Salvian

Salvian (sălˈvēən) [key], fl. 5th cent., Christian writer of Gaul. His Latin name was Salvianus. He was a monk and priest of Lérins (from c.424) and became a renowned preacher and teacher of rhetoric. Of his several works two treatises and nine letters are extant. De gubernatione Dei [on the governance of God] is in eight books, of which the first five are Salvian's. Incomplete as it is, it is a moving indictment of contemporary Roman and Gallic society and a call to true Christian living. The other work, usually called Contra avaritiam [against avarice], is a plea for generosity to the Church.

See tr. by E. M. Sanford (1930) and J. F. O'Sullivan (1947).

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