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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna, preaches a sermon (Sermon 174) on the death of *John the Baptist (S00020). Delivered in Latin in Ravenna (northern Italy), c. 450.

Evidence ID

E02984

Type of Evidence

Literary - Sermons/Homilies

Major author/Major anonymous work

Peter Chrysologus

Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 174

This sermon is entitled as ‘the second on the same topic’ after
Sermon 173 (De Iohanne baptista et Herode, ‘On John the Baptist and Herod’).

The sermon comments on John the Baptist’s death as narrated in Mark 6:21-25 read that day. At § 6, it perhaps alludes to John’s feast when it contrasts Herod’s birthday and John’s birthday (into Heaven) through martyrdom.


Text: Olivar 1982, 1060-1064.
Summary: M. Pignot.

Liturgical Activities

Sermon/homily

Festivals

Saint’s feast

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

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

This sermon was perhaps preached after Sermon 173 (E02983).


Bibliography

Edition:
Olivar, A., Petrus Chrysologus, Sermones (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 24B; Turnhout, 1982), 1060-1064.

Translation:
Palardy, W.B., Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons. Volume 3 (Fathers of The Church 110; Washington D.C, 2005), 330-334.


Record Created By

Matthieu Pignot

Date of Entry

14/6/2017

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00020John the BaptistIohannesCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Matthieu Pignot, Cult of Saints, E02984 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02984