AUNEMUND OF LYONS, ST.

Bishop; d. Mâcon, France, Sept. 28, 658. He was reared at the court of Dagobert I and Clovis II and probably held an official position there before his appointment to the archbishopric of Lyons. According to Bede (Eccl. Hist. 5.19), in 653 benedict biscop and wilfrid stopped at Lyons during their journey to Rome and were hospitably received by Aunemund, who is called Dalfinus in Bede's narrative. The archbishop of Lyons was so favorably impressed by Wilfrid that he offered him "the government of a large part of France" (ibid. ) and his niece as wife. Determined upon a different course of life, Wilfrid declined and went on to Rome, but after his visit there he returned to Lyons and remained for three years, received the tonsure from Aunemund, and was present when Queen bathildis, a second Jezebel in the opinion of Wilfrid's biographer Stephen Eddi, sent soldiers and "commanded that the bishop be put to death" (ibid. ). Most modern scholars, however, put the blame for Aunemund's murder on Ebroin (d. 681), Mayor of the Palace of Neustria. His body was returned to Lyons, and his name appears in the martyrologies of that city at the beginning of the ninth century.

Feast: Sept. 28.

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 6:197, 199–200. Acta Sanctorum Sept. 7:673–698. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 9:579–581. a. m. zimmermann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:1106. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq, and h. i. marrou (Paris 1907–53) 10.1:219–226. c. lefebvre, Bibliotheca sanctorum 1:1311. r. aigrain, Catholicisme 1:1064–65.

[h. dressler]