Learning about the lives of holy men and women is a common and helpful spiritual practice. But while we might take some time to consider saints in their historical contexts, it’s easy to look past the ways their lives and actions influence our own present culture. Saints are made within specific cultural, historical circumstances and, just as importantly, they have borne deep impact on this current age of history. Thus, this series seeks to identify the saints from the history of our Church who have borne the greatest influence on our present culture, that is, the way we think about and experience the Christian life in our current era, and in our segment of geography (i.e., the West and, in particular, the United States).
This series delineates Christian history into eight ages: the Apostolic Age (A.D. 35-100); the Early Patristic Age (A.D. 100-480); the Later Patristic Age (A.D. 480-800); The Age of Early Christendom (A.D. 800-1200); the Age of Later Christendom (A.D. 1200-1400); the Renaissance and Baroque Age (A.D. 1400-1660); the Modern Age (A.D. 1660-1900); and the Post-Modern Age (the twentieth century). Each essay within this series will examine a handful of saints who sought and found holiness within their historical epochs and who, in turn, have borne an outsized influence on the ways Catholic-Christians in the third millennium understand and live the Catholic Faith. These few in each essay are chosen from among many, many other saints whose influence could be included in this series as well.
The great hope is that learning these influences gives us inspiration and stamina as we seek to answer the call to holiness in the world and the culture of the twenty-first century.
The early Patristic Age, which consists of the second century through most of the fifth century (that is, A.D. 100 to 480), is the second epoch of Church history to examine for our series on saintly influencers. In this era, a cadre of learned and holy men, often referred to as the Church Fathers, deeply impacted the Church and her encounter with the non-Christian world. Among these, four stand out for their impact on the Church and culture.
The first centuries of the patristic era, the A.D. 100s and 200s, might appropriately be called the “Age of Martyrdom.” The widespread persecution of Christians that had begun in the first century under the Roman emperors continued and, under certain emperors, even worsened. Many of the most notable martyrs of Christian history, names we hear in Eucharistic Prayer One, lived and died in these centuries: Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Perpetua and Felicity, Agnes, Agatha, and Sebastian.
Among the list martyrs, St. Justin stands out. Justin was born to a pagan family in Samaria and, throughout his young life, studied various philosophical systems, such as Stoicism and Platonism. During his philosophical search, a mysterious acquaintance asked Justin if the study of philosophy made for happiness. By that conversation, Justin was convinced that he needed to study the prophets of divine revelation. About that conclusion, he remarked that immediately “a flame was kindled in my soul; and a love of the prophets, and of those men who are friends of Christ, possessed me; and . . . I found this philosophy alone to be safe and profitable.” After Justin employed this fruitful marriage of philosophy and theology, he became an effective apologist, addressing his two lengthiest written teachings to the emperor and the Roman senate, respectively. It was for his clear and effective teaching against the pagan authorities of Rome that he was martyred in the middle of the second century (about A.D. 165). The primary point that we learn from St. Justin is that philosophy alone is insufficient for our souls to attain the heights for which they are intended. Reason must be coupled with divine revelation.
Our present Catholic-Christian culture benefits immensely from St. Justin’s teaching and work. St. Justin seems to have been a master at providing a real, measurable implementation of the instruction given by St. Peter in his first biblical letter: “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you . . . ” (1 Pt. 3:15). His apologiae are primal examples of providing logical and biblical reasons for the teachings and moral practices of the Catholic Faith. His description of the Church’s weekly Eucharistic celebration, found in his First Apology to the Roman Emperor and Senate, is particularly apropos of his influence, as we see from it a continuity of Catholic worship for almost nineteen centuries.
As the Patristic Age moved forward, the need for theological definition arose continually. The Person of Jesus Christ, His divinity and His humanity, was at the center of theological debate—and was most pervasively attacked by the Arian heresy, which claimed Jesus was not truly divine but was some kind of elevated human who had been divinized by God. After Arianism had spread throughout the known world, Athanasius of Alexandria became the next great influencer. He was the teacher who presented the most convincing case that Jesus of Nazareth was, indeed, fully God and fully human, divinity incarnate for the sake of human salvation. Specifically, his best-known treatise to combat Arianism was On the Incarnation, and it is a beautiful theological meditation on this central truth of our Faith.
Athanasius’s influence, though, was not relegated to the fourth century. On the Incarnation bore a noticeable influence on the bishops gathered for the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. Thus, his thought became the foundation of the Nicene Creed, the theological statement that rejected Arius’ propositions. It is because of Athanasius’ theological leadership that the Church professes that Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; begotten not made [and] consubstantial with the Father . . .” The creed we still profess today, particularly the truth of the Incarnation, is foundational for many other important theological and moral truths that the Church continues to teach. It is impossible to overstate how important the defense of this teaching was for all subsequent Christian history.
As the fourth century closed and the fifth century opened, the Church benefited from the life and ministry of St. Jerome. Born in Dalmatia, he went to Rome as a young man, and then to the northern reaches of the empire for theological studies in Trier (modern Germany). His education brought him to develop one of his best-known mantras: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” From this mantra, Jerome translated the Scriptures into Latin, and thus exercised his greatest influence on Catholic culture. The Latin Vulgate was the touchstone for later vernacular translations. Simply, Jerome’s work is the root of our ability to read our Bibles in English or French or Vietnamese, and thus know God more intimately.
A second important cultural influence, often associated with Jerome (if not from him directly), is the Latin phrase Memento mori, which in English means “Remember you will die.” The provenance of this saying seems to be from the Roman legions, whose commanders shouted the phrase as a reminder of how soldiers and slaves would contribute to the grandeur of the Empire. Christian martyrs and saints employed the idea to assist fellow disciples in their quest for the heavenly kingdom. Near the end of his life, Jerome wrote to a friend, Eustochium, who was mourning the death of her mother. There he expressed the idea behind the mantra:
Yet, as though she were leaving strangers to go home to her own people, she whispered the verses of the psalmist . . . After this she said no more but closed her eyes as though she already despised all mortal things . . . she turned the death-rattle (which comes at last to all) into the praise of the Lord. (Letter 108)
This is, perhaps, why Renaissance and Baroque artists frequently depicted St. Jerome with a human skull nearby. The connotation was that Jerome always kept in mind his impending death and exhorted others, like his friend, to do the same. This attitude, this mantra, has remained incredibly popular with Christian disciples as they go about their mundane business in this world.
The final influencer from this period is a giant among giants. It would be possible to write a whole article, indeed a whole series, on St. Augustine. He wrote one of the earliest rules for consecrated religious life (still used today by Augustinians, Dominicans, and others), and he wrote theological treatises, biblical reflections, and teaching manuals. From that enormous corpus of work, he is the most-quoted saint in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Quite simply, what we understand about God and the spiritual life is informed more by Augustine than by any other single personality.
Within such extensive thought, two things in particular stand out. First, Augustine has provided us with a new form of literary expression. His masterwork, Confessions, is the first spiritual autobiography in history (a personal psychoanalysis, of sorts). When individuals read this spiritual classic, they come to know that humans, by-and-large, face the same struggles, and they find inspiration for conversion! Beyond the impact of Confessions, St. Augustine bequeathed the Christian philosophy of history to posterity. In City of God, his last great treatise, he elucidated the ongoing historical struggle between the City of God and the City of Man. In every age since Augustine’s, Christians have understood that the end of history will take place when the Lord returns to establish lasting peace by revealing and separating the two cities.
Taken together, these four influencers help Christians realize several important things in this present age of history. First, the most important questions are theological. All the questions of society and culture are wrapped up with and illuminated by the question of God, and how God intends to reveal Himself and shepherd humanity. Second, we must use good reason, sound philosophy, to address the cultural trends that deviate from truth and goodness. And, finally, we must remember that this world is not our eternal home. It is imperative that we make ourselves witness of that fact, either by a white martyrdom or a red one. Keeping those three realities at the front of our minds will allow us to influence the culture of our own era.
Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of CE’s original new series, “Saintly Influencers”! Read all series installments here. Stay tuned for Part 3 on July 8th. Please consider contributing to this influential new series here.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
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