Auspicius of Toul

Auspicius was bishop of the city of Toul, in Gaul, in the fifth century, the fifth of the known bishops, and a poet, commemorated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Our sources show no Orthodox act of canonization. He is commemorated on 8 July, in the Roman Martyrology.

Life

He belonged to the Gallo-⁠Roman aristocracy and counted among his ancestors the Roman general of Frankish descent Arbogast, famous under Theodosius the Great. He was probably born in the early fifth century and succeeded Gelsimus as bishop of Toul around 478. After more than five hundred years in the Roman Empire, the city of Toul, capital of the Leuci, had come under the power of the Franks, so Auspicius was the first bishop of Toul to serve under the Franks. Sidonius died around 485, and Auspicius probably after some years, perhaps around 490. His successor was Saint Ours. He was buried in the cemetery of Saint Mansuy, where his body was found in 1070.

His writings

His rare talents and virtues won him the esteem of distinguished people. He was a friend of the poet Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont, and of Count Arbogast, governor of Trier under Childeric I, and the three exchanged correspondence. Arbogast wrote to Sidonius asking for guidance in his duties and explanations of the sacred books, but Sidonius excused himself and referred him to Saint Lupus, bishop of Troyes, or to Auspicius, both renowned for deep learning and high rank. The count turned to Auspicius, who sent him a highly complimentary reply in verse, written between 460 and 475. In it he praises Arbogast for his command of Latin and hints at the end of Roman rule: as long as you live and speak, though Latin rule has fallen on the frontier, the Latin words do not waver. He praises his high descent and noble nature. He was greater than his ancestor of the same name, for that one died a pagan while Arbogast was a Christian. He warns him against greed and sees him as a future bishop, perhaps of Chartres. He urges him to meet Bishop Iamblichus of Trier.

The poem has 164 iambic dimeters and is an early example of rhythmic versification, in which word accent prevails, and the author was, as a poet, the first Westerner to adopt the iambic rhythm derived from the Saturnian metre, the preferred metre of Roman popular and secular poetry. It survives in a collection compiled in 585 in Austrasia, in a single ninth-⁠century manuscript. The breviary of the diocese of Toul has always given him the title of saint.