St. Gaudentius


St. Gaudentius

St. Gaudentius was made bishop of Brescia, Italy, after returning home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was consecrated by St. Ambrose around the year AD 387, the same year that Ambrose baptized Augustine of Hippo. Twenty-one of the saint’s sermons have survived the ravages of the ages. Among the most famous and valuable are those given to the newly baptized in the week following Easter, explaining to the neophytes the meaning of the sacraments. In AD 405, Gaudentius was sent by Pope Innocent I and the Emperor Honorius to Constantinople, to defend the cause of St. John Chrysostom but the delegation was intercepted by the foes of Chrysostom who forced them to turn back and return to Italy. Gaudentius died a few years later, around AD 410, the year of the sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth. He is accounted one of the Latin fathers of the Church. Biography by Dr. Italy