ELVIDIO. - A heretic of the fourth century. Nothing is known of his life except that he was a mediocre and ignorant man and a disciple of the Arian bishop of Milan, Aussenzio. While in Rome, he joined the group of those who opposed the monastic movement, of which s. Girolamo had become the promoter and spiritual father among the Roman matrons.
Against this ideal he wrote a pamphlet in which he denied the superiority of the virginal state over the married state, going so far as to affirm that virginity is contrary to nature and that it had not been preserved even by the Blessed Virgin; who, after Gesù, had had other children. He attempted to prove this by relying on certain passages of the Gospels, which he interpreted and explained according to his preconceived ideas, and on the authority of Tartulliano and Vittorino di Petrau. The pamphlet of E. aroused apprehension and scandal in the ascetic circles of Rome, and s. Girolamo was asked to refute II. He therefore wrote, in 383, the treatise De perpetua Mariae virginitate adversus Helvidium, in which he follows the heretic’s assertions step by step, showing that he had not understood Holy Scripture, and demolishes his conclusions with a series of brilliant and solid arguments, which subsequently became traditional in Marian theology. It is not known whether E. replied to s. Girolamo’s refutation; the place and time of his death are likewise unknown.