Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 053

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 053

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/053

This is one of the Academy's earliest reports. We are not confident that these early reports are accurate. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's what we were able to find out about the name "Theotime." We weren't able to find any example of the name, though we found evidence which leads us to believe that it is a reasonable name for medieval France.

We found a number of saints named "Theotimus" (1). People were named after saints in every Christian culture at some point in our period, and there are many examples of French names derived from saints. Talan's documentation supports this; although it doesn't specifically reference a name "Theotimus," it shows similar forms including Deotimus (931), Toedumus, Teotumus, Deotimia (undated) and Deotimius (894 & 909). "Theotimus" would be a likely form of this name. We found no evidence that the name "Theotimus" survived to give rise to any French names in the 11th century, but it is certainly possible that it could have done so. Other Latin names ending in "-us" produced French names ending in "-e", so it's plausible that the 10th century "Theotimus" could have led to an 11th century "Theotime."

Although it's not directly relevant to the documentation of your name, we are fairly sure that the "Theotimus" mentioned in the correspondence of S. Francis de Sales is probably using a psuedonym--"Theotimus" can be interpreted as "fears God," and "Philothea" can be interpreted as "loves God." Given the traditionally confidential nature of spiritual direction, it's most likely that these names were created for the publication of these letters.

Arval D'Espas Nord, Pedro de Alcazar, and Ivanor of Sighty Crag assisted in researching your name.

We hope we have been of service. If you need any further assistance, we would be happy to help.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) The Book of Saints: A Dictionary of the Servants of G-d, compiled

by the Benedictine monks of S. Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate (UK),

revised and published in 1989.

There are several saints named Theotimus, all of whom are still

in the church calendar. The first was bishop of Tomi, on the

Black Sea, and spread the Gospel to the barbarians of the Danube.

The second is a rather unremarkable martyr, as are the other two.

(2) Morlet, Marie-Therese. Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de

L'Ancienne Gaule du VI au XII Siecle. Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique: Paris, 1972.