patrology

Christianity conquered cities one by one, not by arms or propaganda, but by the quiet witness of ordinary lives well lived. Worldly power yielded before the prayers of the saints and the blood of the martyrs. What can we learn from the first evangelization as we work our witness today?

Links

Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Christianity-Marginal-Religious-Centuries/dp/0060677015/

Rodney Stark, Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome https://www.amazon.com/Cities-God-Christianity-Movement-Conquered/dp/0061349887/

Wayne Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul https://www.amazon.com/First-Urban-Christians-Social-Apostle/dp/0300098618

Thomas A. Robinson, Who Were the First Christians? Dismantling the Urban Thesis https://global.oup.com/academic/product/who-were-the-first-christians-9780190620547

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

Western Christianity—Latin Christianity—began in Africa and made its way across the sea to Italy. All the great orthodox Latin writers of the first through third centuries were African. The distinctive western liturgy was likely a product of Roman Africa. Christianity came to Africa at a time of literary renaissance, and the Church is still the beneficiary of that particular Christian culture.

Links

Mike Aquilina, Africa and the Early Church: The Almost-Forgotten Roots of Catholic Christianity
https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/africa-and-the-early-church-the-almost-forgotten-roots-of-catholic-christianity

J. Patout Burns Jr., Robin M. Jensen, Christianity in Roman Africa: The Development of Its Practices and Beliefs https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Roman-Africa-Development-Practices/dp/0802869319

Thomas Oden, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Shaped-Christian-Mind-Rediscovering/dp/0830837051/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

From Rome to Milan to Ravenna, the Western capital moved—searching for the site least vulnerable to barbarian incursion. And wherever the capital moved, money followed. And where there’s money, there’s monumental art, science, and literary culture. In Ravenna there were great figures such as Galla Placidia and Peter Chrysologus. Today, the early Christian art and architecture of Ravenna are among the world’s great treasures. It’s one of the few places on earth where you can walk into a church and have almost the same experience one of the Fathers of the Church would have had.

Links

Judith Herrin, Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe https://www.amazon.com/Ravenna-8211-Capital-Late-Antiqui/dp/0691153434/

Fr. Félix López, S.H.M., “Mary in the writings of St. Peter Chrysologus” https://www.homeofthemother.org/en/resources/virgin-mary/fathers/10150-mary-in-the-writings-of-st-peter-chrysologus

Peter Chrysologus, “Each One of Us Is Called To Be Both a Sacrifice To God and His Priest” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=173

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

In a short span of time, in the fourth century, Byzantium made the leap from a relatively insignificant harbor city to the de facto capital of the world. Constantine moved there from Rome and gave his empire a new (and Christian) founding. He also laid the foundations for a political milieu that made “Byzantine” a byword meaning complicated, bureaucratic, and corrupt. Constantinople’s laws, for better and worse, circumscribed the movements and actions of many of the later Fathers.

Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.54 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2881

Socrates Scholasticus, The Ecclesiastical History 1.16 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884

John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Byzantium-Julius-Norwich/dp/0679772693/

Thomas Madden, Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World https://www.amazon.com/Istanbul-City-Majesty-Crossroads-World/dp/0670016608

They Might Be Giants, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” https://youtu.be/0XlO39kCQ-8?si=MvE92tpEJcFeYDlx

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

As if an interest in patristics isn’t strange enough, in this episode we’re getting still more exotic. We’re entering the world of Armenian patristics. We’re visiting the ancient city of Ejmiatsin—leaping over the barriers of language (and even alphabet) to encounter the heroes too often neglected in the histories. This is the story of St. Gregory the Illuminator and his contemporaries, and the Church they founded. Armenia also became a great center of learning and so houses translations of many Greek and Syriac works that would otherwise be lost.

LINKS

Mike Aquilina, “Ancient Christian capital rises again in stunning New York exhibit” https://angelusnews.com/voices/ancient-christian-capital-rises-again-in-stunning-new-york-exhibit/

Helen C. Evans, ed., Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Armenia_Art_Religion_and_Trade_in_the_Middle_Ages

Society for Armenian Studies, Digital Resources https://societyforarmenianstudies.com/2018/02/12/armenian-studies-digital-resources/

Robert W. Thomson, Five Studies in Armenian Patristics https://archive.org/details/thomson-studies-1964-1982

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

Faith came to France very early and very strong. It seems likely that traders brought the Gospel from distant Smyrna (modern Izmir in Turkey) to Lugdunum (modern Lyon). The blood of martyrs was seed. Blandina, a sickly slave, emerged from her trials an epic hero, honored forever. Irenaeus, the globetrotting scholar-bishop, arose as the second century’s greatest theologian.

LINKS

Museum and ruins of Lugdunum https://lugdunum.grandlyon.com/en/

The Letter of the Churches of Vienna and Lugdunum to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1934

Eusebius, Church History, Book 5 (including the deeds of Irenaeus) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1998

Richard Krautheimer, Three Christian Capitals: Topography and Politics https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-Rk0fpRIKLAC

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

In Edessa—the borderlands of the Empire—we make our first encounter with Syriac Christianity. Its origins are shrouded in mist, and within the mist we meet the indistinct figures of heretics, saints, and a king who is both historic and mythic.

LINKS

Labubna, Acts of Addaeus (Addai), https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1907

Various, Extracts from Various Books Concerning Abgar the King and Addaeus the Apostle https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2865

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

Ephesus was home to one of the Wonders of the World; and it’s the setting for one of the most dramatic moments in the itineraries of the Apostles: the riot of the silversmiths. It was also the location of one of the most dramatic moments in the age of the Fathers: the riotous council that condemned Nestorius.

LINKS

Socrates Scholasticus, Church History (Book VII) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26017.htm

Jerome Murphy O’Connor St. Paul’s Ephesus: Texts and Archaeology https://www.amazon.com/St-Pauls-Ephesus-Texts-Archaeology/dp/081465259X

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

Alexandria was cultural capital of the ancient world — and the ancient Church. It had the greatest library on the planet and a state-subsidized community of scholars. It was the city where theology first developed as a science. The Alexandrians had their own distinctive way of interpreting Scripture, developed over centuries by giants: Clement, Origen, Athanasius, Cyril. Its influence on the development of Christianity was profound and permanent.

LINKS

Jean-Yves Empereur, Alexandria: Jewel of Egypt https://www.amazon.com/Discoveries-Alexandria-Jewel-Egypt/dp/0810991012/

Michael Grant, The Ancient Mediterranean https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Mediterranean-Meridian-Michael-Grant/dp/0452010373/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

No one would have guessed when Rome was founded that it would become anything important. But it became the capital of a vast empire and earthly center of the universal Church. It is the destination of the Acts of the Apostles — a place consecrated by martyrs' blood, a city to which the Fathers ventured as pilgrims, a city whose Church and bishop spoke with a singular authority.

LINKS

Mike Aquilina's 2023 Rome pilgrimage https://www.pilgrimages.com/mikeaquilina/

Margherita Guarducci, The Primacy of the Church of Rome https://ignatius.com/the-primacy-of-the-church-of-rome-pcrp/

Rod Bennett, Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words https://ignatius.com/four-witnesses-fwecp/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Please donate to this podcast! http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

3.3 Cities of God: Antioch, 'First Called Christian'

Antioch, in so many ways, was the place where the lights first went on. It was the first city in the ancient world to have street lamps and unending night life. It was the city where the disciples were first called Christians. And it blazed brightly for centuries, in the lives and words of the Fathers: Ignatius, Theophilus, John Chrysostom.

LINKS

D.S. Wallace-Hadrill, Christian Antioch: A Study of Early Christian Thought in the East https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Antioch-Study-Early-Thought/dp/0521094364

Christine Kondoleon, Antioch: The Lost Ancient City https://www.amazon.com/Antioch-Christine-Kondoleon/dp/0691049327/

Glanville Downey, History of Antioch https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691652184/history-of-antioch

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

Jerusalem, the holy city — a city built with compact unity and beloved by the Apostles — was the first home of the Christian Church. Sacred to the Jews, it was for the early Christians a pilgrim destination. Melito and Egeria and Gregory of Nyssa visited there. Cyril reigned there as bishop. John of Damascus moved there. In any consideration of Christian communities, it must come first, because it was the origin and the model for all that came afterward.

LINKS

Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, The Early Church in Jerusalem https://ffhl.org/early-christian-church-jerusalem/

History of the Church in Jerusalem https://www.atlantaserbs.com/learnmore/history/Jerusalem-church.htm

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

With this introductory episode we begin our exploration of the cities where the Fathers lived and taught. At first these were cities that raged against the Gospel and persecuted the Church. The Fathers brought them to faith. Each city was different from all the others—and each became more perfectly itself through its encounter with Jesus Christ. We can learn from the history.

LINKS

Mike Aquilina’s 2023 pilgrimage to Rome https://www.pilgrimages.com/mikeaquilina/

Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:xs159yz4591/00002552_mixed.pdf

John Julius Norwich, Cities that Shaped the Ancient World https://www.amazon.com/Cities-that-Shaped-Ancient-World/dp/0500293406/

Rodney Stark, Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome https://www.amazon.com/Cities-God-Christianity-Movement-Conquered/dp/0061349887/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/

Christianity is the odd religion that does not require pilgrimage, but Christians do it anyway, and in great numbers, as they have since the earliest days of the Church. Many of the early Fathers made the journey to the holy sites. They trekked to the Holy Land to walk in Jesus’ footsteps and to Rome to honor Peter and Paul. How can we follow their example?

LINKS

Mike Aquilina’s 2023 pilgrimage to Rome https://www.pilgrimages.com/mikeaquilina/

Margherita Guarducci, The Primacy of the Church of Rome https://www.amazon.com/Primacy-Church-Rome-Documents-Reflections/dp/0898709229/

The Pilgrimage of Etheria [or Egeria] https://archive.org/details/pilgrimageofethe00mccliala

Jas Elsner and Ian Rutherford, Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrimage-Graeco-Roman-Early-Christian-Antiquity/dp/0199237913/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

’Twas the night before Easter, and all through the Church every heart was stirring. The early Christians kept a Vigil that made a lasting impression. The symbols were elemental: fire, water, darkness, nakedness, music, dramatic preaching, surprising chalices, and more-than-marathon endurance. Prepare for your Easter Vigil by learning about theirs.

LINKS

Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha https://sachurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/On-Pascha-Melito-of-Sardis.pdf

Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha (another translation) https://www.kerux.com/doc/0401A1.asp

Eusebius of Caesarea, On the Celebration of Easter https://tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_on_easter.htm

St. Augustine, Sermon 227 https://stanselminstitute.org/files/SERMON%20227.pdf

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Plato scorned manual labor. Aristotle believed that “no one who leads the life of a worker or laborer can practice virtue.” Plotinus, Celsus, and Herodotus agreed that work was ignoble and contemptible. Pagan religion reflected these precepts of the philosophers. In such a world, Christianity seemed revolutionary. The churches were full of laborers, who worshipped a Laborer—and whose Scriptures preserved NOT the syllogisms of philosophers, but the stories of people who got jobs done. Implicit in the writings of the Fathers is a radical and new idea: a theology of work.

LINKS

Paul Veyne, A History of Private Life, Volume I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium https://www.amazon.com/History-Private-Life-Pagan-Byzantium/dp/0674399749/

Jose H. Gomez, All You Who Labor: Towards a Spirituality of Work for the 21st Century https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjlepp/vol20/iss2/11/

Mike Aquilina, Work, Play, Love: How the Mass Changed the Life of the First Christians https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/work-play-love-how-the-mass-changed-the-life-of-the-first-christians

Mike Aquilina, How Christianity Saved Civilization ...And Must Do So Again https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/how-christianity-saved-civilization-and-must-do-so-again

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

As long as there’s been Christian faith, there have been ascetics—athletes of prayer—and these athletes, both female and male, have sought ways to live in intentional community. Experiments in communal life went on in every corner of the Empire—in Egypt, Palestine, Rome, Cappadocia, Athens, Antioch, Africa—and involved the greatest names in the early Church.

LINKS

Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1699

Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2092

Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Widows https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2070

Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2272

Augustine of Hippo, Of Holy Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3280

John Cassian, Institutes https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2106

Palladius, Lausiac History https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/palladius_lausiac_02_text.htm

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Denis (aka Dionysius) the Great, in the years he was bishop, faced many of the terrors of the ancient world, all while the empire was persecuting Christians to the death. He saw his congregations reduced by death and defection. He saw the ranks of the clergy reduced to just a handful of priests. Yet he lived to see the day when the Church of Alexandria in Egypt revived to become a world leader once again.

LINKS

Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VI) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm

Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VII) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250107.htm

Kyle Harper The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Rome-Climate-Disease-Empire/dp/0691192065/

William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples https://www.amazon.com/Plagues-Peoples-William-H-McNeill/dp/0385121229/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Western Christianity is fundamentally African in the way that Eastern Christianity is fundamentally Greek. It was in Africa that a vigorous Christian Latin culture first developed. Carthage had a Latin liturgy for a full century before Rome switched over from Greek. Africa gave the Church great saints and Fathers such as Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius—and the greatest of all: Augustine. For a Western Christian, to know early African Christianity is to know one’s own roots.

LINKS

Mike Aquilina, Africa and the Early Church: The Almost-Forgotten Roots of Catholic Christianity https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Early-Church-Almost-Forgotten-Christianity/dp/1645852598/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

The calendar is a catechism. Every feast is a lesson in doctrine. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, like Christmas, rose to prominence at a time of deep division in the Church, as some Christians disputed Jesus’ true divinity. Both celebrations served as a kind of credal statement—and they still do today.

LINKS

Kilian McDonnell, OSB, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan: The Trinitarian and Cosmic Order of Salvation https://www.amazon.com/Baptism-Jesus-Jordan-Trinitarian-Salvation/dp/0814653073

Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Mike Aquilina, The Feasts: How the Church Year Forms Us as Catholics https://www.amazon.com/Feasts-Church-Year-Forms-Catholics/dp/080413992X/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org