He and his brother
St. Viventiolus were the sons of Aquilinus (c. 430-c. 470), a nobleman at Lyon. Aquilinus was the son of Tullia (born 410), the daughter of
Saint Eucherius and his wife Gallia. Tullia's husband, whose name is unknown, was the son of
Decimus Rusticus and his wife Artemia, and was a vicarius of a province in
Gaul between 423 and 448 under Apollinaris, the father of Aquilinus' schoolfellow and friend,
Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 400).
Bishop
Rusticus served for many years as a magistrate.[2] Around 494 he succeeded
Lupicinus of Lyon as bishop. Shortly after his consecration, Rusticus sent some financial aid to
Pope Gelasius I. Gelasius wrote back in February 494, recommending to the bishop's good offices
Epiphanius of Pavia, who was on his way to Gaul to see to the ransom of certain captives held by the Burgundian king
Gundobad.[3][4] According to
Ennodius, among those freed were 400 from Lyon.[5]
Married before 480 to Hiberie de Limoges (born c. 460), daughter of
Ruricius,
Bishop of Limoges (then
Augustoritum) and his wife Hiberia, daughter of an
Arvernian senator Ommatius.[6][7][8] Rusticus and his wife had three children:
^Ennodius, Vita Epifani, 136–147; translated in Sr. Genevieve Marie Cook, The Life of Saint Epiphanius by Ennodius: A translation with an introduction and commentary (Washington: Catholic University of America, 1942), pp. 87–91.
^Settipani, Christian. "Ruricius, premier évêque de Limoges et ses alliances familiales." Francia, 18 (1991), p. 196, 218.
^Settipani, Christian. ADDENDUM et CORRIGIENDA (juillet 2000-octobre 2002) for Continuite Gentilice et Continuite Familiae Das Les Familles Senatoriales Romaines a L'Epoque Imperialle: Mythe et Realite.
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~prosop/publications/volume-two.pdf Archived 2011-06-04 at the
Wayback Machine (2002)
^Settipani, Christian. "Ruricius, premier évêque de Limoges et ses alliances familiales." Francia, 18 (1991), p. 196, 218.
^Settipani, Christian. ADDENDUM et CORRIGIENDA (juillet 2000-octobre 2002) for Continuite Gentilice et Continuite Familiae Das Les Familles Senatoriales Romaines a L'Epoque Imperialle: Mythe et Realite.
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~prosop/publications/volume-two.pdf Archived 2011-06-04 at the
Wayback Machine (2002)