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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > A > Antipater of Bostra

Antipater of Bostra

(In Arabia) in the fifth century, one of the foremost Greek prelates of the Roman Orient; flourished about 460. He was a pronounced opponent of Origen. Little is known of his life, save that he was held in high esteem by his contemporaries, civil and ecclesiastical. He is rated among the authoritative ecclesiastical writers by the Fathers of the Seventh General Council (787). There have reached us, in the acts of this council, only a few fragments of his lengthy refutation of the "Apology for Origen" put together (c. 309) by Pamphilus and Eusebius of Caesarea. The work of Antipater was looked on as a masterly composition, and, as late as 540 was ordered to be read in the churches of the East as an antidote to the spread of the Origenistic heresies (Cotelier, Monument. Eccl. Graec., III, 362). He also wrote a treatise against the Apollinarists, known only in brief fragments, and several homilies, two of which have reached us in their entirety. His memory is kept on 13 June.

Bibliography

The literary relies of Antipater are found in P.G., LXXXV, 1763-96; see also: Vailhe, in Dict. de theol. cath,., I, 1440; Acta SS., 13 June; Venables in Dict. of Christ. Biogr., I, 122; Bardenhewer, Patrologie (2d ed. 1901), 469.

Publication information

Written by F.M. Rudge. Transcribed by Nicolette Ormsbee.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume I. Published 1907. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Copyright © 2008 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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