COLOMBO, SISTO. - Salesian priest, scholar of ancient Christian literature, b. in Milan in 1878, d. in Turin in 1938. He was a libero docente of Latin literature at the University of Turin, and lecturer in ancient Christian literature at the University of the Sacred Heart. He left behind a copious output: editions, commentaries and anthologies of Latin writers, and articles of popularization. But his name will remain in the field of Catholic culture for the impetus he gave to the study of ancient Christian literature.
He published numerous articles in Didaskaleion (v.), at whose founding he collaborated with P. Ubaldi, and of which he was an editor and co-director, studying there in particular Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius Felix, Arnobius, Prudentius, and John Chrysostom.
More important works: La poesia cristiana antica. Parte 1ª: La poesia latina (Rome 1910); Arnobio Afro e i suoi sette libri «Adversus Nationes» (in Didaskaleion, 18 [1930], pp. 1-124); Primavera cristiana (posthumous, Turin 1939); the critical edition of Tertullian's Apologeticum, with commentary (ibid. 1915, and in the «Corpus Paravianum» [ibid. 1915]). He fixed the plan of the «Corona Patrum Salesiana» and gave it 2 volumes: the De sacerdotio of St. John Chrysostom (1934) and the Opuscoli of St. Cyprian (1935). In the series «Pagine cristiane antiche e moderne», which he directed first with Ubaldi and then alone, he published in translation a selection of Atti dei Martiri (1928).
Bibliography2 works
Michele Pellegrino