A Lesson on Love From St. Peter Chrysologus
Kevin DiCamillo
We have all heard St. Paul’s famous definition of love from 1 Corinthians 13 so many times that we almost know it by heart:
Further, a common grammar school or CCD teacher’s tool was the old chestnut: “Now take the word ‘Love’ out of that reading and replace it with your own name—and if we act like that, we will truly be known as Christians: Kevin is patient, Kevin is kind…”
I’m not one to argue with St. Paul. However, there is a refreshing tonic to this almost impossible (impossible for humanity, not for God) definition of love, from today’s Doctor of the Church, St. Peter Chrysologus:
How on earth did we go from the singing of “kumbaya” in St. Paul’s version of love, where all is peace and calm, to the tormented, almost maddened incarnation of it found in St. Peter Chrysologus?
The two are not mutually exclusive: there are (rare) days when all does seem right with the world— with life and with my prayer life—and St. Paul’s vision and version of love feels just right: Kevin is patient, Kevin is kind, Kevin rejoices in what is right.
But not all days are created equal. That’s when it’s good to know that a saint—and a Doctor of the Church no less—found that love had a lot more human failings sewn into it: “Kevin is unreasonable, Kevin does not reflect, Kevin knows no moderation.” And still we call this love.
Who was this man?
St. Peter Chrysologus (born about the year 380, died 450) was born and raised in Imola, a town in Emilia section of Italy. All that we really know of him is that when the Archbishop of Ravenna, John, died in 433, St. Peter was consecrated as his successor. Ravenna was at that time the Capital of the Western Empire and St. Peter enjoyed the confidence of the Emperor Valentinian III and his saintly mother, Galla Placidia.
As Butler’s tells us, “We have many of his discourses still extant: they are all very short, for he was afraid of fatiguing the attention of his hearers, but the matter of the discourses of St. Peter Chrysologus caused him to be declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIII in 1729.” (He had never been formally “canonized”.) His pre-Vatican II feast day was December 4, though he most likely died on December 2. After the Council his feast day was moved to July 30.
Not for nothing was he called “The Golden Speech” (similar to another Doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, who was called “Golden-Mouthed”). St. Peter is “said to have preached with such vehemence that he sometimes became speechless through excitement”. One can almost hear him yelling from the pulpit those words that seem so human, that sound so very much like us:
Finally, St. Peter Chrysologus is important since, as Bernard McGinn notes, he became the Archbishop of Ravenna the year St. Augustine died. With close ties both to the Emperor and to the Pope St. Leo the Great, St. Peter forms a sort of bridge between the “later” period of the patristic Doctors of the Church (culminating in Augustine and St. Leo the Great) and the “early” medieval Doctors (St. Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville, and Bede).
Regardless, for a definition of love that seems closer to my own life experience than that of Holy St. Paul, St. Peter Chrysologus truly was one whose speech was indeed like honey from the comb.
Born at Imola, 406; died there, 450. His biography, first written by Agnellus (Liber pontificalis ecclesiæ Ravennatis) in the ninth century, gives but scanty information about him. He was baptised, educated, and ordained deacon by Cornelius, Bishop of Imola, and was elevated to the Bishopric of Ravenna in 433. There are indications that Ravenna held the rank of metropolitan before this time. His piety and zeal won for him universal admiration, and his oratory merited for him the name Chrysologus. He shared the confidence of Leo the Great and enjoyed the patronage of the Empress Galla Placidia. After his condemnation by the Synod of Constantinople (448), the Monophysite Eutyches endeavoured to win the support of Peter, but without success.
A collection of his homilies, numbering 176, was made by Felix, Bishop of Ravenna (707-17). Some are interpolations, and several other homilies known to be written by the saint are included in other collections under different names. They are in a great measure explanatory of Biblical texts and are brief and concise. He has explained beautifully the mystery of the Incarnation, the heresies of Arius and Eutyches, and the Apostles' Creed, and he dedicated a series of homilies to the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist. His works were first edited by Agapitus Vicentinus (Bologna, 1534), and later by D. Mita (Bolonga, 1634), and S. Pauli (Venice, 1775) — the latter collection having been reprinted in P.L., LII. Fr. Liverani ("Spicilegium Liberianum"), Florence, 1863, 125 seq.) edited nine new homilies and published from manuscripts in Italian libraries different readings of several other sermons. Several homilies were translated into German by M. Held (Kempten, 1874).
Love is patient and kind; love is not
jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on
its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at
wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And there’s hardly a Catholic wedding ceremony that doesn’t use that reading for the Epistle.Further, a common grammar school or CCD teacher’s tool was the old chestnut: “Now take the word ‘Love’ out of that reading and replace it with your own name—and if we act like that, we will truly be known as Christians: Kevin is patient, Kevin is kind…”
I’m not one to argue with St. Paul. However, there is a refreshing tonic to this almost impossible (impossible for humanity, not for God) definition of love, from today’s Doctor of the Church, St. Peter Chrysologus:
But the law of love is not concerned with what will be, what ought to be, what can be.
Love does not reflect; it is unreasonable
and knows no moderation. Love refuses to be consoled when its goal
proves impossible, despises all hindrances to the attainment of its
object. Love destroys the lover if he cannot obtain what he loves; love
follows its own promptings and does not think of right and wrong. Love
inflames desires which impel it toward things that are forbidden. But
why continue?
I didn’t have to go scouring about books of dubious origin for that definition of love: it’s taken from the one-volume Christian Prayer (Divine Office) from the Second Reading of the Office of Readings in Advent.How on earth did we go from the singing of “kumbaya” in St. Paul’s version of love, where all is peace and calm, to the tormented, almost maddened incarnation of it found in St. Peter Chrysologus?
The two are not mutually exclusive: there are (rare) days when all does seem right with the world— with life and with my prayer life—and St. Paul’s vision and version of love feels just right: Kevin is patient, Kevin is kind, Kevin rejoices in what is right.
But not all days are created equal. That’s when it’s good to know that a saint—and a Doctor of the Church no less—found that love had a lot more human failings sewn into it: “Kevin is unreasonable, Kevin does not reflect, Kevin knows no moderation.” And still we call this love.
Who was this man?
St. Peter Chrysologus (born about the year 380, died 450) was born and raised in Imola, a town in Emilia section of Italy. All that we really know of him is that when the Archbishop of Ravenna, John, died in 433, St. Peter was consecrated as his successor. Ravenna was at that time the Capital of the Western Empire and St. Peter enjoyed the confidence of the Emperor Valentinian III and his saintly mother, Galla Placidia.
As Butler’s tells us, “We have many of his discourses still extant: they are all very short, for he was afraid of fatiguing the attention of his hearers, but the matter of the discourses of St. Peter Chrysologus caused him to be declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIII in 1729.” (He had never been formally “canonized”.) His pre-Vatican II feast day was December 4, though he most likely died on December 2. After the Council his feast day was moved to July 30.
Not for nothing was he called “The Golden Speech” (similar to another Doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, who was called “Golden-Mouthed”). St. Peter is “said to have preached with such vehemence that he sometimes became speechless through excitement”. One can almost hear him yelling from the pulpit those words that seem so human, that sound so very much like us:
The law of love is not concerned with what will be, what ought to be, what can be!
Love does not reflect! It is unreasonable! And knows no moderation!
Love refuses to be consoled when its goal proves impossible!
Despises all hindrances to the attainment of its object!
Love destroys the lover if he cannot obtain what he loves!
Thankfully St. Peter Chrysologus’s sermons—he was nothing if not one
of the most gifted speakers our Church has ever produced—have not only
survived but been collated and translated into English and all share the
same sharp, biting, trenchant tone shown above. In fact, earlier this
month, on the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, St. Peter’s is the
Second Reading from the four-volume breviary:
Peace lends strength to our prayers; it is
the way our petitions can reach God easily and be credited; it is the
plentitude which fulfills our desires. Peace is the mother of love, the
bond of concord and the manifest sign of a pure soul, one which seeks to
please God, which seeks to be fulfilled and has its desire rewarded…Now
you see, dearest brethren, why we should love peace and cultivate
harmony: because they beget and nurture love.
And his reading from the Monday following the Epiphany is also touching:
So the Gentiles, who were the last, become the first: the faith of the Magi is the first fruits of the belief of the Gentiles.
(In this case St. Peter Chrysologus sounds a lot like St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles.)Finally, St. Peter Chrysologus is important since, as Bernard McGinn notes, he became the Archbishop of Ravenna the year St. Augustine died. With close ties both to the Emperor and to the Pope St. Leo the Great, St. Peter forms a sort of bridge between the “later” period of the patristic Doctors of the Church (culminating in Augustine and St. Leo the Great) and the “early” medieval Doctors (St. Gregory the Great, Isidore of Seville, and Bede).
Regardless, for a definition of love that seems closer to my own life experience than that of Holy St. Paul, St. Peter Chrysologus truly was one whose speech was indeed like honey from the comb.
St. Peter Chrysologus
Born at Imola, 406; died there, 450. His biography, first written by Agnellus (Liber pontificalis ecclesiæ Ravennatis) in the ninth century, gives but scanty information about him. He was baptised, educated, and ordained deacon by Cornelius, Bishop of Imola, and was elevated to the Bishopric of Ravenna in 433. There are indications that Ravenna held the rank of metropolitan before this time. His piety and zeal won for him universal admiration, and his oratory merited for him the name Chrysologus. He shared the confidence of Leo the Great and enjoyed the patronage of the Empress Galla Placidia. After his condemnation by the Synod of Constantinople (448), the Monophysite Eutyches endeavoured to win the support of Peter, but without success.
A collection of his homilies, numbering 176, was made by Felix, Bishop of Ravenna (707-17). Some are interpolations, and several other homilies known to be written by the saint are included in other collections under different names. They are in a great measure explanatory of Biblical texts and are brief and concise. He has explained beautifully the mystery of the Incarnation, the heresies of Arius and Eutyches, and the Apostles' Creed, and he dedicated a series of homilies to the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist. His works were first edited by Agapitus Vicentinus (Bologna, 1534), and later by D. Mita (Bolonga, 1634), and S. Pauli (Venice, 1775) — the latter collection having been reprinted in P.L., LII. Fr. Liverani ("Spicilegium Liberianum"), Florence, 1863, 125 seq.) edited nine new homilies and published from manuscripts in Italian libraries different readings of several other sermons. Several homilies were translated into German by M. Held (Kempten, 1874).
