Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
Great Christian Thinkers - 17 St. Hilary of Poitiers
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Hilary of Poitiers I reflect now on a great Father of the Church of the West, St. Hilary of Poitiers, one of the important episcopal figures of the fourth century. In the controversy with the Arians, who considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but on…
Great Christian Thinkers - 31 St. Gregory The Great
Great Christian Thinkers - 31 St. Gregory The Great
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Gregory The Great A Life during Crisis One of the greatest Fathers in the history of the Church, one of four Doctors of the West, Pope St. Gregory was bishop of Rome from 590 to 604. He earned the traditional title of Magnus, the Great… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by …
Great Christian Thinkers - 27 Boethius and Cassiodorus
Great Christian Thinkers - 27 Boethius and Cassiodorus
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Boethius and Cassiodorus I now discuss two ecclesiastical writers, Boethius and Cassiodorus, who lived in some of the most turbulent years in the Christian West and in the Italian peninsula in particular. Odoacer, King of the Rugians, a Germanic race, had rebelled, putting an end…
Great Christian Thinkers - 28 St. Benedict of Nursia
Great Christian Thinkers - 28 St. Benedict of Nursia
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Benedict of Nursia Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism, is also the patron of my pontificate. I begin with words that St. Gregory the Great wrote about St. Benedict: “The man of God who shone on this earth among so many miracles was just as brilliant in the eloquent …
Great Christian Thinkers - 30 St. Romanus The Melodist
Great Christian Thinkers - 30 St. Romanus The Melodist
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Romanus The Melodist A little-known figure, Romanus the Melodist, was born in about 490 in Emesa (today Homs), in Syria. Theologian, poet, and composer, he belonged to the great ranks of theologians who transformed theology into poetry. Let us think of his compatriot, St. Eph…
Great Christian Thinkers - 32 St. Columban
Great Christian Thinkers - 32 St. Columban
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Columban The holy Abbot Columban was the best-known Irishman of the early Middle Ages. Since he worked as a monk, missionary, and writer in various countries of western Europe with good reason he can be called a “European” saint. With the Irish of his time, he had a sense of …
Great Christian Thinkers - 29 Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite
Great Christian Thinkers - 29 Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite In the course of my catechesis on the Fathers of the Church, I speak next of a rather mysterious figure: a sixth-century theologian whose name is unknown and who wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite. With this pseudonym, he was all…
Great Christian Thinkers - 33 St. Isidore of Seville
Great Christian Thinkers - 33 St. Isidore of Seville
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Isidore of Seville Saint Isidore of Seville was a younger brother of Leander, archbishop of Seville, and a great friend of Pope Gregory the Great. Pointing this out is important because it enables us to bear in mind a cultural and spiritual approach that is indispensable for …
Great Christian Thinkers - 35 John Climacus
Great Christian Thinkers - 35 John Climacus
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
John Climacus In presenting the great writers of the Church of the East and West in the Middle Age, I include the figure of John, known as Climacus. His name is a Latin transliteration of the Greek term klimakos, which means “of the ladder” (klimax). This is the title of his most…
Great Christian Thinkers - 34 St. Maximus The Confessor
Great Christian Thinkers - 34 St. Maximus The Confessor
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Maximus The Confessor One of the great Fathers of the Eastern Church in later times w s a monk, St. Maximus. His fearless courage in witnessing to— “confessing”— even while suffering, the integrity of his faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, saviour of the world, ear…
Great Christian Thinkers - 40 St Theodore The Studite
Great Christian Thinkers - 40 St Theodore The Studite
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St Theodore The Studite The saint we meet now, St. Theodore the Studite, brings us to the middle of the medieval Byzantine period, in a somewhat turbulent period from the religious and political perspectives… Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI
Great Christian Thinkers - 41 Rabanus Maurus
Great Christian Thinkers - 41 Rabanus Maurus
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Rabanus Maurus A truly extraordinary figure of the Latin West, Rabanus Maurus was an exceptional and prolific monk. Together with men such as Isidore of Seville and the Venerable Bede and Ambrose Autpert, two of whom I have spoken previously, during the centuries of the so-called…
Great Christian Thinkers - 42 John Scotus Erigena
Great Christian Thinkers - 42 John Scotus Erigena
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
John Scotus Erigena Though a noteworthy thinker of the Christian West, John Scotus Erigena’s origins are nonetheless obscure. He certainly came from Ireland, where he was born at the beginning of the ninth century. But we do not know when he left his island to cross the channel a…
Great Christian Thinkers - 43 Sts. Cyril and Methodius
Great Christian Thinkers - 43 Sts. Cyril and Methodius
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
Sts. Cyril and Methodius Saints Cyril and Methodius were brothers by blood and in the faith, the so-called Apostles to the Slavs. Cyril was born in Thessalonica to Leo, an imperial magistrate, in 826 or 827. He was the youngest of seven. As a child, he learned the Slavonic langua…
Great Christian Thinkers - 47 St. Anselm
Great Christian Thinkers - 47 St. Anselm
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Anselm The Benedictine abbey of Sant’Anselmo (St. Anselm) is located on the Aventine Hill in Rome. As the headquarters of an academic institute of higher studies and of the abbot primate of the Confederated Benedictines, it is a place that unites within it prayer, study, and …
Great Christian Thinkers - 45 St. Peter Damian