Aurelio, Saint

AURELIO, Saint. - Bishop of Carthage and primate of the African Church from 392 to c. 429. While still a deacon he showed great charity toward the poor and zeal for the purity of worship, as St. Augustine, who was his close friend, relates to us (De Civitate Dei, XXII, 8; Epist. 22, 4: PL 33, 92). More than a man of thought, he was a zealous pastor, a man of firm and prudent action. St. Augustine further informs us that A. was the first to put an end at Carthage to the scandalous displays of popular rejoicing that were customary at the feasts of the martyrs (Sermo 111, 5: PL 38, 1415). It was during his episcopate that the temple of the goddess Celestis was destroyed (421), whose ancient cult was so dear to the Carthaginian people. He wished that priests too should preach in the episcopal church, even in his presence; for this practice, then almost new, St. Augustine praised him (Epist. 41, 1: PL 33, 158) and also defended him against a certain Hilary, who reproached A. for having introduced the custom of singing psalms during Mass (Retractationes, II, 11: PL 32, 634). It was at A.'s request that St. Augustine composed the work De opere monachorum, against the idleness of certain monks (Retract., II, 21: PL 32, 638 ff.).

Throughout the nearly forty years of his episcopate he held more than twenty synods. The first at Hippo, in 393, at which important disciplinary measures were taken (Mansi, III, 894; Hefele-Leclercq, II, pp. 84-90); the others almost always at Carthage. Among these, mention should be made of that of June 411, at which a public debate was organized between the Catholic bishops and the Donatists, sustained in the first session by A. (his remarks are reported in PL 11, 1231-37, 1257-1353) and in the following ones by St. Augustine and Possidius; and that of Carthage in 418 against Pelagius and Celestius.

From the acts of these synods and from other testimonies it is inferred that A. enjoyed very great veneration and esteem on the part of the African bishops, who called him « sanctus senex », « sanctus papa Aurelius »; Pope Innocent I (PL 20, 517) and St. John Chrysostom (PG 52, 700) showed him equal esteem. There remain to us from him: a letter ad omnes episcopos per Byzacenam et Arzuginam provinciam constitutos, to transmit to them an imperial constitution against the Pelagian error (PL 20, 1009 ff.), and the brief allocutions delivered at the various synods (Mansi, III, coll. 699-843). The calendar of Carthage from the beginning of the 6th century commemorates his deposition on July 20, whence it passed into the Martyr. Hieronymianum.

Gaetano Corti