(ca. 470-542). Reforming bishop, exemplar of pastoral care, popular preacher, monk, and advocate of monasticism. Born near Chalon-sur-Saone, Caesarius was a monk at Lerins from ca. 490 to 497, when he was ordained priest at Arles. In 502, he became bishop of Arles and in 514 was made primate of Gaul. Revered for his personal holiness, his benevolence, and his pastoral care, Caesarius was made a saint of the Catholic church after his death. An Augustinian in theology, he was influential in the Second Council of Orange (529), which established the accepted interpretation of Augustine’s teaching on grace and salvation against the Semi-Pelagianist views of Faustus of Riez and John Cassian. Caesarius wrote a rule for monks (for a community under his nephew) and a rule for nuns (for a convent in Arles in which his sister, Caesaria, was abbess). Some 238 of his sermons survive and provide important documentation of church life in 6th-century Gaul.
Grover A. Zinn
[See also: ARLES; CASSIAN, JOHN; CONVENT ARCHITECTURE: FAUSTUS OF RIEZ; LERINS]
Caesarius of Arles. Opera, ed. G. Morin. CCSL 103-04. Turnhout: Brepols, 1953.
--. Caesarius of Arles: Sermons, trans. Mary Magdeleine Mueller. 3 vols. New York: Fathers of
The Church, 1956-73.
Daly, W. M. “Caesarius of Arles, a Precursor of Medieval Christendom.” Traditio 26(1970):1-28. McCarthy, Maria Caritas. The Rule for Nuns of St. Caesarius of Arles: A Translation with Critical Introduction. Washington, D. C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1960.