SEVERIANUS. – Bishop of Gabala, d. after 408, was one of the principal enemies of John Chrysostom (Socrates, Hist. eccl., VI, 11; Sozomen, Hist. eccl., VIII, 10; Palladius, Dialogus de vita s. Joannis Chrysostomi, passim). Gennadius, De vir. ill., 21, describes him as “erudite in divine scriptures and an admirable declaimer in homilies.” As a preacher he went to Constantinople and began his intrigues against John Chrysostom.
Gennadius knew of an Expositio in epistulam ad Galatas by him. In reality, however, S. commented on all the Pauline epistles: many fragments of these commentaries survive in the “catenae” (v. K. Staab, Pauluskommentare der griechischen Kirche, Münster 1933, pp. 213-351). As an exegete he represents the Antiochene school and often approaches his master Diodorus (ibid., p. xxxii). His exegetical work underwent a series of two revisions (ibid., p. xxxii; H. Emonds, Zweite Auflage am Altertum, Leipzig 1941, p. 372). A complete collection of his sermons does not yet exist; many of these are transmitted under the false attribution to St John Chrysostom, e.g.: six discourses on the Hexaemeron pass under the name of the Saint (PG 56, 429 sqq.; many fragments in Cosmas Indicopleustes). Nine sermons survive in Armenian (ed. Aucher, Venice 1827; homilies 10-15 are not his work), and some of these have been traced among the works of Chrysostom. It would be useless to attempt to list all the homilies attributed to him with more or less justification; it must however be noted that S. exercised an influence on Western homiletics, especially on Peter Chrysologus, and perhaps also on Victor of Capua (v. A. Siegmund, Die Überlieferung der griechisch-christlichen Literatur in der lateinischen Kirche, Munich 1939, p. 130 sqq). Moreover, Gennadius attests to the Latin translation of works by S. (v. P. Courcelle, Les lettres grecques en Occident, Paris 1943, p. 222). S., who by his attitude toward St John Chrysostom remained somewhat in the shadows (Altaner treats him in a section dealing with the opponents of John Chrysostom), has in recent studies assumed a greater importance. S. was a learned man, an orthodox theologian, and perhaps of ambiguous character.