Fulgentius of Ruspe (c.462–532)

Biography

He was born at Telepte (today Medinet el-Kedima), in the Roman African province of Byzacena, into the senatorial family of the Gordiani. He worked as a Roman tax collector in North Africa, but his superiors’ urging that he treat delinquent taxpayers with ever greater harshness made him begin to dislike his work. During visits to monasteries he learned the meaning of poverty and therefore asked Abbot Faustus of Byzacena to receive him into his monastery, after reading Saint Augustine’s “Expositions” and “Confessions.” He left everything for monastic life despite the strong opposition of his family, especially his mother. Soon after entering the monastery, during a persecution by the Arian Vandals of King Huneric, he and his friend Felix were arrested. Fulgentius’s death sentence was commuted to deportation, while Felix was publicly scourged and likewise deported. Fulgentius had to seek refuge in a more distant monastery, where he became coadjutor to the abbot. Another persecution drove him still farther away, to the borders of Mauretania.

Reading Cassian’s “Conferences,” a work widely circulated in monastic circles, prompted him to seek a more rigorous ascetic life among the monks of Egypt. Already on his way, during a stop at Syracuse, the local bishop Eulalius dissuaded him by explaining the Acacian Schism, which at that time separated Eastern Christianity, including the Egyptian monks.

He went on pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the visit of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, in 500. When he returned to Africa, he resumed monastic life, now with the clear intention of giving himself to solitary asceticism. This brought him into conflict with the faithful, who asked of him a greater commitment to the community. Ordained a priest, he was acclaimed bishop of Ruspe, near Carthage, in 508. He tried by every means to avoid the appointment but had to accept it. Though always a bishop, his daily life remained marked by the Augustinian monastic spirit. A third persecution, ordered by King Thrasamund (496–523), exiled him to Sardinia, specifically to Cagliari, together with other bishops; there he founded monasteries. He remained in Sardinian exile for many years until he was summoned back to Ruspe. His letters, written from exile on behalf of the other bishops confined with him, caused the king, who enjoyed theology, to call him to Carthage for theological debate and to put him to the test. Thrasamund did not fare well and sent him back to Sardinia. Fulgentius was able to return in 523 with the other African bishops when the king died. He devoted himself to his pastoral office until his death.

His writings against heresy made him a celebrated doctor of the Church. He wrote “Against the Arians” in 515; “To Thrasamund,” in which he affirmed the two natures of Christ; “Against the Discourse of Fastidiosus the Arian to Victor”; “Against Fabian”; “The Trinity to Felix the Notary”; “To Monimus,” and other works. All his writings draw inspiration from Augustine, both in refuting heresies and in speaking of the Trinity. For a long time, the passage most frequently quoted was his “unshakable dogma”: “Not only all pagans, but also all Jews, and all heretics and schismatics who end their lives outside the Catholic Church, will perish in eternal fire”; this teaching has fallen into disuse. He is patron of Cagliari, Sardinia.