EUCHERIUS: Bishop of Lyons, where he was born and where he died between 449 and 455. Although married and a father, he retired before 426 to the monastery of Lérins, where his sons were educated by Hilary, Salvian, and Vincent of Lérins. Among his friends were such prominent contemporaries as John Cassian, Claudianus Mamertus, and Sidonius Apollinaris. As the author of the De laude eremi, written between 426 and 429, he advocated the same zealous asceticism which he observed together with his wife, according to the custom of the time, on the island of Lero (the modern St. Marguerite). Other monastic writings were also composed by him, including the Exhortatio ad monachos, the Sententia ad monachos, and the Admonitio ad virgines, and the despair with which the conditions of the time filled him is expressed in his De contemptu mundi et sæcularis philosophiæ. The first book of his Instructiones evidences his knowledge of the Biblical criticism of his period, and the second forms a dictionary of antiquities for the elucidation of the loan-words in the Bible. The Formulæ spiritalis intelligentiæ contains historical, figurative, and analogical interpretations of Biblical designations in the realm of nature and human life. In the Pelagian controversy he seems to have regarded the coexistence of God and man in Christ as analogous with the union of body and soul in humanity, while his deep interest in the heroes of Christendom found expression in the Passio Agaunensium martyrum. His letter to Philo, in which he voluntarily assumed the charge of certain ecclesiastical institutions, like his letter to the presbyter Faustus De locis aliquibus sanctis, is of doubtful authenticity. Eucherius was closely associated with the neighboring bishops, and on Nov. 8, 441, presided with Hilary of Arles over the first Synod of Orange. No details are known of his administration of his bishopric, and even the year of his consecration, which was 434, according to Sigibert of Gembloux, is uncertain.

(EDGAR HENNEKE.)