Caesarius of Nazianzus

Saint Caesarius of Nazianzus (also spelled Cæsarius and Caesarios) (c. 331 - 368) was a prominent physician. He is best known as the younger brother of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus.

Biography

The younger son of Gregory the Elder, bishop of Nazianzus and his wife, Nonna, Caesarius was born at Arianzus, near Nazianzus. He studied probably at Caesarea in Cappadocia (in Asia Minor), and then at the celebrated schools of Alexandria in Egypt; his favourite studies were geometry, astronomy and especially medicine. In the last-named science he surpassed all his fellow students.

About 355 he came to the imperial capital Constantinople, and had already acquired a great reputation for his medical skill, when his brother Gregory, homeward bound from Athens, appeared there about 358. Caesarius sacrificed a remunerative and honourable post to return to his parents with Gregory. The capital soon proved to be too great an attraction for him, and he eventually became an eminent physician at the Byzantine court of Constantine and, much to the regret of his family, at that of Julian the Apostate. Julian failed in his efforts to win him over to briefly restored Paganism. Caesarius, more appreciative of his faith than of imperial favour, ultimately left the court, but returned to Constantinople after Julian's death in 363.

Under the Emperor Valens he became quaestor of Bithynia. His escape from the earthquake which shook Nicaea (11 October, 368) induced him to heed the insistent appeals of his brother and St. Basil, who urged him to leave the world. He was suddenly seized with a fatal illness, shorty after having received baptism, which he, like many others at the period, had deferred until late in life. He was unmarried, and directed that all his goods should be distributed to the poor, an injunction which his servants abused in their own interests. His remains were interred at Nazianzus, where his brother pronounced the funeral oration in the presence of his parents.

The admission of the identity of this Caesarius with his namesake, the Prefect of Constantinople, who in 365 was thrown into the prison by Procopius, rests on an assumption of James Godefroy, the editor of the Theodosian Code (Lyons, 1665), and not on any solid historical ground.

The four "Dialogues" of one hundred and ninety-seven questions and answers which go under his name, and are to be found in Migne, P.G., XXXVIII, 851-1190, can hardly be from his pen, owing to their nature, contents and anachronisms. They are generally looked upon as spurious.

In Fiction

Caesarius was the main character in the historical fiction novel "Gods and Legions", by Michael Curtis Ford (2002). The novel, which tells the story of the rise and fall of Julian the Apostate, is narrated by Caesarius who is, according to the story, his closest companion. The novel attempts to account for Emperor Julian's transformation from a Christian philosophy student in Athens to a Pagan Roman Augustus of the old nature.

References

• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• McGuckin, John A. St. Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography. Crestwood, NY: 2001, St. Vladimir's Seminar Press. ISBN 0-88141-222-8
• Migne, J.P. (General Editor). Cursus Completus Patrologiae Graecae. 167 volumes. Paris: 1857-1866.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)