Carterius

Carterius is the name of several men in early Christian records. SEE PAMPHILUS; SEE PHILOSTORGIUS.

1. A martyr at Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia, under Licinius and duke Marcellus. If the title be rightly attached to the legend, he was of the company of Atticus, Eudoxius, and Agapius, who had taken counsel with the whole army to abide in the faith of Christ. They were tortured and imprisoned, then brought out and beaten, and finally burned, with many others, Nov. 2.

2. Signed the epistle of the Council of Alexandria to Antioch in A.D. 362 (Tillem. 8:212). He only says, "I, Carterius, pray your welfare." Tillemont supposes him to be the bishop whose exile was mourned by the Church of Antaradus, as Athanasius (1, 703) tells in his apology for his flight.

3. The joint provost with Diodorus, afterwards bishop of Tarsus, of a monastery in or near Antioch, under whom Chrysostom and his companions studied the Holy Scriptures and practiced asceticism (Socrates, H. E. 6, 3). He may also be the same that is commemorated by Gregory Nazianzen. Again, there is a Carterius on whom Gregory wrote an epitaph. Chrysostom was with Carterius up to A.D. 380. Tillemont (9, 370) says that there was an abbey of St. Carterius near Emera, in Phoenicia, in the middle of the 6th century.

4. Governor of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, A.D. 404. Chrysostom having halted at Caesarea on his way to his place of exile at Cucusus, was there attacked by a mob of fanatic monks, the tools of the bishop Pharetrius, his concealed enemy, from whose violence Carterius used his utmost efforts to shield him. His endeavors proving ineffectual, he made a vain appeal to Pharetrius to call off the monks and allow Chrysostom to enjoy the rest his enfeebled health required. On his arrival at Cucusus, Chrysostom sent him a warm letter of thanks for his services, and begged that he might hear from him (Epist. 14, p. 236).

5. A presbyter of Constantinople, who brought Anatolius's letter to Leo the Great, and carried back the answer (Leo, Epist. 80, p. 1039), April, A.D. 451.