⛪ Saint of the Day : March 21
⛪ Other Names : • Serapion of Thmuis • Serapion the Scholar
⛪ Died : c.365-370 of natural causes while in exile in Egypt
The surname of the Scholastic, which was given him, is a proof of the reputation which he acquired, by his penetrating genius, and by his extensive learning, both sacred and profane. He presided some time in the catechetical school of Alexandria, but, to apply himself more perfectly to the science of the saints, to which he had always consecrated himself, his studies, and his other actions, he retired into the desert, and became a bright light in the monastic state. Saint Athanasius assures us in his life of Saint Antony, that in the visits which Serapion paid to that illustrious patriarch, Saint Antony often told on his mountain, things which passed in Egypt at a distance; and that at his death, he left him one of his tunics of hair. Saint Serapion was drawn out of his retreat, to be placed in the episcopal see of Thmuis, a famous city of Lower Egypt, near Diospolis, to which Stephanus and Ptolemy give the title of a metropolis. The name in the Egyptian tongue signified a goat, which animal was anciently worshipped there, as Saint Jerom informs us. Saint Serapion was closely linked with Saint Athanasius in the defence of the Catholic faith—for which he was banished by the Emperor Constantius; whence Saint Jerom styles himself a confessor. Certain persons, who confessed God, the Son consubstantial to the Father, denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost. This error was no sooner broached, but our saint strenuously opposed it, and informed Saint Athanasius of this new inconsistent blasphemy; and that zealous defender of the adorable mystery of the Trinity, the fundamental article of the Christian faith, wrote against this rising monster. The four letters which Saint Athanasius wrote to Serapion, in 359, out of the desert, in which at that time he lay concealed, were the first express confutation of the Macedonian heresy that was published. Saint Serapion ceased not to employ his labours to great advantage, against both the Arians and Macedonians. He also compiled an excellent book against the Manichees, in which he shows that our bodies may be made the instruments of good, and that our souls may be perverted by sin; that there is no creature of which a good use may not be made; and that both just and wicked men are often changed, the former by falling into sin, the latter by becoming virtuous. It is, therefore, a self-contradiction to pretend with the Manichees that our souls are the work of God, but our bodies of the devil, or the evil principle. Saint Serapion wrote several learned letters, and a treatise on the Titles of the Psalms, quoted by Saint Jerom, which are now lost. At his request, Saint Athanasius composed several of his works against the Arians; and so great was his opinion of our saint, that he desired him to correct, or add to them what he thought wanting. Socrates relates that Saint Serapion gave an abstract of his own life, and an abridged rule of Christian perfection in very few words, which he would often repeat, saying: “The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge, (or by holy meditation and prayer,) the spiritual passions of the soul by charity, and the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance.” This saint died in his banishment in the fourth age, and is commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology.
Saint Serapion the Scholastic, Pray for us !
Source : Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
