Luke St Augustine's Gospels Corpus Christi Cambridge MS 286

Sedulius (sometimes with the nomen Coelius or Caelius, both of doubtful authenticity) was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

of the first half of the 5th century.

Biography

Extremely little is known about his life. Sedulius is the Latin form of the

Irish name A formal Irish name consists of a given name and a surname. In the Irish language, surnames are generally patronymic in etymology but are no longer literal patronyms as, for example, most Icelandic names still are. The form of a surname varies ac ...

Siadhal. The only trustworthy information is given by his two letters to Macedonius, from which we learn that he devoted his early life, perhaps as a teacher of rhetoric, to secular literature. Late in life he converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, or, if a Christian before, began to take his faith more seriously. One medieval commentary states that he resided in Italy. He is termed a

presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as ...

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...

and in the

Gelasian decree The Gelasian Decree ( la, Decretum Gelasianum) is a Latin text traditionally thought to be a Decretal of the prolific Pope Gelasius I, bishop of Rome from 492–496. The work reached its final form in a five-chapter text written by an anonymous s ...

Works

His fame rests mainly upon a long poem, ''Carmen paschale'', based on the four

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

s. In style a bombastic imitator of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, he shows, nevertheless, a certain freedom in the handling of the Biblical story, and the poem soon became a quarry for the minor poets. His description of the Four Evangelists in ''Carmen Paschale'' became well-known; the English translation below is from . His other writings include an

Abecedarian hymn An abecedarian hymn is a hymn that begins with the letter A, and each verse or clause following begins with the next letter of the alphabet. The abecedarian hymn '' Altus Prosator'' is used on All Saints Day. Other such hymns include ''A patre un ...

in honour of Christ, '' A solis ortus cardine'', consisting of twenty-three

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Greec ...

s of

iambic dimeter An iamb () or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable (as in () "beautiful (f. ...

s. This poem has partly passed into the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

, the first seven quatrains forming the Christmas hymn "A solis ortus cardine";This incipit was borrowed for the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

Planctus de obitu Karoli The ''Planctus (de obitu) Karoli'' ("Lament n the Deathof Charlemagne"), also known by its incipit ''A solis ortu'' (''usque ad occidua'') ("From the rising of the sun o the setting), is an anonymous medieval Latin ''planctus'' eulogising Charlem ...

''; see Peter Godman (1985), ''Latin Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance'' (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), 206–211. and the

Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

hymn, "Hostis Herodes impie." A "Veteris et novi Testamenti collatio" in

elegiac couplet The elegiac couplet is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, adopted the same form in Latin many years later. ...

s has also come down.

Editions

Faustino Arévalo Faustino Arévalo (23 July 1747 at Campanario, Badajoz in Extremadura, Spain – 7 January 1824 at Madrid) was a Spanish Jesuit hymnographer and patrologist. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1761, but was deported to Italy on the occasion of th ...

(Rome, 1794), reprinted in

Jacques Paul Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a ...

's ''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...

'' vol. xix. *

Johann Huemer Johann, typically a male given name, is the German language, German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin language, Latin form of the Greek language, Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew language, Hebrew name ''Johanan (name ...

(Vienna, 1885). *Victoria Panagl (Bearb.), Sedulius, ''Opera Omnia, Ex Recensione Iohannis Huemer'' (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 10), Wien, 2007, XLVII, 532 S. *

References

Sources

* This work in turn cites: **Johann Huemer, ''De Sedulii poetae vita et scriptis commentatio'' (Vienna, 1878) **

Max Manitius Max Manitius (23 March 1858 - 21 September 1933) was a noted German medievalist and Latin scholar. Life and work Max Manitius, son of the Court Councillor and secretary in the Saxon Ministry of Justice Wilhelm Manitius (1808-1885), attended the ...

, ''Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie'' (Stuttgart, 1891) **Teuffel-Schwabe, ''History of Roman Literature'' (Eng. trans.), 473 **Herzog-Hauck, ''Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie'', xviii. (Leipzig, 1906) **Smith and Wace, ''Dictionary of Christian Biography'' (1887)

External links