Salvian of Marseilles

Salvian von Marseille (also Salvianus , * around 400 in Trier , Cologne or the surrounding area; † around 475) was a Christian church father and writer during the late ancient migration in the 5th century.

Salvian was born around 400 in northern Gaul , possibly in Trier , which he praises in his work, or in Cologne , where relatives of his lived. He came from a family of the Gallo-Roman upper class. Salvian received, how many of his peers, a good education in the Legal Profession and the Latin rhetoric and should probably make a career in the imperial service. With his pagan wife Palladia he had a daughter, Auspiciola. It is assumed that Salvian went to southern Gaul after completing his studies, since the seat of the Gallic Praetorian prefect and thus the center of the Roman administration of this part of the empire had been there since about 400 . But already around 426 he apparently joined the ascetic community on the island of Lérins (the later Lérins Abbey ), which was founded around 410 by Honoratus , the later Bishop of Arles. Later, perhaps around 429, he became presbyter in Marseilles and probably died after 470.

Much of his works, which are mentioned in De viris illustribus by Gennadius of Marseille , have been lost. His main work De gubernatione Dei (Latin: From the rule of God) has been preserved. In it, around 450, Salvian describes the hardships of that time under the sign of Providence and interpreted the problems of these years as God's punishment for the sinful state of society and church . Due to this intended effect, the work distorts much into the negative, which is why today's research usually no longer takes Salvian's statements at face value. Regardless of this, the text is a main source for the cultural and social history of Western Rome .

expenditure

• Karl Halm (Ed.): Auctores antiquissimi 1,1: Salviani presbyteri Massiliensis Libri qui supersunt. Berlin 1877 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )

literature

• Jan Bathsien : Theology of history and social criticism in the work of Salvians of Marseille. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1980, ISBN 3-525-55137-1 .
• Peter Brown : Treasure in Heaven. The rise of Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2017, pp. 629–658 (Chapter 26).
• Hubertus R. Drobner :  Salvian of Marseille. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 1258-1266.

Web links

• Literature by and about Salvian von Marseille in the catalog of the German National Library
• Marie-Claude L'Archer: Les Barbares dans le "De gubernatione dei" de Salvien de Marseille. Master's thesis (mémoire de maîtrise). Département d'Histoire, Université de Montréal , 2010
• From the world government of God , German translation of De gubernatione Dei in the "Library of the Church Fathers", University of Freiburg (Switzerland)