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Bishop ofBrescia, died before 397. He was one of thebishops present at asynod held in Aquileia in 381.St. Augustine met him atMilan about 383, or perhaps a little later (St. Augustine, Ep. ccxxii). He composed a catalogue ofheresies (Diversarum Hereseon Liber) about 384. Among the writings ofSt. Gaudentius was a sermon purporting to be preached on the fourteenth anniversary of St. Philastrius's death. According to this sermon, Philastrius's life began with a great act of renunciation, for which he might fitly be compared to Abraham. Later he wasordainedpriest, and travelled over nearly the whole Roman world (circumambiens Universum pene ambitum Romani Orbis), preaching againstpagans,Jews, andheretics, especially theArians. LikeSt. Paul he carried in his body the"stigmata" ofChrist, having been scourged for hiszeal against the last-namedheretics. AtMilan he was a great stay of theCatholic party in the time ofSt. Ambrose'sArian predecessor. AtRome he held both private and public disputations withheretics, and converted many. His wanderings ceased when he was madeBishop ofBrescia.
Doubts were first raised by Dupin as to the genuineness of this sermon, and these have been reiterated by Marx, the latest editor of Philastrius, who thinks the sermon aforgery of the eighth or ninth century. The chief objection to its genuineness, rather a weak one, seems to be that it is not found in the Manuscripts containing the undoubted sermons ofSt. Gaudentius. Marx was answered by Knappe, "Ist die 21 Rede des hl. Gaudentius (Oratio B. Gaudentii de Vita et Obitu B. Filastrii episcopi prædecessoris sui) echt? Zugleich ein Betrag zur Latinität des Gaudentius" (Osnabrück), who endeavours to prove the genuineness of the sermon in question by linguistic arguments. HisBollandist reviewer thinks he has made a strong case (Anal. Boll., XXVIII, 224). Philastrius's "Catalogue" ofheresies would have little value, were it not for the circumstance discovered by Lipsius that for theChristianheresies up to Noetus the compiler drew from the same source as Epiphanus, i.e. the lost Syntagma ofHippolytus. By the aid, therefore, of these two and the Pseudo-Tertullian "Adv. Hær.", it has been possible in great measure to reconstruct the lost treatise ofHippolytus. The first edition of the "Catalogue" was published at Basle (1528); the latest, ed. Marx, in theVienna "Corp. Script. Eccl. Lat." (1898).
TILLEMONT,H. E., VIII, 541 sq.; CEILLIER,Hist. des Auteurs Eccles., VI, 739 sq.; LIPSIUS,Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanus (Vienna, 1865); IDEM,Quellen der ält. Ketzergesch. (Leipzig, 1875); HARNACK,Quellenkritik der Gesch. des Gnosticismus (Leipzig, 1874); KUNZE,De hist. Gnosticismi fontibus novae quaest. criticae (Leipzig, 1894).
APA citation.Bacchus, F.J.(1911).St. Philastrius. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11797a.htm
MLA citation.Bacchus, Francis Joseph."St. Philastrius."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 11.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1911.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11797a.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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