AMPHILOCHIUS OF ICONIUM, St. — Bishop of Iconium in Lycaonia, friend of Sts. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, b. at Caesarea in Cappadocia c. 340-45. Having been trained in the school of Libanius (v.) at Antioch, he followed his father in the legal profession which he practised at Constantinople from 364 onwards. Disgusted, in 369 he retired to Oziata to care for his aged father and to devote himself to the service of God. The invitation extended to him shortly afterwards by St. Basil to go to Caesarea, which he accepted (373), was decisive for his life. It does not appear that he had received Holy Orders up to that time; but at the beginning of 374 he was already a bishop. The inhabitants of Iconium, after the death of their bishop Faustinus, had turned to St. Basil to appoint a successor. His choice fell upon A., who reluctantly had to assume the care of that see recently elevated to a metropolitan see. Until his death Basil maintained an intimate and affectionate correspondence with A., to whom he was generous with advice and assistance in matters pertaining to his office. To him the bishop of Caesarea dedicated the *De Spiritu Sancto*, written at his suggestion; and at the same time (374-75) he addressed to him the three canonical epistles on ecclesiastical order, in response to those proposed to him by his spiritual son who was occupied with ecclesiastical affairs in Isauria, Lycia and Lycaonia. St. Basil, now prostrated by illness, also invited him to assist in the administration of his own diocese, which had become a very heavy burden.
In 381, A. took part in the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople and subscribed to the creed against the errors of Macedonius. Untiring in combating heresy, in 383 he provoked the edicts of Theodosius against the Arians and presided at Side in Pamphylia over a synod which condemned the Messalians. It seems that his energy provoked the religious crusade which extirpated this sect. The date of his death is unknown; it probably occurred before 403, but he was still alive in 394 when he took part in a Synod of Constantinople. His feast is celebrated on 23 November.
Most of his writings have been lost. Besides fragments preserved by Theodorus, John of Damascus and others (PG 39, 97-118), there still remain: 1) *Iambi ad Seleucum* (published by Migne among the works of Gregory Nazianzen; PG 37, 1577 ff.), a poem of 331 iambic trimeters in which he exhorts the nephew of the general Trajan to the Christian life; 2) *Epistola Synodica*, against the Macedonian heresy, drawn up by mandate of the Synod of Iconium of 376; 3) *Orationes et Homiliae*. Further elucidations and discoveries regarding the writings of A. have come to light through the studies of K. Holl and G. Ficker. What remains of his works is insufficient to judge the value of A. as a theologian and writer; but the enthusiastic judgment of his contemporaries (cf. PG 39, 27-34) leaves no doubt on this point. Above all, the testimonies of St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen, to whom we owe the scanty information about the life of A., present him as a man devoted to study and investigation, an outstanding bishop and herald of truth. The Christian East saw in him a champion of orthodoxy and one of the most representative figures of the Greek Church.
The works of A. are collected by Migne in PG 39, 9-130, according to the text of Gallandi, *Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum*, VI, Venice 1770, pp. 457-514.