Eleutherius of Auxerre

Holy Hierarch Eleutherius of Auxerre was bishop of Auxerre in Gaul in the first half of the 6th century. The diocese keeps an old text of the 9th century, the "Gesta pontificum Autissiodorensium", composed in the manner of the Liber pontificalis of the Church of Rome, in which Eleutherius appears sixteenth, between the bishops Droctoaldus and Romanus.

Historically he is attested on four occasions, as a participant in the councils of Orléans of 23 June 533, 7 May 538, 14 May 541 and 28 October 549. According to the Gesta he governed the Church of Auxerre for 28 years, 8 months and 9 days; he died on 16 August, probably in 550 or a little after, and was buried in the church of Saint-⁠Germain at Auxerre. The Hieronymian Martyrology records his death on 26 August, a date kept in the local liturgical tradition. Baronius fixed his commemoration in the Roman Martyrology on 16 August, and today's martyrology, reformed after the Second Vatican Council, moved it to 26 August. He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church.