Salonius of Geneva

Saint Salonius (about 400 or 405 until between 453 and 475) was bishop of Geneva in the fifth century, son of Saint Eucherius of Lyon and of Galla, educated at the monastery of Lérins and the author of allegorical commentaries on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. He is commemorated on 28 September. Our sources call him a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and show no formal Orthodox veneration.

Family and the school of Lérins

He was born about 400 or 405 into the family of the Gallo-⁠Roman noble Eucherius and his wife Galla. His younger brother was Veranus, and the sources also mention two sisters, Consortia and Tullia. When Salonius was about ten, his father, now a widower, moved with his sons to the monastery of Lérins. There Salonius and Veranus entered the monastery school, with Hilary of Arles, Salvian and Vincent of Lérins as teachers. Eucherius dedicated his commentaries on Scripture to Salonius, and Salvian, after 439, his work On the Government of God, leaving also a letter in which he explained why he had written under the pseudonym Timothy.

Writings

Two works are attributed to him, commentaries on the Proverbs of Solomon and on Ecclesiastes, written as a dialogue with his brother: Veranus asks, Salonius answers. Both contain the allegorical interpretations usual at the time. The second is dated about 440, though some think that at least part of the text may have been written later, even as late as the ninth century.

Bishop of Geneva

Around 434 Eucherius became bishop of Lyon, Salonius received, perhaps in 439 or 441, the see of Geneva, and his brother Veranus, about 450, the see of Vence. The view that Salonius led the diocese of Lyon or of Genoa is mistaken, for in the acts of the synods he is called a suffragan of the metropolis of Vienne; the English source, however, says that he has also been listed as bishop of Genoa, but it is not known whether this was a later appointment or a slip of the pen for Geneva. In the medieval lists of the bishops of Geneva he is not mentioned, but he may be the same as Salvian, who appears there.

He took part in the synods of Orange (8 November 441), Vaison (13 November 442) and Arles (perhaps in 451), where an end was put to a conflict between Bishop Theodore of Fréjus and an abbot and measures were taken against idolaters and Arians. In June 449 he signed, together with his brother Veranus and one hundred and sixteen other bishops, the Tome of Pope Leo the Great to Flavian of Constantinople. In the following year he, Veranus and Ceratius of Grenoble wrote to Pope Leo thanking him for his firmness in the struggle against Monophysitism. According to traditions recorded in 1106, the restoration of a monastery and the founding of a monastic community are attributed to Salonius. In 443 Sabaudia with Geneva was given to the Burgundians, and Geneva became the capital of the kingdom of the Burgundians.

His end

After the synod of Arles we have no sure news of him. We know that he died on 28 September, but the year is not known: perhaps 453, perhaps about 460; the English source gives 475. In any case he died before the middle of the 470s, since by then the bishop of Geneva was already Theoplastus. Western calendars commemorate him on 28 September already from the Hieronymian Martyrology; the Roman Martyrology at first named him bishop of Genoa, a mistake later corrected.