Eberigisil of Cologne

Saint Evergislus was Bishop of Cologne in the second half of the sixth century, the fifth well-⁠attested bishop of the city and the first with a Frankish name. He died before 594, by tradition on 14 September, and the Church commemorates him on 24 October, the day his relics were translated.

Life according to the sources

Historians know him from the writings of Gregory of Tours, who always calls him bishop of Cologne and speaks of him as one no longer living. From his Germanic name it is thought that he came of a Frankish family. His time was disturbed by the migration of peoples, and he tried to strengthen religious life and peace in the Church.

Gregory of Tours says that in his time the veneration of the holy soldier martyrs of the Theban Legion began at Cologne, in connection with his being cured of severe headaches by prayer to one of them. He is credited with building a church in honour of the martyr Mallosus at Birten near Xanten, and the first church of Saint Victor at Xanten, raised on the site of a Roman-⁠period chapel. In 590 he took part in the synod called by King Childebert II and was sent with other bishops to Poitiers to restore order in the convent of the Holy Cross. Being close to Queen Brunhilda, he was sent several times on embassies to the Visigothic kingdom. Tradition describes him as a bishop loved by his flock and valued for his diplomatic skill.

Legend

According to an eleventh-⁠century legend, Evergislus came from a wealthy family of Tongeren in Flanders. When Bishop Severin of Cologne visited there, he took the boy, known for his piety, with him to Cologne, raised him and ordained him deacon, and at Severin's death Evergislus succeeded him. On a later visit to Tongeren he is said to have been killed by robbers and buried in the church of Our Lady there. Historically the tale does not fit, since Severin lived around 397. Other sources also call him bishop of Maastricht, but this may be a confusion with the place of his death. His successor was Solatius.

Veneration

In 954, or 959 according to some sources, Archbishop Bruno I moved the supposed relics of Evergislus from Tongeren to the church of Saint Cecilia in Cologne. He was co-⁠patron of that church with the saint, and it is now a museum. His relics now rest in the nearby parish church of Saint Peter. He is honoured as a saint in the Western Church, is patron of glaziers and glass painters, and the parish church of Brenig bears his name. He is shown in episcopal vestments with a palm branch.