ASTERIUS, bishop of AMASEA. — He lived between the 4th and 5th centuries, and we have no information about his life except that, before becoming bishop of Amasea, he was a teacher and advocate in Pontus toward the end of the 4th century. One of his sermons (*Against the Festival of the Calends*: PG 40, 224-25) was delivered in the year 400. The Seventh Ecumenical Council (Second of Nicaea) appeals to his testimony to prove the antiquity of the cult of images (Mansi, XIII, cols. 16-17, 305, 308-309).
Twenty-one complete sermons and discourses by him survive, published by various authors between the years 1615-81 and collected in PG 40, 163-478. Long extracts of six other sermons, which have been lost, are given by Photius (*Bibliotheca*, cod. 271; PG 104, 204-16, 221-24; cf. *Quaestio* 312 to Amphilochius: PG 101, 1161). The authenticity of the discourse on St. Stephen the Protomartyr is disputed: it perhaps belongs to St. Proclus. On the contrary, sermons 13 and 14 are certainly his, though they have sometimes been printed under the name of St. Gregory of Nyssa (cf. PG 46, 539).
The brief discourse on the martyr St. Euphemia of Chalcedon, more than a sermon, is an exercise in rhetoric. From this passage, the Second Council of Nicaea draws strong testimony in favor of the cult of images.
The *Acta SS. Aprilis*, III, Paris 1866, pp. 420-27, published under the name of A. a life of St. Basil of Amasea. A. appears in the calendar on 30 Oct. (cf. V. Buck, *De sancto A. in Acta SS. Octobris*, XIII, Paris 1883, pp. 330-34).
In his sermons, distinguished by pure language and meticulous style, he took as his model Demosthenes (*Oratio* XI: PG, 40, 333). A. aimed chiefly at instructing the faithful. He dealt little with dogma and did not engage in polemics against heretics.