Didier of Cahors

Saint Didier, bishop of Cahors (also known as Desiderius)
Born	Albi or "Obreges"
Died	November 15 655
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Feast	November 15

Saint Didier, bishop of Cahors (died November 15 (his feast day), traditionally 655) a Merovingian royal official of aristocratic Gallo-Roman extraction, succeeded his own brother Saint Rusticus as bishop of Cahors. He governed the diocese, which flourished under his care, from 630 to 655. Didier's career, like that of his brothers is exemplary of a church and a monastic system controlled by the ruling, landholding class that was closely linked to the Merovingian monarchy. "This was no innovation of this period, but rather represented a continuation of a state of affairs which had existed since late Roman and early Merovingian times" (Lewis 1999, ch 1).

Born either in the oppidum of Albi or at "Obreges" on the border of Gallia Narbonensis and Aquitania to a father with the expressly Christian name of Salvius and a literate mother with the Frankish name Herchenfreda, he had two brothers, named Rusticus and Syagrius. The three boys were sent to the court of the Frankish king Clotaire II (584-629; from 613 sole sovereign), and with other boys of noble family received an excellent education at the Merovingian court-school. Rusticus assumed holy orders at an early age and became archdeacon in the town of Rodez before being appointed abbot of the palatine basilica of Clotaire, who at length appointed him bishop of Cahors, in Quercy. The second brother, Syagrius, after long service in the palace household of the Franks and long familiarity with Clotaire, was made comte d’Albi and exercised juridical authority as praefectus in the city of Marseille.

Desiderius, educated by his parents with the greatest care, combined a love of letters with a native Gallican eloquence, according to his Vita. While still adolescent he received the dignities of the royal household and turned his studies towards Roman (i.e. canon) law, with the result that a Roman gravity of demeanor tempered the gallic richness and brilliance of his discourse. Before long he was appointed treasurer to the king, an office that he retained under the new king, Dagobert I (629-639), whose confidant he was. After the death of Syagrius (629), he is said to have obtained also the prefectship of Marseilles, but this is not certain.

Faithful to the admonitions of his pious mother, three of whose letters to him are mentioned in his Vita, Desiderius led at court the serious holy life of a monk, and administered his office with great fidelity.

In 630 his brother Rusticus, the Bishop of Cahors, was murdered, whereupon the clergy and people of that city requested from the king Desiderius as his successor. By a letter of April 8, 630, Dagobert made known his consent, and Desiderius was consecrated Bishop of Cahors. With the other bishops of his time, many of them educated with him at the royal court, he maintained an active intercourse, as his letters prove. He was a zealous promoter of monastic life and founded a monastery in the vicinity of Cahors, the church of which was dedicated to St. Amantius; later on the convent was called after its founder St Géry (i.e. Dierius, from Desiderius). He directed also a convent of women, as we see from a letter written by him to the Abbess Aspasia. Under him and with his support was likewise founded in his diocese the monastery of St. Peter of Moissac. Desiderius built three large basilicas in and near Cahors (St Maria, St Peter and St Julian) and an oratory in honor of St Martin. The finished style of his building was notable, not of vernacular materials of wood, wattle and thatch, but

"`in the manner of the ancients out of squared and hewn stones, not indeed in our Gallican fashion, but just as a whole circuit of ancient walls is wont to be built; thus from the foundations to the topmost pinnacle he completed the work with squared stones' (quoted in Greenhalgh) He also built an aqueduct to serve Cahors, and rebuilt the walls and towers (castella) that protected the city, as well as the Castrum Mercurio in Cahors itself. His actions show how much the bishop acted for the public good with the authority of a count or of a patricius. Desiderius persuaded the nobles of his diocese to endow churches and monasteries.

By his testament (649-650) he endowed the cathedral, the churches, and the monasteries of his episcopal city with all his estates. While resident on his estates in the district of Albi he fell ill and died at his villa of Wistrilingo, which he had presented to the monastery of St Amantius. His body was carried to Cahors and interred in the church of St Amantius.

The Vita of Desiderius was written shortly after his death and possesses historical weight; appended to it are a collection of his letters, also of letters addressed to him, and an account of miracles that took place at his tomb.

His feast is celebrated on the 15th of November.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia "Desiderius of Cahors"
• Archibald R. Lewis, "The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050"
• Michael Greenhalgh, 1989. The Survival of Roman Antiquities in the Middle Ages (London, Duckworth): ch.7: The Materials of Building"

Further reading

• La vie de Saint Didier, Évêque de Cahors (630-655), I. R. Poupardin, editor (Paris, 1900)