Sunday, October 19, 2014

SAINT AUXENTIUS OF BITHYNIA

St. Auxentius of Bithynia

Feast day: February 14
St. Auxentius, Hermit


Born in Syria;
Died on Mount Skopa on February 14, 473. Auxentius,
Career soldier and equestrian guard of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, he was known to preach to his fellow guards. He eventually left the service to become a hermit on Mount Oxia near Constantinople. Accused and cleared of Eutychianistic heresy. Archimandrite in Bithynia. Active in the Council of Chalcedon. Hermit on Mount Sinope  near Chalcedon.


Hermit and founder. The son of a Persian named Addas, Auxentius was a member of the entourage of Emperor Theodosius II in Constantinople. He retired from military service to become a hermit at Mount Oxia near Constantinople. He was accused of heresy by the Council of Chalcedon but cleared himself. He then went to Mount Skopa, near Chalcedon and attracted many disciples to his hermitage. Auxentius also formed a congregation of women on Mount Skopa.



HE was a holy hermit in Bithynia, in the fifth age. In his youth he was one of the equestrian guards of Theodosius the Younger; but this state of life, which he discharged with the utmost fidelity to his prince, did not hinder him from making the service of God his main concern. All his spare time was spent in solitude and prayer; and he often visited holy hermits, to spend the nights with them in tears and singing the divine praises, prostrate on the ground. The fear of vain-glory moved him to retire to the desert mountain of Oxea, in Bithynia, eight miles from Constantinople. After the council of Chalcedon, where he appeared upon summons by order of the emperor Marcian, against Eutyches, he chose a cell on the mountain of Siope, near Chalcedon, in which he contributed to the sanctification of many who resorted to him for advice; he finished his martyrdom of penance, together with his life, about 470. Sozomen commended exceedingly his sanctity whilst he was yet living.  St. Stephen the Younger caused the church of his monastery to be dedicated to God, under the invocation of our saint; and mount Siope is called to this day Mount St. Auxentius. See his life, written from the relation of his disciple Vendimian, with the remarks of Henschenius.

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