Prosper of Aquitaine

Alban Butler — Lives of the Saints, with Reflections for Every Day in the Year (1894) · June 25— ST. PROSPER OF AQUITAINE.— ST.

June 25— ST. PROSPER OF AQUITAINE.— ST. WILLIAM OF MONTE-VERGINE.

[t. Prosper was born at Aquitaine, in the year 403. His works show that in his youth he had happily applied himself to all the branches both of polite and sacred learning. On account of the purity and sanctity of his manners, he is called by those of his age a holy and vener- able man. Our Saint does not appear to have been any more than a layman; but being of great virtue, and of extraordinary talents and learning, he wrote several works in which he ably refuted the errors of heresy. St. Leo the Great, being chosen Pope in 440, invited St. Prosper to Pome, made him his secretary, and employed him in the most important affairs of the Church. Our Saint crushed the Pelagian heresy, which began again to raise its head in that capital, and its final overthrow is said to be due to his zeal, learning, and unwearied endeavors. The date of his death is uncertain, but he was still living in 463.

St. William, having lost his father and mother in his infancy, was brought up by his friends in great sentiments of piety; and at fifteen years of age, out of an earnest desire to lead a penitential life, he left Piedmont, his native country, made an austere pilgrimage to St. James's in Galicia, and afterward retired into the kingdom of Naples, where he chose for his abode a desert mountain, and lived in perpetual contemplation and the exercises of most rigor-* 0U3 penitential austerities. Finding himself discovered and his contemplation interrupted, he changed his habita- tion and settled in a place called Monte- Vergine, situated between Nola and Benevento, in the same kingdom ; but his reputation followed him, and he was obliged by two neigh- boring priests to permit certain fervent persons to live with him and to imitate his ascetic practices. Thus, in 1119, was laid the foundation of the religious congregation called de Monte-Vergine. The Saint died on the 25th of June, 1142.

The lives of the Fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints · 2 · St. Prosper is surnamed of Aquitaine, to distinguish him from a bishop

St. Prosper is surnamed of Aquitaine, to distinguish him from a bishop of Orleans, and others of the same name. His birth is usually placed in the year 403. His works show that in his youth he had happily applied himself to the studies of grammar, and all the branches both of polite and sacred learning. On account of the purity and sanctity of his manners, he is called by those of his age a holy and venerable man.1 Having left Aqui- taine, his native country, he was settled in Provence, and probably at Mar- seilles, when St. Austin's book on Correction and Grace was brought thither. Certain priests and others of that country had been offended at that father's writings against the Pelagians, pretending that the necessity of divine grace, which he established with the Catholic Church, destroyed free will. They granted it to be clear from faith and holy scriptures, that no good action conducive to eternal life can be done without a co-operating supernatural succor or grace ; but they thought it a necessary condition to free will in man, that the beginning or first desire of faith, or any other supernatural virtues and actions, (which being grounded upon faith lead to eternal life,) should be the work of free will, without the aid of grace ; using the com- parison of a sick man, who first desires a cure himself, by which desire he is moved to call in a physician. This error was called Semi-pelagianism, and in reality gave the glory of virtue to the creature in its first motion or desire, contrary to the doctrine of the Apostle and of Christ himself. Saint Austin's book on Correction and Grace served only to make them louder in their complaints. Hilary, a holy, zealous, and learned layman, an acquaint- ance of St. Austin, undertook the defence of his works, and of the faith of the church, and engaged St. Prosper in the same cause. Our saint does not appear to have been any more than a layman ; but his virtue, extraordi- nary talents, and learning, rendered him a proper person to oppose the progress of heresy. By the advice of Hilary he wrote to St. Austin, in- forming him of the errors of these priests of Marseilles ; and that holy doctor compiled two books to confute and instruct them ; the first, On the Predestination of the Saints ; the second, On the Gift of Perseverance. Hilary had also written to him on the same subject. This happened in 428 and 429.

These two books were sufficient to convince the Semipelagians, but did not convert their hearts. They therefore had recourse to calumny, and ac- cused Saint Austin and his friends of teaching a necessitating grace which destroys free-will. One Rufinus, a friend of St. Prosper, surprised at these reports, desired to be informed by him of the state of the question. The saint answered him by a letter yet extant, in which he explains the holy faith which they defended, and the errors and slanders of their ene:nie». The Semipelagians declared that they would stand by the decisions cf th*

1 Victor apu l Bucher. in Cyclo Pasch. u 6

June 25.] s. prosper, c.

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pope. Prosper and Hilary, out of a motive of zeal, went as far as Rome ; and pope Celestine, upon their information, wrote a dogmatical letter to the bishop of Marseilles and other neighboring prelates against those enemies of grace, in which he highly commends the doctrine of St. Austin. Thia happened after the death of that holy doctor in 431. The troubles were not yet appeased ; and our saint saw himself under a necessity of entering the lists with his pen. His poem on the Ungrateful seems to have appeared about the year 431. By that name he meant the Semipelagians, who were ungrateful to the divine grace, though they were not then cut off from tho communion of the church. This work, the masterpiece of our saint, is written in most elegant verse. He says in it, that the see of St. Peter, fixed at Rome, presides over the whole world, possessing by religion what it had never subdued by arms.* He most beautifully demoastrates the ne- cessity of grace, especially for divine love.f He has left us several other lesser works. J

St. Leo the Great being chosen pope in 440, invited St. Prosper to Rome, made him his secretary, and employed him in the most important affairs of the church. Our saint crushed the Pelagian heresy, which began again to raise its head in that capital Photius ascribes its final overthrow to the zeal, learning, and unwearied endeavors of St. Prosper.' Marcellinus in his chronicle speaks of him as still living in 463. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on this day. A complete edition of his works was procured at Paris by M. Maugeant, in folio, in 1711, with his life translated from the Memoirs of Tillemont. F. John Salinas, a canon regular of the Congregation of St. John of Lateran, has published in Rome in 1732, a new correct edition of the works of St. Prosper and of St. Honoratus of Marseilles, in 8vo. Dr. Peter Francis Foggini having published at Rome

» Photius, Cod. 54.

* " Pestem subeuntem prima recidit

Sedis Roma Petri, quae pastoralis honoris

facta caput mundo, quicquid non possidet armis.

Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness

Apud Rhegium sancti Prosperi Aquitani, ejusdem urbis Episcopi, eruditione ac pietate insignis, qui adversus Pelagianos, pro fide catholica, strenue decertavit.