Saint Prosper d'Aquitaine
Théologien laïc (+ v.
460)
Tout ce qu'on sait de sa
vie c'est qu'il naquit en Aquitaine, qu'en 428, il est à Marseille et à partir
de 440, qu'il fut rédacteur à la chancellerie pontificale de saint Léon le
Grand. Il écrivait très bien et pour faciliter la paix de son ménage heureux,
il correspondait en vers avec sa femme: "Relève-moi si je tombe,
reprends-toi quand je te signale quelque faute. Qu'il ne nous suffise point
d'être un seul corps, soyons aussi une seule âme." Il écrivit une
'Histoire universelle' qui est un résumé de celles d'Eusèbe et de saint Jérôme.
Il consacre toute son oeuvre à défendre saint Augustin et, pour ce faire, il composa
la doctrine augustinienne de la grâce en 1002 hexamètres. Il imposa silence aux
évêques des Gaules qui déblatéraient contre l'évêque d'Hippone et c'est sans
doute grâce à saint Prosper qu'Augustin fut reconnu très tôt comme le grand
docteur de l’Église d'Occident.
Commémoraison de saint
Prosper d’Aquitaine. Après une éducation littéraire et philosophique soignée,
il mena avec son épouse une vie simple et modeste. Devenu moine à Marseille, il
défendit avec force contre les pélagiens la doctrine de saint Augustin sur la
grâce de Dieu et le don de persévérance, et servit de secrétaire au pape saint
Léon le Grand. Il mourut vers 463.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1390/Saint-Prosper-d-Aquitaine.html
SAINT PROSPER D'AQUITAINE
Docteur de l'Église
(+ 466)
Saint Prosper naquit dans
l'Aquitaine, au commencement du Ve siècle; nous le connaissons surtout par ses
excellents ouvrages, car ce savant homme semble avoir passé sa vie la plume à
la main, dans les controverses contre les hérétiques. Il s'était évidemment
appliqué à l'étude des belles-lettres et surtout à l'intelligence de la Sainte
Écriture. Chez Prosper, à la science se joignait la vertu, et un auteur
contemporain, faisant de lui les plus grands éloges, l'appelle homme saint et
vénérable. Les semi-pélagiens, en particulier, eurent en lui l'un de leurs plus
redoutables adversaires.
Son érudition et sa
sainteté le rendirent célèbre dans toute l'Église, et saint Léon le Grand qui
se connaissait en mérite, ne fut pas plutôt élevé au suprême pontificat, qu'il
attira Prosper à Rome pour faire de lui son secrétaire et se servir de lui,
comme saint Damase avait fait de saint Jérôme, pour répondre aux questions qui
lui étaient adressées de tout l'univers chrétien. Plusieurs historiens croient
même que le fond de l'admirable lettre de saint Léon sur l'Incarnation du Verbe
est de la composition de saint Prosper, et que le grand Pape n'a fait qu'y
mettre son style.
Le Saint n'était pas
moins habile dans les sciences humaines que dans les sciences ecclésiastiques,
surtout dans les mathématiques, l'astronomie et chronologie. Tout porte à
croire que Prosper n'était ni évêque, ni même prêtre; mais comme il a passé sa
vie à combattre les hérésies, à soutenir les vérités de la religion et
éclaircir le grand et difficile mystère de la grâce, l'Église lui a donné place
parmi ses Pères et ses Docteurs.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_prosper_d_aquitaine.html
Prosper : voilà un
beau nom à retrouver, qui signifie en latin : celui qui est florissant !
Bien qu'il naquit en
l'époque lointaine du IVe siècle, on connaît bien ce saint d'Aquitaine grâce à
ses écrits. Né à Limoges vers 390, il fera de solides études dans la célèbre
abbaye Saint-Victor de Marseille. C'était un théologien et un laïc, référence
importante pour notre temps ! Son exemple n'est pourtant peut-être pas
totalement à suivre : on rapporte que, étant marié (et on pense, sans enfants
?), il incita son épouse à entrer dans la vie religieuse, pendant que lui-même
entrait au monastère.
Prosper se trouve à
Marseille quand éclate ce qu'on appelle la "controverse
semi-pélagienne", affirmant que le commencement du salut est l'oeuvre de
l'homme et non pas d'abord celle de la grâce de Dieu. Dans cette querelle
théologique, Prosper est amené à prendre la défense de saint Augustin. Il entre
en relation de correspondance avec l'évêque d'Hippone, lequel, de fait, lui
répond par plusieurs de ses traités tels que "De la prédestination des
saints" et "Du don de persévérance". Prosper, par ses propres
écrits, réussit à imposer silence à plusieurs évêques de Gaule qui s'élevaient
contre la pensée vigoureuse et parfois trop abrupte de saint Augustin !
Par la suite, Prosper,
qui porte le titre mérité de "écrivain ecclésiastique", se fixera à
Rome. Il y devient le secrétaire du Pape Léon 1er et y termine sa vie
laborieuse d'intellectuel chrétien vers 455. Parmi ses oeuvres, on trouve une
"Histoire universelle" où il condense des écrits de saint Eusèbe et
de saint Jérôme, un "Commentaire des Psaumes" et un ouvrage sur
"La vocation de tous les païens".
Rédacteur : Frère Bernard
Pineau, OP
SOURCE : http://www.lejourduseigneur.com/Web-TV/Saints/Prosper
Saint Prosper d’Aquitaine
Confesseur au diocèse de
Bordeaux
Fête le 25 juin
Église de France
près de Bordeaux, en
Aquitaine, v. 390 – † v. 455
Théologien gaulois,
disciple et défenseur de saint Augustin, l’évêque d’Hippone, en Numidie.
Écrivain ecclésiastique
et secrétaire du pape saint Léon Ier le Grand, après 440, il polémiqua contre
les semi-pélagiens et écrivit d’importants traités théologiques. Il ne semble
pas que Prosper ait jamais reçu les ordres. Adversaire du pélagianisme, il fut
en relation avec saint Augustin dont il résuma la pensée. Auteur d’un « carmen
», pièce en vers destinée aux ingrats, poète, il écrivit à sa femme pour
célébrer leur union et lui rappeler ensuite qu’ils devaient faire à eux deux «
un seul corps… mais aussi une seule âme ».
SOURCE : http://www.martyretsaint.com/prosper-daquitaine/
Saint Prosper d'Aquitaine
Théologien laïc (+ v.
460)
Tout ce qu’on sait de sa
vie c’est qu’il naquit en Aquitaine, qu’en 428, il est à Marseille et à partir
de 440, qu’il fut rédacteur à la chancellerie pontificale de saint Léon le
Grand. Il écrivait très bien et pour faciliter la paix de son ménage heureux,
il correspondait en vers avec sa femme: « Relève-moi si je tombe,
reprends-toi quand je te signale quelque faute. Qu’il ne nous suffise point
d’être un seul corps, soyons aussi une seule âme. » Il écrivit une
‘Histoire universelle’ qui est un résumé de celles d’Eusèbe et de saint
Jérôme. Il consacre toute son œuvre à défendre saint Augustin et, pour
ce faire, il composa la doctrine augustinienne de la grâce en 1002 hexamètres.
Il imposa silence aux évêques des Gaules qui déblatéraient contre l’évêque
d’Hippone et c’est sans doute grâce à saint Prosper qu’Augustin fut reconnu
très tôt comme le grand docteur de l’Église d’Occident.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/daily-prayer/samedi-25-juin/
Saint Prosper d'Aquitaine, docteur de l'Église
Fête saint : 25 Juin
Date : Ve siècle
Pensée
Rappelons-nous sans cesse
que nous appartenant à Dieu par une infinité de titres, et que nous tenons de
lui tout ce que-nous avons et tout ce que nous sommes. Après avoir fait tout ce
qui est en notre pouvoir, regardons-nous comme des serviteurs inutiles.
Pratique
Aimez à obliger sans
intérêt.
Priez
Pour les esclaves de
l’avarice.
Hagiographie
Saint Prosper naquit
dans l’Aquitaine au commencement du Ve siècle. Il faut le distinguer
de saint Prosper, évêque d’Orléans. Ses écrits sont une preuve qu’il
ne s’était pas moins appliqué à l’étude des belles lettres qu’à l’intelligence
de l’Écriture sainte ; et la pureté de ses mœurs l’a fait appeler, par un
auteur contemporain, homme saint et vénérable. Son attachement à la
foi commença à se montrer dans la vive apologie qu’il entreprit des ouvrages
de saint Augustin contre les semi-pélagiens de Provence. Le
bruit que fit cette affaire l’obligea d’aller trouver le pape saint
Célestin Ier qui, après avoir bien pris connaissance de l’état de la
question, adressa à ce sujet une lettre dogmatique aux évêques des lieux où
circulait l’erreur. Prosper lui-même prit la plume, et composa le
poème des Ingrats, qui a toujours été regardé comme un
chef-d’œuvre. Saint
Léon le Grand, qui se connaissait en mérite, ne fut pas plutôt élevé au
pontificat, qu’il attira saint Prosper à Rome pour en faire son
secrétaire. Il l’employa avec succès dans les plus importantes affaires de
l’Église, et ce fut, dit Photius, au zèle de Prosper, à son savoir et
à ses travaux infatigables, que l’on doit l’entière extirpation de l’hérésie
des pélagiens. On ne sait point précisément l’année de sa mort ; mais il
parait qu’il vivait encore en 463.
Que nous sommes
inconséquents ! 1° Nous détestons l’erreur des pélagiens, et
nous croyons fermement avec l’Église que, sans la grâce, il nous est absolument
impossible de rien faire d’utile au salut, 2° Mais, si nous
négligeons de demander ce secours divin, ou si nous n’avons pas soin de conserver
et d’en profiter, ne sommes-nous pas des pélagiens d’action et de conduite ?
Quelles sont les reliques
de saint Prosper d'Aquitaine ?
Plusieurs siècles après,
c’est-à-dire au temps de Luitprand, roi des Lombards, il
apparut en songe à Thomas, évêque de Reggio, l’un de ses successeurs, et lui
ordonna de lui faire bâtir une église plus magnifique avec un tombeau plus
honorable, pour y transférer ses ossements. L’évêque, qui était un très-saint
personnage, obéit à son ordre, et, lorsqu’il ouvrit son sépulcre, il en sortit
une odeur si merveilleuse, qu’il n’y a point de baume ni de parfum sur la terre
qui en puisse produire de semblable. La translation fut faite avec une joie et
une solennité extraordinaires, et les miracles qui se firent à ce nouveau
tombeau n’y furent pas moindres que ceux qui avaient été faits à la mort du
Saint.
Voilà ce que le docte
Flaminius, et après lui Surius, disent de saint Prosper, évêque de Reggio.
Ceux qui ont écrit sur l’évêque de Riez lui appliquent aussi les mêmes choses :
ce qui vient de ce que Riez et Reggio n’ayant qu’un même nom en latin, on a
aisément confondu l’un avec l’autre. Ils y insèrent aussi une partie de ce que
nous avons dit de saint Prosper d’Aquitaine, et surtout sa fonction
de secrétaire du pape Léon Ier,
faute de distinguer ce saint ecclésiastique des évêques de même nom. Nous
ajouterons encore qu’il y a eu un saint Prosper, évêque d’Orléans, et
confesseur, dont nous donnerons la vie au vingt-neuvième jour de juillet, et
qu’il ne faut pas confondre avec ceux dont il a été parlé. Au reste, s’il
s’agit de l’évêque de Riez, on le peut mettre au IVe siècle ; mais
pour le célèbre adversaire des semi-Pélagiens, il appartient au Ve.
Oraison
Répandez dans votre
Église, Seigneur, l’esprit dont était animé saint Prosper dans
l’exercice du ministère sacré ; afin qu’en étant remplis, comme lui, nous nous
appliquions à aimer ce qu’il a aimé, et à pratiquer ce qu’il a enseigné. Par
Jésus-Christ Notre-Seigneur. Ainsi soit-il.
SOURCE : https://www.laviedessaints.com/saint-prosper/
Prière de Saint Prosper
d'Aquitaine
Voici une Prière sur la
Tempérance « Seigneur, ornez-moi de la Vertu de Tempérance » de
Saint Prosper d'Aquitaine (390-455), laïc chrétien et marié, disciple de Saint
Augustin, avec lequel il correspondit et dont il appuya le combat contre les
pélagiens
La Prière de Saint Prosper d'Aquitaine sur la Tempérance « Seigneur,
ornez-moi de la Vertu de Tempérance » :
« Seigneur, ornez-moi de la Vertu de Tempérance qui retienne dans le
devoir mes sens et les facultés de mon âme ; que la Tempérance me rende
sobre, modéré, chaste, secret, sérieux et grave ; qu'elle soit un frein
pour mes passions ; qu'elle modère mes affections et multiplie les saints
désirs ; qu'elle corrige ce qui est vicieux en moi, ordonne et fortifie
tout ce qui est faible ou déréglé ; qu'elle éloigne les mauvaises pensées
pour en suggérer de Saintes ; qu'elle éteigne le feu de la passion, et
dissipe la tiédeur par le désir des Récompenses futures ; qu'elle
établisse le calme dans mon âme et la préserve de toutes les tempêtes des
passions ».
Ainsi soit-il.
Saint Prosper d'Aquitaine (390-455) - « Le Fidèle au pied de la
Croix » ou « Méditations en forme de Prières sur les Principaux
Sujets de Piété », Prière sur la Vertu de la Tempérance, p. 222-223,
Libraire Potet (1824)
Voir également sur la Vertu de Tempérance :
- La Prière sur la Tempérance d’Alexandre de Hohenlohe « Ô
Dieu Tout-Puissant, accordez-nous une parfaite Tempérance »
SOURCE : http://site-catholique.fr/index.php?post/Priere-de-Saint-Prosper-d-Aquitaine-sur-la-Temperance
C’est grâce à lui que
saint Augustin a été reconnu docteur de l’Église
Isabelle
Cousturié ✝ - publié le
24/06/18 - mis à jour le 17/06/22
Saint Augustin n'aurait
pas été proclamé si vite docteur de l’Église si saint Prosper d’Aquitaine,
patron des poètes, ne lui avait pas consacré l’essentiel de sa vie et de son
œuvre au Ve siècle.
On sait peu de choses de
la vie de Prosper (env. 390- env. 463), si ce n’est que c’est un laïc né en
Aquitaine, qu’en 428 il est à Marseille et qu’à partir de 440, il est rédacteur
à la chancellerie pontificale de Léon
le Grand. On sait aussi qu’il aime la vie monastique et qu’il écrit de
belles œuvres poétiques. C’est d’ailleurs pourquoi il est le saint patron des
poètes. « Ce savant homme semble avoir passé sa vie la plume à la
main », souligne l’abbé Léon Jaud (1856-1934), prêtre du diocèse de Luçon,
dans Les
vies des saints pour tous les jours de l’année.
Le Pape, rapporte-t-il, « admirait
tellement son érudition et sa sainteté qu’il se servait de lui, comme
saint Damase avait fait de saint Jérôme, pour répondre aux questions qui lui
étaient adressées de tout l’univers chrétien ». Et l’abbé lui reconnaît
« une ardeur incroyable dans les controverses religieuses de son époque,
pour défendre et propager la pensée d’Augustin ». Les deux hommes,
contemporains quelques années, ne se sont pourtant jamais rencontrés. Ils ont
en revanche beaucoup correspondu.
Don de persévérance
Cette ardeur à défendre
la pensée
d’Augustin, Prosper s’est fait un devoir de l’entretenir plus que jamais
après sa mort (430). Il est même allé jusqu’à Rome demander au pape
Célestin Ier de trancher le conflit qui opposait la pensée
d’Augustin à celle des pélagiens et des donatiens. Celui-ci ne tranchera pas
mais adressera à tous les évêques de Gaule une lettre contenant un vibrant
hommage d’Augustin. Les théories dites semi-pélagiennes ne seront rejetées
officiellement qu’en 529. En attendant Prosper continue à écrire, jetant le
trouble parmi les adversaires les plus déterminés tels que Jean
Cassien ou Vincent de Lérins, les fondateurs respectivement du monastère
Saint-Victor de Marseille et de l’abbaye
de Lérins, en Provence.
Lire aussi :La
vérité sur la conversion de saint Augustin
Parallèlement à cette
« théologie de combat », comme on voit souvent décrit cette
détermination à faire connaître la richesse de la doctrine d’Augustin, Prosper
a composé un recueil de près de 400 citations extraites de son œuvre à
faire connaître au grand public. Ce Liber Sententiarum, auqel on trouve
quelques imperfections, a au moins eu « le mérite d’assurer une large
diffusion de la pensée augustinienne au Moyen Âge », souligne
dans La Croix le biographe Xavier Lecoeur. On dit que c’est d’ailleurs sans
doute grâce à saint Prosper qu’Augustin fut reconnu très tôt comme le grand
docteur de l’Église d’Occident. Ce titre lui sera conféré en 1295
par Boniface VIII, au même moment qu’Ambroise
de Milan, Jérôme
de Stridon et Grégoire le Grand.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2018/06/24/saint-prosper-le-disciple-inconditionnel-de-saint-augustin/
PROSPER
D’AQUITAINE, De vocatione omnium gentium
ediderunt Roland J. Teske
et Dorothea Weber, Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, (« Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum », XCVII),
2009, 206 p., 21,5 cm, 26 €, ISBN 978-3-7001-6611-5.
PROSPER D’AQUITAINE, De
vocatione omnium gentium, ediderunt Roland J. Teske et Dorothea Weber, Wien,
Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, (« Corpus Scriptorum
Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum », XCVII), 2009, 206 p., 21,5 cm, 26 €, ISBN
978-3-7001-6611-5.
Déjà en 1900, L.
Valentin, vantant dans sa thèse sur Prosper d’Aquitaine les travaux de
l’Académie de Vienne, attendait avec impatience la publication dans le Corpus
des œuvres de son cher auteur (Saint Prosper d’Aquitaine. Étude sur la
littérature latine ecclésiastique au cinquième siècle en Gaule, Paris-Toulouse
1900, p. 210 et 220). Il aura donc fallu plus d’un siècle pour que paraisse
enfin le premier tome des Opera, grâce aux soins conjugués de deux
universitaires, l’un américain, l’autre autrichienne, tous deux grands
spécialistes, entre autres domaines, de l’œuvre d’Augustin. L’œuvre choisie
pour inaugurer cette entreprise est sans doute la plus décisive, mais également
la plus problématique. Inutile d’insister sur l’intérêt majeur du De vocatione
omnium gentium. Premier traité de l’histoire de la théologie à imaginer,
jusqu’à la défendre, la possibilité du salut des infidèles, il a surtout
suscité un fort engouement lorsque, au beau milieu de la crise janséniste, la
traduction française qu’en avait donnée le jésuite Girard s’était attiré les
foudres d’Arnauld par ses multiples erreurs aux lourdes conséquences.
L’introduction, copieuse,
se développe en deux parties rigoureusement égales. Tout d’abord, une
présentation circonstanciée de l’œuvre, de ses enjeux et des problèmes qu’elle
soulève, constitue le premier chapitre (p. 9-44). On trouvera, pour chaque
aspect, un status quaestionis suffisamment détaillé, aboutissant à la
validation d’un consensus que, depuis quelque temps déjà, nul n’osait troubler
et qui reconnaît dans le Prosper des alentours de 450, passablement détaché de
l’emprise d’Augustin, l’auteur de cet ouvrage (voir p. 9-15). Viennent ensuite
des considérations éditoriales, entièrement dues à D. Weber, appuyées sur
l’ensemble du matériel philologique, décrit et exploité : le ch. 2, consacré
aux témoins manuscrits et à leur tradition (p. 44-70), et le ch. 3, recensant
les précédentes éditions et expliquant les principes de la nouvelle (p. 71-78).
L’apport majeur de cette
édition est de fournir un texte établi, à nouveaux frais, sur un recensement
quasi exhaustif des témoins ; mais le ms. Douai, BM, 533 (XIIIe s.), florilège
intégré à juste titre dans l’apparat, n’est en réalité qu’un témoin du
Florilegium Duacense, représenté par au moins deux autres témoins plus anciens,
dont il faut donc absolument tenir compte : Douai, BM, 285 (seconde moitié du
XIIe s.) et Troyes, BM, 215 (fin du XIIe s.). L’apparat, précisément, s’il est
complet, est malheureusement rendu d’autant moins lisible par la diversité des
sigles et la multiplication des parenthèses et crochets, par le choix curieux
de n’y omettre aucun manuscrit, même tardif (p. 74-75), alors que ces derniers
sont tout bonnement exclus de l’analyse stemmatique (p. 69). Il était, par
exemple, inutile d’y reporter les leçons du ms. Lisboa, BN, Alc. 67, et il
aurait suffi de démontrer dans l’introduction qu’il est assurément la copie
directe du ms. Troyes, BM, 5.
On mesurera, enfin,
l’apport philologique de cette édition en consultant (p. 75-76) la liste
comparative des passages pour lesquels le nouveau texte diffère de celui de la
Patrologia Latina (un tableau mentionnant directement les variantes de Migne
aurait été sans doute plus lisible). Mais, si considérables qu’ils soient, ces
progrès textuels ne sont toutefois pas aussi impressionnants que cette liste le
laisse paraître. Car le fait est que, pour Voc.gen., nous disposions de deux
textus recepti : celui des Opera de Prosper (mip = PL 51) et celui de ceux
d’Ambroise (mia = PL 17) ; or, si l’on compte bien 261 variantes entre la
nouvelle édition et mip, 79 d’entre elles, cependant, avaient été déjà retenues
par mia, et pour 24 autres, la variante retenue contre mia ne l’est qu’avec
prudence et sans assurance (voir, dans l’apparat, les astérisques précédant les
leçons jugées tout aussi probables). On en retiendra donc surtout que le texte
non identifié reproduit par Migne dans mia était bien meilleur que celui de Le
Brun Desmarettes et Mangeant, éditeurs de Prosper en 1711. À noter aussi qu’en
1, 7, 15 et 1, 50, 4 la mention « edd. » dans l’apparat est fautive, mia
donnant déjà, dans les deux cas, la bonne leçon contre toutes les autres
éditions.
Comme il peut s’y
attendre, le lecteur trouvera, à la fin du volume (p. 201-206), un Index
locorum similium. Si sa première partie, celle des références scripturaires,
est claire et aussi complète que possible, la seconde, intitulée « Auctores »
est, comme souvent, à considérer avec beaucoup de circonspection. Y sont
proposés les parallela de trente-six passages de l’œuvre, qui peuvent concerner
deux mots seulement comme un texte de près de quatre pages. Mais cet index
donne pêle-mêle fontes et testimonia ; en réalité, on ne compterait dans
Voc.gen. qu’à peine quatre références – et toutes allusives – à des auteurs
antérieurs à Prosper (Sénèque, Augustin et Jérôme), neuf autres à des œuvres de
Prosper lui-même ou de ses contemporains (comme Léon ou l’auteur de
l’Hypomnesticon), les entrées restantes étant réservées aux citateurs, de peu
postérieurs (tel Gélase) ou, surtout, de l’époque carolingienne (Hincmar et
Ratramne). On pourrait s’étonner d’une telle pauvreté des sources textuelles,
mais sans doute des analyses de détail permettront d’en étoffer la liste.
Concernant plus particulièrement l’œuvre de Prosper, pourquoi, par exemple, à
propos de 1, 10, ne pas retenir le parallèle, proposé dans la PL 51, avec
Contra collatorem 12, 4 ? Il faudrait sans doute même en ajouter un second,
quelques lignes plus haut dans le même paragraphe : … ne tunc quidem perdidit
quando diabolo uoluntate se dedit pourrait bien n’être que la réécriture – qui
plus est palinodique ! – de C.coll. 9, 5 (… deceptori suo uendidit, perdidit
boni scientiam). On ne comprend pas non plus pourquoi, parmi les nombreux échos
littéraires et doctrinaux exposés par M. Cappuyns (« L’auteur du “De Vocatione
omnium gentium” », Revue Bénédictine, 39, 1927, p. 198-226, surtout p.
215-219), si peu ont été retenus, alors que les rapprochements avec Léon (p.
221-222) sont tous acceptés. Une dernière remarque : en 1, 2, où est développée
la conception des adversaires de Prosper qui font de la grâce un comes et non
un dux de la uoluntas humana, la distinction nettement soulignée entre les deux
fonctions de dux et de comes peut, bien sûr, être un héritage sénéquien (Vit.
8, 1, cf. l’index), mais est-il seulement probable que Prosper veuille faire
une allusion, ou même pense au De uita beata, alors même qu’on peut en trouver
une trace, certes moins littérale, dans une lettre d’Augustin (ep. 186, 3, 10),
dont on est certain que Prosper la connaissait, et qui traite très précisément
de la grâce ? Notons d’ailleurs que cette question avait fait l’objet de
plusieurs lignes dans son Contra collatorem pour réfuter, comme il le fait
encore ici, les prétendus ennemis de la grâce (Cassien, Coll. 13, 8, 3-4 et
Prosper, C.coll., 2, 3 et 19, [3], toujours à propos de la bona uoluntas).
L’unique renvoi à Sénèque risquerait donc bien d’être trompeur…
Mais le plus important
est qu’avec l’achèvement de ce travail minutieux et l’établissement d’un texte
mieux assuré vont pouvoir être entreprises à l’avenir des études moins
hasardeuses. Ce volume constitue donc bien aussi un point de départ. Il a déjà
produit des fruits, qu’il faudrait dès à présent ajouter à la bibliographie
(d’ailleurs inexistante dans le volume). Outre la contribution que Voc.gen. a
pu apporter à la résolution d’une « énigme augustinienne » (R.J. Teske, « An
Augustinian Enigma », Proceedings of the Catholic American Philosophical
Association, 83, 2009, p. 19-24), son attention méticuleuse au texte a même
sans doute permis à l’éditrice de détecter dans la prose de Prosper un nouveau fragment
de Salluste (D. Weber, « Eine spätantike Sallust-Reminiszenz? Zu Prosper, De
uocatione omnium gentium 1. 4. 7 », Acta antiqua Academiae scientiarum
Hungaricae, 50, 1, 2010, p. 89-96). Touchant la rédaction même de Voc.gen.,
mentionnons une claire analyse de F. Gori (« Varianti d’autore nel De vocatione
omnium gentium attribuito a Prospero d’Aquitania », Augustinianum, 50, 1, p.
255-262), qui pense pouvoir attribuer un certain nombre de variantes textuelles
à l’auteur lui-même et soutenir ainsi la thèse d’une double recension de
l’œuvre, une thèse qui a ouvert un échange d’articles avec la même éditrice
(toujours dans Augustinianum, 50, 2 : D. Weber, « Autorenvarianten in Prospers
De vocatione omnium gentium ? Einige metodische Überlegungen », p. 567-573,
puis F. Gori, « Un chiarimento », p. 575-576), dont il ne semble pourtant pas
ressortir que la proposition de F. Gori soit mal fondée. À en juger, enfin, par
l’intérêt qu’on lui a manifesté lors d’un « Workshop Prosper of Aquitaine » au
dernier Congrès de patristique d’Oxford (été 2011, actes à paraître en 2013),
cette publication ne peut être la source que de nombreuses promesses pour les
études prospériennes naissantes, et avant tout pour l’indispensable entreprise
d’édition critique des œuvres de l’Aquitain.
Jérémy Delmulle, «
PROSPER D’AQUITAINE, De vocatione omnium gentium », Revue de l’histoire
des religions [En ligne], 1
2013, mis en ligne le 12
avril 2013, consulté le 21 juin 2013. URL : http://rhr.revues.org/8084
SOURCE : http://rhr.revues.org/8084
Sommes-nous
semi-pélagiens ?
Jean Lédion
Il est caractéristique
que le pélagianisme soit un ensemble d’idées qui ont d’abord agité les milieux
que l’on qualifierait, aujourd’hui, de “ monastiques ”. Car, chez ceux qui
embrassent la vie ascétique, les divers renoncements qu’ils s’imposent, comme les
jeûnes, les veilles, la dureté du travail manuel, l’abandon de la volonté
propre, engagent des efforts considérables de la volonté. Et tous ces efforts,
ces “ mérites ”, ils les ressentent, à juste titre, comme absolument
nécessaires à leur salut ou tout au moins indispensables à la persévérance dans
l’état de vie qu’ils ont choisi. Le danger est alors de minimiser le rôle de la
grâce, de la gratuité du salut apporté par la Croix du Christ. Et ce pas,
Pélage, et surtout ses disciples, l’ont franchi.
Le pélagianisme
C’est une confiance
unilatérale et excessive en la bonté de la nature de l’homme, nature qui
participe à la grâce du Créateur, qui a poussé les pélagiens à affirmer que
certains hommes pouvaient, par leurs seules forces, devenir véritables images
de Dieu. De là allaient en découler diverses conséquences, comme l’affirmation
que certains peuvent arriver à être sans péché et se trouver dans le même état
qu’Adam avant son péché, tandis que d’autres pouvaient de même être, grâce à
leur ascèse, libérés du péché avant de mourir. Cette doctrine en arrivait, de
fait, à nier la réalité du péché originel. Il en résultait alors l’inutilité du
baptême des petits enfants. C’est sans doute d’ailleurs ce dernier aspect du
pélagianisme qui a ému, au début du Vème siècle, l’épiscopat d’Afrique. Pélage
et son disciple Célestius furent condamnés par le XVIème concile de Carthage
(1er mai 418).
Absent de ce concile,
saint Augustin n’avait pas été mêlé à cette condamnation, mais il fut
rapidement appelé à s’engager dans la controverse pélagienne avec tout le poids
de son expérience et de sa formation théologique. A travers ses sermons, ses
lettres et de nombreux livres, il aborda toutes les questions délicates qui
tournent autour des rapports entre la liberté humaine et la grâce.
Les moines d’Adrumète et
de Provence
Bien que condamné par le
Concile de Carthage, dont les décisions furent approuvées par Zosime évêque de
Rome, le pélagianisme engendra d’autres remous. Ces remous furent provoqués par
des difficultés de réception de la doctrine augustinienne de la grâce. Pour
certains moines, comme ceux d’Adrumète (Sousse en Tunisie actuelle), ceux de
Marseille et de Lérins, la grâce, au sens d’Augustin, revenait à éliminer le
libre arbitre.
L’opposition la plus forte
à la doctrine augustinienne fut celle des moines de saint Victor à Marseille.
Le monastère avait été fondé par Jean Cassien, qui y vivait encore et qui avait
déjà publié ses Institutions Cénobitiques et ses premières Conférences. Son
autorité était considérable dans les milieux chrétiens du sud de la Gaule. Mais
ces critiques contre les positions d’Augustin heurtèrent, à leur tour, un
certain nombre d’esprits dans les milieux des laïcs marseillais, par ailleurs
admirateurs d’Augustin. Ces laïcs, avec à leur tête Prosper d’Aquitaine
(390-460), écriront à Augustin pour qu’il réfute la doctrine que l’on
qualifiera, beaucoup plus tard, de semi-pélagienne. Augustin répondit par ses
deux derniers livres complets publiés avant sa mort : le De
Prédestinatione Sanctorum et le De Dono Perseverantiae.
Quelles étaient les
erreurs des semi-pélagiens ?
Il serait hors de propos
d’entrer dans le détail de la contestation courtoise qui se développe entre les
moines de Provence et Augustin. En fait le problème central du débat est celui
de l’antériorité de la grâce par rapport aux bonnes œuvres. Deux aspects
essentiels doivent être soulignés selon Augustin. D’abord, le commencement dans
la foi qui conduit l’homme à la conversion, au baptême, est déjà un effet de la
grâce.
Ensuite,
l’accomplissement des bonnes œuvres est le résultat de la grâce et non pas ce
qui suscite la grâce divine. Ce sont là, entre autres, les erreurs que relève
Prosper d’Aquitaine chez les moines marseillais :
Voici les théories qu’ils
professent. Tout homme a péché en Adam ; et nul ne se sauve par ses œuvres,
mais par une nouvelle naissance qui est un don de Dieu. Néanmoins c’est à tous
les hommes sans exception qu’est offerte la propitiation contenue dans le
sacrement du sang du Christ, de sorte que tous ceux qui veulent accéder à la
foi et au baptême sont à même de se sauver. [1]
Certains même parmi eux
s’éloignent très peu des sentiers pélagiens : forcés de confesser la grâce du
Christ et sa priorité par rapport à tout mérite humain, car si elle était la
contrepartie de mérites, elle ne pourrait être appelée grâce, ils veulent que
cette grâce se réfère à l’acte de la création, où chaque homme, antérieurement
à ses mérites, puisqu’il n’existait pas encore, a été constitué par la grâce du
créateur libre et raisonnable, de sorte qu’il peut, ayant le discernement du
bien et du mal, diriger sa volonté vers la connaissance de Dieu et l’obéissance
à ses commandements, et atteindre à la grâce de la régénération dans le Christ,
et cela par ses forces naturelles, en demandant, en cherchant, en frappant :
ainsi, s’il reçoit, s’il trouve, s’il entre, c’est qu’ayant bien usé du bien de
la nature, il a mérité, à l’aide de la grâce initiale (= sans doute la nature
humaine), de parvenir à la grâce salvatrice du Christ. [2]
Le motif qui a porté ces
personnages, à l’opposition desquels nous nous heurtons, à prêcher une pareille
théorie de la grâce (...) c’est qu’ils redoutent d’attribuer à l’action divine
les mérites des saints(...) car disent-ils, les exhortations dont on stimule
les infidèles et les chrétiens négligents n’ont plus de raison d’être(...) on
ne peut en définitive inviter quelqu’un à se corriger ou à devenir meilleur que
s’il sait que son effort vers le bien sera efficace, et que sa liberté recevra
l’aide de Dieu au cas où elle aura choisi d’obéir aux commandements divins.
Ainsi donc, comme il y a, chez ceux qui ont atteint l’âge du libre vouloir,
deux choses par quoi s’accomplit le salut humain : la grâce de Dieu et
l’obéissance de l’homme, ils veulent que l’obéissance précède la grâce, et il
faudrait dès lors croire que le commencement du salut dépend de celui qui est
sauvé et non de Celui qui sauve, et que c’est la volonté de l’homme qui se
procure l’aide de la grâce divine, et non la grâce qui s’assujettit la volonté
humaine. [3]
On voit, à travers ces
extraits de Prosper d’Aquitaine que, sans dépendre de Pélage et des pélagiens,
la doctrine des moines provençaux s’en rapprochait dangereusement. Il ne semble
pas que ce soit une exagération de Prosper d’Aquitaine. Lorsqu’on lit attentivement
Cassien, même en dehors de sa 13ème Conférence, considérée comme la plus
semi-pélagienne, on retrouve cette doctrine sous-jacente. Ainsi dans les
Institutions :
...C’est que divers sont
les dons ; et la même grâce du Saint-Esprit n’est pas accordée à tous, mais
celle dont chacun s’est rendu digne et capable par son zèle et ses efforts.
Ainsi, tous les saints apôtres ont joui de l’intégrité parfaite ; mais le don
de science a particulièrement abondé en saint Paul, parce qu’il s’y était
préparé par son ardeur intelligente et son application. [4]
La mort d’Augustin ne mit
pas fin à la crise. Prosper d’Aquitaine continuera la combat et publiera dans
l’Indiculus (entre 435 et 442) l’ensemble des décisions du concile de Carthage
et du Siège Apostolique sur la grâce. Finalement, ce sera au siècle suivant que
le IIème Concile d’Orange (3 juillet 529), sous l’impulsion de Césaire d’Arles,
condamnera les thèses semi-pélagiennes. Il sera dès lors considéré, malgré son
caractère local, comme l’expression de la foi de l’Église sur le sujet.
Et les catholiques
d’aujourd’hui ?
Le récent accord du 31
octobre 1999 entre Catholiques et Luthériens, doit nous inciter à nous
interroger. Les nécessités de l’éducation, de la formation morale ont toujours
porté les éducateurs à insister sur le rôle de la volonté, sur la nécessité de
faire des efforts, voire sur l’intérêt d’acquérir des “ mérites ” toujours
utiles pour préparer la vie future. La conséquence funeste en a souvent été
d’occulter le rôle initial de la grâce dans la vie du chrétien. Et l’on a bien
souvent entendu, en milieu chrétien, le fameux adage : “ aides-toi, le ciel
t’aidera ” qui est typiquement pélagien.
Faut-il alors désespérer
de changer ce déplorable état d’esprit ? Certainement pas. Pour cela il faut
toujours se rappeler que celui qu’on appelle le Docteur de la Grâce, saint
Augustin, est passé par les mêmes erreurs. Ce n’est que dans les premières
années de son épiscopat, plus de dix ans après sa conversion, qu’il a découvert
le rôle premier de la grâce :
Dans la solution de cette
question [5] j’ai fait beaucoup d’efforts en faveur du libre arbitre de la
volonté humaine ; mais la grâce de Dieu a été victorieuse et je n’ai pas pu ne
pas arriver à comprendre la vérité limpide de ces paroles de l’Apôtre : “ Qui
donc t’a choisi ? Que possèdes-tu que tu n’aies reçu ? Et si tu l’as reçu que
te glorifies-tu comme si tu ne l’avais pas reçu ? ”. Le bienheureux martyr
Cyprien, voulant prouver la même doctrine, a placé ces textes sous ce titre
définitif : “ il ne faut se glorifier en rien, puisque rien vient de nous ”
[6].
A nous de suivre le même
chemin.
Jean Lédion, marié, trois
enfants. Diplôme d’ingénieur, docteur d’État ès Sciences Physiques. Enseignant
dans une école d’ingénieurs à Paris.
[1] Lettre de Prosper
d’Aquitaine à Augustin (n°1) BA. 24, p 395.
[2] Ibid. (n°4) BA24, pp
399-401.
[3] Ibid. (n°5) BA 24,
pp405-407.
[4] Jean Cassien, Les
Institutions Cénobitiques, Livre VI, Ch.XVIII (trad.E.Pichery).
[5] Il s’agit d’une
question posée en 397 par Simplicianus, évêque de Milan, à Augustin.
[6] Augustin,
Retractationes, livre II 1, 1 (BA 12 p 452 et introduction pp. 207-208).
SOURCE : http://www.revue-resurrection.org/Sommes-nous-semi-pelagiens
Vetrata raffigurante San Prospero d'Aquitania. Cascina
Profile
Married layman who
devoted himself to theology.
Born
Additional
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Citation
“Saint Prosper of
Aquitaine“. CatholicSaints.Info. 30 September 2022. Web. 25 May 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-prosper-of-aquitaine/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-prosper-of-aquitaine/
St. Prosper of Aquitaine
Feastday: June 25
Birth: 390
Death: 455
Called "the
best disciple of
Augustine," St. Prosper of
Aquitaine (c. 370-c. 463/465) devoted his life to
defending Augustine's doctrines of grace and predestination against
those who opposed it. Prosper may have been born at Limoges; he may have been
married. By 428, he was a layman living with monks at Marseilles, who disagreed
with Augustine's theology of grace and
predestination. To strengthen his arguments, Prosper wrote to Augustine, who
responded with letters that are now known as "On the Predestination of
the Saints" and "On the Gift of Perserverance." Prosper seems to
have labelled anyone who disagrees with Augustine "semi-Pelagian,"
and the list includes John Cassian,
Hilary of Arles, and Vincent of Lérins. In 431, the year after Augustine's
death, Proper and a friend named Hilary travelled to Rome to
ask Celestine I, who had praised Augustine, to proclaim the truth of
his teachings. Prosper later became secretary to Leo the Great, whom he aided
in the pope's correspondence against the Nestorians. Prosper wrote theological
poems and authored a chronicle of world history that incoroporated the
histories of Jerome, Sulpicius Severus, and Orosius. Prosper's history ends
with the Vandal sack of Rome (455).
The work is now a valuable source for the theological history of the V
Century. Cassiodorus and Paul the Deacon edited
and rewrote Prosper's work. Prosper's selections from the writings of Augustine
were the basis of the decrees of the 529 Council of Orange.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=884
Prosper of Aquitaine
c.390-c.463. A scholar
whose background is unknown save that he had a classical education, was learned
in theology, was married, and was part of a monastic community in Marseilles at
the outbreak of the Semi-Pelagian controversy* (426), which he opposed. Together
with a friend, Hilary, he wrote to Augustine* in Africa (428) concerning the
opposition to his theology of grace and predestination, especially among the
disciples of John Cassian,* to which Augustine's reply was the De
praedestinatione sanctorum and De dono perseverantiae. In 431 he went to Rome
to gain Celestine I's* support for Augustine's doctrines, then published
several works in their defense, with attacks on Vincent of Lérins* (Pro
Augustino responsiones) and Cassian (Contra collatorem), including the Capitula
Caelestiana which went to the bishops of Gaul as part of a papal letter. While
initially in agreement, he finally rejected Augustine's position (De vocatione
omnium gentium), believing God willed to save all men.
As secretary to Leo I*
after 440, he aided him with correspondence and theological writings against
the Nestorians.* His own writings were of various forms: De ingratis, a poem of
1,000-plus hexameters on grace; probably Poema conjugis ad uxorem in sixteen
anacreontic verses and fifty-three distichs; a series of epigrams including
those against Semi-Pelagians and Epitaphium Nestorianae et Pelagianae
haereseos; and Psalmorum a C ad CL expositio after the Council of Ephesus.*
Epitoma chronicorum, a synthesis of the chronicles of Jerome,* Sulpicius
Severus,* and Orosius,* reflecting also his own time (433-55), was edited and
augmented by Cassiodorus* and Paul the Deacon.*
SOURCE : http://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/prosper-aquitaine
Prosper of Aquitaine (RM)
Born in Aquitaine, France, c. 390; died in Rome, Italy, c. 463. Saint Prosper
was probably a layman who may have been married. He left Aquitaine for Provence
and settled at Marseilles. Prosper devoted his fine intellect to the study of
theological questions. He wrote to Saint Augustine in 428, and in response,
Augustine wrote his treatises on perseverance and predestination. Prosper
opposed the semi-Pelagianism of Saint John Cassian (which is why he has never
been canonized in the West), accompanied his friend Hilary, who had asked him
to write to Augustine, on a trip to visit Pope Saint Celestine I in Rome. He is
said to have become a secretary to Pope Saint Leo the Great in Rome, where
Prosper died. He wrote poetry and treatises, notably his Chronicle, a universal
history from creation to the Vandal capture of Rome in 455. Saint Prosper was a
prolific writer and a powerful controversialist (Benedictines, Delaney,
Encyclopedia).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0625.shtml
Tiro Prosper of Aquitaine
The first
sure date in the life of Prosper is that of his letter
to St.
Augustine written under the following circumstances. In 428 or 429 a
certain Hilary wrote to St.
Augustine in reference to difficulties raised against his doctrine in Marseilles and
the neighbourhood. Hilary distrusted his own ability to give St.
Augustine a proper grasp of the situation, so he prevailed with a
friend whom he described as a man distinguished tum moribus, tum eloquio
et studio (for morals,
eloquence and zeal)
to write also. This friend was Prosper who, though he had never met St.
Augustine, had corresponded with him. The two letters were despatched at
the same time, and may be said to have opened the semi-Pelagian controversy. St.
Augustine replied to the appeal made to him with the two
treatises, "De Praedestinatione" and "De Dono
Perseverantiae." It was about this time that, Prosper wrote what was
really a short treatise on grace and free
will, under the form of a letter to a certain Rufinus, and
his great dogmatic poem of over a thousand hexameter lines, "De
Ingratis", on the semi-Pelagians,
who were enemies of grace and are represented as reviving the errors of Pelagianism.
Two epigrams of twelve and fourteen lines respectively against an
"obtrectator" of St.
Augustine seem also to have been composed in the lifetime of the saint.
Three opuscules belong to the time immediately after the death
of St.
Augustine (430):
"Responsiones ad
capitula Gallorum." These capitula were a series of fifteen propositions
attributed to St.
Augustine by his opponents, e.g. "the Saviour was not
crucified for the whole world." To each Prosper appended a brief responsio and
concluded the treatise with fifteen corresponding sententiae, setting
forth what he held to be the true doctrine.
"Ad capitula
objectionum Vincentianarum responsiones". The Vincentian objections
were like the "capitula Gallorum", but more violent, and they
attacked Prosper as well as St.
Augustine. Prosper replied to them one by one. The Vincent who
drew them up was probably Vincent of Lérins (Bardenhewer,
Hauck, Valentin), but some writers have contested this point.
"Pro Augustino
responsiones ad excerpta Genuensium". This is an explanation
of certain passages in St.
Augustine's treatises, "De praedest" and "De dono
persev.", which presented difficulties to some priests atGenoa who
asked Prosper for an explanation of them. These three opuscula are placed by
Bardenhewer after Prosper's visit to Rome.
In 431 Prosper and a
friend went to Rome to invoke the
aid of St. Celestine. The pope responded
with the Letter, "Apostolici Verba", addressed to the bishops of Gaul,
in which he blamed their remissness with regard to the enemies of grace,
and eulogized St.
Augustine. On returning to Gaul,
Prosper again took up the controversy in his "De Gratia Dei et libero
arbitrio; liber contra collatorem". The "Collator"
was Cassian who in his "Conferences" had put forward semi-Pelagian doctrine.
The date of this, the most important of Prosper's prose
writings, can be fixed at about 433, for the author speaks of twenty years and
more, having elapsed since the beginning of the Pelagian heresy,
viz., according to his "Chronicle", A.D. 413. An ironical epitaph on
the Nestorian and Pelagianheresies was
probably composed shortly after the Council of Ephesus. The
"Expositio psalmonum" is substantiallyan abridgment of the "Enarrationes" of St.
Augustine. It probably comprised the whole psalter, but as it has come
down to us it only comments on the last fifty. The "Sententiie
ex Augustine delibatae" are a collection of sayings extracted
from the writings of St.
Augustine. In framing them Prosper as a rule dealt rather freely with the
text of St.
Augustine, chiefly in the interests of rhythmic prose. Canons 9,
14, 15, 16, 18 of the second Council of Orange were taken
from sentences 22, 222, 226, 160, 297. The epigram are a number of the sentences turned
into verse. Both these works must have been composed about
the time of the Council
of Chalcedon, and probably, therefore, in Rome,
whither Prosper was summoned about A.D. 440 by Leo
the Great. According to Gennadius (De
vir. ill., 84) he was said to have drawn up the letters written by this pope against Eutyches.
The "Chronicle"
of Prosper, from the creation to A.D. 378, was an abridgment of St.
Jerome's, with, however, some additional matter, e.g. the consuls for
each year from the date of
the Passion. There seem to have been three editions: the first continued
up to 433, the second to 445, the third to 455. This chronicle is sometimes
called the "Consular Chronicle", to distinguish it from another
ascribed to Prosper where the years are reckoned according to the regnal years
of the emperors and which is accordingly called the "Imperial
Chronicle". This is certainly not the work of Prosper. It was compiled by
a man whose sympathies were not with St.
Augustine, and who was formerly supposed to be Tiro Prosper and
not Prosper of Aquitaine, but this theory has broken down, for Prosper of
Aquitaine in some manuscripts of
the "Consular Chronicle" is called Tiro Prosper. With
regard to the writings of Prosper not yet
mentioned, Valentin pronounces the poem "De providentia" to
be genuine; the "Confessio S. Prosperi", and De vocatione
gentium" to be probably genuine; the "Epistola ad Demetriadem",
the "Praeteritorum sedis Apostolicae auctoritates de Gratia Dei,
etc." appended to the Epistle of St. Celestine, and the "Poema mariti ad
conjugem" to be very likely genuine. The "De vita contemplativa"
and "De promissionibus etc." are not by Prosper, according
to Valentin and Hauck. Hauck agrees with Valentin with
regard to the "Poemamariti" and the "Confessio", but pronounces
against the "De vocatione", the "De providentia", and on
the other doubtful works
expresses no view. The story that Prosper was Bishop of Reggio in Italy was
exploded by Sirmondi and
others in the seventeenth century. For the origin of
this legend see Dom Morin in "Révue bénédictine",
XII, 241 sqq. Prosper was neither bishop nor priest.
The question whether he mitigated the severity of St. Augustine's doctrine has
been much debated. The difference of opinion probably arises more from
different views regarding St. Augustine's doctrine than
from different interpretations of Prosper's. The general trend of opinion
among Catholic writers
seems to be in favour of the affirmative view, e.g. Kraus, Funk,
Bardenhewer,Valentin, and others.
Bacchus, Francis
Joseph. "Tiro Prosper of Aquitaine." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1911. 30 Mar. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12487a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael C. Tinkler.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12487a.htm
PROSPER OF AQUITAINE, ST.
Lay theologian and papal
secretary; b. apparently Limoges, France, c. 390; d. probably Rome,
Italy, after 455. Nothing is known of Prosper's background other than that he
had an excellent classical education, was married, and read deeply in theology.
He spent some time with the monks at Marseilles and proved himself a strong
opponent of semipelagianism. With his friend Hilary he wrote to augustine in
Africa (428–429) concerning the opposition to Augustine's doctrine on grace
among the monks (Aug. Epist. 225). Augustine wrote his De
praedestinatione sanctorum and De dono perseverantiae in reply.
With Hilary, Prosper
journeyed to Rome in 431 to obtain a favorable judgment of Augustine's doctrine
from Pope celestine i. In Rome he seems to have modified the strict Augustinian
doctrine by insisting on God's universal, salvific will and to have
participated in the formulation of the Roman document called the Capitula
Caelestiana sent to the bishops of Gaul. After 440 he was associated with
Pope leo i and aided the pope with his correspondence and theological writings
against the nestorians, and particularly with Leo's tome to Flavian
(Gennadius, Vir. ill. 48).
Adopting the technique used
by St.
Augustine in his anti-Donatist hymns for popular chanting, Prosper
wrote a 1,102 hexameter poem De ingratis (On Those without Grace); Poema
conjugis ad uxorem (Poem of a Husband to His Wife) in 16 anacreontic
verses and 53 distichs found among the works of paulinus of nola (Corpus
scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum 30:341–344) is probably Prosper's.
The De providentia divina in 876 hexameters and 48 distichs is almost
certainly not authentic, as it appears to have been written c. 417. A
series of epigrams, including three against the Semipelagians and an
ironic Epitaphium Nestorianae et Pelagianae haereseos, seem to be of
his composition. Another series of Epigrammata ex sententiis s. Augustini represent
a summa of Sententiae ex operibus s. Augustini. Prosper also wrote a
defense of Augustine against vincent of lÉrins and two Genoan priests (Pro
Augustino responsiones ); a Contra collatorem, against John
cassian; and a Psalmorum a C ad CL expositio after the Council of
Ephesus. Although the authorship of a Confessio and the Letter
to Demetrias have been questioned, the second is most probably authentic.
His Epitoma
chronicorum is a synthesis of the chronicles of jerome (to a.d. 378),
sulpicius severus, and orosius (to 433), but appears to reflect his own
experience from 433 to 455. It was reedited and added to by cassiodorus and
paul the deacon.
In De vocatione
omnium gentium, Prosper tried to modify Augustine's views on
predestination. He considered the problem of the great mass of mankind who have
no certain knowledge of salvation in Christ and asked how this fact can be
reconciled with the scriptural statement that God wills the salvation of all.
Augustine held that God predestined a part of mankind and simply refrained from
selecting others. Since man has free
will but needs specific graces to achieve salvation, the
nonpredestined are damned. Prosper threw the mystery of damnation back to God's
foreknowledge. He insisted on the gratuitousness of grace and of human freedom
and on God's salvific will for all. Although he did not solve the problem, he
softened the Augustinian rigidity and left room for later development.
The Letter to Demetrias is one of several received by this Roman lady
from contemporary Church leaders in reference to her vocation to an ascetic way
of life.
Feast: June 25.
Bibliography: De
vocatione, ed. and tr., p. de letter, Ancient Christian Writers, v.
14 (1952). Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Auctores antiquissimi (Berlin
1826–) 9.1:341–499. C. T. Huegelmeyer, ed. and tr., "Carmen de
ingratis," Catholic University of America Patristic Studies 95
(1962). M. K. C. Krabbe, ed. and tr., "Epistula de Demetriadem de vera
humilitate," ibid. 97 (1965). M. Cappuyns, Revue Bénédictine 39
(1927) 198–226, "De vocatione," ibid. 41 (1929) 156–170,
"Capitula coelestiana" Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 1
(1929) 309–337. G. de Plinval, Recherches Augustiniennes 1 (1958) 339–355. G. Bardy, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, 15 (Paris 1903–50)
13.1:846–850. L. Pelland, S. Prosperi Aquitani doctrina de praedestinatione (Montreal
1936). J. Gaidioz, Revue des sciences religieuses 23 (1949) 270–301. V. Grumel, Revue des études augustiniennes 2 (1956) 59–66. J. Plagnieux, ibid. 391–402. J. J. Young, "Studies on the Style
of De vocatione omnium gentium," Catholic University of America Patristic
Studies 87 (1952). R. Helm, Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen
Altertumswissenschaft 23.1 (1957): 80–897. R. Lorenz, Zeitschrift für
Kirchengeschicte 73 (1962) 217–252. B. Altaner, Patrology (New
York 1960) 535–537. S. Muhlberger, The Fifth-Century Chroniclers:
Prosper, Hydatius, and the Gallic Chronicler of 452 (Leeds 1990). A. Elberti, Prospero d'Aquitania: teologo e discepolo (Rome 1999).
[F. X. Murphy]
New Catholic Encyclopedia
Saint Prosper of
Aquitaine
Feast day June 25
Are human beings saved by
grace or by works? Must we seek God, or does God come after us? Are some
predestined to damnation or are all free to embrace salvation? Such questions
that still divide Christians today embroiled St. Prosper of Aquitaine in
lifelong controversies on the issue of grace versus freedom of the will.
We first meet Prosper
Tiro around 425 as a participant in the Semi-Pelagian controversy that rocked
the church in southern France. Semi-Pelagians minimized the role of grace in
the first steps of becoming a Christian. John Cassian and others vigorously
opposed Augustine’s strict views that special grace was required for salvation
and thus many were predestined to damnation. Prosper, a monk and lay
theologian, championed Augustine. And in 428, a letter from Prosper prompted
Augustine to write a major book on predestination.
In 431, Prosper went to
Rome and obtained a letter from Pope Celestine I that affirmed Augustine and
his views, and urged the French bishops to quell the dispute peacefully. But it
raged on. For several more years Prosper wrote extensively, defending and
popularizing Augustine’s teaching.
In his book The Call to
All Nations, Prosper seems to have mellowed somewhat, allowing that God
mercifully made the grace of salvation available to all human beings. In the
following excerpt Prosper describes the interplay of grace and free will:
When the word of God
enters the ears through the ministry of preachers, the action of the divine
power fuses with the sound of the human voice. The soul passes from one will to
another will. Although the will that is driven out lingers on for a while, the
newborn will claims for itself all that is better in human beings. Thus the law
of sin and the law of God do not dwell in the same way and together in the same
person. Then the tempter tries to ambush a person through external things, but
the mind strong with God’s help prevails. For there are occasions for struggle,
and these greatly benefit the faithful. Their weakness is buffeted so that
their holiness may not yield to pride. All good things, especially those
conducive to eternal life, are obtained, increased and preserved through God’s
favor.
Prosper spent the last
part of his life in Rome where he served as secretary to Pope St. Leo the
Great. During that time he wrote the Chronicle, a universal history from Adam’s
fall to the Vandal’s conquest of Rome in 455. He died in Rome around 465.
from Voices
of the Saints, by Bert Ghezzi
Saint of the Day –
7 July – Saint Prosper of Aquitaine (c 390-c 465)
Posted on July
7, 2022
Saint of the Day –
7 July – Saint Prosper of Aquitaine (c 390-c 465) Theologian, Married
Layman, Writer, disciple and friend of St Augustine (354-430). St Prosper was
the first continuator of St Jerome’s Universal Chronicle. Born in c 390 in
Aquitaine, France and died in c 465 in Rome, Italy, of natural causes. Also
known as – Tiro Prosper or Prosper Tiro.
Prosper was a native of
Aquitaine, France and may have been educated at Bordeaux. By 417 he arrived in
Marseilles as a refugee from Aquitaine, in the aftermath of the Gothic
invasions of Gaul.
We first meet Prosper
definitively around 425 as a participant in the Pelagian controversy which
rocked the Church in southern France. Pelagian heretics minimised the role of
grace in the first steps of becoming a Christian. Many vigorously opposed St
Augustine’s strict views that special grace was required for salvation and
thus, many were predestined to damnation. Prosper, a lay theologian, championed
St Augustine. And in 428, a letter from Prosper prompted Augustine to write a
major work on predestination.
Although a layman,
Prosper threw himself with ardour into the religious controversies of his day,
defending St Augustine and propagating orthodoxy. In his De vocatione
omnium gentium – “The Call of all Nations,”, in which the issues of the call to
the Gentiles is discussed, in the light of Augustine’s doctrine of Grace,
Prosper appears as the first of the medieval Augustinians.
In 431, Prosper went to
Rome and obtained a letter from Pope Celestine I that affirmed Augustine and
his views and urged the French Bishops to quell the dispute peacefully. But it
raged on. For several more years, Prosper wrote extensively, defending and
popularising St Augustine’s teaching.
In The Call to All
Nations, Prosper seems to have mellowed somewhat, allowing that God mercifully
made the Grace of Salvation available to all human beings. In the following
excerpt Prosper describes the interplay of grace and free will:
“When the Word of God
enters the ears through the ministry of preachers, the action of the Divine
Power fuses with the sound of the human voice. The soul passes from one will to
another will. Although the will that is driven out lingers on for a while, the
newborn will claims for itself, all that is better in human beings. Thus the
law of sin and the law of God do not dwell in the same way and together in the
same person. Then the tempter tries to ambush the person through external
things but the mind, strong with God’s help, prevails. For there are occasions
for struggle and these greatly benefit the faithful. Their weakness is buffeted
so that their holiness may not yield to pride. All good things, especially
those conducive to eternal life, are obtained, increased and preserved through
God’s favour.”
Prosper spent the last
part of his life in Rome where he served as secretary to St Pope Leo the Great.
During that tim, he wrote the Chronicle, a universal history from Adam’s
fall to the Vandal’s conquest of Rome in 455. He died in Rome around 465.
You will remember
yesterday’s Saint Palladius of Ireland, knowledge of whose history, was greatly
enhanced by his contemporary’s writings, St Prosper, who speaks of St
Palladius, in particular in regard to the Pelagian heresy.
A reflection by St
Prosper here: https://anastpaul.com/2021/10/27/one-minute-reflection-27-october-children-of-promise/
Author: AnaStpaul
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combined with the example of our lives which testify to the Light of Christ.
This site, which is now using the Traditional Calendar, will mainly concentrate
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provides in our Catholic Monthly Devotions. This Site is placed under the
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who move us and lead us, to where we had not expected to go.” Charles Cardinal
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SOURCE : https://anastpaul.com/2022/07/07/saint-of-the-day-7-july-saint-prosper-of-aquitaine-c-390-c-465/
On
How the Church Prays for the World
Monday, September 30,
2013 by Admin
St. Prosper of Aquitaine
ca. 390-455
The Church pleads before
God everywhere, not only for the saints and those regenerated in Christ, but
also for all infidels and all enemies of the Cross of Christ, for all
worshippers of idols, for all who persecute Christ in His members, for the Jews
whose blindness does not see the light of the Gospel, for heretics and
schismatics who are alien to the unity of faith and love.
But what does she beg for
them, if not that they leave their errors and be converted to God, that they
accept the faith, accept love, that they be freed from the shadows of ignorance
and come to the knowledge of the truth? (The Call of All Nations, 1.12)
Filed Under: All, Heterodoxy, Holy Fathers, Prayer, St.
Prosper of Aquitaine ca. 390-455, The
Church
SOURCE : https://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/st-prosper-of-aquitaine-ca-390-455/
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 by Admin
St. Prosper of Aquitaine
ca. 390-455
Like ointment on the
head, which ran down upon the beard, upon the beard of Aaron…(Ps. 133.2) By
the priest Aaron, that Priest is indicated who alone fulfills the sacrament of
the true High Priest, not with a victim of another kind, but in the oblation of
His own body and blood: same Priest, same Victim, Propitiator and Propitiation,
the One who effects all the mysteries for which He was announced. Who died, was
buried, and rose again, He ascended into heaven, exalting human nature above
every other name, and sending the Holy Spirit, whose unction would penetrate
every Church. (Explanation of the Psalms)
Filed Under: All, Holy Fathers, Priesthood, Sacrament, St.
Prosper of Aquitaine ca. 390-455
SOURCE : https://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/st-prosper-of-aquitaine-ca-390-455/
St. Prosper of Aquitaine
ca. 390-455
Just as good works are to
be referred to Him that inspires them, God, so too evil works are to be
referred to those who are sinning. For sinners have not been abandoned by God
so that they may themselves abandon God; rather, they have abandoned and have
been abandoned and have been changed from good to evil by their own will; and
consequently, although they may have been reborn, although they may have been
justified, they are not, however, predestined by Him who foreknew what kind of
persons they would be. (Responses on behalf of Augustine to the Articles
of Objections Raised by his Calumniators in Gaul, 3)
Since there can be no
doubt that perserverance in good even to the end is a gift of God, which, it is
clear, some, from the very fact that they have not perservered, never had, it
is no way a calumniation of God to say that these were not given what was given
to others; rather it is to be confessed both that He gave mercifully what He
did give, and He withheld justly what He did not give, so that, although the
cause of man’s falling away originates in free choice, the cause of his
standing firm does not likewise have its origins in himself. If falling away is
done by human effort, standing firm is accomplished by means of a divine
gift. (ibid., 7)
SOURCE : https://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/st-prosper-of-aquitaine-ca-390-455/
St. Prosper of Aquitaine
ca. 390-455
Again, whoever says that
God does not will all men to be saved, but only the certain number of the
predestined, is saying a harsher thing than ought to be said of the inscrutable
depth of the grace of God, who both wills that all should be saved and come to
a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4), and fulfills the proposal of His will in
those whom, when He foreknew them, He predestined, when he predestined them, He
called, when He called them, He justified, and, when He justifed them, He
glorified (Rom. 8:30)…And thus, those who are saved are saved because God
willed them to be saved, and those who perish do perish because they deserve to
perish. (Sent. super Cap. 8)
The true and powerful and
only remedy against the wound of original sin, by which sin in Adam the nature
of all men has been corrupted and has been given a death blow, and whence the
disease of concupiscence takes firm hold, is the death of the Son of God, our
Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was free of debt and alone was without sin, died
for sins and debtors to death. in view of the magnitude and potency of the
price, and because it pertains to the universal condition of the human race,
the blood of Christ is the redemption of the whole world. (Responses on
Behalf of Augustine to the Articles of Objections Raised by the Vincentianists,
1)
SOURCE : https://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/st-prosper-of-aquitaine-ca-390-455/
St. Prosper of Aquitaine
ca. 390-455
For in that ruin of the
universal fall neither the substance nor the will of human nature has been
snatched away; but it has been deprived of the light and glory of its virtues
by the deceit of the Envious One. But when it had lost that by which it would
have been able to achieve eternity and in incorruption of body and soul that
could not be lost, what did it have left except that which pertain to temporal
life, the whole of which belongs to damnation and punishment? That is why those
born in Adam need to be reborn in Christ, lest they be found in that generation
which perishes. (The Grace of God and Free Choice: A Book Against the
Conference Master, 9.3)
SOURCE : https://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/st-prosper-of-aquitaine-ca-390-455/
St. Prosper of Aquitaine
ca. 390-455
We must confess that God
wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Secondly,
there can be no doubt that all who actually come to the knowledge of the truth
and to salvation, do so not in virtue of their own merits but of the
efficacious help of divine grace. Thirdly, we must admit that human
understanding is unable to fathom the depths of God’s judgements, and we ought
not to inquire why He who wishes all men to be saved does not in fact save
all. (The Call of All Nations, 2.1)
SOURCE : https://classicalchristianity.com/category/bysaint/st-prosper-of-aquitaine-ca-390-455/
Prosper of Aquitaine and
His Defense of God’s Grace
Mar 16, 2023
The fourth-century debate
between Augustine of Hippo and Pelagius left a profound mark in church history,
with Pelagius’s views condemned as heresy at the ecumenical council of Ephesus
in 431. In a nutshell, Augustine explained that, because of the Fall, human
beings are incapable of redeeming themselves and depend totally on God’s grace.
Pelagius instead believed that God has endowed human beings with the ability to
choose to obey God and to resist sin.
Augustine’s position led
to a belief in predestination, since if God is the only agent in redemption, he
is also the only one who can determine who will be saved. Those who believed
that God’s grace was preeminent in salvation but were not ready to deny the
importance of human agency often adopted the belief that the original sin had
only a limited effect on human abilities and that man could contribute to his
salvation by cooperating with God’s grace.
Augustine’s teachings
continued to have many supporters. Among these was Prosper of Aquitaine, a poet
and lay theologian who lived in Marseilles, France, in the fifth century, when
these doctrines of grace were most fiercely debated. He is considered the
author of the expression “semi-Pelagian” to denote anyone who tried to reach a
compromise between Augustine and Pelagius.
The Development of
Prosper’s Views
We know very little about
Prosper’s life. He lived in Marseilles when some foreign populations such as
the Vandals and the Goths were making their way into France. In fact, he was
there when the Goths invaded the city and was taken prisoner for some time.
In a long poem entitled De Providentia Dei (Of God’s Providence), Prosper expressed his pain in seeing the devastation of his city. “O happy the man whom God has given such a power to live free from cares at a time like this! Who is not shaken by the heap of ruins all around him, remaining intrepid amids the flames and flood. But we, the weak ones, under such a tempest of evil, are cut down everywhere, and we fall. Each time the image of our fatherland, all in smoke, comes to our mind, and the whole range of destruction stands before our eyes, we break down, and the tears water our cheeks beyond restraint.”[1]
Prosper wrote De
Providentia Dei when possibly still young in the faith, as a possible
explanation of why God allowed such suffering. After a long discussion, he
concluded that disasters were part of God’s punishment of evildoers, and that
Christians were inevitably caught in them. At this time, his understanding of
God’s grace was still limited by his emphasis on man’s free will.
Sometimes later, however,
he was introduced to the writings of Augustine of Hippo (possibly by a deacon
named Leontius), and became thoroughly convinced of their orthodoxy and
authority. In a later letter, he described Augustine as “the first and foremost
among the bishops of the Lord” and “the greatest man in the church today.”[2] He was certain that “the church of
Rome and of Africa and all the sons of the promise the world over agree with
the teaching of this doctor both in the faith and in particular in the doctrine
of grace.”[3]
Denouncing the
Semi-Pelagians
It was then only natural
that, when some opposition to Augustine’s doctrines became vocal in his region,
Prosper sent letters to Augustine, asking him to intervene. And he was not the
only one. Another young supporter of Augustine, Hilary, did the same.
Prosper described
Augustine’s opponents as Pelagianae reliquiae pravitatis (“remnants
of the Pelagian perverseness”). But Augustine saw a difference between these
men and the actual Pelagians, because these didn’t deny the lasting effect of
the original sin on the human race and admitted that no one is sufficient to do
any good without God’s grace.
Augustine knew that the
views of these “semi-Pelagians” were essentially contradictory because they
affirmed that human beings had to take the first step toward God, who would
then supply his grace. In other words, in their view, only the increase of
faith, not its beginning, was a gift of God.
He tackled this and other
errors in two treatises, “On the Predestination of the Saints” and “On the Gift
of Perseverance,” addressed to Prosper and Hilary.
But in spite of these
errors Augustine called these semi-Pelagians “brothers.” believing they could
eventually understand the incongruity of their position, especially in the
light of Scriptures.
All this happened between
the years 426 and 430, and Augustine died shortly after writing these
treatises, which didn’t resolve the controversy in the least. Prosper, who
lived among those semi-Pelegians, was convinced that, on the issue of grace,
there were only Augustinians or Pelagians, and these semi-Pelagians were only
subtly hiding their Pelagian views. He then continued to defend Augustine’s
doctrines of grace in a climate that became increasingly heated.
Prosper in Rome
Around the year 440,
however, Prosper was called to Rome to serve pope Leo I as an adviser or
secretary. He continued to write about grace, and some of his works,
particularly his Liber Sententiarum, became influential in the Second
Council of Orange of 529, which firmly rejected the semi-Pelagian views. At the
same time, he became increasingly convinced (probably because of Leo) that the
Augustinian views were really the views of the church, and he addressed them as
such.
His commitment to a
doctrine of grace that is all or nothing is evident in a letter he wrote to
Demetrias, a rich teenager who had chosen to leave all her wealth and live a
modest and chaste life. In this letter, called De vera humilitate (“Of
true humility”) and written at the young lady’s request, he explained how “The
essence of this virtue [humility] lies in acknowledging God’s grace, which is
totally rejected unless it is totally accepted. ... We must therefore
acknowledge the grace of God fully and truthfully, and the first thing that
comes from this gift of his is the realization of his help.”[4]
While in Rome, Prosper
also compiled a survey of world history until the year 377, called the Epitoma
Chronica, which included works by Eusebius and Jerome. It is through this
work that we have been introduced to Pope Leo’s famous meetings with invading
generals such as Attila and Geiseric.
The Call of All Nations
Some believe that, by the
time Prosper wrote his last work, De vocatione omnium gentium (“The
Call of All Nations”), he had softened his position on predestination. But his
convictions about the absolute necessity and the gratuitous nature of God’s
grace were the same. He simply claimed that both God’s will for all men to be
saved (1
Timothy 2:4) and his election of some to be saved are biblical. How or “why
this is so,” he said, “our human intellect can in no way find out.”[5]
“If we do not search into what we cannot know, then we shall have no difficulty in reconciling the first point with the second, but we shall be able to preach and to believe them both with the security of an undisturbed faith. God indeed in whom there is no injustice and all of whose ways are mercy and truth, is the beneficent Creator of all men and their just Ruler. He condemns no one without guilt and saves no one for his merits. When He chastises the guilty, He punishes our demerits, and when He makes us just, He bestows of His own gifts. Thus the mouth is stopped of them that speak wicked things and God is justified in His words and overcomes when He is judged. The condemned cannot complain in justice that they did not deserve punishment, nor can the justified truthfully claim that they have merited grace.”[6]
Letting God decide the
future of each soul freed Prosper to preach to others without wondering whether
or not they were of the elect. He was in fact one of the first Christian voices
to speak of bringing Christ outside the Roman Empire, and his De vocatione
omnium gentium was the first Christian book to support this idea. “Today
there are in the remotest parts of the world some nations who have not yet seen
the light of the grace of the Saviour,” he wrote. “But we have no doubt that in
God's hidden judgment, for them also a time of calling has been appointed, when
they will hear and accept the Gospel which now remains unknown to them.”[7]
Although he didn’t talk
of sending missionaries to these people (we’ll have to wait for Patrick of
Ireland and Gregory I to do that), he believed that it was in God’s plans to
reach them, and he encouraged the church to pray to that effect.
[1] Prosper
of Aquitaine, De Providentia Dei, ed. by Miroslav Marcovich, E. J.
Brill 1989, 11-19
[2] Prosper
of Aquitaine, “Letter to Rufinus” in Defense of St. Augustine, “Ancient
Christian Writers,” transl.P. De Letter, Newman Press, 1962, 23, 36
[3] Ibid,
24
[4] Prosper
of Aquitaine, Epistula ad Demetriadem: De vera humilitate, ed.
by Sister M. Kathryn Clare Krabbe, Washington D. C., The Catholic University of
America Press, 1965, pp. 161, 163.
[5] Prosper
of Aquitaine, The Call of All Nations, The Works of the Fathers in
Translation, ed. by Joseph C. Plumpe and Johannes Quasten, Washington D.C., The
Catholic University of America Press, 1952, Book I, 87, https://archive.org/stream/stprosperofaquit027573mbp/stprosperofaquit027...
[6] Ibid.,
Book II:1, p. 88-89
[7] Ibid.,
Book II:17, p. 121
SOURCE : https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/prosper-of-aquitaine-and-his-defense-of-gods-grace
PROSPER OF
AQUITAINE, or Prosper Tiro (c. 390–c. 465), Christian
writer and disciple of St Augustine, was a native of Aquitaine, and seems to
have been educated at Marseilles. In 431 he appeared in Rome to interview Pope
Celestine regarding the teachings of St Augustine and then all traces of him
are lost until 440, the first year of the pontificate of Leo I., who had been
in Gaul and thus probably had met Prosper. In any case Prosper was soon in
Rome, attached to the pope in some secretarial or notarial capacity. Gennadius
(De script. eccl. 85) mentions a rumour that Prosper dictated the famous
letters of Leo I. against Eutyches. The date of his death is not known, but his
chronicle goes as far as 455, and the fact that Ammianus Marcellinus mentions
him under the year 463 seems to indicate that his death was shortly after that
date. Prosper was a layman, but he threw himself with ardour into the religious
controversies of his day, defending Augustine and propagating orthodoxy. The
Pelagians were attacked in a glowing polemical poem of about 1000 lines, Adversus
ingratos, written about 430. The theme, dogma quod. . . pestifero vomuit
coluber sermone Britannus, is relieved by a treatment not lacking in
liveliness and in classical measures. After Augustine's death he wrote three
series of Augustinian defences, especially against Vincent of Lerins (Pro
Augustine responsiones). His chief work was against Cassian's Collatio,
his De gratia dei ut libero arbitrio (432). He also induced Pope
Celestine to publish an Epistola ad episcopos Gallorum against
Cassian. He had earlier opened a correspondence with Augustine, along with his
friends Tyro and Hilarius, and although he did not meet him personally his
enthusiasm for the great theologian led him to make an abridgment of his
commentary on the Psalms, as well as a collection of sentences from his
works—probably the first dogmatic compilation of that class in which Peter
Lombard's Liber sententiarum is the best-known example. He also put
into elegiac metre, in 106 epigrams, some of Augustine's theological dicta.
Far more important
historically than these is Prosper's Epitoma chronicon. It is a careless
compilation from St Jerome in the earlier part, and from other writers in the
later, but the lack of other sources makes it very valuable for the period from
425 to 455, which is drawn from Prosper's personal experience. There were five
different editions, the last of them dating from 455, after the death of
Valentinian. For a long time the Chronicon imperial was also
attributed to Prosper Tiro, but without the slightest justification. It is
entirely independent of the real Prosper, and in parts even shows Pelagian
tendencies and sympathies.
The Chronicon has
been edited by T. Mommsen in the Chronica minora of
the Monumenta Germaniae historica (1892). The complete works are in
Migne's Patrologia latina. Tome 51. See L. Valentine, St. Prosper
d'Aquitaine (Paris, 1900), where a complete list of previous writings on
Prosper is to be found; also A. Potthast, Bibliotheca
historica (1896).
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 22
Prosper of Aquitaine
SOURCE : https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Prosper_of_Aquitaine
Saint Prosper of
Aquitaine
Commemorated on July 7
Saint Prosper (Prosper
Tiro), "The Eradicator of Heresies," as Saint Photios (February 6)
calls him, was born in the Aquitaine around the year 390. He was a renowned lay
theologian, although few details of his life are known.
We know Saint Prosper
chiefly from his writings. A contemporary writer described him as "a holy
and venerable man." Many of Saint Prosper's writings echo the teaching of
Saint Augustine (June 15) on grace. Like Saint Augustine, Saint Prosper was
also an opponent of the Pelagian heresy. This wise man seems to have spent his
life embroiled in controversies with heretics. For the semi-Pelagians in
particular, Saint Prosper was one of their most fearsome adversaries.
In Saint Prosper, science
was joined to virtue. It is evident that he applied himself to literature, and
especially to acquiring knowledge of Holy Scripture. He was no less an expert
in human sciences than he was in theology. He excelled particularly in
mathematics, astronomy, and chronology. His great learning and holiness made
him well known throughout the entire Church.
Saint Prosper has sometimes
been identified, mistakenly, with Saint Paulinus of Reggio (June 25), who was a
bishop. Everything we know about him leads us to believe that Saint Prosper was
not a bishop, nor even a priest. In a poem to his wife he wrote: "Lift me
up again if I fall; correct yourself if I point out some fault. Let it never be
sufficient for us to be one body, let us also be one soul." By 428, Saint
Prosper persuaded his wife to become a nun, and he entered a monastery at
Marseilles. When Saint Leo the Great was chosen as the Bishop of Rome in 440,
he sent for Prosper to become his secretary. Many historians believe that the
admirable treatise "On the Incarnation of the Word," which is
ascribed to Saint Leo, is actually the work of Saint Prosper. It is possible,
however, that Saint Leo may have reworked it in his own style.
Saint Prosper reposed in
Rome, sometime after 455.
The icon of Saint Prosper
depicts him holding a scroll which reads: "The Orthodox Faith subdues the
monster of heresy."
SOURCE : https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2017/07/07/100182-saint-prosper-of-aquitaine
San Prospero d'Aquitania Monaco
e teologo
Limoges (Francia), fine
IV secolo - Roma, dopo il 455
Ha studiato nella nativa Aquitania (Gallia romana) ed è buon letterato e teologo. Ma non sarà prete. Vive per molti anni, dal 426, nei monasteri di Marsiglia e della sua regione, come monaco laico. Non è martire e non ha fatto miracoli. La Chiesa lo venera come maestro di fede. Tra i monaci marsigliesi, Prospero vede diffondersi una dottrina secondo cui l’uomo è capace di volere il bene e di salvarsi con la sola sua volontà, sicché la grazia divina è preziosa, ma non indispensabile. Diffonde queste idee il monaco Pelagio, venuto dall’Inghilterra a Roma, e poi fuggito nel 410 verso il Nordafrica con molti Romani, quando l’Urbe è stata saccheggiata dai Goti di Alarico. Poi, dall’Africa alla Palestina, ha raccolto molti seguaci (specie tra gli anacoreti, volontari della penitenza) e ha disorientato fedeli e vescovi. Al “pelagianesimo” ha reagito subito con energia Agostino vescovo di Ippona, con i trattati De peccatorum meritis, De natura et gratia e De spiritu et littera (412-415). Poi papa Innocenzo I e il concilio di Cartagine hanno respinto la dottrina di Pelagio.
Ma nel Marsigliese i monaci ce l’hanno con Agostino: i suoi trattati non li
convincono, anzi! Si affretta Prospero a informare Agostino e a spiegargli che
questi vanno orientati, c’è bisogno ancora di spiegare, di chiarire... Agostino
si rimette al lavoro, scrivendo un nuovo trattato con chiarimenti: è l’ultima
sua opera prima di morire (a poca distanza da Pelagio). Ma ancora invano:
quelli tengono duro; e come loro nel mondo cristiano ce ne sono molti... Così,
Prospero si vota alla battaglia dottrinale e alla difesa di Agostino dalle
accuse scaturenti a volte da incomprensione, da partito preso, da ignoranza, da
certi modi agostiniani di esprimersi, certa sua passionalità. Prospero non è un
polemista. È uno che vuol far capire. È quello che assicura
"l’integrazione della dottrina agostiniana su grazia e predestinazione nel
patrimonio teologico della Chiesa" (G. de Plinval). Nel 440 accompagna a
Roma l’arcidiacono Leone, che al suo arrivo sarà eletto Papa, succedendo a
Sisto III, e si servirà di lui come estensore di testi dottrinali. Gran
lavoratore, Prospero scrive anche di storia romana; fra le ultime opere
teologiche si ricorda il trattato De vocatione omnium gentium, che è il primo
scritto cristiano dedicato alla salvezza dei non-cristiani. Muore in data
incerta dopo il 455 e non si conosce il luogo della sua sepoltura.
Etimologia: Prospero =
vegeto, florido, felice, significato chiaro
Martirologio Romano:
Commemorazione di san Prospero d’Aquitania, che, versato nella filosofia e
nelle lettere, condusse con la moglie una vita virtuosa e temperante e, fattosi
monaco a Marsiglia, difese strenuamente contro i pelagiani la dottrina di
sant’Agostino sulla grazia di Dio e sul dono della perseveranza, svolgendo
anche a Roma la mansione di cancelliere del papa san Leone Magno.
Fu il difensore della dottrina di s. Agostino sulla Grazia e sulla predestinazione e le sue opere sono quasi l’unica fonte da cui attingere notizie su di lui stesso e sull’attività di scrittore che occupò la maggior parte della sua vita.
Nacque intorno al 390 a Limoges in Aquitania, dalle sue opere si arguisce che abbia percorso tutto il consueto corso di studi classici, in una Gallia fiorente nell’istruzione, al punto che già nel I secolo Plinio la chiama “un’Italia, piuttosto che una provincia”.
Da un suo poema in 122 versi ‘Poema coniugis ad uxorem’ si capisce che da giovane doveva essere sposato. Non si sa perché dall’Aquitania si spostò a Marsiglia, dove passò gran parte della sua vita come monaco laico, senza alcuna carica e grado ecclesiastico.
Conobbe personalmente s. Agostino e prese le sue difese, cioè del suo pensiero sulla dottrina della grazia, quando vide le reazioni suscitate da questa dottrina nei vari monasteri di Marsiglia e della Provenza e lo informò con lettera dei commenti e del suo operato; fu affiancato in ciò da un altro laico Ilario.
Agostino rispose ai due difensori della Gallia indirizzando loro due libri: “De praedestinatione sanctorum” e “De dono perseverantiae” che allora formavano una sola opera, l’ultima scritta dal grande Dottore della Chiesa prima che morisse (28 agosto 430).
Ma neppure dopo la sua morte si attenuarono le critiche alla sua dottrina da parte degli oppositori che allora si chiamavano ‘Marsigliesi’; Prospero ed Ilario decisero allora di andare a Roma a chiedere l’intervento del papa Celestino I (431) il quale indirizzò una lettera ai vescovi della Gallia affinché smorzassero le critiche degli oppositori, ritenendo Agostino “uomo di tanto sapere, che anche i miei predecessori lo annoverarono fra i migliori maestri”.
Fino al 440 troviamo Prospero impegnato a comporre un gran numero di scritti teologici sempre rispondendo alle diverse calunnie e obiezioni contro s. Agostino, coinvolgendo anche i papi che si succedevano a Roma e fu proprio papa Leone I Magno, che trovandosi in Gallia, dispose che Prospero lo seguisse a Roma e lo impegnò nella cancelleria pontificia (440).
Qui ritrovò la tranquillità dello spirito, non si occupò più delle controversie sulla Grazia, anche perché morto nel 435 Cassiano, maggiore oppositore di Marsiglia, la disputa si acquietò alquanto; poté così dedicarsi alla diffusione del pensiero agostiniano e quindi sul polemista, prevalse l’esegeta, il compilatore, il cronista.
Autore in prosa, le sue opere si contano a centinaia, commenti, sentenze, epigramma, esposizione dottrinale in versi; compose a Roma anche l’unica opera che non parla di s. Agostino, il ‘Chronicum integrum’ cronaca universale dalle origini fino alla presa di Roma da parte di Gianserico (455).
Per difendere la dottrina della Grazia e della predestinazione elaborata da s. Agostino, Prospero diventa lui stesso teologo di rara grandezza, accentrando il suo pensiero essenzialmente su due argomenti: l’universalità della volontà salvifica di Dio e la predestinazione.
Dio concede a tutti gli uomini la grazia sufficiente per salvarsi; nega nel modo più assoluto la predestinazione al peccato e alla perdizione, Dio non ha colpa della dannazione, coloro che si perdono, lo fanno di loro volontà.
Prospero spiega con chiarezza, con morbidezza e si sforza di rendere accettabili i rigidi e fermi principi agostiniani, che per questo sono stati spesso fraintesi e non solo dagli eretici.
Prospero morì intorno all’anno 463, l’unico indizio di un culto resogli nell’antichità è un affresco nella basilica di S. Clemente a Roma, ben conservato, che lo raffigura con un aureola intorno alla testa, con i capelli tagliati a forma di corona dei monaci, con addosso una tunica a maniche larghe stretta ai fianchi da una cintura, è senz’altro l’aspetto di un monaco.
E’ fuor di dubbio che si tratta di Prospero, perché in quella basilica papa Zosimo nel 417, condannò il pelagianesimo e i semipelagiani, di cui il grande scrittore fu fiero confutatore.
Erroneamente confuso con s. Prospero vescovo di Reggio Emilia, che si festeggia il 25 giugno, fu inserito nel ‘Martirologio Romano’ da Cesare Baronio, alla stessa data.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/59400
PROSPERO d'Aquitania
di Mario Niccoli - Enciclopedia
Italiana (1935)
PROSPERO (Tiro Prosper)
d'Aquitania
Scrittore ecclesiastico
nato nel sud della Gallia verso il 390, morto presumibilmente verso il 460
(certo dopo il 455). Nelle polemiche sorte durante il sec. V nella Gallia
meridionale, e soprattutto nei monasteri di Marsiglia e di Lerins, circa le
affermazioni estreme di S. Agostino sulla questione della predestinazione e
dell'efficacia del volere umano sull'initium
fidei (v. semipelagianismo; predestinazione), P. fu il paladino
deciso dell'agostinismo.
Venuto a contatto delle
idee pelagiane verso il 428 attraverso il De correctione et gratia di
Sant'Agostino, si affrettò a scrivere a S. Agostino (la lettera, che è un
documento notevole per la storia del semipelagianismo, è la CCXXV
dell'epistolario agostiniano; la lettera seguente, CCXXVI, è di un amico di P.,
Ilario, e, scritta nella medesima circostanza e al medesimo fine della
precedente, ne è la logica integrazione) per informarlo dell'opposizione dei
monaci marsigliesi contro le dottrine agostiniane della grazia e della
predestinazione. Agostino rispose col De predestinatione sanctorum e
con il De dono perseverantiae. Morto S. Agostino (agosto 430), P. continuò
la lotta da solo: sono di quel periodo la sua lettera a Rufino De Gratia
et de libero arbitrio e la sua opera teologica in versi (in tutto 1002 esametri)
Περὶ ἀχαρίδτων, hoc est de ingratis (dove ἀχάριστος è inteso nel
doppio significato di "ingrato" e "senza grazia"). Seguono
cronologicamente (la suceessione cronologica di questi scritti è solo
presumibile) le Pro Augustino responsiones ad excerpta Genuensium,
spiegazioni fornite a due preti di Genova, Camillo e Teodoro, su nove passaggi
del De praedestinatione sanctorum e del De dono perseverantiae.
E quando i monaci di Marsiglia e di Lerins coneretarono le loro accuse in 15
proposizioni, P. scrisse il Pro Augustino responsiones ad capitula
obiectionum Gallorum calumniantium e partì per Roma al fine di perorare la
causa dell'agostinismo presso papa Celestino I (422-432). In realtà la lettera
di questo all'episcopato della Gallia meridionale, pur riconoscendo l'autorità
di S. Agostino, mostra che la sede di Roma non era disposta ad accettare in
pieno la responsabilità di certe affermazioni sia agostiniane sia di altri
padri. Intanto in Gallia la polemica prosegue e P. non esita ad affrontare
direttamente i due corifei del movimento: S. Vincenzo di Lerins (Pro Augustino
responsiones ad capitula obiectionum vincentiarum) e Cassiano (De gratia Dei et
libero arbitrio liber contra collatorem). P. era a Roma ancora durante il
pontificato di Leone Magno e a Roma certamente (verso il 451) compose una
collezione di sentenze estratte dalle opere di S. Agostino e portò a termine
una Cronaca che si riattacca sostanzialmente a quella di S. Girolamo
e che ha interesse soprattutto per gli anni dal 425 al 455 (una prima redazione
della cronaca si arrestava al 445). Teologicamente il punto di vista di P.
d'Aquitania è quello espresso da S. Agostino specialmente nelle sue opere
contro Giuliano d'Eclano: assoluta incapacità della natura umana a iniziare,
con le sue sole forze, l'opera della fede e a praticare anche il semplice bene
morale; la grazia non deve essere pertanto considerata come una ricompensa
della nostra buona volontà e dei nostri meriti umani; non tutti gli uomini
ricevono ugualmente (indifferenter) la grazia (v. del
resto semipelagianismo). Solo per quello che riguarda la predestinazione
P., a differenza di S. Agostino, ammette la predestinazione alla
dannazione post praevisa demerita. Oltre le opere già citate (ed. in
Migne, Patrol. Lat., LI; ediz. della Cronaca anche in Mon. Germ. Historica, Auctores
antiquissimi, IX, Hannover 1892, pagina 341 segg.) ne vanno aggiunte altre, di
minore importanza, in prosa e in versi. Molti scritti (fra i quali
principalmente il De promissionibus et de praedictionibus Dei, in realtà
opera del diacono e poi vescovo cartaginese Quodvultdeus, scolaro di S.
Agostino) sono stati attribuiti a P. senza probanti motivi
Bibl.: L. Valentin, St.
Prosper d'Aquitaine, Parigi 1900; O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der
altchrist. Litteratur, IV, Friburgo in B. 1924, p. 533 segg.; vedi
anche predestinazione; semipelagianismo.
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/prospero-d-aquitania_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/
Georges de Plinval, « Prosper
d’Aquitaine interprète de saint Augustin » : https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/pdf/10.1484/J.RA.5.102208
J. Gaidioz. « Saint Prosper
d'Aquitaine et le tome à Flavien », Revue
des sciences religieuses Année 1949 23-3-4 pp.
270-301 : https://www.persee.fr/doc/rscir_0035-2217_1949_num_23_3_1889 : https://www.persee.fr/doc/rscir_0035-2217_1949_num_23_3_1889
Voir aussi : http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artsou/prosp.htm
https://www.rdb.mg/fr/emissions/credo-fr/saint-du-jour/3516-saint-prosper-d-aquitaine.html
https://www.eglise-et-histoire.fr/Saints/saint_prosper_aquitaine.php?f=22&s=0
