Eufronius or Euphronius was the eighth Bishop of Tours; he served from 555 to 573, and was a near relative of Gregory of Tours.
When upon the death of Bishop Gunthar, King Chlothar's nominee declined appointment to the See, it remained vacant for ten months until the people and clergy elected Eufronius. He was a priest at Tours, from a family of senatorial rank. [1] a grandson of Gregory of Langres, and a friend of Venantius Fortunatus. When Clothar learned of the election, he confirmed their choice. [2]
In 552, the Abbaye de Sainte-Marie was founded near Poitiers by Frankish Queen, Radegund. It was the first monastery for women in the Frankish Empire. [3] Radegund subsequently retired to the monastery, where she helped to care for the infirm. Upon her request, Byzantine Emperor Justin II sent the abbey a relic of the True Cross. When Bishop Maroveus of Poitiers refused to preside over its installation in the abbey, at Radegund's request, king Sigebert sent Eufronius to Poitiers to perform the ceremony. [4] Sigebert also returned church lands that had been seized by King Charibert.
In 561 much of Tours burned down during the warfare that raged at that time. Eufronius rebuilt two of the churches at his own expense. According to Gregory, Eufronius predicted the death of Charibert.
Eufronius took part in the Council of Paris in 557, and presided over the Council of Tours in 567. The bishops of Brittany declined to attend, as Eufronius claimed authority over the Breton church. [5] The council dealt mostly with church discipline. The bishops noted that some Gallo-Roman customs of ancestor worship were still being observed. Canon XXII decreed that anyone known to be participating in these practices was barred from receiving communion and not allowed to enter a church. [6] The bishops of the Kingdom of Paris were particularly concerned about the Merovingian practice of seizing ecclesiastical properties in outlying areas in order to fund their internecine wars. [7]
Eufronius was Bishop of Tours for eighteen years, and died at the age of seventy. He was succeeded by St. Gregory of Tours. Eufronius was either a cousin of Gregory's mother's or her brother. [8] He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on August 4. [2]
The 560s decade ran from January 1, 560, to December 31, 569.
Chlothar II, sometimes called "the Young", was king of the Franks, ruling Neustria (584–629), Burgundy (613–629) and Austrasia (613–623).
Chilperic I was the king of Neustria from 561 to his death. He was one of the sons of the Frankish king Clotaire I and Queen Aregund.
Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old", also anglicised as Clotaire, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I.
The Kingdom of the Franks, also known as the Frankish Kingdom, the Frankish Empire or Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages. Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era.
Sigebert I was a Frankish king of Austrasia from the death of his father in 561 to his own death. He was the third surviving son out of four of Clotaire I and Ingund. His reign found him mostly occupied with a successful civil war against his half-brother, Chilperic.
Fredegund or Fredegunda was the queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Frankish king of Soissons. Fredegund served as regent during the minority of her son Chlothar II from 584 until 597.
Charibert I was the Merovingian King of Paris, the second-eldest son of Chlothar I and his first wife Ingund. His elder brother Gunthar died sometime before their father's death. He shared in the partition of the Frankish kingdom that followed his father's death in 561, receiving the old kingdom of Childebert I, with its capital at Paris.
Saint Gontrand, also called Gontran, Gontram, Guntram, Gunthram, Gunthchramn, and Guntramnus, was the king of the Kingdom of Orléans from AD 561 to AD 592. He was the third-eldest and second-eldest-surviving son of Chlothar I and Ingunda. On his father's death in 561, he became king of a fourth of the Kingdom of the Franks, and made his capital at Orléans. The name "Gontrand" denotes "War Raven".
In the medieval Roman Catholic church there were several Councils of Tours, that city being an old seat of Christianity, and considered fairly centrally located in France.
Germain was the bishop of Paris and is venerated as a saint in both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. According to an early biography, he was known as Germain d'Autun, rendered in modern times as the "Father of the Poor".
Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus, known as Saint Venantius Fortunatus, was a Latin poet and hymnographer in the Merovingian Court, and a bishop of the Early Church who has been venerated since the Middle Ages.
Sigebert III was the Merovingian king of Austrasia from 633 to his death around 656. He was described as the first Merovingian roi fainéant —do-nothing king—, in effect the mayor of the palace ruling the kingdom throughout his reign. However he lived a pious Christian life and was later sanctified, being remembered as Saint Sigebert of Austrasia in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.
Radegund was a Thuringian princess and Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. She is the patroness saint of several churches in France and England and of Jesus College, Cambridge.
Basina, was a Frankish princess, the daughter and youngest child of Chilperic I, King of Soissons, and his first wife, Audovera. After surviving the assassination of her immediate family, she became a nun. She later helped to lead a rebellion by a group of the nuns, which became a scandal throughout the region. This event was chronicled by the bishop and saint, Gregory of Tours, who was one of the bishops chosen to settle the matter.
The First Council of Orléans was convoked by Clovis I, King of the Franks, in 511. Clovis called for this synod four years after his victory over the Visigoths under Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. The council was attended by thirty-two bishops, including four metropolitans, from across Gaul, and together they passed thirty-one decrees. The bishops met at Orléans to reform the church and construct a strong relationship between the crown and the Catholic episcopate, the majority of the canons reflecting compromise between these two institutions.
Saint Prætextatus, also spelled Praetextatus, Pretextat(us), and known as Saint Prix, was the bishop of Rouen from 549 until his assassination in 586. He appears as a prominent character in Gregory of Tours’ Historia Francorum. This is the principal source from which information on his life can be drawn. He features in many of its most notable passages, including those pertaining to his trial in Paris and his rivalry with the Merovingian Queen Fredegund. The events of his life, as portrayed by Gregory of Tours, have been important in the development of modern understandings of various facets of Merovingian society, such as law, the rivalry between kings and bishops, church councils, and the power of queens.
The Church of Sainte-Radegonde is a medieval Roman Catholic church in Poitiers, France, dating from the 6th century. It takes its name from the Frankish queen and nun, Radegund, who was buried in the church. Considered a saint, the church became a place of pilgrimage by those devoted to her heavenly intercession. The current church, constructed from the 11th to 12th centuries, was built in a combination of Romanesque and Angevin Gothic architectural styles.
The Abbey of the Holy Cross was a French Benedictine monastery of nuns founded in the 6th century. Destroyed during the French Revolution, a new monastery with the same name was built in a nearby location during the 19th century for a community of Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.
Maroveus was the bishop of Poitiers in the late sixth century. He became bishop between 565 and 573, serving until sometime between 590 and 594.