Gaudentius of Brescia

Holy Hierarch Gaudentius of Brescia was bishop of Brescia in Italy from 387 until his repose in 410, and a theologian, the author of letters and sermons. He is a saint of the undivided Church.

He was born at Brescia and studied under Bishop Philastrius, whom he followed as a disciple and preacher. Besides Latin he knew Greek and Hebrew. He was a monk at Caesarea in Cappadocia and went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When Philastrius died around 387 the people of Brescia chose him as bishop, and he took the see against his will: the people had bound themselves by oath to accept no other bishop, and Saint Ambrose and the neighbouring prelates obliged him to return. Ambrose consecrated him in 387. At his consecration he said he had brought from the Holy Land relics of Saint John the Baptist, of the apostles, of saints of Milan and of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, given him by the nieces of Saint Basil the Great at Caesarea in Cappadocia. He placed them in a basilica he named Concilium Sanctorum.

Twenty-⁠one tractates, pastoral letters and ten sermons of his survive; the Easter sermons were written down at the request of the nobleman Benivolus, who had been too ill to hear them. He was a friend of Saint John Chrysostom. In 405 he joined a delegation sent by Pope Innocent I and the emperor Honorius to Arcadius to defend John Chrysostom, who had been condemned and exiled. The envoys met with many difficulties and never entered Constantinople; according to one account Gaudentius was imprisoned near Thrace. He reposed soon afterwards.

He is commemorated on 25 October, the liturgical date in the Orthodox calendar (the same day number on the old and new calendars).