August 27th.

St. Caesarius of Arles.

Born in about 470 in Burgundy to a well-to-do family of mixed French and Roman origin, he took unsuccessfully to the monastic life, but was then seconded as an assistant to the bishop of Arles, the important early Christian centre near the mouth of the Rhône.  He was ordained priest and subsequently succeeded at bishop of Arles at the early age of 33.  He was much concerned about the proper celebration of the liturgy, requiring in his diocese a public celebration not only on Sundays and festal days, but on ordinary weekdays too.  He was also insistent that liturgy should not just be a ceremonial, but a real ‘raising of heart and mind to God’.  In Arles he founded a convent, governed by his sister, for which he wrote a Rule; it is one of the models for the later Benedictine Rule.  He was a vigorous preacher and many of his sermons have survived.  In 529 he presided over the Council in the nearby town of Orange; this declared to be false any teaching that [a] God predestines some to be damned, or [b] that we can exercise faith and love without having been moved by God in the first place.  As a defender of his people, Caesarius suffered at the hands of the Visigoth king, Alaric, being imprisoned and exiled, once in Ravenna.   In 536 he retired to his convent foundation where he spent the last years of life in tranquillity, dying in 542.