LIBERIUS, BISHOP OF ROME
Christianity is not a law, not a set of rules, or “an aesthetic adventure”, but a dogma. The Golden Age of the Holy Fathers of Orthodoxy, the fourth and fifth centuries, was a time of great achievements, and great renunciations. Repentance was “a river from the earth to holiness”. The Holy Roman Pope Liberius is an example of this.
1 The pontificate of Pope Liberius lasted from May 17, 352, to September 24, 366. It largely coincided with the reign of Emperor Constantius II (337–361). The first emperor named Constantius to the Roman throne was, as is well known, the father of Saint Constantine. Constantine’s son, Constantius II, zealously supported the Arian heretics and tried with all his might to literally outlaw Nicene Orthodoxy (325). The later great Cappadocian Church Fathers, Basil of Caesarea (330–379) and Gregory of Nazianzus (325–389), were still too young. The true patriarch of all Orthodox Christians was Saint Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. “He who is with Athanasius is with Orthodoxy”—this was the unspoken rule of the time. Constantius constantly persecuted Athanasius, threatening him, slandering him, and repeatedly exiling him.
2 The Roman Pope Liberius bore a special responsibility. At first, Liberius resolutely opposed the emperor and defended Saint Athanasius in every possible way. At some point, however, the “great renunciation” came. This did not happen immediately, however. At a series of church councils, convened both by Liberius himself and at the urging of Constantius, Athanasius was repeatedly acquitted, contrary to the emperor’s plan. But at one of the councils, the Arians succeeded in obtaining his excommunication. Liberius refused to recognize this condemnation of his spiritual brother. As a result, the emperor sent one of his highest officials to Rome. Soon after, Liberius was indeed arrested and taken to Milan, which at that time often served as the capital in the western part of the empire. Liberius not only refused to give in to the threats but denounced the authorities’ interference in ecclesiastical affairs so forcefully that his Apology went down in history and became a famous example of confronting the heretics in power.
3 As punishment, Pope Liberius was exiled first to Thrace and then to the Balkans. He was isolated and immersed in a sea of misinformation. Without human communication, the support of his clergy, and trusted circles, Liberius signed the condemnation of Athanasius in 357 and was able to return to Rome a year later. Since Rome, from an ecclesiastical perspective, was of apostolic origin and enjoyed enormous authority, such an act by a Roman bishop could have truly disastrous consequences for the affairs of the Church. But with the death of Emperor Constantius, Liberius found the strength to reform. He endorsed the decisions of the “pro-Nicene” Council of Alexandria in 362 and condemned the earlier heretical decrees of the Council of Rimini (359). Not content with this, he made every effort to bring back into ecclesiastical communion those bishops who had previously supported the Arians out of fear or prejudice, persuading them to abandon their error.
4 In 377, Saint Ambrose of Milan, in his treatise “On the Virgins,” wrote of Liberius: “It is high time to transmit the instructions of the glorious memory Liberius, for the holier the man, the more salutary are his words” (3.1). The opinions of such an authoritative Church Father meant ecclesiastical forgiveness and became the informal basis for canonization by the Church. Because of the moral suffering and physical violence Pope Liberius endured at the hands of heretics and the powerful, he is referred to in the Orthodox liturgical calendar as a “Confessor.” The example of Saint Liberius teaches believers—regardless of their own faults, social, or even ecclesiastical position—that moral and dogmatic conversion is always possible. At the same time, one should not only repent of one’s past actions but also try, as far as possible, to correct the damage caused by one’s wrong decision and action.