Eugippius, or Eugyppius

Eugippius, or Eugyppius a learned monk, who lived at the close of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century. He seems to have been the descendant of an Italian family, and was at first monk in the monastery of St. Severin (q.v.) at Fariana, in Noricum (near the present Pchlarn, in Austria), subsequently in the monastery of Castrum Lucullanum (now Castello del Novo, belonging to the city of Naples). He is sometimaes called "abbot," but it is doubtful whether he was, in the later years of his life, abbot of Lucullanum, or whether the name was only given him as an honorary title. He is the author of a life of his teacher, St: Severinus (Vita St. Severini, publ. by Canisius, Antiq. Lect. t. 6, in Acta Sanctorun, January 8; and by Welser, Augsb. 1594), which is a very important contribution to the Church history of Germany. He also compiled a collection of Thoughts and Sentences from the works of St. Augustine (Thesaurus Augustinianeus (Basle, 1542; Venice, 1513), which was dedicated to the Roman virgin Proba. The author of the second work was formerly believed by some writers to be a different person from the author of the life of St. Severin, but this opinion has now been generally abandoned. Among the letters of Fulgentius (q.v.) of Ruspe, there is one addressed to Eugippius; a letter of Eugippius to Fulgentius is lost. Edgippius was also in literary connection with Dionysius Exiguus. There is a monastic rule which is ascribed to Eugippius, but it was early superseded by that of St. Benedict. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 4:217.