St. Faustus of Riez


St. Faustus of Riez

Faustus, probably of British or Breton origin, lived during the days of the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. He found his way to the south of Gaul (now France) and entered the famous monastery of Lerins. In 433AD, he succeeded Maximus as abbot of that monastery. Around the year 459 he became bishop of Riez, a town in Provence called “Rhegium” by the Romans. He resisted the Arianism of the conquering barbarians, strongly asserting the divinity of Christ and His full equality with God the Father. Like John Cassian, he championed the doctrine of free will and the necessity of human cooperation with divine grace, though his teaching needed to be somewhat nuanced and refined by the later Council of Orange in 529AD. Many of his wonderful sermons have survived and though he is one of the lesser known of the Early Church Fathers, he is revered as a saint in the southern part of France. St. Faustus died around the year 490AD. Biography by Dr. Italy