Theodore

Saint Theodore of Octodurum (also of Sion, Theodulus, Théodule) is the first known bishop of Octodurum, in the province of Alpes Poeninae, now Martigny in Valais, Switzerland. He is patron of Valais and of the Walser. His commemoration is on 16 or 26 August. He is known to have taken part in the Council of Aquileia in 381, his name being preserved in the list of those present as Theodorus Episcopus Octodorensis, and to have been one of the signatories of the letter of the Synod of Milan to Pope Siricius, early in 390, announcing their condemnation of the monk Jovinian and his followers. He is said to have discovered the tomb of Saint Maurice and to have founded there the Abbey of Saint Maurice at Agaunum. Aloys Lütolf placed the beginning of his episcopate in the 340s, which would amount to more than forty years of ministry.

It is possible that three distinct historical bishops with the name Theodulus or Theodorus are venerated together as a single saint: one from the end of the fourth century, a second attested in 515, when the seat of the bishopric was moved from Martigny to Sion and the remains of the first were transferred there, and a third, possibly legendary, recorded only in Acts written around the twelfth century by a monk Ruodpertus, who is said to have been installed by Charlemagne as secular ruler of the Valais in 805. The relics were moved to Sion probably in the sixth century and were lost in the French occupation of 1798. His attribute is a devil carrying a bell; the legend says the pope gave him a church bell, and the saint forced the devil to carry it across the pass that bears his name, the Theodul Pass. Miracles with grape must are also attributed to him, so he is patron of winegrowers. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, as a saint of the undivided Church.