Deogratias of Carthage

Saint Deogratias of Carthage was bishop of Carthage from 454 to 457. His name means thanks be to God, the greeting by which the Catholics of Africa distinguished themselves from the Donatists. Carthage had been ruled since 439 by the Arian Vandal king Genseric, and the episcopal see had been empty for fourteen years since Quodvultdeus, because Genseric had banished the priests.

Deogratias sold all the gold, silver, vessels, vestments and ornaments of the church to ransom those whom the Vandals had made slaves. Two of the largest churches of the city, the basilica of Faustus and the Basilica Novarum, he filled with bedding to shelter them, and he arranged daily food for them. He died at Carthage in 457; the crowd gathered at his funeral to take a relic, so he was buried in secret. After him the see stayed empty until Saint Eugenius, since the Vandals allowed no other bishop for twenty-⁠three years. He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 22 March (new style; 4 April in the old style).