CAPREOLO OF CARTHAGE, St. — From 430 until the year of his death, July 437, he was Archbishop of Carthage. Three letters of his survive, arranged here in chronological order:
1st Letter to THEODOSIUS II, Emperor of the East, who in 431 convened the bishops at the Council of Ephesus to examine especially the teachings spread by Nestorius. Theodosius also wrote to St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, asking him to attend at Ephesus and sent as the bearer of the letter a certain Ebagnius, who, upon arriving in Carthage, learned from C. that Augustine had died. Having then received a letter from C. for the emperor, he returned to Constantinople. Only a fragment of this letter to the emperor survives, quoted by Fulgentius Ferrandus, from which it may be inferred that C. begged the emperor to uphold as already decided the case of the Pelagians and not to allow debate to reopen on questions already settled.
2nd Letter to the Council of Ephesus. Upon learning of the convocation of the Council, C. would have wished to gather all the bishops under his jurisdiction and send an official delegation to Ephesus; but he was unable to do so, both for lack of time and more especially because of the upheavals caused by the invasion of the Vandals. He therefore sent to Ephesus his deacon Bessula with this letter, in which, after apologizing for his own absence and that of the other African bishops, he entreats the Fathers of the Council vigorously to oppose those who might seek to introduce into the Church errors already condemned, not to tolerate the resumption of discussion of questions already decided, but rather to uphold as unshaken and unalterable what had been defined by the Holy Fathers. The letter, read in full session, met with general approval and was inserted into the acts both in the original Latin and in the Greek translation.
3rd Letter to VITALE and TONANZIO (or CONSTANTIA?): two laymen, it seems, from Spain, who had written to C. seeking clarification on certain points of Catholic doctrine in relation to the Nestorian controversy. C. replies that Nestorius had shortly before been condemned at Ephesus; then he demonstrates solidly, with numerous quotations from Holy Scripture, that in Jesus Christ two natures and one person must be acknowledged; finally he exhorts his readers to the study of the sacred books and of the writings of the Church Fathers, in which is found what true faith obliges one to believe.
The name of C. was included in the catalogue of saints in the calendar of the Church of Carthage.