Feast Day: March 25 Canonized: Pre-Congregation — venerated from the fourth century; feast in Eastern and Western martyrologies Order / Vocation: Secular clergy — Bishop of Laodicea, Syria Patron of: Bishops who defend orthodoxy · Those exiled for the faith · The Church in Syria
The Bishop Valens Could Not Convert
Laodicea on the sea — Laodicea Maritima, modern Latakia on the Syrian coast — was in the fourth century a significant see. Its bishop in the middle of that century was Pelagius, who is preserved in the calendar because of what he refused to do.
The Emperor Valens (364–378) was the last great Arian emperor of the Roman East — a man who used the full weight of imperial power to support the Arian party against the Nicene definition of Christ's full divinity. Bishops who held to the Nicene faith — that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, truly God and not a creature — were systematically removed from their sees, exiled, and replaced with Arian candidates. Athanasius of Alexandria had already been exiled multiple times for this reason.
Pelagius was exiled by Valens. He lost his see. He went into exile rather than accept Arian theology or remain silent about it. He is a confessor — one who suffered for the faith without dying for it.
When Valens died at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, the imperial situation shifted. Gratian, who succeeded him in the West, and Theodosius I, who took the East in 379, were both Nicene Christians. The exiled bishops were recalled. Pelagius returned to his see.
He attended the First Council of Constantinople in 381 — the great council that completed the work of Nicaea, definitively confirmed the Nicene faith, and added to the Creed the article on the Holy Spirit. He was one of the bishops whose testimony the council represented: men who had suffered under the Arian emperors and survived to see the faith confirmed. He is remembered in the calendar for the full arc of that witness: exile under the wrong emperor, return under the right one, presence at the council that settled what the exile had been about.
Prayer to Saint Pelagius of Laodicea
O God, who in Saint Pelagius gave Laodicea a bishop who chose exile over compromise and lived to attend the council that vindicated what he had suffered for, grant through his intercession that those who hold the faith in hostile conditions may hold it without calculation, trusting that the council comes after the exile and the vindication comes after the loss. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint Pelagius of Laodicea, pray for us.
| Born | Unknown — fourth century |
| Died | c. 381 or later — Laodicea, Syria — natural death |
| Feast Day | March 25 |
| Order / Vocation | Secular clergy — Bishop of Laodicea Maritima (modern Latakia, Syria) |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation — venerated from the fourth century |
| Patron of | Bishops who defend orthodoxy · Those exiled for the faith |
| Known as | Pelagius of Laodicea · Pelagius of Syria |
| Historical note | Exiled by Emperor Valens (Arian); recalled by Emperor Gratian; attended the First Council of Constantinople (381) |
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