“A man content to go to heaven alone will never go to Heaven” – Boethius
What have you done, lately, to help someone get to Heaven?
Today is the feast of St. Severinus Boethius (+525), the author of the Consolation of Philosophy. He was a pivotal figure at the cusp of late Antiquity and what are called the Middle Ages.
Boethius was a member of an ancient Roman family. Among his accomplishments were translations and commentaries of Aristotle’s works on logic in Latin along with Euclid’s Elements. He also wrote on arithmetic, geometry, music, and perhaps astronomy and he coined the term quadrivium (four-fold way), the basis of education for centuries, now revived in a way in homeschool circles (thank you, Dorothy Sayers!).
Boethius was an important figure in the court of Theodoric the Ostrogoth. Theodoric would eventually come to believe that Boethius was conspiring against him and threw him in prison before executing him. While he was in prison, he composed the astonishingly influential Consolation of Philosophy.
Here is his entry in the Martyrologium Romanum:
6*. Papiae in Liguria, commemoratio sancti Severini Boetii, martyris, qui, scientia ac scriptis praeclarus, in carcere detentus tractatum scripsit de consolatione philosophiae et Deo usque ad mortem a Theodorico rege inflictam cum integritate servivit.
Who wants to take a crack at the Latin?
Take note that the entry calls him “Saint” Boethius. So does the official Vatican Curia’s calendar. He is celebrated as a saint in Pavia.
You may be interested to know that Boethius’ tomb is in the crypt of the same church where St. Augustine’s remains are interred: San Pietro in Ciel d’oro in Pavia, south of Milan.
Here is Lady Philosophy explaining God to Boethius in the guise of 15th c. France.
It’s too bad that hats are not more in style these days.
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And oh how we need consolation in these recent days. Thanks for the reminder, Father.
Trying to get my wife and children to the heavenly port. Seriously considering a move to the USA from Canada. The potential move is linked to the Heaven part. An existential hope as it were with more economic certainties. I own a house to have children in. I’m sure my kids hope the same for their adulthood. Trying to aid vocations if that makes sense.
The picture of Boethius being instructed by Lady Philosophy reminded me of a very lucid dream I had a few years ago. I was standing in a garden, very similar situation to the one depicted although I was hatless, when a nun in full habit told me, I quote “the only road that is worth travelling is the road that leads to Jesus Christ “.
I’ve often wondered who said nun was. I wasn’t even Catholic at the time I had said dream. Anyway, this message has kept me going on many occasions when I have strayed off the road into the woods.
A bit more about Boethius:
From The Relics of St Boethius, by Gregory DiPippo, October 23, 2023:
Excerpts:
Shortly thereafter, Theodoric had come to believe that members of the senate in Rome were plotting with the Emperor to overthrow his kingdom and restore direct control of Italy to Byzantium. When one of their number was charged with this conspiracy, Boethius defended him in court, for which he was also accused of the conspiracy, arrested, imprisoned at Pavia, and condemned to death.
[Later]
Although his death was essentially a political matter and not inflicted for the Faith, he was popularly venerated as a martyr, since he was unjustly put to death by an Arian heretic.