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Liberius III
- The Catholic University of America Press
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CONCERNING HOLY FLORENTIUS . Florentius, the fourteenth bishop, a just man, father of paupers and protector of widows, a great preacher, humble and gentle and dutiful, daily exhorting his sheep to come swiftly to the harbor of salvation and the rewards of penitence. This holy man was buried in the monasterium of St. Petronilla,1 clinging to the walls of the church of the Apostles. He ruled his church __ years, __ months, __ days. CONCERNING HOLY LIBERIUS III . Liberius, the fifteenth bishop, a holy man, he was beautiful in form, yet brighter in understanding; his eloquence flowed like milk. For he was a true worshipper of God, a leader of pagans toward the good, a destroyer of idols; in his reign the population of pagans began to diminish and the holy church began to swell with Christian people. His kindness was so great that he was not called “lord” by his priests, but was addressed by his name as a fellow priest; he took precedence among them only in the chair of the pontifical title. He daily exhorted the shamed, that they should approach penitence with confidence. In his reign the emperor Valentinian I was killed outside the Artemetorian Gate, not far from the stadium tabulae1 near the Coriandrian Field; and there was very great sedition among the people , and many were wounded in the place which is called the . Ravenna’s church of the Apostles is next mentioned in the Life of Neon, who lived almost a century after the death of Florentius (cc. –). Deichmann, Ravenna .:, points out that the dedication of a chapel to St. Petronilla next to St. Peter’s in Rome, on which this dedication in Ravenna is surely modeled, took place only in the mid-eighth century. Thus the Ravennate dedication may only date to the eighth century, although the monasterium was surely built some time earlier, if not necessarily by Florentius himself. z . Deichmann, Ravenna .:, suggests that the stadium tabulae might have been a circus. ...
