FULGENZIO OF RUSPE, Saint. - African bishop of the 5th-6th century. He was one of the most eminent figures among the bishops of his time for his pastoral and theological activity, aimed at defending and illustrating, gathering the heritage of St. Augustine, Catholic doctrine against Arians and Semi-Pelagians.
I. LIFE
His life is known chiefly from the biography written by the Carthaginian deacon Ferrandus (v.). He was born around 467 at Telepte in the Byzantine province of Africa. From his mother Mariana, who was soon left a widow, he received a deep religious education and a careful cultural formation: he spoke Greek perfectly and knew all of Homer by heart.
While still young he was appointed a tax procurator. Already then devoted to a fervent Christian life, the reading of a sermon of St. Augustine on Psalm 36 decided him upon the monastic life, which he practiced exemplarily, amid many vicissitudes, in various places in Africa, in Sicily, and again in Africa. In 500 he was in Rome. Having returned to Africa, he was ordained a priest and then, overcoming his reluctance, bishop of the small town of Ruspe, it is believed in 507. Even as bishop he continued his austere manner of life. Shortly afterward the Vandal king Thrasamund, a supporter of Arianism, exiled him with 60 other bishops to Sardinia. The exile did not diminish his activity: he founded a monastery at Cagliari, labored intensely in the care of souls and soon became the moral head of the exiled bishops, in whose name he drafted their collective letters. As a champion of the faith he was sent by them, around 515, to Thrasamund, who had invited to Carthage the best defender of Catholicism. There he resumed his ministry, refuted two Arian writings sent to him by the King and others by a bishop and a priest. Sent back into exile after a couple of years, he returned from it in 523, when Thrasamund was succeeded by Hilderic, well disposed toward the Catholics, and was received in triumph. He died on January 2, 532 or 533.
II. WRITINGS
The attribution to F. of R. of the Mythologiae, which allegorically explain the myths, and of other profane works, due to a likewise African Fulgentius, does not seem well founded. The writings certainly his are polemical-dogmatic treatises, letters, sermons.
In various treatises he combats Arianism: a) Contra Arianos liber unus, a brief reply to ten objections of Thrasamund on the Trinitarian doctrine; b) Ad Thrasamundum regem Vandalorum libri tres, a reply to new questions, particularly on the Incarnation and the Redemption; c) Contra sermonem fastidiosi Ariani ad Victorem liber unus, on the Trinity and the Incarnation, written, in a very lively tone, after his return from exile, against a monk and Catholic priest who had gone over to Arianism; d) Contra Fabianum libri decem, in which he rectifies a mendacious account of a disputation he had had with that Arian; 39 fragments of it survive; e) De Trinitate ad Felicem notarium liber unus; f) De fide, seu de regula verae fidei ad Petrum liber unus, almost a manual of Catholic doctrine; g) De Incarnatione Filii Dei et villum animalium auctore ad Scarilum liber unus, on two disparate subjects; h) Pushma abecedarius. Lost are: Adversus Pintum (Arian bishop) liber unus; De
Spiritu Sancto ad Abragilam presbyterum communitorium brevissimum. Against Semipelagianism: a) Ad Moninum libri tres, a reply to various questions, on predestination, on the sacrifice offered to the Trinity, on the Holy Spirit, on Paul's counsel concerning virginity, on the text "Et Verbum erat apud Deum"; b) De veritate praedestinationis et gratiae Dei ad Ioannem et Venerium libri tres, an ample and precise exposition of the Augustinian doctrine; c) De remissione peccatorum ad Euthymium libri duo, connected less closely with the Semipelagian controversy, declares in what the remission of sins consists and how it is obtained. Lost are the Contra Faustum Reiensem libri septem, against the writings of the Semipelagian bishop of Riez, sent to F. by the Scythian monks of Constantinople. The epistolary comprises 18 letters, among them 5 from correspondents, on dogmatic subjects: on various objections of the Arians (8); on the fate of a catechumen baptized after having lost consciousness (12); on various Trinitarian, Christological, exegetical questions (14), on Grace and the human will: the same subject as the De veritate praedestinationis; a collective letter of the African episcopate exiled in Sardinia (15); on the Incarnation and Grace, to the Scythian monks, likewise collective (16); on Aphthartodocetism (v.; 18). On moral-ascetic subjects: on the vow of continence made by married persons (1); on virginity and humility (3); on prayer and compunction (4); on charity (5); on conversion (6); on penance and the future reward (7); the second is consolatory.
The authentic sermons, about a dozen, comprise exegetical homilies, panegyrics, moral discourses. He also composed sermons to be delivered by others. Even in his oratorical style F. follows in the footsteps of Augustine, remaining far below him in depth of thought and liveliness of tone, in the continual use of parallelism, particularly antithetical, with final assonance: a characteristic, moreover, of the greater part of Christian oratory of these centuries. Stiglmayr attributes the Athanasian Creed to F.
III. DOCTRINE
The historical significance of F. lies not in the value of his speculation, but in the fidelity with which he expounds, defends and spreads Augustinian doctrine.
1. The Most Holy Trinity
As regards the Trinity, he was led by practical necessities to refute the objections of a surviving Arianism, a task that the great masters of the 4th century had admirably accomplished. He does not follow Augustine in speculative profundity, which did not arouse the interest of his opponents. Christology is expounded with the exactness that the disputes of the 5th century had brought to it, and in close connection with soteriology. In the doctrine of Grace F. remains rigorously faithful to the master, even in those parts that were not accepted in common doctrine. He teaches therefore that there is in the Trinity identity of nature and diversity of persons (C. Arianos, 1; C. serm. fastid., 7-9); the attributes of one person are proper also to the others, except the properties relating to the terms Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Ep. 14, 2-14). The Church invokes and offers sacrifice to the whole Trinity (C. Fab., frgg. 31, 34). The Son is begotten according to eternal birth from the Father, created according to temporal birth from a handmaid (C. Arianos, 3; De fide, 7-24; Ad Thrasam., II, 6), equal to the Father (C. Arianos, 5, 6, 8; C. Fabrianum, frg. 36), not only with the Father but in the Father, as the word in the mind, as the counsel in the heart (Ad Monim., III), as the Father immense and eternal (Ad Thrasam., II), distinct from the Holy Spirit (C. Arianos, 7), who is God, equal to the Father and the Son (ibid., 10; Ad Monim., II, 6-12; C. Fab., frgg. 25-27; Ep. 14, 35-38. In Jesus Christ there are two natures in one person (Ep. 8, 26; Ad Thrasam., I, 8-20; III, 2, 6-7 etc. 16). The Word became flesh not only in the Virgin, but from the Virgin (Ep. 17, 5), who conceived and bore the very Word of God, inasmuch as from her he became flesh (ibid. 9), with virginal conception and birth (ibid. 12). God was not confused with man, therefore the divine nature remained impassible (Ad Thrasam., III, 1-2; C. serm. fastid., 11-20). It must nevertheless be said that "one person of the Trinity has suffered" (Ep. 17); it may be said that the divinity of Christ has suffered, understanding "in the flesh" (Ep. 14, 15-24). The soul of Christ has full knowledge of his divinity (ibid. 26-31), and is perfectly incorruptible; his body is weak and subject to death (Ep. 18, 9). Only the Son became incarnate (De Incarn., 1-23). God predestines the elect to glory and to justice, the reprobate to punishment but not to sin; divine punishment strikes the evil works of the sinner, which proceed from pride; with this God does not constrain the human will (Ad Monim., I, 7, 13, 22-25). Predestination is purely gratuitous, as the example of children who die just after birth shows (De verit. praedest., I, 1-30), who will also pass into the eternal fire, though with a much lesser punishment than adults (ibid., 31; De fide, 68). Predestination is immutable and eternal (De verit. praed., III, 1-7, 13-14), but does not exclude prayer and good works (ibid., 9-12; De fide, 40-44). God's universal salvific will is to be understood only in the sense that God drew the elect from all nations, ages and classes (De verit. praedest., III, Ep. 15, 15). Predestination shows God's mercy toward the elect, without his being accused of injustice toward the others; in any case, it is an inscrutable mystery (ibid., I, 28).
2. Grace and Redemption
Angels and men received from God in creation the gift of eternity and of blessedness (De fide, 30). These gifts were lost through the sin of Adam, which passes into every man with generation, inasmuch as it is accompanied by disordered concupiscence; but F., like Augustine, is uncertain whether traducianism must therefore be admitted (De verit. praed., III, 28-38). The Son of God became man to shed his blood so that men might obtain the remission of sins (De remiss. pecc., I, 4-10). Only the personal unity of the Word with human nature could procure Redemption (Ep. 17, 9). Grace is purely gratuitous; God has the whole initiative in man's action, giving him faith, placing good will in him, helping him to overcome concupiscence and bringing him to perseverance (Ep. 17, 47 and 67; Ad Monim., I, 7-16; Ep. 15, 2-5; Ep. 6, 14; De fide, 73). It is not given to all, just as faith is not given to all (De verit. praed., I, 12, 40-47; II, 1-29; Ep. 15, 10). Grace does not destroy free will in the good nor in the wicked (De verit. praed., II, 18, 30), yet the sin of Adam has weakened it (ibid., III, 24-27; Ep. 15, 16). Prayer is necessary to obtain Grace (Ep. 2, 36-37; Ep. 4). To obtain the remission of sins, faith, conversion of heart, penance and good works are necessary (De remiss. pecc., I, 8-15; Ep. 15, 11). Sins are remitted only in this life (De remiss. pecc., I, 6; II; De fide, 36-40). Our sanctification is the work of the whole Trinity (Ad Monim., II, 11); through Grace we are sons of God (ibid., III, 8) and temples of the Trinity (Ad Thrasam., 3, 35). Only in the Catholic Church are sins remitted and does one walk on the way to heaven (De remiss. pecc., I, 6, 16-29; De fide, 37), are the gifts of the Holy Spirit obtained and a pleasing sacrifice offered to God (Ad Monim., II, 12), is Baptism conferred efficaciously, while the Baptism of heretics, valid as a Sacrament, does not bring salvation (De fide, 41-42; 77; 78).
3. Morals and ascetics
Sins are light or grave; the latter are divided into sacrilegia (against God), flagitia (against oneself), facinora (against one's neighbor); the virtues likewise into three categories: sobriety, justice, piety (De Incarn., 36-50). Virginity, voluntary and supererogatory (Ad Monim., II, 13-15; De fide 43-44), is the greatest of all gifts, and comprises integrity of body and soul (Ep. 3, 1-12). But the virgin would not be a spouse of Christ without humility (ibid., 23-38). The use of marriage is lawful; one spouse cannot bind the other with a vow of continence (Ep. 1, 11-18). Charity surpasses all temporal and spiritual gifts (Ep. 5), avoids present sins and obtains forgiveness of past ones (Ep. 7, 1-9).