ANTIPATER, bishop of BOSTRA. — He was consulted in 457 by Emperor Leo I regarding the authority of the Council of Chalcedon. The reply has not come down to us. Of his life we have no other information, except that he was bound in friendship with St. Euthymius of Palestine (473). A. distinguished himself as a preacher and as a polemicist.
Two of his homilies, known for a long time only in Latin translation, were published in the original text by A. Ballerini, *Sylloge monumentorum ad mysterium Conceptionis immaculatae Virginis Deiparae illustrandum*, II, Rome 1856, pp. 1-26, 411-69. One celebrates the birth of the Precursor and also the mysteries that preceded it; the other, in honor of the Virgin, comments on the Gospel of the Annunciation and that of the Visitation. Both were delivered on Sundays, a week apart, and recall two elements of what may be called the primitive Eastern Advent, two preparatory feasts for the Nativity of the Lord. No serious reason exists to doubt their authenticity. Cf. M. Jugie, *La première fête mariale. L'Avent primitif*, in *Echos d'Orient*, 22 (1923), pp. 129-52. Of other homilies only quotations remain.
As a polemicist, A. is remembered for a *Refutation of the Apology of Origen* by Eusebius of Caesarea, in several books: a lost work, of which some fragments survive in the acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Mansi, XIII, cols. 177-80), and in the *Sacred Parallels* of St. John Damascene (PG, 96, 468, 488-505). Gelasius, abbot of the Great Laura near Jerusalem (537-46), had it read in church to deter his monks from Origenist errors. The Byzantine Church honors A. as a saint on June 13.