Marius Aventicensis or, popularly, Marius of Avenches (532 – 31 December 596) was the Bishop of Aventicum (modern Avenches) from 574, remembered for his terse

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

. After his death in Lausanne, he was venerated in that city as a

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

, and his

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

was celebrated on 9 or 12 February.

Life

What is known of him, aside from his chronicle, is from the inscription on his tomb in the church of

Saint Thyrsus Saint Thyrsus or Thyrse ( grc-gre, Θύρσος, Thúrsos, literally " thyrsus"; Spanish and pt, Tirso; french: link=no, Thyrse; died 251) is venerated as a Christian martyr. He was killed for his faith in Sozopolis (Apollonia), Phrygia, duri ...

in Lausanne He came of a distinguished, rich family, probably Gallo-Roman in their culture. In 574 he was made Bishop of ''Aventicum'', took part in the Second Council of Mâcon in 585, and shortly afterwards transferred his episcopal see from Aventicum, which was rapidly declining, to Lausanne. His metrical tomb inscription of unknown date, published in '' Gallia Christiana'', extols him as an ideal bishop; as a skilled goldsmith who made the sacred liturgical vessels with his own hands; as a protector and benefactor of the poor who ploughed his own land; as a man of prayer, and as a scholar. In 587 he consecrated a proprietary church built at his expense on property of his own at Paterniacum (

Payerne Payerne (; frp, Payèrna) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It was the seat of the district of Payerne, and is now part of the district of Broye-Vully. The German name ''Peterlingen'' for the town is out of use. History The earl ...

). The church of Saint Thyrsus was rededicated at an early date to Saint Marius.

Chronicle writer

His brief chronicle is a continuation of the ''Chronicon Imperiale'' usually said to be the chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine. Considering himself a Roman, Marius dated the years by the

consuls A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

and the emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire. It covers the years from 455 to 581, and is a valuable source for

Burgundian Burgundian can refer to any of the following: *Someone or something from Burgundy. *Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe, who first appear in history in South East Europe. Later Burgundians colonised the area of Gaul that is now known as Burgundy (F ...

and Franconian history, especially for the second half of the 6th century, "and serves to correct the bias of

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...

against the Arians of Burgundy" Marius is the first to use the term ''variola'' ( smallpox) to describe an epidemic that afflicted Gaul and Italy in 570.J-F Saluzzo, ''La variole'', PUF, coll. "Que sais-je?" (no 3690), 2004 , p. 16. The chronicle has been frequently published: first by Pierre-François Chifflet in

André Duchesne André Duchesne (; sometimes spelled ''Du Chesne'', Latinized ''Andreas Chesneus'', ''Andreas Quercetanus'', or ''Andreas Querneus''; May 158430 May 1640) was a French geographer and historian, generally styled the father of French history. Duch ...

's ''Historiæ Francorum Scriptores'', I (1636), 210–214; again by

Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a u ...

in ''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...

'', LXXII, 793–802; by Theodor Mommsen in ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empire ...

, Auctores antiqui'', XI (1893), 232–9; and by Justin Favrod with a French translation, ''La chronique de Marius d'Avenches (455–581)'' (Lausanne 1991).

Notes

External links

Online MGH version of the Chronicle
: St. Marius Aventicus

Marius, bp. of Lausanne, from the Christian Classics Ethereal library, originally published in 1911, republished in 1999
''Chronicon''
(in Latin) {{Authority control 532 births 596 deaths 6th-century Frankish bishops 6th-century Latin writers 6th-century historians People from Avenches Marii 6th-century Frankish saints 6th-century Frankish writers Bishops of Lausanne

Life

Chronicle writer

Notes

Further reading

External links