PIETRO CRISOLOGO, saint. — Bishop of Ravenna from about 425 to 451. Doctor of the Church.
I. LIFE
Agnellus (Liber Pontif. Ecclesiae Ravennatis, col. 49, ed. Holder-Egger [MGH, Script. rer. Langobard., pp. 265–391], pp. 110–15; ed. A. Testi Raspone [RIS, II, 1], pp. 70–76, 138–54), around 830, composed his biography, celebrating him as a writer and orator; he recalls his building activity at Ravenna and Classe, the prodigies that led to his election as bishop of Ravenna, although he was not from Ravenna, and his burial at Imola, resorting, as usual, to prodigies and confusing him with a Pietro who was a contemporary of Theodoric.More reliable sources inform us that P. C. received Holy Orders from a bishop named Cornelius, who does not appear among the bishops of Ravenna (Serm., 165). The Serm., seems to rule out his having been born at Imola. He was elected bishop of Ravenna after 425, under Valentinian III and Galla Placidia (Serm., 130). The Serm., 136, addressed to Adelphus of Aquileia (426–440), predates 431, as does 175, in which Ravenna’s elevation to the status of ecclesiastical metropolis of Roman Emilia is celebrated. He was a friend of St. Germanus of Auxerre (d. in 448 at Ravenna), and of Popes Sixtus III (d. in 440) and Leo the Great (d. in 461). In 431, as archbishop of Ravenna, Theodoret of Cyrus (PG 93, 1309) appealed to him, as did Eutyches in 449, on the occasion of the great Christological controversies; P. C. invited Eutyches to abide by the Pope’s decisions (PL 52, 24). He probably died on 31 July between 451 (Serm., 97 postdates the Council of Chalcedon) and 458, when Neon was already bishop. Agnellus first mentions him as a saint under the title of Chrysologus; Benedict XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1729. Feast day: 4 December.
II. WORKS
Already manuscripts of the sixth and seventh centuries contain works by P. C., though without the author’s name. In the eighth century the archbishop Felice (708–24) compiled a collection of them, certainly neither complete nor reliable, comprising the letter to Eutyches and 176 sermons, together with a few words of introduction and conclusion; the oldest manuscript of it is Vat. Lat. 4952, from the ninth century, of Ravenna origin (A. Mercati, Codici latini Pico Grimani Pio [Studi e testi, 75], Rome 1938, pp. 132 ff. [PL 52 based on the Venetian edition of 1750]). There is no critical edition. For other works by P. C., cf. H. Jannel, Commentationes philologicae in Zenonem Veronensem, Gaudentium Briviensem, Petrum Chrysologum Ravennatem, Ratisbona 1905–1906; F. Lanzoni, op. cit. in the bibliography; J. H. Baxter, The homilies of st. Peter Chrysologus, in Jour. of theol. stud., 22 (1921), pp. 250–58; M. M. Wilkins, Word-order in selected sermons of the fifth and sixth Centuries, Washington 1940, p. 156 f. An appendix of seven sermons was added to the 1750 edition, with little success; Liverani published another nine (Spicilegium Liberianum, Florence 1863, pp. 185–202), De Bruyne likewise recognized nine in 1928 (Nouveaux sermons de st Pierre Chrysologue, in Journ. of theol. stud., 29 [1927–28], pp. 362–68), and Olivar three in 1949 (Deux sermons restitués à st Pierre Chrysologue, in Rev. bénéd., 59 [1949], pp. 117–20; S. Pedro Crisólogo y la solemnidad in medio Pentecostei, in Ephem. Liturg., 63 [1949], pp. 398–99). Cabrol found phrases of a Christological character in the prayers of the “Ravenna Scroll” (Autour de la liturgie de Ravenne. St Pierre Chrysologue et le Rotulus, in Rev. bénéd., 23 [1906], 489–500), and Lanzoni found them in the Benedictio fontis Romana (La Benedictio fontis e i sermoni di s. P. C., in Rass. gregor., 7 [1908], pp. 425–29). The sermons collected in the Felician Collection are arranged not chronologically but, for the most part, according to subject. Main groups: sermons 1–14 and 37–43 on Lent; 15–21 on Mt. 8; 22–27 on Lk. 13; 32–36 on the miracles of Christ; 44–46 on the Psalms; 47–49 on Mt. 13; 56–62 on the Creed; 63–66 on Lazarus; 67–72 on the Pater; 73–84 on Easter; 86–92 on s. Giovanni Battista; 93–96 on Magdalene; 96–99, 121–26, and 161–72 on parables; 108–20 on the Letters of s. Paolo; 127–38 on feasts of saints; 140–60 on Advent and the Christmas season.The Sermons yield valuable information about the whole of Christian life in Ravenna in the middle of the fifth century, and especially about the liturgical year and the order in which the Gospel pericopes were read in it (G. Lucchesi, Nuove note agiografiche ravennati, Faenza 1943, pp. 109–11), the baptismal preparation of the Catechumens, the Traditio e Redditio Symboli, the general course of the liturgical assembly, and the Eucharistic anaphora. The exegesis of the scriptural pericopes is for the most part moral in character: the few doctrinal sermons deal chiefly with the Incarnation. Not infrequently, their somewhat emphatic style makes their interpretation obscure.