body was transported to Lyon and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, a Church which, in later centuries, would be named after Saint Nicetius, our Saint’s son.
Numerous miracles flourished at his Tomb. An Epitaph on Saint Sacerdos remains, known from a 1308 transcription, carved in the Crypt of Saint Nicetius and rediscovered in 1883.
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