Philogonius of Antioch

Saint Philogonius was bishop of Antioch from 318 to 322, an advocate and a man of justice before he was a shepherd, and a defender of the right faith against Arius. He fell asleep around 322. The Church remembers him on 20 December.

He was a successful advocate at the bar of Antioch, known for eloquence, integrity of conduct and faith. He was married and had a daughter, and after his wife's death he gave himself to the spiritual life. From childhood he read Holy Scripture and learned other sciences. The persecuted and oppressed found in him a defender and protector, and he showed mercy to the poor. In 318, after the death of Vitalius I, he was elected bishop of Antioch, though he had not first been a priest. When Arius began to preach his heresy at Alexandria, in 318, Pope Alexander of Alexandria sent Philogonius a synodal letter of condemnation, and he defended the right faith. Arius himself called him a "heretic". He lived through the persecution of Maximinus Daia and Licinius, in which he showed himself a confessor of the faith, and after the persecution ceased, as a good shepherd, he watched over his flock and wisely dispelled the disturbances and errors of the heretics. Saint John Chrysostom, born at Antioch, praised him in a discourse as "defender of the oppressed" and "protector of Christians from the attacks of the devil". According to some sources he was imprisoned and died confessing the faith.