Selected Sermons of Saint Peter Chrysologus, vol. 3

by Peter Chrysologus

Publisher:

Catholic University of America

, 2005

Overview

This volume is the third in the Fathers of the Church series to make available selected sermons of St. Peter Chrysologus (ca. 406–450), Archbishop of Ravenna and Doctor of the Church.

A gifted homilist, Chrysologus manifested great reverence for the Scriptures as divine communication and made them accessible to his congregation. Making use of imagery drawn from Ravenna’s natural surroundings as well as from some of the professions occupied by members of his flock, Chrysologus explained orthodox doctrine and promoted spiritual development. The Gospels occupy the foreground in most of his sermons, yet Chrysologus allows the reader a glimpse of the daily life, religious debates, political milieu, and Christian belief and practice in mid-fifth-century Ravenna.

In this volume are several expositions of St. Paul’s letters and some sermons delivered on the feast days of saints and at the consecrations of new bishops. Most of the selections, however, are homilies on texts from the four Gospels that Chrysologus interpreted throughout the year. Of particular note is his preaching on specific liturgical seasons—the end of Lent, Easter, Pentecost, the period immediately prior to Christmas, and the Christmas and Epiphany cycle.

Key Features

• Reveals the unique homiletical style of Chrysologus
• Provides background on both the author and the era in which he ministered
• One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers

Contents

Top Highlights

“He has come to your face, O man, because you were unable to reach his face; and he who was invisible has become visible¹⁵ for your redemption. The One besought by your ancestors has come.” (Page 227)

“He pursues fire, he demands water: what is the connection between such different things? Water pursues a flame, a flame increases water: how can entities so opposed to each other be in such harmony?¹⁶ What is at work here, as we have said, is a metaphor of the divine Farmer; but in fact everything sprouts full of heat, and is nourished by moisture. And so, God, the Parent¹⁷ of the universe, with a hasty interchange between fire and water produces us and nurtures us, for whom he burns, he is hot, he is on fire, and he pants with such great affection.” (Pages 299–300)

“‘If you were the children of Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham.’⁴ The one who can make the unassailable claim in his defense of doing his father’s works attests to the veracity of his lineage.” (Page 162)

“Blessed is the one who always accuses himself before God, so that God might excuse him, as Scripture advises in this fashion: ‘The just man from the start is his own accuser.’¹² And if he is just, why does the just man accuse himself? ‘Because there is no one alive who will be just in your sight.’¹³ Perhaps a human being may boast before a human being about righteousness, about innocence, about merit; before God the one who brags about his innocence and who boasts about his righteousness is not a human being.” (Pages 163–164)

“‘I make my body black and blue, and I subject it to servitude.’⁸ The good servant procured the means to freedom by acting in such a way that he beat himself continually to the point of being black and blue, and did not slacken the reins on his body, so that his flesh would not falter by being indulged and thereby incur the penalty of being enslaved to another.” (Pages 284–285)

Praise for the Print Edition

This volume represents all of Chrysologus’s sermons now available in the English language. . . . Throughout this volume Palardy provides the reader with first rate insight . . . making this final collection of sermons by Chrysologus truly an important addition to the study of Patristics.

— Jonathan Ignatius von Kodar, Laval Theologique et Philosophique

Product Details

• Title: Selected Sermons of Saint Peter Chrysologus, Volume 3
• Author: Peter Chrysologus
• Series: The Fathers of the Church
• Volume: 3
• Publisher: Catholic University of America
• Print Publication Date: 2005
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 390
• Era: era:nicene
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Sermons, Early Christian; Sermons, Latin › Translations into English
• Resource ID: LLS:SLCTDSRMNSVLM3
• Resource Type: text.monograph.sermons
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:53:07Z

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.