Bernard of Vienne

Bernard of Vienne (Barnard of Romans) was archbishop of Vienne from 810 until his death on 23 January 842, and founder of the abbey of Romans-⁠sur-⁠Isère. He was born about 778 or 780 at Izernore near Nantua, into a noble and powerful family, the youngest of the children. He is venerated as a saint in the Western Church.

His father, Heliard, sent him at ten to a college of priests, from which his parents recalled him after all his brothers had died. Fond of prayer and solitude, he was enlisted in 797 in Charlemagne's army; as an officer he distinguished himself by courage in the campaigns of eastern Frisia and against the Saxons, and in 798 he accompanied the king to Aachen. In those years his parents died, which turned him toward home. He divided his wealth in three: for the Church, for the poor and for his children, leaving his wife and children with ample means. In 803 he founded a hospice, withdrew to the Bas-⁠Bugey to restore the abbey of Notre-⁠Dame at Ambronay, bought it, remained at first in retreat and prayer and was then elected abbot. In 810, after resistance, he became archbishop of Vienne, at the insistence of Pope Leo III.

As bishop he was an ardent supporter of adding the filioque to the creed, and in the conflict among Charlemagne's grandsons he took the side of Lothair I against his father Louis the Pious, for which he was deposed at the synod of Thionville, a sentence never carried out. He received the pallium from Pope Paschal I on 5 December 817 and several privileges from Louis the Pious, in 814, 815 and 831. In 838 he built a Benedictine abbey on the bank of the Isère, near a much-⁠used ford, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, around which the town of Romans formed. Toward the end of his life he withdrew there.