, a native of Cappadocia, bishop of Iconium in the fourth century,
, a native of Cappadocia, bishop of
Iconium in the fourth century, was the friend of St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Basil. He assisted at the first general council of Constantinople in the year 381, and presided at the council of Sidae. In the year 383, he contrived
the following method of persuading the emperor to prohibit
the assemblies of the Arians: observing that Theodosius
encouraged the Arians, he went to his palace, and approaching Arcadius, his son, caressed him as if he had
been an infant, but did not treat him with the customary
respect. Theodosius, enraged at an affront offered to himself in the person of his son, ordered the bishop to be thrust
out of the palace, when, turning to Theodosius, he cried,
“My lord, you cannot bear that your son should be injured,
and are displeased at those who do not treat him with respect; can you then doubt, that the God of the universe
also abhors those who blaspheme his son?
” Theodosius,
upon this, called back the bishop, begged his pardon, and
soon after published severe laws against the assemblies
of the Arians. St. Amphilochius died about the year 394.
Very few of his works remain. Jerome mentions but one,
concerning the “Divinity of the Holy Spirit,
” which is
not extant. The principal is an Iambic poem of considerable length, in which is inserted a catalogue of the
books, of the Old and New Testament. Cave and Dupin
say that it was the production of Gregory Nazianzen, but
Combesis and Tillemont contend for its belonging to Amphilochius. The fragments which remain of his other works
are in the Bibl. Patrum, and there is a letter of his concerning synods, published by Cotelerius. Father Combesis published all he could collect, in 1644, fol. Greek and
Latin, but he has inserted some pieces on very doubtful
authority.