Abstract

This article tries to contextualize the often neglected exegetical handbooks of Eucherius of Lyons in the late antique christian debates on pagan culture and education within a monastic context. It is intended to show that Eucherius and his short manuals represent the point of view of the famous aristocratic monastery of Lerinum in southern Gaul which was orientated towards the keeping of ecclesiastical tradition. Together with other writings they imparted to younger aristocrats the necessary knowledge to become a bishop or to take on an ecclesiastical function.