Saint Aurelian of Arles

In a memorable circumstance, he gave striking proof of his attachment to sound doctrine. The Emperor Justinian had condemned what were called the *Three Chapters*, that is to say, the writings of Theodoret against Saint Cyril, the letter of Ibas, Bishop of Edessa, to Mari the Persian, and the writings and person of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the coryphaeus of Nestorianism. The Eutychians had ardently pursued this condemnation, from which they hoped to derive great advantages, and most Catholics were alarmed by it, fearing that it might be abused to undermine the General Council of Chalcedon. This edict was published in 546. Pope Vigilius, who had gone to Const Vigile Pope who held the Council of Constantinople and was persecuted by Justinian. antinople in 547, at first refused to receive the imperial edict, but, later seduced by the hope of seeing peace restored in the Church, he himself condemned the *Three Chapters* with this reservation: "Saving the authority of the Council of Chalcedon." This decision satisfied no one, and some deacons of the Church of Rome wrote to some churches in the West that the Pope had abandoned the holy council. Aurelian, having received one of their letters, wanted to ascertain the truth, and sent a cleric of his church, named Anastasius, to Constantinople with letters for Vigilius. The latter replied, on April 29, 550, to the holy bishop of Arles: "That he had admitted nothing that was contrary, either to the constitutions of his predecessors, or to the identical faith of the four councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, nor anything that could injure either the persons of those who had subscribed to the definition of this holy faith, or the decrees of his predecessors Celestine, Xystus, Leo, and the others; that his respect and veneration for the aforementioned councils could not be doubted; that he condemned, on the contrary, all those who departed from the line of faith of these councils, all those who rejected it, either partially or totally."

"May Your Fraternity," the Pope continued, "in your capacity as vicar of the Holy See, warn all bishops that they must not allow themselves to be surprised by the supposed writings that are being spread, or by the false rumors that are being circulated... Your envoy Anastasius will report to you what it has been in our power to do for the defense of the deposit of faith, which has been transmitted to us by the holy councils and our predecessors. When the emperor has permitted us to return to Italy, we will send someone to instruct you in more detail about what has transpired." The Pope then exhorts Aurelian to pray urgently for Childebert to protect the Church in the sad necessity in which it found itself; to write to the Ki ng of Tutila King of the Goths who spared Rome following the intervention of Aurelian. the Goths, Totila, who h ad j Rome Birthplace of Maximian. ust entered Rome, not to cause any damage to the Roman Church, and to do nothing that would be of a nature to disturb the Catholic faith. Totila allowed himself to be swayed by the prayers of Aurelian, and refrained from pillaging Rome.

Aurelius upheld, through his talents and virtues, the glory of a see illustrated by so many great and holy bishops. In 548, he founded a monast ery f Arles Ecclesiastical metropolis of the province to which Constantine belonged. or men in Arles and was assisted in this work by King Childebert, who hel d him in t Childebert King of the Franks who supported the saint. he highest esteem. He enriched the church of this new monastery with very precious relics and consecrated it under the title of the Apostles and the martyrs. He gave the religious a rule full of the spirit of wisdom and mortification. The same year, he founded, in his episcopal city, another monastery intended to gather the young women who wished to dedicate themselves to God in retreat. He placed it under the protection of the Blessed Virgin and gave the nuns who lived there a rule copied almost word for word from the one he had given to the monks.

Some writers place the death of the holy bishop in 550, others push it back to 553, but an inscription discovered in 1308 on his tomb in the church of Saint-Nizier in Lyon fixes the true dat Lyon Episcopal see of Saint Eucher. e. It is expressly stated there that Aurelius died in that city on the 16th of the Kalends of July, the sixth year after the consulship of Justin, indiction XIV, which corresponds to Friday, June 16, 551.

The Church of Aix, Arles, and Embrun celebrates the feast of Saint Aurelius, bishop and confessor, under the double rite on June 17.

Proper of Aix; — Cf. La France pontificale, by Fisquet.