St. Theuderius

Theuderius, known in French as St. Chef, came from Vienne. Butler relates that he left a wealthy background and learned the monastic life under St. Caesarius at Arles. Returning to his own country, he gathered disciples and built a community near Vienne, beginning with cells and later establishing a monastery.

He was then chosen for a particular form of intercessory life practised in the city. A monk would live in close retirement, offering prayer and penance for the people. Theuderius accepted this responsibility and spent the remainder of his life in that demanding vocation. Butler is careful to add that dependence on another person’s prayers must never become an excuse for neglecting one’s own conversion or prayer.

Butler places his death about the year 575. He was buried at the monastery of St. Laurence, and his relics were later transferred to a church that bore his name. The town of Saint-Chef in Dauphiné took its name from the same devotion. The account cited by Butler was written by Ado, archbishop of Vienne, and preserves both the foundation and the later memory of the recluse.