The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-09-06
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youth of Prudentius, according to his
own confession. He chose political
career, wisely casting no great reli-
ance on the MUSES. for his daily bread.
He twice held the civil headship of
province of the Empire, and finally
the favor of Theodosius called him to
fill court appointment. The snow
of senescence" (nix Capitis) warned
the aged poet to seek out the tran
guilty of a spot of retirement rather
than the hustle of court publicity when
''the Lord would come nigh"
Prudentius conceived his gift of
poetry as means of atonement pro-
videntially given him to make amends
for the moral shortcomings of his
early career in special. "At last"
he announces in substance, "the soul
is to break with vanity. If it has not
served the Master in deed always as
it should, it shall now render verbal
homage to the Lord, singing day and
night. His praises, confounding heresy,
confuting idolatry, preaching the
faith Of the Apostles, and immortaliz-
ing the song of the martyrs" This
high place the mission of poetry held
in the opinion of Prudentius.
His literary labors cover a field as
diversified as the experiences of his
life were manifold. Six of his poetical
treatises bear Greek titles. The
Cathemerinon is composed of twelve
divisions of hymns voicing sentiments
liturgically appropriate to various
days and various hours of the day.
The Peristephanon is full of vigor and
vivid description. 1t recounts the en-
durance of the faithful both in Spain
and Italy under the era OF persecu-
ton, and exults in the crown of mar
tyrdom that they merited to receive
The Apotheosis is a defense of the
Divinity of Christ against heretics like
that of the Patripassionists who said
the Father Himself suffered for us,
the followers of Sabellius who were
in error concerning the Persons of the
Holy Trinity, and finally against the
Jewry of his time. The Hamartigenia
was very opportune work, tracing
the birth of evil back to the free-will
of man. The relic of pagan power
that survived maintained that the
evils of the hour we're because the
temples of the ancients' gods had been
abandoned for the God of Nazareth.
Marcion and his followers had at the
same period announced a curious the
DRY of good and evil laying them to
dualistic influences in the government
of the visible world. The Psyche
! machia portrays a soul struggling
away from the tenacious vices of pag-
anism into the embrace and charm of
the virtues of the faith of the Man
god. Contra Symmachum, in two
books, is a declaration of warfare in
meter against idolatry and against it's
political hold in the Senate. The Dit
tochaon presents forty-nine Bible
scenes, twenty-four out of the Old
Testament and twenty-five out of the
New Testament. 1t is surmised from
the form of these verselets that they
may have been used as inscriptions
on mural decorations of churches.
Francis st. John Thackeray pub
/ lished in English in the year 1890,
TRANSACTIONS from Prudentius. For
the poetically-minded there is per
feet store of Christian imagery, as
beautiful as direct and energetic, in
corporated in the verses of Prudentius.
Many of his hymns have deservedly
found their way into the Missal and
Breviary. In a ferial matin reading
of the Breviary there is verse of
Prudentius depicting the fight of dark
ness, the return of peace and hallowed
security at the Growing of the cock
and the breaking of the light. Some
J Shakespearian critics have noticed so
close parallel in certain lines of
Hamlet, that they venture to suggest
that perhaps the Bard of Avon is in
debted to the Singer of Saragossa for
those sweet lines that make the famil-
lar reference to the advent of Christ
mas-tide:
1t faded on the growing of the cock.
Some say that ever 'gainst that sea-
son comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is cele