Caesarius of Nazianz

Icon of St. Caesarius of Nazians

Caesarius von Nazianz (* around 330 in Arianzos near Nazianz ; † late 368 or early 369 in Bithynia in Asia Minor ) was a scholar, physician and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church .

Life

Caesarius von Nazianz was the son of Bishop Gregory of Nazianz the Elder and the younger brother of Gregory of Nazianz . He studied rhetoric , philosophy , geometry , astronomy and medicine as a major in Alexandria . In 356 he was appointed court physician ( Archiatros ) and Comes of the Roman emperor Constantius II (337 - 361) and Julian the Apostate (361 - 363). When Emperor Julian wanted to win him over to his pagan views, he left the court, but his successor Jovian brought him back andValentinian I appointed him governor of the province of Bithynia in 364 . His residence was in Nicomedia on the Marmara Sea . In 368 he was appointed Comes sacrarum largitionum (donation and financial administrator), after an earthquake in the same year - which he had escaped - he resigned from his office. He followed the advice of his brother and his friend Basilius and returned to Nazianz. He probably died shortly after his baptism in the same year.

Worship and canonization

Caesarius, whose name is derived from the Latin “from the family of the Caesarians” or “the imperial”, is the patron saint of doctors. His feast day in the Catholic Church is February 25th, in the Orthodox Church it is March 9th.

Works

• From Caesarius' works a funeral speech on his brother and Epitaphia have been preserved (Migne PG 38).
• Since Photios, a dogmatic-exegetical work, probably written in the 5th or 6th century, has been attributed to Caesarius ( Caesarii Dialogi or Pseudo-Kaisarios , Migne PG 38, 851ff.), Which takes a position in dialogue form on various theological questions and describes the peoples of late antiquity contains. It is considered to be one of the earliest written sources about the Slavs .

literature

• Ekkart Sauser:  Caesarius of Nazianz. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 16, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-079-4 , Sp. 251.
• Adolf Lippold : Caesarius. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, Sp. 1006-1006.
• Lexicon of Saints . Weltbild, Augsburg 2007, ISBN 3-8289-4980-0 .
• Caesarius, p . In: Johann E. Stadler , Franz Joseph Heim, Johann N. Ginal (Eds.): Complete Lexicon of Saints ... , Volume 1 (A – D), B. Schmid'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Augsburg 1858, p.  533 .
• Carl Ullmann: Gregorius of Nazianz the theologian. Leske, Darmstadt 1825, pp. 42–45 (Different schools of thought of Gregorius and his brother Caesarius; digitized in the Google book search).
• Nicholas Weber:  St. Caesarius of Nazianzus . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 3, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1908.

Web links

• Caesarius von Nazianz in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints