Dalmatius

Dalmatius (or Delmatius), the name of early ecclesiastics:

1. A martyr under Maximian, commemorated on December 5.

2. Censor at Antioch, commissioned by Constantine the Great to inquire into a charge brought by the Arians against Athaniasius, of having murdered Arsenius. Dalmatius wrote to the archbishop to prepare his defence.

3. Monk and abbot near Constantinople, often called Dalmatus, and commemorated August 3. He exerted a powerful influence at the time of the Council of Ephesus (431), against Chrysoretes the chamberlain and the Nestorian party at the court of Theodosius II. His influence arose from his eminent piety, his strength. of character, and his fiery zeal. Under Theodosius the Great he had served in the second company of Guards, was married, and had a family. Feeling a call to a monastic life, he left his wife and children, except a son Faustus, and went to receive instruction from the abbot Isaac, who had dwelt in the desert from his infancy. Isaac, at his death, made him Hegumenus, or superior of the monastery, under the patriarch Atticus. Consulted by councils, patriarchs, and emperors, he remained in his cell forty-eight years without quitting it. After the Nestorian party at Ephesus had deposed Cyril and Memnon, bishop of Ephesus, and imprisoned them, news of their distress reached him by secret conveyance. While he prayed he believed that he heard a great voice summoning him forth from his retreat. Accompanied by the monks of all the monasteries, with their abbots at their head, he appeared before the palace. The abbots were admitted with him to the imperial presence. The outcome, was that. the emperor, came to acknowledge of the truth from Dalmatius, as the council acknowledged, and ordered a deputation of each party to appear before him.

4. Bishop of Cyzicum. The archbishop had nominated Proclus, but the people, according to the canons, chose the monk Dalmatius. He was present at Ephesus in 431.

5. Saint, third bishop of Rodez, from 524 to 580. He was present at the Council of Clermont in 525, at the first Council of Arvernum in 535, and at the Council of Orleans in 541. Dalmatius was once condemned to death for the faith, at Brives-la-Gaillarde. St. Anstites interceded for him with the tribune who had condemned him; but his intercession was of no avail, and Dalmatius was actually led out to execution. Anstites then prayed for him, the execution was hindered by some extraordinary atmospheric phenomena, and the condemned man lived to a good old age. He is commemorated November 2.

6. Saint, a French prelate of the Benedictine order, and regular priest of Grasse or Notre Dame of Orbieu. He assisted, in 1068, at the Council of Gerona, in which four canons were passed against those who had repudiated their wives in order to espouse others, against simony, and incestuous marriages, disorders then very common. Dalmatius was elected archbishop of Narbonne in September 1081, and presided in September 1086, at the council held in the abbey of St. Stienne of Bagnols. He died at Rieux, January 17, 1097. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale s.v.