St. Deogratias of Carthage

  Posted on January 3, 2024  by admin  No comments

Died: 457 in Carthage (modern Tunis, Tunisia) of natural causes, buried secretly to avoid destruction of his grave by relic seekers

Priest at Carthage. Bishop of Carthage in 453, the first bishop of the city in 14 years. Initially well-loved by Christians, pagans, and heretics.

During his bishopric he sold everything he could, including the diocesan gold and silver plate, works of art, and equipage of the Mass in order to ransom and house Christians captured and taken to north Africa as slaves by the Vandal king Genseric following the sack of Rome, Italy. He made special attempts to buy and keep together whole families, turned his largest churches, Basilica Fausti and Basilica Novarum, into dormitories and hospitals for the refugees, and when his duties gave him the time, he worked in the sick wards.

Arians in the region eventually turned on him, and he survived several assassination attempts to die in his own bed, exhausted from his work. The Vandals refused to allow another bishop to occupy the see for another 23 years.