SAINT AURELIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CARTHAGE, C.

HE was archdeacon of Carthage, when, in 388, he was promoted to the archiepiscopal dignity of that see, to which was annexed a jurisdiction little inferior to that of a patriarch over all the metropolitans of the different provinces of Africa. He cultivated a strict friendship with St. Austin, held several councils against the Donatists, and was the first that condemned Celestius the Pelagian in a council held in 412, and Pelagius himself in another council in 416. He anathematized their heresy before St. Austin entered the lists against it. St. Aurelius died in 423. He is highly extolled by St. Fulgentius,1 and is mentioned in the African Calendar of the fifth age on the 20th of July. See the Acts of the Councils of Carthage, Baronius Baillet, &c.