Peter Chrysologus, St

Peter Chrysologus, St.

an Italian prelate, was born at Imola, in the northern part of Italy, towards the close of the 4th century. He was educated by Cornelius, a bishop, and received ordination as deacon from the same prelate. In 433 he was consecrated archbishop of Rav:enna by pope Sixtus III, who knew all his merit. He labored to reform several abuses which had been introduced into his diocese, and to extirpate the remnants of pagan superstition. In A.D. 448 St. Germain d'Auxerre having come to Ravenna, Peter received him with marks of the most profound veneration. Shortly afterwards the heresiarch Eutyches wrote to him complainiqg of the condemnation passed on him by Flavianus of Constantinople, and Peter replied to him in June, 449, expressing his grief to see that the disputes upon the mystery of the incarnation were not ended. He died December 2, 450. His zeal for the instruction of his flock is shown by one hundred and seventy-six Sermones, collected in 708 by Felix, archbishop of Ravenna, under the title, Divi Petri Chrysologi archiepiscopi Ravennatis, viri eruditissimi atque sanctissimi, insigne et pervetustum opus Homiliarum nunc primum in lucem editum (Par. 1544, 12mo), which have frequently been reprinted. They appear in the seventh volume of the Lyons edition of the Bibliotheca Patrum (1677, fol.): — Epistola Petri Ravennatis Episcopi ad Eutychem Abbatem. This letter was published by Gerard Vossius in the original Greek, with a Latin version, at the end of the works of Gregory Thaumaturgus (Mayence, 1604, 4to). It is reprinted in the Concilia (volume 4, col. 36, ed. Labbe; volume 2, col. 21, ed. Hardouin). See Smith, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Biog. and Mythol. 3:222; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 40:138.