✠ புனிதர் முதலாம் கெலாசியஸ் ✠(St. Gelasius I)49ம் திருத்தந்தை:(49th Pope)

† இன்றைய புனிதர் †

(நவம்பர் 21)

✠ புனிதர் முதலாம் கெலாசியஸ் ✠

(St. Gelasius I)

49ம் திருத்தந்தை:

(49th Pope)

பிறப்பு: கி.பி. 5ம் நூற்றாண்டு

ரோம ஆப்ரிக்கா அல்லது ரோம்

(Roman Africa or Rome)

இறப்பு: நவம்பர் 19, 496

ரோம், இத்தாலி அரசு

(Rome, Ostrogothic Kingdom)

நினைவுத் திருநாள்: நவம்பர் 21

ஆப்ரிக்கா நாட்டு கருப்பினத்தைச் சார்ந்த புனிதர் முதலாம் கெலாசியுஸ், கி.பி. 492ம் ஆண்டு, மார்ச் மாதம், 1ம் தேதி முதல், தமது மரணம் (19 நவம்பர் 496) வரை திருத்தந்தையாக ஆட்சி புரிந்தவராவார். 49ம் திருத்தந்தையான இவர், “பெர்பர்” இனத்திலிருந்து (Berber Origin) வந்த ரோம் நகரின் மூன்றாவது மற்றும் கடைசி ஆயரும் ஆவார். எழுத்தாளருமான இவரது படைப்பாற்றல் இவரை பண்டைய மற்றும் ஆரம்ப மத்திய காலத்தின் இடையே கூரான முனையாக வைத்திருந்தது என்பர். இவருக்கு முந்தைய திருத்தந்தை “மூன்றாம் ஃபெலிக்ஸ்” (Pope Felix III) இவரை பணியில் அமர்த்தினார். திருத்தந்தையர் ஆவணங்களை தயாரித்தல் மற்றும் பாதுகாத்தல் இவரது பணியாகும்.

இவர் மிக சிறு வயதில் குருவானார் என்று கூறப்படுகின்றது. 483ம் ஆண்டிலிருந்து திருத்தந்தை மூன்றாம் ஃபெலிக்ஸுக்கு ஆலோசகராக பணியாற்றியுள்ளார். இவர் மிக சிறந்த விதத்தில் திருத்தந்தைக்கும் அரசியல் தலைவர்களுக்கும் வழிகாட்டியுள்ளார். திறமையான, அர்த்தமுள்ள முடிவுகள் எடுப்பதில் இவர் வல்லவராக திகழ்ந்தார். இறையியலாளர்கள் பலர் இவரின் ஆலோசனையை நாடி வந்தனர். திருத்தந்தை மூன்றாம் ஃபெலிக்ஸ், கி.பி. 492ம் ஆண்டு மார்ச் மாதம் 1 ம் நாளன்று இறந்துவிடவே, கெலாசியுஸ் திருத்தந்தையாக தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டார்.

இவர் தழைத்தோங்கி இருந்த அரசர்களின் ஆட்சியை முறியடித்து திருச்சபையில் கடவுளுக்கு மட்டுமே முக்கியத்துவம் கொடுத்தார். கிறிஸ்துவின் நற்செய்திக்கு முதலிடம் கொடுத்தார். ஏழை மக்களின் வாழ்வுக்கென்று பல மையங்களை ஏற்படுத்தினார். திருச்சபை சொத்துகளில் நான்கில் ஒரு பகுதியை ஏழைகளுக்குப் பகிர்ந்துக் கொடுத்தார். 

இவர், தாம் வாழ்ந்து வளர்ந்த ஏழ்மையை என்றும் மறவாமல் இறுதிவரை வாழ்ந்தார். ஏழைகளுக்கென்று தன் ஆட்சியில் தனி இடம் ஒதுக்கினார். அம்மக்களின் ஈடேற்றத்திற்காக இரவும் பகலும் அயராது செபித்தார். இயேசு வாழக் கூறிய அன்பான வாழ்வை வாழ்ந்து மற்றவர்களுக்கு முன்னோடியாக திகழ்ந்தார். இவர் திருச்சபையில் பல சீர்த்திருத்தங்களைக் கொண்டு வந்தார். இவர் திருப்பலி பூசை புத்தகத்தை முதன்முதலில் அறிமுகப்படுத்திய பெருமைக்குரியவர் ஆவார். இவர் இறந்தபிறகு இவரது உடல் எங்கு அடக்கம் செய்யப்பட்டது என்பதை கண்டறிய இயலவில்லை.

† Saint of the Day †

(November 21)

✠ St. Gelasius I ✠

49th Pope:

Birth name: Gelasius

Born: ----

Roman Africa or Rome

Died: November 19, 496

Rome, Ostrogothic Kingdom

Feast: November 21

Pope Saint Gelasius I was the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church from 1 March AD 492 to his death on 19 November 496. He was probably the third and final Bishop of Rome of Berber descent. Gelasius was a prolific author whose style placed him on the cusp between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. His predecessor Felix III employed him especially in drafting Papal documents. During his pontificate, he called for strict Catholic orthodoxy, more assertively demanded obedience to Papal authority, and, consequently, increased the tension between the Western and Eastern Churches.

A strong-willed archdeacon of the Roman Church, Gelasius apparently came from an African lineage but there is a debate over whether he was born in Africa or in Rome. The Liber pontificalis states that he was "nation Afer" whereas in a letter to Emperor Anastasius (Ep. Xii, n.1) he described himself as "Romanus natus."

He was the dominant figure in Rome during the reign of Felix II and draftsman of that pope's letters. His own letters and treatises reveal him as the chief Roman theoretician in the quarrel with Constantinople, known as the Acacian schism. Technically, the dispute concerned the flouting of the authority of the Roman Church through the intrusion of heretics in certain Eastern sees. In this light, he became an active defender of the historical importance of the sees of Antioch and Alexandria against the see of Constantinople. Actually, more was at stake. The popes were increasingly alarmed by the manifestations of caesaropapism in the late 5th century, exemplified by the heretical Henoticon of Emperor Zeno, who attempted to appease the Monophysites with a statement of faith devised by the Patriarch Acacius without consulting Rome. Though he was not attacked directly, Zeno became the real object of papal strictures.

Papal Supremacy. When faced by a new threat to orthodoxy, the popes of the time reacted instinctively by exalting the divine origin and apostolic basis of the papal office. If Leo I can be said to have laid the juridical foundations of papal authority for all time, Gelasius I applied those principles in letters that read very much like legal briefs. There was little that subsequent generations could add to his explicit statements about papal supremacy or the relations between church and state, except a spelling out of what was contained in his thought. The fame of Gelasius I rests on the great influence exercised by his letters and treatises on later generations; this influence they owed to the wide currency that they acquired through being excerpted and incorporated in a series of contemporary canonical collections, which began to be compiled about that time in the West, the products of the so-called Gelasian Renaissance, which he helped to inspire. One of the most famous of these early canonists, the Scythian Dionysius Exiguus, paid tribute to the learning and virtue of the pope in the preface to his early 6th-century collection of papal decretals. The inflexible attitude of Gelasius toward Constantinople was influenced by the pope's good relations with the Arian, Theodoric, who replaced Odoacer as king in Italy. Attempts were made by the Constantinopolitan patriarchs, Flavita and Euphemius, to restore communion with Rome, but the pope's demand that the name of Acacius is stricken from the diptychs caused the negotiations to break down.

The Two Powers. Zeno's successor as emperor, Anastasius II, inclined as he was to Monophysitism, was even less likely to countenance any concession on this point. However, he recognized the importance of cultivating good relations with Rome in the interests of protecting his vague suzerainty over Italy and took the occasion of an embassy from King Theodoric to Constantinople to remind the pope that he had received no greetings from him. In his respectful but firm reply, Gelasius outlined his views on the two powers that govern the world, the consecrated authority of bishops (auctoritas sacral Pontificum ) and the royal power (regalis potestas ). Gelasius made clear that, in his opinion, it was the duty of the emperor to learn about "divine things" from bishops, not vice versa. His implicit claim that the papal power was superior to the city marked a significant step toward the formation of the medieval hierocratic ideal.

Vicar of Christ. At a Roman synod held in 494, Gelasius decreed that the revenue from church property should be apportioned four ways, among the bishop, the clergy, and the poor and for the maintenance of buildings. (It should be noted, however, that in Ep. Xiv, n.27 he notes this practice as "dudum rationalizer decretum," which would seem to indicate that it had been a common practice, at least in Rome, for some time). This rule was incorporated in the oath that all bishops under the metropolitan jurisdiction of Rome were required to make on the day of their consecration (Liber diurnal ), and other churches adopted somewhat similar arrangements. A Roman synod the following year, whose acts have survived, is remembered as the first-known occasion when the pope was hailed as Vicar of Christ. Gelasius I warned against a resurgence of Pelagianism in Dalmatia and Picenum and was active in rooting out the last vestiges of paganism in Rome. Most notable in this respect is his treatise against the Lupercalia (a penitential and fructifying festival in which young men with whips cavorted about the city and struck women) which the senator Andromachus had tried to reform. He was also zealous in rooting out the last vestiges of Manichaeanism in Rome. A cache of Manichaean books was discovered and burned before the doors of St. Mary Majors. To this end, he also mandated, at least for a time, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist under both species because the Manichaeans would have rejected wine, seeing it as impure and sinful.

Gelasian Sacramentary. More than 100 of his letters and treatises have been preserved. Although Gelasius apparently wrote Mass formulas later incorporated in the so-called Leonine or Verona, Sacramentary, a 6th-century compilation, he can hardly have had anything to do with the 7th-century Roman presbyteral Sacramentary that commonly bears his name. Gelasius I was buried in St. Peter's, although the exact location of his tomb is unknown.