Saint Who?
Saints Who Wrote Hymns
Saint Ennodius of Pavia
Bishop († 521) Feast: July 17
Magnus Felix Ennodius spent most of his childhood in Milan. As a young man, he became an accomplished rhetorician and married into a wealthy family. However, he soon recognized God’s call to enter holy orders. He and his wife agreed to separate, and she became a nun, while he was ordained a deacon. Later he was named Bishop of Pavia.
Ennodius had mixed success as a diplomat. When he was asked to give an important speech honoring the Arian king of Italy, who was not particularly friendly to Catholics, Ennodius was able to placate the king by focusing solely on his military victories. Later, the pope sent Ennodius to Constantinople to warn the Byzantine emperor about a dangerous heresy. The emperor ignored the warning and sent Ennodius back to Italy on an unseaworthy ship. Ennodius only barely made it home with his life.
Today Ennodius is best remembered for his theological works and his poetry. He wrote about the mysteries of the faith and the saints, as well as hymns of praise. By modern standards, Ennodius’ poems and speeches would be considered rather verbose. But his goal was to bring the greatest literary traditions of ancient Rome into the nascent Catholic culture of his time, and in that he was successful.
O Christ, our everlasting light,
may your light shine in our world today.
