St. Desiderius, Bishop of Vienne, Martyr

ST. DESIDERIUS, BISHOP OF VIENNE, MARTYR,

Feast: May 23

When queen Brunehaut governed the courts of her two sons, Theodebert, king of Austrasia, and Theodoric of Burgundy, this zealous pastor boldly reproved her for her incests and cruelties; but a sermon which he preached before her and Theodoric on chastity, chiefly in the words of St. Paul, procured him the crown of martyrdom; for, in his return home, he was, by their order and contrivance, murdered by three assassins in a village now called St. Didier de Chalaraine, near the brook of that name in the principality of Dombes, in 612. See Fredegarius, Aimoinus, Jonas, &c., quoted by Henschenius the Bollandist; and Acta vel Passio S. Desi. derii M., a Sisebuto Rege (Hispaniae) composite, published by Flores, Espana Sagrada, t. 7, Append. 4, p. 337.

(Taken from Vol. V of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company)