Saint Prosper of Aquitaine

Saint Prosper of Aquitaine (born c. 390, Lemovices, Aquitania—died c. 463, probably Rome; feast day July 7) was an early Christian polemicist famous for his defense of Augustine of Hippo and his doctrine on grace, predestination, and free will, which became a norm for the teachings of the Roman Catholic church. Prosper’s chief opponents were the Semi-Pelagians, who believed in the power of man’s innate will to seek God, but at the same time accepted Augustine’s concept of the universality of original sin as a corruptive force that cannot be overcome without God’s grace.

Before 428, Prosper moved to Marseille, where he lived as a monk. Reacting to the rise of Semi-Pelagianism, he wrote (428) an appeal for help to Augustine, who replied with De praedestinatione sanctorum (“Concerning the Predestination of the Saints”) and De dono perseverantiae (“Concerning the Gift of Perseverance”). In response to continuing Semi-Pelagian attacks, Prosper single-handedly rose to Augustine’s defense. In his writings he opposed one of the most revered monks of the era, Abbot John Cassian of Saint-Victor, as well as Vincent of Lérins. He also wrote a reply to the general attack on Augustine, Ad objectiones Gallorum calumniantium (“To the Objections of the Gallic Calumniators”).

After Augustine’s death (430) in Hippo, Prosper went to Rome in 431 to enlist the aid of Pope Celestine I, who wrote a letter praising Augustine. Prosper then returned to France, but by 435 he had established himself at Rome as secretary to Pope Leo I the Great.

Before his death he composed a collection of Augustinian propositions called Liber sententiarum Sancti Augustini (“The Book of the Sentences of St. Augustine”), which was used in the decrees of the second Council of Orange in 529 refuting Semi-Pelagianism.