Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Peter was born about 380 at Imola and became bishop of Ravenna about 433, when the city was the residence of the Western emperors; the empress Galla Placidia was among his listeners. Some hundred and eighty of his sermons survive. They are short, clear and carefully crafted, on the Gospels, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, and in the 9th century earned him the name Chrysologus, “golden word.”

In 449 the monk Eutyches, condemned at Constantinople, wrote to him for support. Peter answered that he should accept what the bishop of Rome, Leo, taught, and not judge the matter without him. Peter died at Imola about 450. Benedict XIII named him a Doctor of the Church in 1729.