Feast day: July 30

St. Peter Chrysologus

Bishop, Doctor of the Church · c. 380–450

Patron of —

A bishop of Ravenna whose short, clear, and vivid sermons earned him the name Chrysologus — 'golden-worded' — and a place among the Doctors of the Church.

Peter was born about 380 at Imola in Italy and became bishop of Ravenna, then one of the chief cities of the Western Empire and an imperial capital, around the year 433. He served his people there for some seventeen years in a time of political decline and theological danger, governing with zeal and winning the affection and respect of emperor and people alike.

He owes his fame above all to his preaching, which earned him the name by which he is still known — 'Chrysologus,' the 'golden-worded.' His surviving homilies are short, clear, warm, and vivid, explaining the Scriptures, the Creed, and the mysteries of the faith in language ordinary people could grasp and remember, and dwelling tenderly on the Incarnation and on the Virgin Mary.

He kept his sermons deliberately brief, the tradition says, because he did not wish to weary or bore his hearers — a humility and good sense that, ironically, helped preserve them, so that they were copied and treasured down the centuries. Through them his clear teaching on Christ and on the Christian life reached far beyond his own city and age.

He upheld the orthodox faith against the heresies of his day and stood in communion with the see of Rome, to whose authority he pointed his people. He died about 450 and was much later, in 1729, declared a Doctor of the Church — a bishop remembered not for great deeds of power but for the enduring power of a few well-chosen, faith-filled words.

He kept his homilies short on purpose, fearing to tire his hearers — and that very brevity preserved them and made his name for fifteen centuries.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/11762c.htm