AURELIO, saint. — Bishop of Carthage and primate of the African Church from approximately 392 to 429. While still a deacon, he showed great charity toward the poor and zeal for the purity of worship, as s. Agostino reports, who was his intimate friend (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. S. Agostino also tells us that A. was the first to put an end at Carthage to the scandalous manifestations of popular joy that were customary during the feasts of the martyrs (Sermo 111, 5: PL 38, 1415). It was during his episcopate that the temple of the goddess Caelestis was destroyed (421), whose ancient cult was so dear to the people of Carthage. He wished the priests also to preach in the episcopal church, even in his presence; s. Agostino praised him for this practice, then almost novel (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 s. Agostino composed the work De opere monachorum, against the idleness of certain monks (Retract., II, 21: PL 32, 638 ff.).
During the nearly forty years of his episcopate he held more than twenty synods. The first was at Hippo, in 393, where important disciplinary measures were adopted (Mansi, III, 894; Hefele-Leclercq, II, pp. 84-90); the others were held almost always at Carthage. Among these, particular mention should be made of the one held in June 411, at which a public disputation was organized between the Catholic and Donatist bishops, supported in the first session by A. (his interventions are reported in PL 11, 1231-37, 1257-1353) and in the following sessions by s. Agostino and Possidio; and of the Council of Carthage of 418 against Pelagius and Caelestius.
From the acts of these synods and from other testimonies it may be inferred that A. enjoyed the greatest veneration and esteem among the African bishops, who called him « sanctus senex », « sanctus papa Aurelius »; Pope Innocent I (PL 20, 517) and s. Giovanni Crisostomo (PG 52, 700) showed him equal esteem. We have from him a letter ad omnes episcopos per Byzacenam et Arzuginam provinciam constitutos, transmitting to them an imperial constitution against the Pelagian error (PL 20, 1009 ff.), as well as the brief addresses delivered at the various synods (Mansi, III, cols. 699-843). The calendar of Carthage from the beginning of the sixth century records his deposition on 20 July, from which it passed into the Hieronymian Martyrology.