Ruricius of Limoges

Saint Ruricius was a Gallo-⁠Roman aristocrat who became bishop of Limoges in Gaul from about 485 to 510, in the time of Visigothic rule and of the undivided Church. He is known above all for his letters, which have survived and show the life of educated Roman Christians under barbarian rule. He should not be confused with his son-⁠in-⁠law, Saint Rusticus, Archbishop of Lyon.

Family

Little is known of his life, and his letters contain few personal details. His date and place of birth are unknown. We know that he became a grandfather and even a great-⁠grandfather, so he lived to at least sixty-⁠five or seventy; his birth is therefore placed around 440. He had close ties with Aquitaine, especially with the region of Cahors, where he owned land near Gourdon.

According to the poet Venantius Fortunatus, Ruricius belonged to the family of the Anicii, one of the greatest aristocratic houses of Rome. The connection is unclear, and historians have proposed several explanations. According to some, he was the son of a Constantius and of a Leontia from the aristocratic family of the Pontii Leontii of Burdigala (Bordeaux), the same family from which Saint Paulinus of Nola came; according to others, his mother was the daughter of Adelphius, bishop of Limoges, and Ruricius was the grandson of one of the two brothers, Adelphius and Hermogenianus, who in turn held the see of Limoges. Another hypothesis makes him the son of an unnamed proconsul of Africa and the brother of Camillus and of Firminus of Arles. The question remains open.

Education and marriage

He received an excellent education for his time. His command of legal terminology, visible in his letters, suggests that he worked for a time as an advocate. In his youth he corresponded with Sidonius Apollinaris, from whom he received three letters, and was for a time his protégé.

Around 460 he married Hiberia, daughter of the Arvernian senator Ommatius, a descendant of a fourth-⁠century patrician named Philagrius; according to some, Ommatius was related to the emperor Avitus. They had at least five sons: Ommatius, the eldest, who was bishop of Tours from 522/523 to 526, Eparchius, a priest under the bishop of Clermont, Constantius, Leontius and Aurelianus. The sources also mention daughters, one married to Rusticus, bishop of Lyon, another to Agricola, son of Avitus. Ruricius had several grandchildren and at least one great-⁠grandchild.

Bishop of Limoges

Hiberia supported him in his decision to devote himself to the life of the Church. In 477 or somewhat later he entered the clergy. At that time, after the fall of Roman rule in Gaul, many Gallo-⁠Roman aristocrats entered the service of the Church, where they kept their influence and a measure of security. After the death of the Visigothic king Euric on 28 December 484, Ruricius became bishop of Limoges.

Throughout his episcopate Euric's son Alaric II reigned, and he seems to have made use, among other things, of the bishop's legal skill. Around 485 Ruricius built the monastery and church of Saint Augustine in Limoges, his only known work apart from his letters.

His last letter dates from the end of 506, so his death is often placed in 507, but he may have lived until about 510. He was buried in the church of Saint Augustine, which he had built.

The letters

Eighty-⁠three letters survive, twelve of them addressed to him, in a single manuscript, the Codex Sangallensis 190. They cover nearly thirty years and show what happened in Gaul after the final Roman withdrawal around 480. Ruricius is one of four Gallo-⁠Roman aristocrats of the fifth and sixth centuries whose letters survive in quantity, alongside Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont, Avitus, bishop of Vienne, and Ennodius, bishop of Pavia; all belonged to a close aristocratic network from which the bishops of Gaul were drawn.

Most of the letters are addressed to neighbouring bishops and to relatives. They say very little about Visigothic rule, which has led some historians to ask how much it really changed local life. Some have judged them poor for the historian, because Ruricius was in the habit of passing on important news by word of mouth through the bearers of his letters. Others, among them their translator Ralph Mathisen, consider them very valuable for understanding the survival of classical culture and Christian life in late Roman Gaul, as the witness of an ordinary bishop less involved in politics. They also shed light on the circumstances of the Battle of Vouillé near Poitiers in 507, in which the Franks defeated the Visigoths.

For Ruricius, the letter was the chief means of keeping ties of friendship and kinship alive in a time of literary decline, and his style is regarded as a good example of the Gallic rhetoric of that age.