I hope that all of my readers had a Merry Christmas. It’s not a normal Christmas but I think that we can agree that the last thing we can call 2020 is normal. Who knows what 2021 will bring. There is a Church Father that is extremely neglected in Church History. Most people don’t know his name and even fewer people have read his writings. In the Christian East he’s essentially unknown and in the West the situation is slightly better and do I mean slightly. His name is Optatus of Milevis and he lived in the 4th century.
St. Optatus was the Bishop of Milevis in modern day Algeria. The bulk of his work is against the Donatists who operated out of North Africa. When most people think of anti-Donatist writings they think of St. Augustine of Hippo who is well known as the creme de la creme when it comes to the early Church Fathers. St. Optatus was writing against the Donatists while St. Augustine was still a Neo-Platonist.
I should also point out that if any Muslims are reading this, this is how we know that Donatist Christians existed. We have multiple Church fathers arguing against them. We have zero Church fathers arguing against so called Islamic Christians who supposedly lacked belief in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and believed in Tawheed and not referring to the God of the OT as Father even though both testaments do so. Anyways, that little tidbit is for Muslims reading this post. I’ll get back to St. Optatus.
There are many wonderful insights one could pull from the writings of St. Optatus. His theology on baptism is superb. Why did St. John the Baptist have to baptize our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? The typical Christian response is that Christ had to give grace to the water so baptism would give grace to Christians. Most people think this is a medieval view. It’s actually alluded to in the 2nd century by St. Ignatius of Antioch but it is given clear definition with St. Optatus:
His flesh was found to be more holy than the very Jordan so that rather did It cleanse the water by its entrance, that itself was cleansed.
– St. Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, Book 1
A couple months ago I was on Reason and Theology to refute the lie that there were no monarchial bishops in Rome until the mid-second century. This falsehood is propagated by James White and Jerry Walls. St. Optatus is a strong witness against this myth as he gives the list of Roman Bishops going back to St. Peter who obviously lived in the first century.
To Peter succeeded Linus, to Linus succeeded Clement, to Clement Anacletus, to Anacletus Evaristus, to Evaristus Sixtus, to Sixtus Telesphorus, to Telesphorus Hyginus, to Hyginus Anacetus, to Anacetus Pius, to Pius Soter, to Soter Alexander, to Alexander Victor, to Victor Zephyrinus, to Zephyrinus Calixtus, to Calixtus Urban, to Urban Pontianus, to Pontianus Anterus, to Anterus Fabian, to Fabian Cornelius, to Cornelius Lucius, to Lucius Stephen, to Stephen Sixtus, to Sixtus Dionysius, to Dionysius Felix, to Felix Marcellinus, to Marcellinus Eusebius, to Eusebius Miltiades, to Miltiades Silvester, to Sylvester Marcus, to Marcus Julius, to Julius Liberius, to Liberius Damasus, to Damasus Siricius, who to-day is our colleague, with whom the whole world, through the intercourse of letters of peace, agrees with us in one bond of communion.
– St. Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, Book 2
We can see that St. Optatus is a strong witness against this revisionist error that should be discarded. We can have a reasonable debate how much power the Roman bishop had in the pre-Nicene era. I do believe there is reasonable room to disagree on that. Obviously Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians will say that he had less power than what we Catholics think he did but the position that there was no bishop until the mid-second century is absurd.
Anyways, his works are worth checking out. His theology is sharp and he deserves more recognition than he has right now, which is sadly next to none. God bless.
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