Marcus Maecilius Flavius Eparchius Avitus c. 380/395 – after 17 October 456 or in 457) was Western Roman Emperor from 8 or 9 July 455 to 17 October 456. He was a senator and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well as Bishop of Piacenza.
Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Saint Sidonius Apollinaris, was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg. He was one of four Gallo-Roman aristocrats of the fifth- to sixth-century whose letters survive in quantity; the others are Ruricius bishop of Limoges, Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne and Magnus Felix Ennodius of Arles, bishop of Ticinum. All of them were linked in the tightly bound aristocratic Gallo-Roman network that provided the bishops of Catholic Gaul. His feast day is 21 August.
Riothamus was a Romano-British military leader, who was active circa AD 470. He fought against the Goths in alliance with the declining Roman Empire. He is called "King of the Britons" by the 6th-century historian Jordanes, but the extent of his realm is unclear. Some Arthurian scholars identify Riothamus as one of the possible sources of the legendary King Arthur.
Saint Mamertus was the bishop of Vienne in Gaul, venerated as a saint. His primary contribution to ecclesiastical practice was the introduction of litanies prior to Ascension Day as an intercession against earthquakes and other disasters, leading to "Rogation Days." His feast day is the first of the Ice Saints.
Saint Eucherius, bishop of Lyon, was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian Church of Gaul. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. Henry Wace ranked him "except perhaps St. Irenaeus the most distinguished occupant of that see".
Claudianus Ecdidius Mamertus was a Gallo-Roman theologian and the brother of Saint Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Autun (–Chalon-sur-Saône–Mâcon–Cluny), more simply known as the Diocese of Autun, is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the entire Department of Saone et Loire, in the Region of Bourgogne.
Symphorian, Timotheus (Timothy), and Hippolytus of Rome are three Christian martyrs who though they were unrelated and were killed in different places and at different times, shared a common feast day in the General Roman Calendar from at least the 1568 Tridentine Calendar to the Mysterii Paschalis.
Tonantius Ferreolus, was a vir clarissimus, or Gallo-Roman senator.
Saint Viventiolus was the Archbishop of Lyon 514-523. Later canonized, his Feast Day is July 12.
Decimus Rusticus of Treves and Lyon (Lugdunum) was a Master of the Offices and the praetorian prefect of Gaul between 409 and 410 or 413. He was one of those responsible for the withdrawal from Britannia.
Saint Rusticus, the successor of Saint Lupicinus of Lyon (491-494), served as Archbishop of Lyon from 494 to April 501. Later canonized, his feast day is 25 April.
Thaumastus was a friend and uncle of Sidonius Apollinaris. His brother, the elder Apollinaris was born around 405 and was the praetorian prefect of Gaul under Valentinian III between 425 and 455. Thaumastus and his brother were both sons of another Apollinaris, praetorian prefect of Gaul before 409 and were friends with his successor Decimus Rusticus. Thaumastus was associated with Tonantius Ferreolus in the impeachment of Arvandus. He was the father of Eulalia, born in 425, married before 450 to Flavius Probus, Roman Senator.
Gaul was an important early center of Latin Christianity in late antiquity and the Merovingian period. By the middle of the 3rd century, there were several churches organized in Roman Gaul, and soon after the cessation of persecution the bishops of the Latin world assembled at Arles, in AD 314. The Church of Gaul passed through three dogmatic crises in the late Roman period, Arianism, Priscillianism and Pelagianism. Under Merovingian rule, a number of "Frankish synods" were held, marking a particularly Germanic development in the Western Church. A model for the following Frankish synods was set by Clovis I, who organized the First Council of Orléans (511).
Constantius of Lyon was a cleric from what is now the Auvergne in modern-day France, who wrote the Vita Germani, or Life of Germanus, a hagiography of Germanus of Auxerre. The hagiography was written some time during the second half of the fifth century, and was commissioned by Patiens, bishop of Lyon.
Apollinaris was a count of Auvergne who led a auvergnat army for the Visigoths in the Battle of Vouillé, and was bishop of Clermont for four months before his death.
Patiens of Lyon was bishop of Lyon in the 5th century and recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. He succeeded Bishop Eucherius, and died on September 11 before 494, the year in which his second successor Rusticius began his episcopate.
The Abbey of St. Symphorian, Autun, is a former abbey, later a priory, of Benedictine monks located outside the walls of Autun in Burgundy, France.
Saint Nectarius of Autun was a 6th-century bishop of Autun, and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Saint Pragmatius of Autun was Bishop of Autun in the 6th century. He was a friend of Sidonius Apollinaris and Avitus of Vienne, and he participated in at least one of the councils of his time. He is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church; his feast day is celebrated on 22 November.
