Selected Sermons of Saint Peter Chrysologus and Saint Valerian’s Homilies
Overview
This volume contains roughly a third of St. Peter Chrysologus’ authentic sermons, now available to an English-speaking audience. The sermons offer readers a glimpse into the daily life, religious debates, political milieu, and Christian belief and practice in the second quarter of fifth-century Ravenna.
Chrysologus preached and served as bishop at a time when the seat of the western Roman Empire was located in Ravenna. His career as bishop bridged the closing years of Augustine’s episcopate in North Africa and the early years of Pope Leo the Great’s pontificate in Rome. His sermons attest to his relations with the ruler of the state, the Empress Galla Placidia, as well as his familiarity with some of the significant theological controversies of the day. His chief importance, however, was not as an outstanding theologian, but as a shepherd who ruled his flock and preached well to its members. Loyally orthodox, he urged them to practice Christian virtues. He was concerned with their moral rectitude and spiritual growth, their understanding of the basic tenets of the Christian faith, their reverence and love for God, and their immersion in the Scriptures.
Chrysologus’s sermons are relatively brief in length, at least according to patristic standards, and he combines colloquial speech with a highly rhetorical flourish. The imagery that he employs indicates how attuned he was to the experiences of his congregation, how enamored he was of the beauty of the countryside or seashore, and how thoroughly imbued he was with the letter and the spirit of the Scriptures.
For The Fathers of the Church series in its entirety, see Fathers of the Church Series (127 vols.).
Key Features
- Reveals the unique homiletical style of Chrysologus
- Provides background on both the authors and the era in which they ministered
- One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers
Top Highlights
“You, however, admit that you are justified through Christ. Then do you object to your having received sentence through Adam? And do you complain that the penalty due to another man has also hurt you—you who see that the injustice of another man has helped you? Is not the whole tree contained in the seed? Therefore, a defect of the seed is a defect of the whole tree. If the nature itself had been able to help itself through its own power, the Creator Himself would never have assumed this nature to work its repairing. Do you believe that it has been created for life, if you still doubt that it has been repaired by its Creator?” (Pages 178–179)
“‘After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.’ This is not a sign of weakness, but a mark of strength. Because, when the text states: ‘After fasting, he was hungry,’ it proves that within the forty days and forty nights He had no hunger whatever. To feel hunger and overcome it is a matter of human effort; to have no hunger at all is a mark of divine power. Therefore, Christ did not grow weary of His fast, nor hunger because of appetite. Rather, He experienced hunger to enable the Devil to find a matter for tempting Him.” (Page 59)
“Therefore, brethren, let us acquiesce in the fact that death has reigned through one man and because of one man’s sin, if all of us wish to be set free through One Man, and to have our very being through Christ. For, he who lives owes it to Christ, not to himself; and he owes to Adam the fact that he must die.” (Pages 179–180)
“God cleanses human wounds; He does not despise them. He does not shrink from human sores, but heals them. Nor does He detest the suppurations from the human body; rather, He cleanses them. God cannot, He cannot be soiled through contact with His creature.” (Page 76)
- Title: Selected Sermons of Saint Peter Chrysologus and Saint Valerian’s Homilies
- Authors: Peter Chrysologus, Valerian
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 17
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 1953
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 454
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Sermons, Early Christian; Sermons, Latin › Translations into English
- ISBNs: 0813213894, 9780813213897
- Resource ID: LLS:SLCTDSRMNSHMLS
- Resource Type: text.monograph.sermons
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:53:05Z
About Peter Chrysologus
Peter Chrysologus (c. 380 – c. 450) was Bishop of Ravenna from about AD 433 until his death. He is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIII in 1729.
