Saint Peter Chrysologus

While our Saint worked to form spiritual temples for Jesus Christ, he also employed his care in building material ones for Him or in repairing those that had fallen into ruin. Above all, he had a famous church built in honor of Saint Andrew, the Apostle, and some public buildings for the convenience of the city. He attended the death of Saint Barbatian, a priest, who by his miracles was the astonishment of his entire diocese; he washed his body, embalmed it, and buried it near the high altar of Saint John the Baptist, which he himself had dedicated. He also took care to bury the body of Saint Germanus of Auxerre, who died in his time in Rave nna, an Ravenne Birthplace of the saint and site of his final mission. d who was later brought back to his episcopal city. He inherited his meager belongings and his hair shirt, and he considered himself happier with such a rich succession than if he had acquired all the treasures of the earth.

At that time, the impio us Eutyc Eutychès Heresiarch whose errors were condemned by the councils. hes began to spread his pernicious heresy, by which he confounded the natures in Jesus Christ, and of two made only one, whether by the mixing of one with the other, or by the loss of one in the other. In order to gain supporters for his errors, he wrote to the principal bishops of the West whom he wished to engage in his party, and, as our Saint shone among the others, as much by the dignity of his see as by his doctrine and piety, he was one of those to whom he addressed his letters; but Peter gave him the answer that his malice deserved. He reproved him for his obstinacy, pointed out his blindness, and, after this just reprimand, exhorted him to subscribe to the doctrine of the Holy See. This response is found at the beginning of the Acts of the Council of Chal cedon, where it was in concile de Chalcédoine Ecumenical council confirmed by Hilary. serted as an excellent piece and a powerful proof that it is Saint Peter and subsequently Jesus Christ who speak through the mouth of the sovereign Pontiff.

The zeal of this blessed archbishop was also manifested by the care he took to excise from his diocese several pagan superstitions that were still practiced there in his time. He declaimed particularly in his homilies against the use of those abominable masks that represented false divinities, and against the custom of celebrating, in honor of Jesus Christ, whenever some good fortune had occurred, the circus games which were remnants of paganism. His remonstrances on this matter were so effective that he entirely exterminated these impious and sacrilegious entertainments. Finally, after having holily governed the church of Ravenna for nineteen years, he had a revelation that the time of his death was near; and, as he had a singular devotion to Saint Cassian, martyr, he made a journey to Imola, where there w as a Imola Place of death and burial of Peter Chrysologus. church dedicated in his honor, to pray to him to obtain the grace of ending his days happily. While he was there, he fell ill, and, after having exhorted those of his diocese to elect a good bishop in his place, and to never depart from the path of the commandments of God, he peacefully rendered his soul into the hands of Jesus Christ: which happened on December 2, around the year 450.

His body, according to his wish, was buried in the same church of Saint Cassian; but one of his arms was taken to Ravenna, where it is seen in a gold reliquary enriched with precious stones. The voice of the people, who had always admired the holiness of his life, canonized him, and the Church inserted him into its Martyrologies. Saint Peter Chrysologus may be represented either preaching to his flock against the scandals of the carnival, or receiving the last breaths of Saint Germanus of Auxerre, who had come to Ravenna for some particular business of his Church.

We have a certain number of sermons from him. Most are on Scripture, the text of which he explains with as much pleasure as clarity. He usually gives the literal meaning, then the allegorical, to which he adds some moral reflections. He explains Scripture, not in sequence, but according to what had been read in the Church on the day he was preaching. There are also discourses where he treats specifically of fasting, almsgiving, prayer, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed; others where he declaims against hypocrisy, envy, and avarice. There are few dogmatic ones; it is only in passing that he explains some of our mysteries. He did, however, compose homilies for the days of Christmas, Epiphany, and Easter. We also have some from him on the feasts of the Innocents, Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Matthew, Saint Stephen, Saint Lawrence, Saint Cyprian, Saint Apollinaris, and some others. All these discourses appear labored, the terms are chosen but often little used, the comparisons are just, and the descriptions are sustained, which implies study and reflection. It also required some for a quantity of wordplay, which seems to have been to Saint Chrysologus's taste. Most of his thoughts are beautiful; but there are some that cease to please when one examines them deeply; others that are far-fetched and fit the subject less well. His style is extremely concise and clipped, which makes it obscure and awkward. There are too many turns of phrase, and too little naturalness. He preached the one hundred and thirty-eighth discourse in a foreign diocese, at the request of a bishop whom he calls the common father and master. He shows in this discourse a great depth of humility and modesty; he shows it in all the others, treating his listeners with as much consideration as charity.

There are manuscripts that attribute to Saint Chrysologus a sermon on the Birth of Jesus Christ, which is the one hundred and twenty-fourth in the appendix of those of Saint Augustine; but the style is inflated, and is not at all clipped like that of this Father. On the contrary, one finds his genius and style in the seventy-third and ninety-seventh sermons of the same appendix. One is on Fasting and Prayer, the other on Peace. Neither appears finished. The sixty-first of this appendix is the fifty-third in the editions of Saint Chrysologus, but much longer, and with several variants. It is also on Peace. Father Labbe cites one on the Nativity of the Virgin. We do not have it; and there would be reason to believe that it is not by Saint Chrysologus, since this feast was not celebrated in his time; if one did not know that the inscriptions of his discourses have been corrupted, and that, in the manuscripts, there is none that is titled for any feast of the Blessed Virgin. Thus, Domenico Mita, who, in his edition, followed the manuscripts exactly, does not give the one hundred and forty-second sermon the title of discourse on the Annunciation of the Virgin that it bears in ordinary editions. Trithemius attributes several letters to Saint Chrysologus. We have only the one that this Father wrote to Eutyches. We see, from the one hundred and twelfth of Theodoret, that the Orientals wrote to this Father in the year 431; but it is nowhere read that he replied to them.

The letter to Eutyches was printed with the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon in the collections of the councils. As for his sermons, they were published, first in Cologne, in 1541, then in 1607, in 1678; in Paris, in 1585; in Antwerp, in 1618; in Lyon, in 1636; in Rouen, in 1640; in Boulogne, in 1643; in Toulouse, in 1670; in Paris, in 1614 and 1670, with the works of Saint Leo, and in the Libraries of the Fathers. The best edition of the sermons of Saint Chrysologus is that given in 1750, in Venice, in one folio volume, by Sebastian Paul; it was reprinted in Augsburg, in 1758, in folio, and, lastly, in the Patrologia Latina, volume 211. One finds here: 1st a preface by Paulus; 2nd a life of Saint Peter, according to the Pontifical of Agnelli, edited by Bacchinius, with observations on this life by the latter; 3rd his Life by Châtillon (Castillus); 4th another Life by Domenico Mita; 5th testimonies in favor of Saint Peter; 6th literary notice by Schmuemann; 7th dissertation on the ecclesiastical metropolis of

Ravenna, by J.-A. Amadésius; 2nd critical remarks on the authenticity of some of the discourses. Then come: 1st the discourses, numbering one hundred and seventy-six, with notes; 2nd an appendix which contains the sermons that had been attributed to this Father, numbering seven. The letter to Eutyches is found in this volume, at col. 71 and following. It is also read among the testimonies and in the letters of Saint Leo the Great, Ballerini edition, where it is the twenty-fifth.

## ST. BIBIANA OR VIVIENNE STE BIBIANE OU VIVIENNE Roman virgin and martyr of the 4th century. , VIRGIN AND MARTYR AT ROME (363).

Beyond the glory of virginity and martyrdom, this illustrious Roman woman has the distinction of being the daughter and sister of martyrs. Her father, Flavian, who had been prefect of Rome, was imprisoned for the faith during the reign of Julian the Apostate; but, having refused with heroic constancy to adore the idols whose worship this detestable emperor sought to revive, he was branded on the forehead like a slave and sent to the Taurine waters in Tuscany, where, overwhelmed by all sorts of miseries, he gloriously ended his life on December 22, 362. As for Dafrosa, her mother, she was first locked up in her house with her daughters so that they might all die of hunger; but this torment appearing too long to the tyrant, he had her beheaded outside the walls of Rome on January 4 of the following year. Bibiana and Demetria, her daughters, were treated with no less cruelty: for Apronianus, prefect of Rome, after confiscating all their property, did not cease to persecute them. He first had them locked in a narrow prison, with orders that they be given no food, hoping that the rigor of hunger would finally make them change their minds. Then, finding them stronger and in more flourishing health than ever, because God had miraculously nourished them there, far from being moved by this prodigy, he threatened them with the most horrible tortures and a cruel and shameful death if they did not submit to the emperor's will; whereas, if they obeyed him, they would recover their property and be provided with advantageous marriages. But our generous virgins were too well established in the faith by the instruction and example of their parents to be shaken by these threats or charmed by the glitter of these promises; thus they courageously replied to Apronianus that the goods and advantages of this world had no attraction for them, and that they would rather endure a thousand deaths than fail in their fidelity to Jesus Christ. Demetria, while saying these words with inconceivable ardor, fell dead in the presence of her sister, and by this blessed death, she went to receive the crown of martyrdom in heaven (362), as is noted in the Roman Martyrology for June 21.

As for Bibiana, the tyrant placed her in the hands of a very wicked woman named Rufina, so that she might try to corrupt her. This wretch used every imaginable invention. She first employed caresses, flattery, and kind treatment; then she moved on to insults, threats, and blows, even mistreating her every day in a most unworthy manner. But, as all these means served no purpose and could never shake the Saint's resolve to remain a virgin and a Christian, Apronianus, irritated to see himself defeated by a young girl, had her stripped and tied to a column, and the executioners, by his order, whipped her with leaded cords until she had rendered her soul through the violence of such a great torment (363).

Her holy body was thrown into a public place to be devoured by dogs; but divine Providence preserved it and they dared not approach it, so that after two days a holy priest named John found a way to remove it and bury it next to that of her mother and sister. A pretty little church was erected in 363 in her honor by a Roman matron named Olympia, on the very site of her father's palace. A magnificent urn of oriental alabaster, placed under the altar, contains the body of Saint Bibiana and also those of her sister Saint Demetria and her mother Saint Dafrosa. The walls of this church, restored under Urban VIII in 1625, are covered with f rescoes rep Urbain VIII Pope who beatified Josaphat. roducing the touching events we have just recounted; these frescoes are by Ciampelli and Pietro da Cortona. The white marble statue of Saint Bibiana, a graceful work by Bernini, is placed above the altar. One can still see in Bernin Sculptor of the statue of Saint Bibiana. this church the column of antique red marble to which she had been tied to be scourged. This small church is now isolated in the countryside. It is touching to see, on the day of the feast, the entire chapter of the great and sumptuous Basilica of Saint Mary Major come in procession to this modest church and celebrate solemn and pompous ceremonies in honor of these two virgins and their mother.

Saint Bibiana is represented: 1° holding in her hand a tree branch adorned with several twigs: this is apparently an allusion to the plumbatae (whips tipped with lead balls) with which she was struck; 2° in a group, with Saint Demetria, her sister, Saint Flavian, her father, and Saint Dafrosa, her mother; 3° tied to a column and scourged; 4° sometimes holding a dagger in her hand: which would suggest that she consummated her martyrdom by the sword, which is not in accordance with her acts.

Saint Bibiana is the patron saint of Seville; in Germany, she is the patron saint of drinkers; she is invoked particularly against headaches and epilepsy.

We have completed the account of Father Giry with the Characteristics of the Saints, by Father Cahier, and the anonymous work: *Une Année à Rome* (Paris, 1866, published by Ambroise Bray).