Sidonius was a Bishop of Passau, perhaps the third bishop, in the mid-8th century, perhaps from about 754 to 764.[1] [2]

Jean Mabillon (1632–1707) conjectured that he had the same origins as Virgilius, Scottish or Irish, and that they came to Germany together to follow Boniface, "Apostle to the Germans."[3]

A deacon named Sidonius appears as a witness in litigation concerning the Cella of S. Maximinus, against the priest Ursus, with whom Bishop Virgilius had a suit c. 748 (?).[4]

Sidonius belonged to the circle of the (later) bishop of Salzburg, Virgilius, and had a reputation as a theologian.[5]

In a letter of Pope Zacharias to Saint Boniface, Sidonius is referred to as a priest.[6] In a letter of 1 July 746, the pope notes that Sidonius and his associate Virgilius, apparently on instructions from Boniface, had been rebaptizing Christians who had been baptised by other priests with the formula, "Baptizo te in nomine Patria, et Filia, et Spirita sancta;" the pope points out that this was not introducing error or heresy, but mere ignorance of good Latin, and the rebaptizing by Sidonius and Virgilius should cease.[7]

On 1 May 748,[8] Pope Zacharias wrote again to Boniface, inter alia about the priests Virgilius and Sidonius.[9] Virgilius was accused of trying to drive a wedge between the legate Bishop Boniface and Duke Otilo of Bavaria, by blackening the reputation of Boniface, who had accused Virgilius of wandering away from Catholic doctrine (adversum te, pro eo quod confundebattur a te erroneum se esse a catholica doctrina).[10] Pope Zacharias was also distressed that Virgilius and Sidonius were propagating a theory about the antipodes which the pope called perversa et iniqua doctrina[11] They claimed that there was another land (mundus) under the earth (terra), and other people and another sun and moon.[12]

Pope Zacharias died on 15 March 752.[13]

Marcus Hansiz pointed out that the name of Sidonius does not appear in the early episcopal lists of Passau.[14] In a manuscript from the library of the monastery of Tergensee, compiled c. 1500,[15] the following is found: "Sidonius, secondus, anno Domini DCCXLV Archiepiscopus Laureacensis eligitur Pataviae et sedit annis XII." ('Sidonius was the second, elected archbishop of Lorsch in Passau in 745, and held the seat for 12 years.')[16] This source makes no room for the alleged second bishop of Passau, Beatus.[17] It also obviously misstates the beginning of his tenure, since he was still only a priest in 748.


References

  1. ↑ Liste aller Bischöfe des Bistums Passau 739 bis heute.
  2. ↑ Herbert Wilhelm Wurster: Das Bistum Passau und seine Geschichte. 4 Bände, Straßburg 1994–2010.
  3. ↑ Hansiz, p. 130: "Mabillonius laudatus eum suspicatur ejusdem fuisse cum Virgilio patriae, nempe Scottum seu Hibernium, qui una nuper in Germaniam ad Bonifacium accesserint...." Boniface died on 5 June 754.
  4. ↑ Hansiz, p. 130. Hansiz also points out that there was a bishop of Konstanz named Sidonius, and an abbot of Augia also named Sidonius.
  5. ↑ August Leidl: Die Bischöfe von Passau 739–1968 in Kurzbiographien. Verlag des Vereins für Ostbairische Heimatforschung, (Passau 1978).
  6. ↑ Brackmann, p. 161, no. 7.
  7. ↑ Brackmann, p. 161, no. 6. J.P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae Latinae Cursus, Tomus 89 (in Latin), (Paris 1850), p. 929, Epistola VII.
  8. ↑ Philippus Jaffé, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, (in Latin), second edition, Tomus I (Leipzig: Veit 1885), p. 267, no. 2286.
  9. ↑ Hansiz I, p. 131. Migne, Patrologiae Latinae Cursus, Tomus 89, pp. 946-947, Epistola XI. Another priest, a Scot named Samson, who was a heretic, is mentioned.
  10. ↑ Migne, p. 946.
  11. ↑ "his perverse and inimical doctrine." Patrologiae Latinae Tomus 89, p. 946.
  12. ↑ Hansiz, p. 131.
  13. ↑ J.N.D. Kelly and M.J. Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes, second edition (Oxford OUP 2010), pp. 87-88.
  14. ↑ Heinsiz, p. 134: "Illud non dissimulandum, Sidonio in vetustis quibusdam Catalogis, qui ad manum sunt, nullum dari locum, perinde ut Beato continuo enim post Vivilonem scribitur Anthelmus, omissis Beato et Sidonio...." See Pez (1721), Scriptores rerum Austriacarum, pp. 6, 11, 12.
  15. ↑ Pez, p. 14: "Extat hic Pataviensium Præsulum Catalogus in quodam chartacco magnæ molis volumine, variis in locis (ut videtur) a recentiori manu interpolatus, quem incognitus sæculi decimi fexti auctor magno studio collegit."
  16. ↑ Pez, p. 16.
  17. ↑ Pez, p. 10: "Nomine post illum Antistes mox rite Beatus." Hansiz, p. 130.

Sources


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