Faustus of Mileve

Faustus von Mileve (* around 350 in Mileve ( Numidia , North Africa); † before 400 in exile) is the most important representative of Western Manichaeism .

Life

Little is known about his life. Growing up as a child of poor parents, he was only able to continue his education in Rome in later years. Augustine of Hippo , who had already begun to doubt Manichaeism (to which he had belonged as an auditor since 373 ), met Faustus von Mileve, who came to Carthage in 383 after teaching in Rome , but was disappointed in him. This finally brought about Augustine's internal break with Manichaeism, which was soon followed by an external one.

Faustus von Mileve was later exiled to an island; There he wrote an apology for Manichaeism, in which he rejected the entire Old Testament , the birth history of Jesus and some of Paul's writings, and interpreted the resurrection of Jesus Christ as an allegory . This work has not survived, but extensive passages from it are cited in the text Contra Faustum libri XXIII , written by Augustine to refute it , which he wrote around 400 (i.e. around the presumed year of death of Faustus von Mileve) and sent to Jerome in 404 .

These and other writings of Augustine are almost the only source on the life and work of Faustus. Because of the author's opposition to Faustus and Manichaeism, they should be used with caution.

literature

• Albert Bruckner : Faustus von Mileve. A contribution to the history of Western Manichaeism . Basel 1901.
• Adolf Jülicher : Faustus 17 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 2, Stuttgart 1909, Col. 2092 f.
• Prosper Alfarik: Les écritures manichéennes . 2 volumes, Paris 1918/19.
• Paul Moncier: Le Manichéen Faustus de Mileve. Restitution de ses Capitula . Paris 1924.
• John Patrick Maher: St. Augustines's Defense of the Hexaemeron against the Manichaeans (Diss. Gregoriana) . Rome 1946.

Remarks

1. ^ Edited as part of the Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum (CSEL) 25, 1, 1891, 249 ff.