Justus of Lyon was a Deacon at Vienne, France, a Priest and a Bishop of Lyon, France c.350. He presided over the Council of Aquileia in 381, strongly opposed the heresy of Arianism, and became a friend of Saint Ambrose of Milan. When a violently insane criminal sought sanctuary in the cathedral of Lyon after attacking people in the street, the man was seized and killed by an avenging mob who ignored the sanctity of the church and the tradition of sanctuary. Justus was so disillusioned with the people, and what he considered his failure to bring them the real faith, that he left his see. He and Saint Viator of Lyon spent the rest of their days as prayerful hermits in the desert near Alexandria, Egypt.
Justus (St. Just) was the 13th bishop of Lyon, he is known to have attended the Councils of Valence in 374 and Aquileia in 381. Somewhat later, according to his Vita (5th cent.), he divested himself of the insignia of his office and went into exile in Egypt because he felt responsible for the lynching near his cathedral of a madman who had committed murder. He died in Egypt a few years later, so did soon afterwards his acolyte Viator who had gone with him.
The people of Lyon fetched their bodies and buried them in a mausoleum in the large cemetery which lay on the site of the present-day Archaeological garden, 11, rue des Macchabées.
