POLICHRONIUS. — Bishop of Apamea in Syria, d. c. 430. He was the brother of THEODORUS of Mopsuestia, and by THEODORUS—whose Ecclesiastical History ends with a commendation of P. (PG 82, 1277 B)—he is praised as “an excellent shepherd, distinguished for the grace of his speech and the exemplariness of his life.”
No other information about him survives except from his own writings, which have come down to us only in fragments preserved in catenae, drawn from his commentaries on Job and the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. In these P. rivals the other interpreters of the Antiochene school in their adherence to the literal sense and historical reason, but surpasses them all in his knowledge of languages and Hebrew antiquities. Of a calmer temperament and more measured judgment, he avoided the intemperance of his elder brother. Even in matters of doctrine, the surviving fragments of his writings—though not all yet published—give no grounds for any censure.