Hesychius I (bishop of Vienne)

Hesychius or Isicius (occasionally also Isique[1] or Ysile[2]) is mentioned in the first extant list of the bishops of Vienne, the Catalogue of bishop Ado of Vienne (799-875)[3][4][5][6]

He married Audentia, with whom he had two sons, Avitus, his successor in the episcopal seat of Vienne, and Apollinaris of Valence, who became bishop of Valence.[1][7] He was apparently related to Sidonius Apollinaris,[7] prefect of Rome and later bishop of Clermont.

According to the historian Bernard Bligny (1979), Hesychius belonged to "one of the principal Gallo-Roman families of 'Bourgogne', the Hesychii, a branch of the Syagrii", of whom several members were bishops of Vienne (three) and Grenoble (four).[8]

According to tradition, confirmed at least in part by the historian Ulysse Chevalier in his Notice chronologico-historique sur les archevêques de Vienne (1879), Hesychius was a senator before governing the diocese of Vienne.[1][3] The Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse states that he was descended from a family of the senatorial nobility and was closely related to the Emperor Avitus.[7]

In his Chronique (VI) Bishop Ado mentions Hesychius as the reigning bishop when Saint Severus of Vienne dedicated a church in Vienne at the time of the death of Saint Germanus of Auxerre.[5][3] Lucas however maintains that whereas the dedication must have taken place in 448 and Severus' death in 450, Hesychius' episcopacy was later, probably between 475 and 490.[6]

Hesychius seems to have died in about 490;[3] his son Avitus succeeded him as bishop of Vienne.[7]