Severian of Gabala

• Bishop of Gabala in Syria and a very skillful preacher.
• He was of a rather passionate nature and very proud of his talents as an orator.
• He won popularity by his occasional preaching in Constantinople, especially with the Empress Eudoxia.
• St. John Chrysostom made him his vicar before his journey to Ephesus in 401, but his originally friendly relations with St. John Chrysostom soon turned into intense hostility. He played a leading part at Constantinople in the events leading up to the Synod of the Oak in 403. At this synod, Severian sided with St. John’s accusers and defended his deposition. He was responsible for the transfer of the exiled Patriarch from Cucusus to Pityus.
• He is an exegete of the Antiochian School and his cosmology and preference for literal interpretations are typically Antiochian.
• He was a fervent defender of the faith of Nicaea against heretics

and Jews, but his works lack originality.

• Occasionally he reveals a high level of philological knowledge, but often his Hebrew etymologies are explicable only as from the Aramaic.
• Gennadius tells us: “Severian was learned in the Holy Scriptures and a wonderful preacher of homilies. On this account he was frequently summoned by the Bishop John and the Emperor Arcadius to preach a sermon at Constantinople…He died in the reign of Theodosius, his son by baptism.”
• It is said that Severian had close contacts with St. Ephraem.

• Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians.
• On Baptism and the Feast of Epiphany.
• 14 sermons, among them Orationes sex in mundi creationem.
• 6 homilies on the Hexaemeron,
• 2 homilies on the Hexaemeron,
• Other sermons: Homilia in illud Abrahae dictum Genesis 24, 2; Hom. de serpente quem Moyses in cruce suspendit; Hom. in dictum illud Matt. 21,23; Hom. de ficu arefacta; Hom. de Sigillis librorum.
• Homilia de pace, delivered after Eudoxia had brought a temporary reconciliation between him and St. Chrysostom (in 401).
• Sermo in dedicatione pretiosae et vivificae

cruces, 2 homilies.

• 12 additional homilies among the works of St. Chrysostom.
• Old Armenian version of 15 homilies. Others are extant in Syriac, Coptic and Arabic; their genuineness has not been established.
• Large fragments are extant of a Commentary of the Epistles of St. Paul in Biblical catenae.