Western Fatherswriter
Who he was
- Born into a wealthy Gallo-Roman family in Châlon-sur- Saône.
- Sometimes called of Châlons (Cabillonensis seu Cabellinensis) from his birth place; but more usually known as Caesarius of Arles (Arelatensis) from his see, which he occupied for 40 years.
- Caesarius was certainly the foremost ecclesiastic in the Gaul of his own age; he was one of the most important figures in the sixth-century Gallic Church, less for his theological achievements than for his efforts as a pastor to promote a Christian system of values, practices, and beliefs among his people.
- He entered the local clergy in his eighteenth year.
- Two years later, he departed for the famous monastery of Lérins, where he remained for several years as a monk, and where he rapidly became master of all which the learning and discipline of the place could impart.
- Having injured his health by austerities, he was sent to Arles to recover. There, he studied with the rhetorician Julianus Pomerius and was ordained first a deacon and then a priest by bishop Eonus.
- In 499, Caesarius was named abbot of a monastery in the suburbs of Arles, where he remained until chosen bishop of Arles in 502.
- At the death of Eonus the clergy, citizens, and persons in authority proceeded, as Eonus himself had suggested, to elect Caesarius, sincerely against his own wish, to the vacant see, being probably about 33 years of age.
- He presided over several regional councils, including those of Agde (506) and Orange (529). The most important was that of Orange; its statements on the subject of grace and free agency have been justly eulogized by modern historians.
What he wrote
- He was particularly well known for the sermons that he regularly delivered, “suitable to different festivals and places but also against the evils of drunkenness and lust, discord and hatred, wrath and pride...and other vices” (vita 1.55).
- These Sermons, numbering almost 250, are Caesarius’ most important writings. Their clarity, simplicity, and vigor gave them a wide circulation in his own time and throughout the Middle Ages.
- Regula monachorum, two Epistulae, the Testamentum, and the Rule for Nuns, which had a measurable influence on later Gallic rules.
- A book he wrote against the Semi-Pelagians, entitled de Gratiâ et Libero Arbitrio, was sanctioned by Pope Felix; and the canons passed at Orange were approved by Boniface II.
- Four theological treatises have also been plausibly attributed to Caesarius by Dom Morin (Opusculum de gratia, Libellus de mysterio sanctae Trinitatis, Breviarium adversus haereticos, Expositio in Apocalypsim), but their authenticity has not been universally accepted.
- Caesarius was particularly well known for the women’s monastery that he founded in Arles, and for the rule that he composed for it. His sister Caesaria afterwards presided over the monastery, and to her he addressed his Regula ad Virgines.
- In the great doctrinal question of Semi-Pelagianism of his age, Caesarius, although a disciple of St. Augustine, displayed in this respect considerable independence of thought.
- His vigorous denial of anything like predestination to evil has caused a difference in the honor paid to his memory.