St. Gaudentius of Brescia

Gaudentius was away on pilgrimage in the East when the clergy and people of Brescia chose him as their bishop. Their former bishop, St. Philastrius, had died, and they insisted on receiving Gaudentius as his successor. St. Ambrose confirmed the choice and ordained him after he returned. Butler emphasizes how reluctantly he accepted the office.

His ministry survives especially in his sermons. A sick member of his congregation, Benevolus, could not attend the preaching and asked that it be written down. Butler explains that this request helped preserve a collection of Gaudentius’s teaching. The sermons include instruction on the Eucharist for the newly baptized and an account of the dedication of a church in which he deposited relics gathered during his travels.

Gaudentius also undertook a difficult journey in defence of St. John Chrysostom after Chrysostom’s removal from Constantinople. The embassy met with hostility and imprisonment, but Chrysostom wrote to thank him for his help. Butler records uncertainty about the year of Gaudentius’s death while identifying October 25 as his commemoration in the Roman Martyrology. His writings give a more direct view of his pastoral work than a life known only through later stories.