vendredi 6 avril 2012

Saint PRUDENCE (PRUDENTIUS GALINDO) de TROYES, évêque et confesseur


Saint Prudence, évêque

Né en Espagne à la fin du VIIIème siècle. Chapelain du roi Louis le Débonnaire, écrivain de talent, il devint évêque de Troyes vers 844 où il mourut le 6 avril 861.

SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/prieres-et-liturgie/saints-par-mois/icalrepeat.detail/2015/04/06/5935/-/saint-prudence-eveque

Saint PRUDENCE de TROYES

Saint, confesseur

Natif des marches de l’Espagne, il est d’abord baptisé « Galindo » par ses parents. Encore jeune, il émigre en France pour échapper aux persécutions des sarrasins, et devient étudiant à l’école Palatine (c’est à cette époque qu’il décide de changer son nom pour Prudence). Ses études terminées, il demeure à la cour où il occupe diverses charges. Vers le milieu de sa vie, il quitte son emploi civil pour se consacrer à la vie religieuse, et vers 843, il est nommé évêque de Troyes. Théologien, historien et poète, il est surtout reconnu pour ses nombreux écrits (+ 861)

Saint Prudence

Confesseur (✝ 861)

Originaire d'Espagne, il abandonna son nom de Galando pour prendre celui d'un de ses compatriotes, le poète chrétien du IVe siècle, Prudence. Comme lui, il fut un bon écrivain et un auteur fécond. Chapelain de l'empereur Louis le Débonnaire, fils de Charlemagne, il publiera un recueil des plus beaux passages des Psaumes à l'intention de la deuxième femme de l'empereur. Cette anthologie sera, durant tout le Moyen Âge, le bréviaire des moines itinérants. Devenu évêque de Troyes, il publie un petit code de dogme et de morale, les "precepta" que tous ses prêtres devaient savoir par cœur. S'étant placé au premier rang de l'épiscopat des Gaules, il défendit la doctrine augustinienne de la Grâce, polémiquant avec l'orthodoxe Scot Érigène tout autant qu'avec les hérétiques. Ce qui survit de nos jours encore, c'est sa "Chronique" où l'on trouve de nombreux détails sur les affaires ecclésiastiques, civiles et militaires. Cette chronique des événements importants est marquée de son amour pour Dieu et pour les hommes.

À Troyes, en 861, saint Prudence, évêque, qui composa un abrégé du psautier pour les itinérants, sélectionna un certain nombre de textes de l’Écriture sainte pour les candidats au sacerdoce et restaura la discipline dans les monastères.

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/6527/Saint-Prudence.html

En 845, Prudence est élu dans le gouvernement de l’église de Troyes.

Ce nouveau pontife originaire d’Espagne, arrive en France sous la protection de Charlemagne et de Louis-le-Débonnaire. Il passe plusieurs années à la cour où il est élu chapelain de Charles-le-Chauve.

Dégoûté de la vie de la cour, il est nommé par la faveur du prince, à l’évêché de Troyes.

Bientôt, la renommée le fait connaître comme " le plus savant et le plus éclairé des évêques de l’église gallicane ". Même les plus éclairés, comme Wenilon, archevêque de Sens, et Hincmar de Reims, le consultent sur les matières les plus difficiles de la religion. Il est très attaché à la doctrine des Pères, et surtout à celle de saint-Augustin qu’il regarde comme la doctrine même de l’église catholique. Il entend les confessions des fidèles, administre les sacrements et s’adonne à la prédication.

Saint Prudence, après le décès de sainte Maure, prononce un très long sermon, qui est le souvenir qu’il a de cette jeune fille qu’il a côtoyée jusqu’à sa mort. Nous avons la chance d’avoir conservé ce précieux document qui nous permet de retracer la vie exemplaire de cette sainte : un saint parle d’une sainte contemporaine, et est une preuve de son talent pour la prédication !

L’église de Montier-la-Celle étant tombée, il en fait élever une autre sur ses ruines.

Le roi lui demande de tenir les Annales du Royaume et le charge en 853, de visiter en son nom, tous les monastères de France.

En 855, au concile de Valence, il fait valoir par son érudition et son éloquence, ses sentiments sur la doctrine de la grâce. Il envoie les canons de ce concile au pape qui lui en donne confirmation.

Saint Prudence se reprochait de ne pas avoir fait assez attention au corps de saint Frobert lorsqu’il avait fait la dédicace de l’église de Montier-le-Celle. A la nouvelle des miracles qui s’opèrent à son tombeau, il se dispose à donner à ce saint corps une place plus honorable, mais il décède en 861, avant d’avoir pu exécuter ce projet, qui ne l’est qu’en 872 par son successeur Otulphe.

L’église de Troyes célèbre sa fête le 6 mai, jour qui est devenu la fête officielle des célibataires.

SOURCE : http://jschweitzer.jimdo.com/religion/les-%C3%A9v%C3%AAques-influents/saint-prudence/

Dessin de l'abbaye de Montiéramey par Fichot ; l'église abbatiale de Montiéramey a été dédié par saint Prudence à saint Pierre et à saint Léon à la demande du pape Léon IV


Saint Prudentius of Troyes

Also known as

Prudentius Galindo

Galindo…

Prudencio…

Memorial

6 April

Profile

As a young man, Galindo fled from Spain to France ahead of the Saracen invaders, and there changed his name to Prudentius. PriestBishop of Troyes, Nuestra (in modern France). Worked for monastic reform and a return of monastic discipline. Created a combination catechism and breviary based on the Psalms to teach some basics to candidates to the priesthood.

Born

Spain as Galindo

Died

861

Canonized

Pre-Congregation

Additional Information

Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate

Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler

Saints of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

sitios en español

Martirologio Romano2001 edición

fonti in italiano

Santi e Beati

MLA Citation

“Saint Prudentius of Troyes“. CatholicSaints.Info. 30 May 2020. Web. 6 April 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-prudentius-of-troyes/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-prudentius-of-troyes/

Prudentius

(GALINDO)

A Bishop of Troyes, born in Spain; died at Troyes on 6 April, 861; celebrated opponent of Hincmar in the controversy on predestination. He left Spain in his youth, probably on account of the Saracen persecution, and came to the Frankish Empire where he changed his native name Galindo into Prudentius. He was educated at thePalatine school, and became Bishop of Troyes shortly before 847. In the controversy on predestination betweenGottschalk of Orbais, Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, and Bishop Pardulus of Laon, he opposed Hincmar in anepistle addressed to him. In this epistle, which was written about 849, he defends against Hincmar a doublepredestination, viz, one for reward, the other for punishment, not, however, for sin. He further upholds thatChrist died only for those who are actually saved. The same opinion he defends in his "De prædestinatione contra Johannem Scotum", which he wrote in 851 at the instance of Archbishop Wenilo of Sens who had sent him nineteen articles of Eriugena's work on predestination for refutation. Still it appears that at the synod of Quierzy, he subscribed to four articles of Hincmar which admit only one predestination, perhaps out of reverence for thearchbishop, or out of fear of King Charles the Bald. In his "Epistola tractoria ad Wenilonem", written about 856, he again upholds his former opinion and makes his approval of the ordination of the new bishop Æneas of Parisdepend on the latter's subscription to four articles favouring a double predestination. Of great historical value is his continuation of the "Annales Bertiniani" from 835-61, in which he presents a reliable history of that period of the Western Frankish Empire. He is also the author of "Vita Sanctæ Mauræ Virginis" (Acta SS. Sept. VI, 275-8) and some poems. At Troyes his feast is celebrated on 6 April as that of a saint, though the Bollandists do not recognize his cult (Acta SS. Apr. I, 531). His works, with the exception of his poems, are printed in P.L., CXV, 971-1458; his poems in Mon. Germ. Poetæ Lat., II, 679 sq.

Sources

GIRGENSOHN, Prudentius und die Bertinianischen Annalene (Riga, 1875); FREYSTEDT, Ueber den Prädestinationsstreit in Zeitschrift für wissenschaftl. Theologie (1893), 315 sq., 447 sq.; BREYER, Les vies de St. Prudence Evéque de Troyes, et de St. Maura, vierge (Troyes, 1725); MIDDELDORFF, De Prudentio et theologia Prudentiana commentatio in Zeitschrift für histor. Theol., II (1832), 127-190.

Ott, Michael. "Prudentius." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 5 Apr. 2015<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12518a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12518a.htm


St. Prudentius, Bishop of Troyes, Confessor

HE was by birth a Spaniard; but fled from the swords of the infidels into France, where in 840, or 845, he was chosen bishop of Troyes. He was one of the most learned prelates of the Gallican church, and was consulted as an oracle. By his sermon on the Virgin St. Maura, we are informed that, besides his other functions and assiduity in preaching, he employed himself in hearing confessions, and in administering the sacraments of the holy eucharist and extreme unction. In his time Gotescalc, a wandering monk of the abbey of Orbasis, in the diocess of Soissons, advanced, in his travels, the errors of predestinarianism, blasphemously asserting that reprobates were doomed by God to sin and hell, without the power of avoiding either. Nottinge, bishop either of Brescia or Verona, sent an information of these blasphemies to Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, one of the most learned and holy men of that age, and who had, whilst abbot of Fulde, made that house the greatest nursery of science in Europe. 1 Rabanus examined Gotescalc in a synod at Mentz in 848, condemned his errors, and sent him to his own metropolitan Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, a prelate also of great learning and abilities. 2 By him and Wenilo, archbishop of Sens, with several other prelates, the monk was again examined in a synod held at Quiercy on the Oise, in the diocess of Soissons, a royal palace of King Charles the Bald, in 849. Gotescalc being refractory, was condemned to be degraded from the priesthood, and imprisoned in the abbey of Haut-villiers in the diocess of Hincmar. By the advice of St. Prudentius, whom Hincmar consulted, he was not deprived of the lay-communion till, after some time, Hincmar, seeing his obstinacy invincible, fulminated against him a sentence of excommunication, under which this unhappy author of much scandal and disturbance died, after twenty-one years of rigorous confinement, in 870. Some suspected Hincmar of leaning towards the contrary Semipelagian error against the necessity of divine grace; and Ratramnus of Corbie took up his pen against him. St. Prudentius wrote to clear up the point, which seemed perplexed by much disputing, and to set the Catholic doctrine in a true light, showing on one side a free will in man, and that Christ died for the salvation of all men; and on the other, proving the necessity of divine grace, and that Christ offered up his death in a special manner for the salvation of the elect. When parties are once stirred up in disputes, it is not an easy matter to dispel the mist which prejudices and heat raise before their eyes. This was never more evident than on that occasion. Both sides agreed in doctrine, yet did not understand one another. Lupus Servatus, the famous abbot of Ferrieres, in Gatinois, Amolan, archbishop of Lyons, and his successor St. Remigius, wrote against Rabanus and Hincmar, in defence of the necessity of divine grace, though they condemned the blasphemies of the predestinarians. Even Amolan of Lyons and his church, who seem to have excused Gotescalc in the beginning, because they had never examined him, always censured the errors condemned in him: for the divine predestination of the elect is an article of faith; but such a grace and predestination as destroy free-will in the creature, are a monstrous heresy. Neither did St. Remigius of Lyons, nor St. Prudentius, interest themselves in the defence of Gotescalc, which shows the inconsistency of those moderns, who, in our time, have undertaken his justification. 3 In 853, Hincmar and other bishops published, in a second assembly at Quiercy, four Capitula, or assertions, to establish the doctrines of free-will, and of the death of Christ for all men. To these St. Prudentius subscribed, as Hincmar and the annals of St. Bertin testify. The church of Lyons was alarmed at these assertions, fearing they excluded the necessity of grace: and the council of Valence, in 855, in which St. Remigius of Lyons presided, published six canons, explaining, in very strong terms, the articles of the necessity of grace, and of the predestination of God’s elect. St. Prudentius procured the confirmation of these canons by Pope Nicholas I., in 859. Moreover, fearing the articles of Quiercy might be abused in favour of Pelagianism; though he had before approved them, he wrote his Tractatoria to confute the erroneous sense which they might bear in a Pelagian mouth, and to give a full exposition of the doctrine of divine grace. He had the greater reason to be upon his guard, seeing some, on the occasion of those disputes, openly renewed the Pelagian errors. John Scotus Erigena, an Irishman in the court of Charles the Bald, a subtle sophist, infamous for many absurd errors, both in faith and in philosophy, 4 published a book against Gotescalc, On Predestination, in which he openly advanced the Semipelagian errors against grace, besides other monstrous heresies. Wenilo, archbishop of Sens, having extracted nineteen articles out of this book, sent them to his oracle St. Prudentius, who refuted the entire book of Scotus by a treatise which is still extant. This saint, having exerted his zeal also for the discipline of the church, and the reformation of manners among the faithful, was named with Lupus abbot of Ferrieres, to superintend and reform all the monasteries of France; of which commission he acquitted himself with great vigour and prudence. He died on the 6th of April, 861, and is named in the Galilean martyrologies, though not in the Roman. 5 At Troyes he is honoured with an office of nine lessons, and his relics are exposed in a shrine. 6 See Ceillier, t. 19. p. 27. Clemencez, Hist. Liter. de la France, t. 5. p. 240. Also Les Vies de S. Prudence de Troyes, et de S. Maure, Vierge, à Troyes, 1725. With an ample justification of this holy prelate: and Nicolas Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispanica Vetus, l. 6. c. 1. an. 259. ad 279. which work was published at Rome by the care of Card. D’Aguirre in 1696.

Note 1. Rabanus Maurus was archbishop of Mentz from the year 847 to 856, in which he died, on the 4th of February, on which his name occurs in certain private German Martyrologies, though he has never been publicly honoured among the saints. See Bolland. Febr. t. 1. p. 511. and Mabillon, t. 6. Act. SS. Bened. p. 37. His works were printed at Mentz, in 1626, in six tomes. They consist of letters, comments on the holy scriptures, and several dogmatical and pious treatises. The principal are his Institution of the Clergy, and On the Ceremonies or Divine Offices, in three books; and his Martyrology, which he compiled about the year 844. Dom. Bernard Pez published his pious discourse on the Passion of Christ. Anecdot. t. 4. part. 2. p. 8. His poems, which fall short of his prose writings, were published by F. Brower with those of Fortunatus. The Veni Creator is found among his writings, and in none more ancient; whence some ascribe to him that excellent hymn. He quotes the Gloria, laus et honor; which is known to be the work of Theodulph, bishop of Orleans, who died in 821, and left us Capitulars and other works in prose, and some in verse, collected by F. Sirmond in 1646. See Opera P. Sirmundi. Venetiis, 1728. t. 2.

  Hincmar, a monk of St. Denis, chosen archbishop of Rheims in 845, died in 882. His letters are much better written than his other works, nor is the style so lax and diffusive. Sirmond published his works in two vols. folio, in 1645. F. Cellot added a third volume in 1658.

  Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres in Gatinois, (whom all now agree to have been the same person with Lupus Servatus, as F. Sirmond and Baluze have demonstrated against Mauguin,) died in 862. His letters and his famous treatise on the Three Questions (relating to Predestination) are written in a nervous and elegant style. The most accurate editions are those of Baluze, in 1664, at Paris, and with additions at Leipsic in 1710 (the title page says falsely at Antwerp).

  Amolon succeeded Agobard in the see of Lyons in 840, and died in 852. In the Library of the Fathers, t. 13 and 14. and in an appendix to the works of Agobard by Baluze, we have his works on Grace and Predestination, and his letter to Theutlaald, bishop of Langres, in which he orders him to remove out of the church, and bury decently certain doubtful relics, according to the practice of St. Martin, and the decree of pope Gelasius. As to certain pretended miracles of women falling into convulsions, and being seized with pains before them, he commands them to be rejected and despised: for true miracles restore often health, but never cause sickness in such circumstances.

  St. Remigius of Lyons, Amolon’s successor, died on the 28th of October, 875, and is named among the Saints in the private calendars of Ferrari and Saussay. On his writings, on Grace and Predestination, see Mabillon, Suppl. Diplom. p. 64. et in Analectis, p. 426. and F. Colonia, Hist. de Lyons, t. 2. p. 139.

  Florus, deacon of Lyons, and a learned professor, author of additions to Bede’s Martyrology, wrote both against Gotescalc and John Scotus Erigena. See t. 15. Bibl. Patr. and Baluze, t. 2. op. Agobardi. Append. 

Note 2. T. 5. Concil. Harduin, p. 15, 16. Annal. Fuldens. ad. an. 848. 

Note 3. Bishop Usher, Jansenius, and Mauguin are advocates for the Predestinarians; consequently suspected persons in this history. Their vindication of Gotescalc is confuted by the Cardinal de Laurea, Opusc. l. c. 7., Nat. Alexander, F. Honoratus of St. Mary, and Tournely, in accurate dissertations on that subject. F. Ziegelbaver in the Hist. Liter. Ord. S. Bened. t. 3. p. 105. gives us both Card. Noris’s Apology for Gotescalc, and the Jesuit Du Mesnil’s history of his heresy.

Note 4. See a catalogue of some of his errors and absurdities in Witasse’s Tr. de Euchar. t. 1. p. 414. and in Mu. Paris, Diss. at the end of the Perpétuité de la Foi, art. 4. Had Dr. Cave lived to read these authors, or Mabillon, sæc. 4. and 6. Bened. or Nat. Alexander, Hist. sæc. 9 and 10. Diss. 14. p. 359. t. 6. &c. he would not have confounded this John Scotus Erigena with John Scotus, abbot of Ethelinge, king Alfred’s master, and one of the first professors at Oxford: nor is it likely he would have suppressed his errors, or the disgrace with which, by an express order of pope Nicholas I., he was expelled France. Hist. Liter. t. 5. p. 36.

Note 5. It is strange that Baillet should imagine this to be the Prudentius named in the Roman Martyrology, as bishop of Tarracona, on the 28th of April; who, by the report of Tamayo and Lubin, was bishop of that see in 586, and his relics are shown there to this day. 

Note 6. The Bollandists, p. 531, on the 6th of April, with Lewis Cellot, Hist. Gotescalci, l. 3. c. 9. charge Prudentius of Troyes with errors in doctrine, and with opposing Hincmar out of jealousy and revenge, because the archbishop had seemed to infringe the rights of his church, according to the author of the Annales Britannici, who wrote within twenty years after his death. But this seems only a slander propagated by some of his adversaries. His writings, which are extant, t. 15. Bibl. Patr. p. 467. are understood in an orthodox sense by most learned Catholic theologians: at least we cannot doubt but he submitted them to the judgment of the Church. See Cacciari, Monitum in S. Leonis, ep. 136. t. 2. p. 452.

The works of St. Prudentius, see t. 15. Bibl. Patr. His letter to his brother, who was a bishop, probably in Spain, is published by Mabillon, Analecta, p. 418. His panegyric on St. Maura, a virgin at Troyes, is extant in Surius; and translated into French, and defended against Daillé, by Abbé Breyer, canon at Troyes, at the end of his Défense de l’Eglise de Troyes, at Paris, 1725. 

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73).  Volume IV: April. The Lives of the Saints.  1866.

SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/4/065.html

Prudentius Galindo B (AC)

(also known as Prudentius of Troyes)


Born in Spain; died in Troyes, France, April 6, 861. In the days of the Franks, there came from Spain to the court of France a young and gifted lawyer named Prudentius, baptized Galindo, who was a patriotic citizen of the Roman Empire. He had come to Gaul fleeing the persecutions of the Saracens and studied at the Palatine school, where he changed his name to Prudentius.


He had distinguished gifts and rose to high office. In the course of time he held, we are told, "the reins of power over famous cities." In later middle life, however, he turned from his public offices to the Church and devoted himself and his talents to the service of God.

He now came to regard the empire that he had served so well as an instrument in God's hands for the advancement of Christianity, and he lived to see the tide turn against Julian the Apostate, who had bee "faithful to Rome, but faithless to God." He was appointed chaplain to the Frankish court and, in 840 or 845, was elected bishop of Troyes, thus becoming a leading member of the episcopate.

Prudentius was appointed by Bishop Hincmar of Rheims to judge the case of a monk named Gottschalk, whom Hincmar had tortured, imprisoned, and excommunicated for teaching that God would save only the elect and condemn most of humanity. Prudentius defended the theory of double predestination and that Christ died only for those who are saved--a theory that set off a widespread dispute.

Known for his learning and as a theologian, Prudentius was also a poet, and one of his poems reflects his experience:

Now then, at last, close on the very end of life,
May yet my sinful soul put off her foolishness;
And if by deeds it cannot, yet, at least,
by words give praise to God,
Join day to day by constant praise,
Fail not each night in songs to celebrate the Lord,
Fight against heresies, maintain the catholic faith.
He became widely known by his writings, including a history of the Western franks called Annals of Saint Bertin, an extant treatise against John Scotus Erigena De praedistinatione contra Johannem Scotem (851), a defense of his own theory in Epistola tractoria ad Wenilonem (856). Prudentius was the best author of his day--"the prince of Christian poets," and "the Homer and the Virgil of the Christians." Today he is chiefly remembered for his fine hymn, Of the Father's love begotten, Ere the worlds began to be. The feast of Prudentius is still kept at Troyes (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Gill). 

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0406.shtml

San Prudenzio di Troyes Vescovo

6 aprile

m. 861

Martirologio Romano: Nello stesso luogo, san Prudenzio, vescovo, che compilò un compendio del Salterio per chi si metteva in viaggio, raccolse i precetti delle Sacre Scritture per i candidati al sacerdozio e rinnovò la disciplina monastica.

Spagnolo d’origine, Prudenzio (fr. Proliant, Pruiant, Prudence) portava originariamente il nome di Gaindo, sembra sia stato imparentato con una famiglia di futura nobiltà aragonese ed è verosimile che egli avesse un fratello rivestito della dignità episcopale nella Marca di Spagna o in Navarra. Egli stesso, in gioventù, raggiunse la corte imperiale, fu allievo della scuola palatina e adempì alle funzioni di cappellano di Ludovico il Pio. Si fa anche intendere che fosse incaricato di funzioni amministrative che gli furono gravose: si trattava forse di "missatica".
E' certo, comunque, che egli ne fu incaricato prima del suo episcopato.

Poco dopo la sua elevazione alla sede di Troyes (844) ebbe, nell’aprile 845, con Lupo, abate di Ferrières e Eribaldo, vescovo di Auxerre, la missione di visitare le istituzioni religiose del Sémonais e del territorio di Troyes.

Quando ancora era presso la corte, Prudenzio aveva compilato un Florilegium dei Salmi, opera di pietà composta su richiesta di «una nobile dama» sventurata. E. Dummler ha avanzato l’ipotesi attendibile che questa dama potesse essere l’imperatrice Giuditta e che l’opera possa datarsi agli anni 830-833.

Divenuto vescovo, Prudenzio avrebbe continuato a scrivere: dall’835 alla sua morte, nell’861, egli avrebbe redatto con molta cura una continuazione degli Annales Berliniani, fonte eccellente per lo storico della metà del IX secolo; si dedicò inoltre all’istruzione del clero di Troyes, componendo un Florilegium ex sacra Scriptura o Praecepta, che è insieme manuale di morale e di dogmatica. Si esercitò anche nella poesia ma di lui ci rimane soltanto un poema sui Vangeli che rivela la sua origine spagnola. Miglior misura di sé egli dà nel panegirico di una vergine da lui condotta alla santità (morta il 21 settembre 850): costei si chiamava Maura ed era sorella di Eutropio, prevosto della cattedrale.

Questo Sermo de vita et morte gloriosae virginia Maurae rivela nel vescovo un uomo pieno di fede, di pietà e di ardore apostolico, ma anche di fierezza e di un rigore che indubbiamente provenivano dalla sua razza. Fu certamente un vescovo pieno di zelo, oltre che un erudito e uno dei teologi maggiori del suo tempo. Della sua attività in questo campo ci resta un’opera occasionale, ma considerevole, sul delicato argomento della libertà e della grazia. Fu provocata dalla teoria predestinazionista del monaco d’Orbais, Gotescalco (Gotischalk) il quale, condannato nel concilio di Magonza nell’848 e poi nel sinodo di Quierzy nel l’849, sosteneva la tesi di una doppia predestinazione, quella degli eletti alla ricompensa eterna e quella dei peccatori alla loro perdita, e sosteneva inoltre la tesi che il Cristo ha sparso il suo sangue per tutti i credenti (pro omnibus credentibus).

La misura in cui Gotescalco fu eretico rimane incerta. Secondo il giudizio di Prudenzio, egli rimase sempre nella linea della dottrina di sant'Agostino, quale era stata consacrata dal concilio di Orange nel 529: ma questa non era l’opinione dell’arcivescovo di Reims, Incmaro, il quale aveva avuto un ruolo principale nel sinodo di Quierzv e che deteneva Gotescalco nelle prigioni dell’abbazia di Hautvilliers.

Il primo intervento di Prudenzio nella questione fu provocato da una lettera di Incmaro in cui questi domandava al vescovo di Troyes se si potesse ammettere Gotescalco alla Comunione pasquale (849); non conosciamo la risposta, ma sembra che fosse positiva. Gotescalco, tuttavia, nella prigione, poteva scrivere e la sua attività spinse Incmaro a redigere una confutale ad redusos et simplices che si allontanava dalla tradizione agostiniana tanto da preoccupare lupo di Ferrières, Ratramno e lo stesso Prudenzio, il quale diresse una lettera all’arcivescovo di Reims e al suo suffraganeo, Pardulus vescovo di Laon, che aveva adottato le idee dell’arcivescovo. Questo scritto, che non fu sottoposto al concilio di Parigi, come si presume) diede «fuoco alle polveri». Il suo tono cordiale e conciliante non piacque a Incmaro, uomo assai litigioso, il quale si confidò al vescovo di Magonza, l’illustre Rabano Mauro. Questo ammise con Prudenzio che Dio non è autore del peccato, che non spinge le creature a peccare e che odia sua immensa grazia accorda misericordiosamente la ricompensa ai giusti e una pena adeguata per i malvagi, pena inflitta secondo giustizia per le loro cattive opere; ma non fu dell’avviso del vedovo di Troyes, invece, quando questi ammetteva che «Dio, come conduce gli eletti secondo la sua predestinazione alla ricompensa eterna, spinge anche i peccatori nella sua predestinazione ad andare verso la loro perdita»; censore troppo rigido, Rabano confonde la prescienza con la predestinazione. Tale risposta è datata dalla primavera dell’850.

Oltre quanto si è qui esposto, Incmaro aveva effettuato una specie d'inchiesta sull’argomento presso diversi teologi; un amico di Prudenzio che probabilmente lo aveva conosciuto alla corte imperiale, Giovanni Scoto Eriugena, rispose nell’851 con un De Praedestinatione in cui esce nettamente dalla dottrina cattolica; più filosofo che teologo, Scoto scivola verso un certo panteismo. Wenilone, arcivescovo di Sens, turbato dalla dottrina esposta in quel trattato, la riunì in diciannove proposizioni che sottopose a Prudenzio perché le refutasse. Ma il vescovo di Troyes riprese l’opera completa punto per punto facendone la critica; questo scritto è conosciuto sotto il nome di De praedestinatione contra Joannem Scotum (estate 852).

L’argomento ritornò nel sinodo tenuto a Quierzv nell’853, durante il quale alcuni vescovi e alcuni abati sottoscrissero quattro articoli redatti da Incmaro contro la dottrina di Gotescalco: in essi si affermava che vi è una sola predestinazione, che la libertà è sanata dalla grazia, che Dio vuole salvare tutti gli uomini, che Cristo ha sofferto per tutti. Prudenzio avrebbe sottoscritto tali proposizioni, forse intimidito, almeno a quanto afferma Incmaro, dalla presenza dell’imperatore Lotario, tuttavia, in una lettera diretta a Wenilone egli oppose all’arcivescovo di Reims quattro contro-proposizioni. Tale lettera fu redatta in occasione della consacrazione episcopale di Enea, vescovo di Parigi e suffraganeo di Sens (febbraio 857). Questo è l’ultimo intervento conosciuto di Prudenzio in una controversia che si svilupperà ancora per quattro anni. Tuttavia, egli ha già visto l’arcivescovo di Lione, Remigio, e il concilio di Valencia schierarsi a suo lato (854-855); dall’859, a Langres, e poi a Savonnières, le proposizioni di Incmaro sarebbero state scartate. Colpito nei suoi ultimi anni da una lunga malattia, pare comunque che Prudenzio si sia ritirato dalla lotta.

«Prudenzio - ha potuto scrivere di lui un teologo - ci appare come uno dei rappresentanti più decisi nel secolo IX dell’agostiniano rigido. Ancora insufficientemente capace di sfumature, ignorando le distinzioni che la teologia ulteriore finirà per introdurre, il suo insegnamento si contenta di riprodurre con esattezza uno degli aspetti della dottrina agostiniana, nelle formule della quale egli cala naturalmente. La scienza teologica del vescovo di Troyes ha tuttavia suscitato grande impressione nei suoi contemporanei».

L’attività di Prudenzio è comunque nota anche per altre ragioni; egli assistette al concilio di Parigi dell’846 o 847, in cui sottoscrisse un privilegio per l’abbazia di Corbie; al concilio di Tours del febbraio 851, in cui firmò una lettera dell’episcopato franco a Nominoè, re di Bretagna; al concilio di Soissons dell’853 e infine al sinodo di Bonneuil nell’856. Nella propria diocesi Prudenzio consacrò i monasteri di Montier-la-Celle (850) e di Montieramey.

Prudenzio morì il 6 aprile 861. Le sue reliquie furono in parte trasferite nel monastero di St-Savin nel Poitou dove è rappresentato in uno dei celebri affreschi della cripta (secolo XII). Un’altra parte delle sue spoglie è rimasta a Troyes, nella cattedrale dove il suo culto è sconosciuto fino al XIII secolo. Il suo nome si trova nelle aggiunte al Martirologio di Usuardo e in alcuni altri ma non è stato ripreso dal Martirologio Romano. La festa si celebrava a Troyes il 6 aprile, attualmente è fissata al 6 maggio.

Autore: Jean Marilier

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/48620

Voir aussi : http://homepage.mac.com/thm72/orthodoxievco/ecrits/vies/synaxair/avril/prudence.pdf