Vincent of Lerins

• A distinguished presbyter of Gaul in 5th century.
• He is the best known of the monastic writers of Lerins.
• A native of Gaul, possibly brother of Loup, bishop of Troyes.
• He began as a soldier and then retired to Lerins where he was ordained priest.

• Little is known about his life except the information provided in Gennadius (De vir. ill. 65 ⁶⁴).
• Together with Salvian, he was entrusted with the education of Salonis and Veranus, the sons of Eucherius.
• Gennadius emphasizes his proficiency in biblical studies and in the history of dogma.
• He retired into a monastery at Lerins near Antibes, now known as L’Ile de St. Honorat, from the founder of this celebrated institution. Here he wrote Adversus Profanas Omnium Novitates Haereticorum Commonitorium, almost 3 years after the Council of Ephesus, i.e. in 434.
• On the humanity of Christ, Vincent wrote in the Commonitorium: But the Catholic faith teaches that the Word of God became Man in such a wise, that He took upon Him our nature, not fegnedly and in semblance, but in reality and truth, and performed human actions, not as though He were imitating the actions of another, but as performing His own, and as being in reality the person whose part He sustained. Just as we ourselves also, when we speak, reason, live, subsist, do not imitate men, but are men.
• In the Commonitorium he also wrote of St. Mary: God forbid that anyone should seek to defraud Holy Mary of her prerogative of divine grace and her special glory. For by the singular gift of Him who is our Lord and God, and withal, her own son, she is to be confessed most truly and most blessedly – The mother of God “Theotokos,” but not in the sense in which it is imagined by a certain impious heresy which maintains, that she is to be called the Mother of God for no other reason than because she gave birth to that man who afterwards became God…Not thus, I say, was the holy Mary “Theotokos,” the mother of God, but…because in her sacred womb was wrought that

most sacred mystery whereby, on account of the singular and unique unity of Person, as the Word in flesh is flesh, so Man in God is God.

1. TheCommonitorium(Memorial) in two books:

• This work by Vincent begins by stating that he thought it might be useful in accordance with scriptural precepts to write down certain principles he had received from holy Fathers.
• He goes on to say, those who would make accretions to

the faith stand thereby condemned for all time. The Pelagians are such. Valentinus, Photinus, Apollinaris, and other are similarly condemned by the warnings of Moses (Deut. xiii 1-11). Even good gifts, such as those of Nestorius, or useful labours like those of Apollinaris against Porphyry, cannot be pleaded against their novelties. He explains with some minuteness wherein consisted the heresies of Photinus, Apollinaris, and Nestorius, and the true doctrine of the Church as opposed to them.

• He says, the true and genuine Orthodox is he who loves Christ’s body, the Church; who puts God’s truth before all things, before any individual authority, affection, genius, eloquence, or philosophy. Additions to the faith or detractions from it are alike condemned by holy Scripture.
• He adduces his views from amongst the saintly doctors present in person, or whose works were cited as authoritative, were Sts. Peter of Alexandria, Athanasius, Theophilus, Cyril, Gregory Nazianzus, Basil and his excellent brother Gregory of Nyssa. The West was represented by letters of Felix and Julius, bishops of Rome; the South by the evidence of Cyprian of Carthage; the North by that of Ambrose of Milan. The whole of the bishops for the most part metropolitans, acted upon the principles maintained in this treatise and censured Nestorius for his unhallowed presumption—that he was the first and only man who rightly understood the Scriptures. 2. Adisputatiowritten against heretics. 3. Obiectiones Vincentianae, the text of which has been lost but which is known from the work of Prosper. 4. Excerpta sanctae memoriae Vincentii Lirinensis insulae presbyteri ex universio beatae recordationis Augustini episcopi unum collecto:

• This work was announced in the Commonitorium.
• It contains a prologue and epilogue of Vincent with the remainder of the work consisting of a Summa Augustiniana against Nestorius in ten articles.