Saint Caesarius of Arles

Catholic Saint

st.Caesarius of Arles-Bishop of Arles, Father of the Church

Feast Day : August 27

Caesarius of Arles was the first bishop in western Europe to receive the pallium from a pope. He was born at Châlons, Burgundy, France (then Gaul), in 470 or 471, of a French-Roman family. He entered the monastery of Lérins in his youth but ill health forced him to leave the community soon after. His uncle, Æonus, bishop of Arles, took him into his monastery and ordained him deacon and priest. When Æonus died in 502 or 503, Caesarius was unanimously chosen to succeed him. In 505, King Alaric II of the Visigoths accused Caesarius of treason. He had come to believe that Caesarius intended to deliver Arles to the Burgundians, and without putting him on trial had him exiled to Bordeaux. He soon relented and allowed Caesarius to return to Arles. In 506, Caesarius called the Council of Agde and promulgated the famous adaptation of the Roman Law known as the “Breviarium Alarici,” which eventually became the civil code of Gaul.

Following a siege in 508, the Ostrogoths occupied Arles and King Theodoric, son of Alaric, suspecting Caesarius of having plotted with the besieging Franks and Burgundians, had him deported again. Caesarius was still in exile in 513 when Theodoric summoned him to Ravenna and pardoned him. Caesarius then went to Rome where Pope St. Symmachus (r. 498–514) gave him the pallium, confirmed him as metropolitan, and (in 514) personally renewed his appointment as vicar of the Apostolic See in Gaul. Caesarius used his office to update and strengthen various aspects of church doctrine. In 529 he presided over the Second Council of Orange, the confirmation of whose decrees by Pope Boniface II (r. 530–532) in 531 made them authoritative in the Universal Church. Caesarius brought the Divine Office into local parishes and introduced monastic reforms, placing his sister St. Caesaria as abbess of a convent he founded. He was known as a great preacher, with a strong mystic bent. In the many sermons that have come down to us he inveighed at length against the main vices of his day adultery and concubinage, drunkenness, neglect of the mass, love of landed wealth, and the numerous pagan practices still in vogue. When the Franks captured Arles in 536, Caesarius was once more forced to flee. However, he was later able to return to his see, and died there on August 27, 543. His name was entered in the Roman Martyrology. Today, he is venerated especially in Arles. In art, Caesarius is depicted as a bishop led by people with candles.