Honoratus Antoninus was a bishop of

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given na ...

(Cirta) in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. He was alive during the persecution of the

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

by the

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

king

Gaiseric Gaiseric ( – 25 January 477), also known as Geiseric or Genseric ( la, Gaisericus, Geisericus; reconstructed Vandalic: ) was King of the Vandals and Alans (428–477), ruling a kingdom he established, and was one of the key players in the diff ...

(who adhered to

Arianism Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...

) in the 5th century, around the year 437. He is the author of a letter titled ''Epistola ad Labores pro Christo ferendos Exhortatoria'', written about 437–440 to a certain Spaniard named

Arcadius Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the ea ...

, previously a friend of Genseric's, who, having been banished on account of his faith, is here comforted and encouraged to endure still greater hardships. Arcadius was afterwards martyred. The letter has been cited as evidence for Geiseric's promotion of Arianism.

Editions and translations

This letter was first published by in his ''Antidot. contra omnes Haereses'', fol. Basil. 1528, and will be found in the ''Magna Bibl. Patr.'', fol. Colon. 1618, vol. v. p. iii., in ''Bibl. Patr.'' fol. Paris, 1644 and 1654. vol. iii., in the ''Bibl. Patr. Max.'', Lugd. fol. 1677, vol. viii. p. 665, and in

Thierry Ruinart Dom Thierry Ruinart (also Theodore, Theodoricus) (1657–1709) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar. He was a Maurist, and a disciple of Jean Mabillon. Of his many works, the one now cited is his ''Acta sincera'', a martyrology, written in La ...

's ''Historia Persecutionis Vandalicae'', 8vo. Paris, 1694, pt. 2.100.4. p. 433. An English translation, with commentary, is available at http://turbulentpriests.group.shef.ac.uk/the-eye-of-god-is-watching-you-bishops-and-martyrs-in-vandal-north-africa/

Notes

{{Authority control 5th-century bishops in Roman North Africa Latin letter writers 5th-century people 5th-century Latin writers