February
800-865 A.D. Paschasius Radbertus—Scholarly Monk of
Corbie/Corvie, France; Taught
Transubstantiation; Author of De Corpore
et Sanguine Domini; Author of Varied Exegetical
Works
Editors. “Saint Paschasius Radbertus.” Encyclopedia
Britannica. N.d. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445499/Saint-Paschasius-Radbertus. Accessed 2 Oct 2014.
Saint Paschasius Radbertus, (born c. 785, Soissons, Fr.—died c.
860, feast day April 26), French abbot, theologian, and author whose monograph De
corpore et sanguine Christi (“Concerning Christ’s
Body and Blood”) later became the dominant interpretation of the Eucharist.
Abandoned as an
infant, Paschasius was raised by the monks of St. Peter’s, Soissons. Later, he
joined the Benedictine abbey of Corbie, near Amiens, under St. Adalhard the Elder and his brother
and successor, St. Wala, whose biographies Paschasius was to write. Well read
in the Scriptures and patristic works, he was ordained deacon and subsequently
became novice master and headmaster at Corbie and at the daughter abbey of New
Corbie, Westphalia (now in Höxter, Ger.), which in 822 he had assisted in
founding. Under Paschasius’ leadership the Corbie schools became famous.
He was elected, c. 843, fourth abbot of Corbie. During his office there were disturbances in
the monastery and his plans for reform were opposed. His De
corpore, written in 831 and revised in 844, when he presented it
to King Charles II the Bald of the West Frankish kingdom, was seriously challenged by the
monk Ratramnus, who c. 850 wrote his famous
eucharistic treatise De corpore et
sanguine Domini (“Concerning the Lord’s Body and
Blood”) partially in reply to Paschasius. Paschasius was further criticized by Rabanus Maurus, abbot of Fulda and later archbishop of Mainz.
Paschasius attended
the synods of Paris (847) and Quercy (849). He resigned his abbacy c. 851 and retired to the monastery of Saint-Riquier to write in peace,
although his last years were supposedly spent at Corbie. During succeeding
centuries his eucharistic views were dominant, particularly during the
11th-century eucharistic controversy associated with the noted theologian
Berengar of Tours, who was condemned at the Council of Vercelli in 1050 for
sympathizing with Ratramnus’ views (then falsely attributed to the Irish philosopher
and theologian John Scotus Erigena). Modern theologians, however, recognize
faults in Paschasius’ doctrine.
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