Next to virtue, learning, in his view, was the greatest improver of the human mind and the support of true religion. St. Peter Chrysologus

Night Office Saints, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 St. Peter Chrysologus (406-450?) A man who vigorously pursues a goal may produce results far beyond his expectations and his intentions. Thus it was with Peter of the Golden Words, as he was called, who as a young man became bishop of Ravenna, the capital of the empire in the West. At the time there were abuses and vestiges of paganism evident in his diocese, and these he was determined to battle and overcome. His principal weapon was the short sermon, and many of them have come down to us. They do not contain great originality of thought. They are, however, full of moral applications, sound in doctrine and historically significant in that they reveal Christian life in fifth-century Ravenna. So authentic were the contents of his sermons that, some 13 centuries later, he was declared a doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIII. He who had earnestly sought to teach and motivate his own flock was recognized as a teacher of the universal Church. In addition to his zeal in the exercise of his office, Peter Chrysologus was distinguished by a fierce loyalty to the Church, not only in its teaching, but in its authority as well. He looked upon learning not as a mere opportunity but as an obligation for all, both as a development of God-given faculties and as a solid support for the worship of God. Some time before his death, St. Peter returned to Imola, his birthplace, where he died around A.D. 450. COMMENT: Quite likely, it was St. Peter Chrysologus’s attitude toward learning that gave substance to his exhortations. Next to virtue, learning, in his view, was the greatest improver of the human mind and the support of true religion. Ignorance is not a virtue, nor is anti-intellectualism. Knowledge is neither more nor less a source of pride than physical, administrative or financial prowess. To be fully human is to expand our knowledge—whether sacred or secular—according to our talent and opportunity.

The following extract is taken from the sermons of St Peter Chrysologus:

Man, why do you have so low an opinion of yourself, when you are so precious to God? Why do you so dishonour yourself when you are so honoured by God? Why

do you enquire about where you were made and do not ask why you were made?

Has not the household of the whole universe which you see been made for you? For you the light is produced to dispel the surrounding darkness; for you the night

is regulated; for you the day is measured out; for you the sky shines with the varied brilliance of sun, moon and stars; for you the earth is embroidered with flowers, groves and fruit; for you is created a beautiful, well-ordered and marvellous multitude of living things, in the air, in the fields, in the water, lest a gloomy wilderness upset the joy of the new world.

Moreover he who made you devises means to increase your honour: he places his

Likeness in you so that this visible likeness may bring the invisible Creator present on earth. In earthly things he has given you the marks of his handiwork, so that you, the Lord's representative, may not be beguiled by such a generous endowment

in this world.

Adapted from Saint of the Day by L Foley, OFM,
Vol. 2,pp. 28-9, and The Divine Office, vol. III, p. 140.