Gaudentius was born about the year 327, most likely at Brescia in Lombardy. Formed in the school of Saint Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, whom he called his father, he grew in learning and virtue. Thoroughly conversant in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he became known as an eloquent preacher in Italy and the East. Seeking to flee human praise, he set out on pilgrimage toward Jerusalem.
At Caesarea in Cappadocia he met the sisters and nieces of Saint Basil the Great, who entrusted to him relics of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste and other saints. He also obtained relics of Saint John the Baptist and of the Apostles. While he was still abroad, Philastrius died. The clergy and people of Brescia, determined to have no other pastor, bound themselves by oath to accept only Gaudentius. Saint Ambrose of Milan and the bishops of the province confirmed the election and wrote to him in Cappadocia, threatening excommunication if he refused. Yielding at last, he returned and was ordained bishop by Ambrose about the year 387. The sermon he preached at his consecration breathes profound humility.
As eighth bishop of Brescia he deposited the holy relics in a basilica he named Concilium Sanctorum, the Assembly of the Saints, and preached at its dedication. His pastoral care is known through twenty-one surviving tractates and ten Easter sermons, written down at the request of the nobleman Benivolus, who was too ill to hear them. Rufinus of Aquileia praised the vividness of his teaching. Gaudentius denounced injustice and hypocrisy among the powerful and strengthened Nicene faith in a region still troubled by error. Ambrose repeatedly invited him to preach in Milan.
In 405 Pope Innocent I and the emperor Honorius sent him with two other bishops to Constantinople to plead for the exiled Saint John Chrysostom, whom Gaudentius had earlier met at Antioch. Seized at Athens, the envoys were conveyed without food to the fortress of Athyra in Thrace, refused entry to the city, and pressured to recognize the usurping Archbishop Atticus. When officials seized their credentials by force, one bishop's thumb was broken. Put aboard an unseaworthy vessel said to have been ordered wrecked, they nevertheless reached Lampsacus safely and after twenty days landed at Otranto. Though the mission failed, Chrysostom wrote letters of gratitude; Palladius preserved Gaudentius's own account of the four-month ordeal.
Gaudentius died about the year 410 and was buried in the church that rose from the Concilium Sanctorum, later known as San Giovanni. The people of Brescia at once venerated him as a saint; his cult spread, and he is honored as city patron of Ostra in the Marches. His memory is kept on 25 October.
Imitate today the humble obedience of Gaudentius, who preferred the will of God and the Church to his own desire for hiddenness.
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints
Butler’s Lives of the Saints
OCTOBER 25 — ST. GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA, B. C
He seems to have been educated under St. Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, whom he styles his father. His reputation ran very high when he travelled to Jerusalem, partly to shun applause and honors, and partly hoping by his absence to be at last forgotten at home. In this, however, he was mistaken. In a monastery at Csarea in Cappadocia he met with the sisters and nieces of St. Basil, who, as a rich present, bestowed on him certain relics of the forty martyrs, and some other saints, knowing that he would honor those sacred pledges as they had honored them.1 During his absence St. Philastrius died, and the clergy and people of Brescia, who had been accustomed to receive from him solid instructions, and in his person to see at their head a perfect model of Christian virtue, pitched upon him for their bishop, and fearing obstacles from his humility, bound themselves by oath to receive no other for their pastor. The bishops of the province met, and with St. Ambrose, their metropolitan, confirmed the election. Letters were dispatched to St. Gaudentius, who was then in Cappadocia, to press his speedy return; but he only yielded to the threat of an excommunication if he refused to obey. He was ordained by St. Ambrose, with other bishops of the province, about the year 387; the sermon which he preached on that occasion, expresses the most profound sentiments of humility with which he was penetrated.2
Source:
Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints
