Contents

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume VI: June. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.

June 19

St. Die or Deodatus, Bishop of Nevers, and Abbot of Jointures

THIS saint was nobly born in the west of France, and endued with eminent gifts both of nature and grace. In 655 he was placed in the episcopal chair of Nevers. He fulfilled all the duties of the pastoral charge with great fear and trembling till in 1664 he resigned his dignity, and having recommended to his clergy the choice of a successor, retired into the deserts, and there led an eremitical life. In 661, Hun, lord of the Val de Galilee, near Mount Vosge, bestowed on him that territory, and his donation was confirmed by Childeric II. king of Austrasia. Upon this spot St. Die founded the monastery of Jointures, which he put under the rule of St. Columban, though this was afterwards exchanged for that of St. Bennet. Dreading the charge of others, he continued still to live in a neighbouring little cell dedicated to St. Martin. 1	1
St. Die gave up his soul to God in the arms of St. Hidulphus, on the 19th of June, in 679 or 680. A town called St. Diei rose about his monastery, and this abbey has been since converted into a collegiate church. See Mabillon, sæc. 3. Bened. and Bulteau, l. 3. c. 34.	2

Note 1. A little before this time St. Gondebert, bishop of Sens, had abdicated his bishopric, and founded the abbey of Senones, three leagues from Jointures, where he died in 675. He is honoured in Lorraine on the 1st of March. In 671, St. Hidulphus having resigned the archbishopric of Triers, founded the abbey of Moien-Moustier, in the middle between those of Jointures, Estival, Senones, and Bodon-Munster. This last abbey, called also St. Saviour’s, was founded by the Bishop of Toul, in whose diocess all these monasteries were erected. St. Hidulphus, called in the country St. Hidon, is honoured on the 11th of July. The monastery of Moien-Moustier is usually called St. Hidulphus’s, and in union with St. Vanne’s, (St. Vitonis,) situated in the city of Verdun, gave birth to the famous congregation of Benedictins, which bears their names in Lorraine, also to that of St. Maur in France. [back]