St. Peter Chrysologus

Who they were

Peter was bishop of Ravenna when Ravenna was the capital of the Western empire, and he earned the surname Chrysologus, golden worded, as the Latin West's answer to St. John Chrysostom.

What survives is nearly two hundred homilies with a signature the modern ear blesses. They are short, deliberately so, and he says as much in his own asides, explaining that he does not wish to weary his hearers. They are also dense as coin: on the Incarnation, the Creed, the Our Father, and above all on mercy, including the line that carries him best, that prayer, fasting and mercy are three things that are one, and that if you want your prayer to fly you should give it the two wings of fasting and mercy. He guided Ravenna through the empire's twilight with the same economy and died about 450. He was named a Doctor of the Church in 1729.

Why people turn to St. Peter Chrysologus

Preachers, teachers, and everyone who runs a meeting, because brevity is a real pastoral gift and the people on the receiving end know it. Writers cutting a draft. His feast falls with Ven. Solanus Casey, and the doorkeeper and the brief preacher both knew exactly how long to hold you.

How to ask their intercession

Before speaking, ask for his ratio: everything essential and nothing else. One decade, then one sentence of what you actually mean to say.