CESARIO di ARLES, saint. — Archbishop of Arles, born around 470–71 in the region of Chalon-sur-Saône, died on 27 August 542. It is known of his life that at the age of twenty he became a monk at Lerins, where he studied the writings of St. Augustine and Faustus of Riez, while also benefiting from the rhetorical instruction of Julianus Pomerius. Ordained a priest by a relative of his, the bishop Aeonius, he directed a monastery on one of the islands of the Rhône, near Arles. Having become bishop as Aeonius’s successor, in 505 he came into conflict with the Visigothic king Alaric II and, in 513, also with Theodoric of Ravenna. In the struggle against Avitus of Vienne, he obtained from Pope Symmachus for Arles the right of primacy over the Churches of Gaul and Spain. The Synods he convened in 506 at Agde, in 524 at Arles, in 527 at Carpentras, in 529 at Orange, and in 533 at Marseille were of great importance, above all that of Orange, where semi-Pelagianism was condemned and a moderate Augustinianism approved, which was accepted by Pope Boniface II. In old age he withdrew increasingly from public activity, devoting himself to the convent of nuns directed by his sister Cesaria. Feast: 27 August.
He wrote a Regula ad virgines and another Ad monachos (the sources are St. Augustine’s letter Ad sanctimoniales and the so-called Rule of Macarius). His homilies were of the greatest importance; they draw their inspiration from Origen, Fulgentius of Ruspe, and Faustus of Riez. The zealous pastor, who also concerned himself with the care of the peasants hitherto neglected, was greater in him than the theologian, whose importance was overestimated in the fourteenth century. His works (PL 67) were published, after many years of preparation, by the Benedictine G. Morin; vol. I, parts 1 and 2, of the Opera omnia s. Caesarii contains the Sermones seu Admonitiones of C. (Maredsous 1937). In vol. II (ibid. 1942) were published the Epistolae of C. or addressed to C., the Concilia a Caesario habita, the monastic Rules, the Opuscula theologica, the Testament of C. and, in the appendix, the Vita s. C. ob eius familiaribus scripta. The collection of the Opuscula contains an Opusculum de gratia, a Libellus de mysterio s. Trinitatis, a Brevarium adversus haereticos (v. G. Morin, in Rev. d'hist. ecclés., 35 (1939), pp. 35-53) and an Expositio in Apocalypium (v. G. Morin, in Rev. bénéd., 45 (1933), pp. 43-61). The attribution to C. of some of these opuscula or of some homilies remains doubtful. The Testament, on the other hand, is authentic. The life of St. Cesario is a first-rate work for the ecclesiastical history of Gaul. Following the studies of the Swede S. Cavallin (Studien zur Vita Caesarii, Lund 1934, and Eine neue Handschrift der Vita Caesarii, ibid. 1936), Morin succeeded in correcting Krusch’s earlier edition in the MGH, Scriptores rer. meroving., III, pp. 433-501. C.’s influence on the life of the medieval Church was great: cf. H. V. SCHUBERT, FRANZ, Geschichte der christlichen Kirche im Frühmittelalter (Tübingen 1921, p. 36 ff.), F. Hautkappe, Über die altdeutschen Beichten und ihre Beziehungen zu Caesarius V. A. (Münster 1917), A. C. Lawson, in Rev. bénéd., 50 (1938), p. 28 ff.
On C.’s tomb V. F. Benoit, in Bull. monumentale, 94 (1935) p. 137 ff.; on the relics V. id in Cahiers archéol., 1945, p. 51 ff. P. Courcelle, Histoire littéraire des grandes invasions germaniques, Paris 1948, p. 175 ff. Erik Peterson