Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna, preaches a sermon (Sermon 134) about the mother of seven martyred sons, probably for the feast of *Felicitas and her seven sons (martyrs of Rome, S00525). Delivered in Latin at Ravenna (northern Italy), c. 450.
Evidence ID
E02980
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Peter Chrysologus
Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 134, De sancta Felicitate ('On saint Felicitas')
The title, De sancta Felicitate ('On saint Felicitas'), seems not to be original but added later to this sermon, which does not mention Felicitas, nor any other saint, by name.
The sermon is in praise of a mother of seven martyred sons, to whom she gave birth a second time in martyrdom. For Peter, in fact, she was a true mother, because she exhorted them to martyrdom. The sermon also particularly refers to the manner of the sons’ death, their corpses being pierced through (confossa cadavera).
Text: Olivar 1982, 818-819.
Translation: Ganss 1953, 221-222.
Summary: M. Pignot.
Liturgical ActivitiesEcclesiastics - bishops
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Women
Source
Peter Chrysologus was bishop of Ravenna in the second quarter of the 5th century. The chronology of his life remains uncertain: he is attested as bishop in 448/449 and he died before 458 when there is evidence of his successor Neo receiving a letter from pope Leo the Great: see PCBE 2, 'Petrus Chrysologus 9', pp. 1728-9. While most of Peter's sermons were transmitted in a collection put together by bishop Felix of Ravenna in the 8th century, the current body of sermons attributed to him has been established and critically edited by Olivar, who rejected a number of sermons from Felix's collection as spurious and added 15 sermons not transmitted in the collection but which he considered authentic. All the sermons were preached in Ravenna, generally on specific topics or liturgical feasts that can be identified. Most, however, do not bear indications of their date, although Olivar has attempted to find chronological units within Felix' collection.For an overview of these sermons and hypotheses on their chronology, see A. Olivar, Los sermones de San Pedro Crisologo: estudio critico (Montserrat, 1962); F. Sottocornola, L’anno liturgico nei sermoni di Pietro Crisologo (Cesena, 1973); V. Zangara, “I silenzi nella predicazione di Pietro Crisologo”, Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 32 (1996), 225-265, and further bibliography in W.B. Palardy, Peter Chrysologus: Selected Sermons, vol. 2, (Fathers of the Church 109; Washington DC, 2004), xiii-xvi.
Discussion
While the title of the sermon seems to be a later addition, given the diffusion of Felicitas’ cult in Italy by the 5th century (S00525), it is probable that Peter was preaching about Felicitas and her sons on their feast day, rather than about the model story found in 2 Maccabees 7 (narrating the martyrdom of a Jewish mother and her seven sons, the Maccabean martyrs, S00303). It cannot be certain however, which (if any) of the preserved martyrdom accounts of Felicitas and her sons was known to Peter (on which see E02494).Olivar 1982, 817, points to the fact that the late antique Homily 32 in the collection of the Eusebius Gallicanus ($E06054), preached on the Maccabees, employs phrases similar to our sermon, as does a homily on the Gospels by Gregory the Great preached for Felicitas’ feast ($EXXXX).
Bibliography
Edition:Olivar, A., Petrus Chrysologus, Sermones (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 24B; Turnhout, 1982), 818-819
Translation:
Ganss, G.E., Saint Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons, and Saint Valerian, Homilies (Fathers of the Church 17; New York, 1953), 221-222.
Record Created By
Matthieu Pignot
Date of Entry
13/6/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00303 | Maccabean Martyrs, pre-Christian Jewish martyrs of Antioch | Uncertain | S00525 | Felicitas, martyr of Rome, with her sons, buried on the via Salaria | Uncertain |
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