Biography
Sacerdos of Lyon
About Sacerdos of Lyon
Sacerdos was bishop of Lyon in the sixth century and a counselor of King Childebert.
His signature appears among those of the bishops at the Council of Orleans in 549. He is commonly described as its president, although the Bollandists note that some manuscripts place Aurelian before him in the subscription list.
The council addressed both church discipline and social obligations. Its decisions included care for prisoners and people with leprosy, but also required an enslaved person to have the owner's consent before ordination. The latter rule upheld the power of enslavers. Participation does not establish Sacerdos as the individual author of these decisions.
Gregory of Tours relates that Childebert visited Sacerdos when he was ill in Paris. Sacerdos asked the king to allow his nephew Nicetius to succeed him at Lyon, and the request was granted. The episode places family ties and royal approval within the story of an episcopal succession.
His death is usually dated to 552, although the Bollandists leave open 551 because the surviving chronological evidence does not agree. The epitaph gives September 11; older local commemorations used September 12.
His body was taken back to Lyon. A record of the inspection of tombs in 1308 places his tomb beside an altar bearing his name in the church of Saint-Nizier. This is evidence of a specific historical dedication, rather than patronage of the entire city.
Nominis records his local feast on September 11.
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