Asterius
Name of several prominent persons in early Christian history.
(1) Asterius of Petra, a bishop of Arabia, ill-treated by the Arian faction at the Council of Sardica (343) for withdrawing from them his support, and exiled to Upper Libya in Egypt, whence he was recalled in 362 by the edict of Julian that restored all the banished bishops. He took part in the Council of Alexandria (362), called, among other reasons, for the purpose of healing the Meletian schism that was rendering the Church of Antioch. He was one bearers of the letter addressed by the council to the stubborn Lucifer of Cagliari and the other bishops then at Antioch. These peaceful measures were, however, rendered useless by Lucifer’s precipitancy in consecrating Paulinus as successor to Meletius of Antioch, whereby the schism gained a new lease of life.
(2) Asterius of Amasea in Pontus (c. 400). The only fact in his life that is known is related by himself, viz. his education by a Scythian or Goth who had been sent in his youth to a schoolmaster of Antioch and thus acquired an excellent education and great fame among both Greeks and Romans. The extant writings of Asterius are twenty-one homilies, scriptural and panegyrical in content. The two on penance and “on the beginning of the fasts” were formerly is ascribed to St. Gregory of Nyssa (Bardenhewer, Patrologie, 1901, 267). A life of his predecessor, St. Basil, is ascribed to Asterius (Acta SS. 26 April). His works (P.G. XL) are described by Tillemont (Mem., X, 409). He was a student of Demosthenes and an orator of repute. Lightfoot says (Dict. of Christ. Biogr., I, 178) that his best sermons display “no inconsiderable skill in rhetoric great power of expression, and great earnestness of moral conviction; some passages are even strikingly eloquent. ” The homilies of Asterius, like those of Zeno of Verona, offer no little valuable material to the Christian archaeologist. [De Buck in Acta SS. 30 Oct. (Paris, 1883), XIII, 330-334.]
(3) Asterius of Cappadocia, a Greek sophist, a friend of Arius, and also his fellow student in the school of Lucian of Antioch. St. Athanasius quotes more than once from a pro-Arian work of this writer. He wrote commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans, the Gospels, the Psalms, and “many other works’ (Jerome, De Vir. Ill., c. xciv) , all of which have perished ( Zahn, Marcellus von Ancyra, Gotha, l867, 68 sqq.)
(4) Asterius, a Roman senator mentioned by Eusebius (His. Eccl., VII, 16) as a Christian distinguished for faith and charity. Rufinus says that he suffered martyrdom at Caesarea in Palestine in 262 (Baronius, An. Eccl. ad an. 262, sects. 81, 82).
(5) Asterius Urbanus, a Montanist writer of the latter part of the second century, referred to in Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. V, 16, 17); his work was probably a compilation of the pseudo-prophetic utterances of Montanus and his female companions Priscilla and Maximilla.
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THOMAS J. SHAHAN Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Asterius
There were several ancient writers of this name.
1. A Cappadocian, converted from paganism to Christianity, who became an Arian. He flourished after the Nicene Council, about the year 330, when he published his celebrated Syntagma, or Syntagmateon, which is repeatedly mentioned by Athanasius, in which he openly declares that there is in God another wisdom than Christ, which was the creator of Christ himself and of the world. Nor would he allow that Christ was the virtue of God in any other sense than that in which Moses called the locusts “a virtue of God.” Athanasius quotes from this work in his Ep. de Synod. Arimin. et Seleuc. p. 684, and elsewhere.-Baronius, Annales, 370; Lardner, Works, iii, 587 sq.
2. Bishop of Petra, in Arabia. He was originally an Arian, and accompanied the Arian bishops to the Council of Sardica in 347; but when there he renounced Arianism. Hence he suffered, and was banished into Upper Libya. In 362 he attended the council held by Athanasius at Alexandria, and was deputed to endeavor to restore union to the Church of Antioch.
3. Archbishop of Amasea; flourished about 401. Eleven sermons and homilies of his are given in Combefis, Bibl. Patr. Appendix, 1648.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Asterius (2)
was the teacher of Acacius, bishop of Befoea, whom he accompanied in 372 to Edessa, to summon thence the famous solitary St. Julian Sabbas, whose pupil he had been, to support the orthodox faith at Antioch during the persecution ‘of the Catholics by Valens (Theodoret, Vet. Patr. p. 380).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Asterius (3)
(Comes Orientis), in 398, carried out with prudence and tact the orders of the emperor Arcadius for the secret removal of Chrysostom from Antioch when elected to the see of Constantinople (Pallad. 43). SEE CHRYSOSTOM.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Asterius (4)
was a presbyter belonging to the Arian party at Antioch without a head. By compelling Dorotheus to leave his see, Asterius took the lead, in conjunction with some neighboring bishops, in an application to the Eunomians to be received into communion with them. This negotiation broke down in consequence of the demands of the Eunomians that the condemnation of .Etus should be recalled and all abuses reformed (Philostorgius, Eccles. Hist. 10:1).