December 2 is the feast of Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia in Italy, who died in 406. He is one of those minor early Church Fathers who don’t get a lot of press, and he shows up in only in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Calendars, but he’s definitely worth more than a cursory glance.
One reason to investigate him further was his commitment to advancing the learning of the church. He discussed theology with Ambrose, Jerome, and Tyrannius Rufinus in his local circle, and corresponded with John Chrysostom. He encouraged Jerome to continue his Biblical translation work and to study Hebrew in order to test the Septuagint versions of the Old Testament, and he also provided practical financial help for Jerome while he worked. Recognizing the need to make Greek patristic works available to a wider audience, he encouraged his student Rufinus to translate these works into Latin.
Another reason to look at his career is Chromatius’ approach to the theological controversies of his day. One of these involved the works of Origen of Alexandria, a theologian who had a century earlier written prolifically (perhaps 2000 essays, tracts, and sermons) on a wide range of subjects from Biblical exegesis to asceticism. In the late fourth century just before Chromatius was born, church authorities in Palestine decried some of Origen’s positions as heretical, and circlated a petition calling for condemnation of not only Origen’s teachings, but of the theologian himself, despite the fact that he was long dead. Not unlike some issues today, signing the petition to condemn Origen became a litmus test for many people: one either supported Origen or condemned him outright. Many who had studied and found value in Origen’s work were pressured into representing his works as heretical. Things got so out of hand that protesters rioted in the streets of Alexandria.
Chromatius was faced with the situation that his two friends Jerome and Rufinus, who had each translated some of Origen’s works from Greek into Latin, took opposite sides in the controversy. While himself voicing reservations on some of Origen’s teachings, Chromatius believed that some of Origen’s teachings had been deliberately misrepresented. Chromatius managed to remain friends with both Jerome and Rufinus, and worked hard to reconcile them. He was ultimately unsuccessful, although he did get them to tone down their attacks on each other.
A third reason to look at Chromatius is that until the 1960s, we had identified very few of his works, but in the last sixty years, scholars realized that two manuscripts in the Bibliothéque Nationale (the French National Library in Paris) contained hitherto unknown sermons and studies of Matthew. These newly discovered works provide insight into Chromatius’ thinking and character. In his Tractate on Matthew 5:9, Chromatius writes
Then he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” [Matt 5:9]. The peacemakers are those who, standing apart from the stumbling block of disagreement and discord, guard the love of fraternal charity and the peace of the church under the unity of the Catholic faith. In the gospel the Lord particularly urges his disciples to guard this peace, saying, “I give you my peace; I leave you peace”. [John 14:27]
and a little later in the same work, he adds:
For the apostle shows the Hebrews that nothing is so critical to the servants of God, so salutary for the church, as the preservation of charity, as the esteeming of peace, without which one cannot see God… Thus it is fitting for us to preserve peace in the church with all zeal and devotion and to summon back with zeal for peace and faith those who are estranged from peace to the church’s charity, as far as it lies within us.
Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermons and Tractates on Matthew, translated and introduced by Thomas P. Scheck, Newman Press
Clearly Chromatius practiced what he preached in seeking reconciliation when his friends were at odds with each other.