Desiderius of Vienne

Saint Desiderius of Vienne was bishop (archbishop) of Vienne in Gaul, a chronicler and defender of the right faith, put to death in 607 or 608.

In 603, in a conflict with Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia, whose children's legitimacy he had attacked, he was deposed after she joined forces with Aridius, bishop of Lyon. Some years later he was stoned to death, at the order of King Theuderic II of Burgundy, at the place now called Saint-⁠Didier-⁠sur-⁠Chalaronne. Pope Gregory the Great had rebuked him in a letter for his interest in the pagan classics in the schooling he gave his clergy.

He was venerated as a saint; his life was written by the Visigothic king Sisebut in the seventh century and later by Ado of Vienne. He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 11 February (new style); other calendars list him on 23 May (Orthodox) or 26 May (Catholic).