Other Western Writerswriter
Who he was
- A 5th century poet, of whose life very few details are known.
- The only trustworthy information is given by his two letters devoted his early life, perhaps as a teacher of rhetoric, to heathen literature.
- Late in life he converted to Christianity, or, if a Christian before, began to take a serious view of his duties.
- Thenceforward he devoted his talents to the service of Christ, living amongst a small body of religious friends.
- Sedulius longed to strengthen his own spiritual life by exhorting others. He yearned to tell the heathen of the wonders of the Gospel, and wrote the Carmen Pashale to invite them to share the Gospel feast.
- He refers to St. Jerome as a well-known student, and his work is praised in a decree of Pope Gelasius in 495 or 496.
- He flourished under Theodosius II and Valentinian II between 425 and 450.
What he wrote
- Sedulius was undoubtedly the best among the versifiers of the Bible, and was much esteemed as a poet in the Middle Ages.
- Carmen Paschale, “a poem in honor of Christ our Passover,” consists of five books.
- Opus Paschale: This prose translation mainly follows the Carmen faithfully, but adds illustrations and fills up gaps.
- Elegia: An elegiac poem of 110 lines, it describes the effect of the Incarnation in contrast to the work of Adam, and Christ as the antitype of the types of the Old Testament.
- A solis ortus cardine: A hymn which may be called a lyrical expression of the Carmen. It is a call to praise Christ with a description of the chief facts of His birth, life, and death.
- Cento Virgilianus “de Verbi Incarnatione” is sometimes ascribed to Sedulius and there only follows the other poems without being ascribed to Sedulius.
- Two letters to Macedonius.