Just of Lyon

Justus of Lyon was the 13th Bishop of Lyon. He succeeded Verissimus in the mid-4th century. He is venerated as a saint by both the Catholic and the Orthodox Church, with a feast day on 2 September. Around 350, Justus was made Bishop of Lyon. As bishop of the capital of Gaul, he was among the participants of the Council of Valence of 374 regarding religious discipline of the clergy and the faithful. He later became a hermit.

Biography

Early life He was born in the first half of the 4th century in Tournon-sur-Rhône and came from an aristocratic family. He followed the religious teaching of Saint Paschasius, the Archbishop of Vienne at the time, and became a deacon of the Church of Vienne.

He assisted at the Council of Aquileia, 381, organized by Ambrose of Milan.

The bishop came to believe that his failure to adequately protect the murderer had made him unworthy to continue to lead the Christian community, and he resolved to devote the remainder of his life to doing penance. Disillusioned, Justus resigned his See, and retired to his house at Tournon. His friends could neither convince him that he was not responsible for the unfortunate man's death, nor to reconsider his decision of being unworthy to be bishop. One night he secretly left to take up the ascetical life of a hermit. He travelled to Arles, and then on to Marseille where he planned to embark for Alexandria. The cathedral lector, Viator suspected the Bishop's intentions, and decided to follow his master. He caught up with Justus at Marseille, and together they boarded ship for Egypt.

Once there, they joined the community of monks in the desert of Scetes, about 40 or 50 miles south of Alexandria, beyond the mountains of Nitria, in the Libyan Desert. At that time the leader or abbot of this community was St. Macarius of Egypt (or the Elder) († 390), a disciple of one of the founders of monasticism in Egypt, St. Anthony († 356). Macarius had a reputation for great holiness and a fierce asceticism. Most of the monks lived in cells, either dug in the ground or built of stones, and each out of sight of others. They came together only on Saturdays to celebrate the liturgy. They supported themselves by manual labor, and ate only the poorest of foods. Fasting, prayer, silence, and the keeping of night vigils, characterized their lives.

The story is told then of a pilgrim in North Africa who some years later recognized Justus and reported this on his return to Lyon. The city folk being eager to regain their bishop, sent a delegation led by Antioch, a priest of Lyon, to find him and bring him back to his diocese.

In Lyon, the Basilica of Saint Justus, now destroyed was replaced by the Church of Saint-Just. Around the basilica developed a village of the same name which became in the 19th century an arrondissement of Lyon. Saint-Just (pronounced Saint-Ju) is today a quarter in the 5th arrondissement of Lyon, on the Fourvière hill.

The chapel of the school of Tournon (Lycée Gabriel Faure) also bears his name.