Saint Optatus of Milevis (4th century)

A bishop almost without a biography

Few Church Fathers leave a work as influential for a life as poorly documented. Neither the year of Optatus's birth, nor that of his death, nor the stages of his formation, nor the exact length of his episcopate is known. All we know of him must be pieced together from three indirect sources: his own treatise, a brief notice by Saint Jerome and a few laudatory mentions by Saint Augustine^[5][6].

This documentary scarcity is not peculiar to Optatus: many 4th-century African bishops, even authors of major works, left no ancient biography. But it is striking in a man whose treatise was to become the direct source of the greatest doctor of the Latin West on the question of schism.

Milevis, episcopal city of Numidia

Milevis (Lat. Milevis or Mileum), today Mila in Algeria, was a city of the Roman province of Numidia, not far from Cirta (today Constantine), the provincial capital and one of the great centres of the Donatist crisis. Like many 4th-century Numidian sees, Milevis probably had its own Donatist community rivaling Optatus's Catholic community — Numidia being, with the Proconsular province, one of the regions where Donatism was most solidly established^[7][8].

A convert, perhaps a pagan rhetor

Saint Augustine, listing the great converts whose profane riches the Church "spoiled Egypt" of, to put them at the service of the Gospel, cites Optatus alongside figures themselves converted from brilliant careers as rhetors or orators:

"Do we not see with how great a booty of gold and silver and garments Cyprian, doctor suavissimus, came forth out of Egypt, and likewise Lactantius, Victorinus, Optatus, Hilary?" — Saint Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, II, 40^[9]

The comparison with Saint Cyprian (a former rhetor of Carthage) and with Lactantius and Marius Victorinus (both professional rhetors before their conversion) has led historians to suppose that Optatus too was a former pagan rhetor^[10]. It is, however, only a cautious inference: Augustine does not say so explicitly of Optatus, and no source details his conversion as it does Cyprian's in the Ad Donatum. Honesty requires presenting this point as a solid hypothesis, not as an established fact.

Bishop under Valentinian and Valens

What is known with certainty is that Optatus was bishop of Milevis when he wrote his treatise, under the joint reign of the emperors Valentinian I (364-375) and Valens (364-378)^[11]. Saint Jerome, who wrote his bio-bibliographical notice On Illustrious Men in 392-393, does not seem to know whether Optatus is still alive; the historian John Chapman, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, places Optatus's death after the writing of the second edition of his work, hence after 385-390, though no precise date is known^[12][13].

Genesis: answering Parmenian

Optatus's only known work is a polemical treatise, with no original title handed down with certainty, known today as Contra Parmenianum Donatistam ("Against Parmenian the Donatist") or De schismate Donatistarum ("On the Schism of the Donatists"). It answers a writing by Parmenian, the Donatist bishop of Carthage who had succeeded Donatus himself at the head of the separated party^[14][15].

Optatus's aim is not merely refutative: he also seeks to ease the return of the Donatists into the Catholic Church by presenting the origins of the schism in a conciliatory way, and by showing that the real causes of the rupture no longer concern, in his own day, the true issues in dispute^[16].

Two editions: six books, then seven

The text we possess today is the result of two successive redactions. Saint Jerome, in 392-393, knows only six books^[17]; yet the edition that has come down to us counts seven, and the list of the bishops of Rome it contains runs to Pope Siricius, elected in 384 — proof that the seventh book belongs to a revised edition, later than the first. That Jerome, a few years later, still mentions only six books is easily explained: either he had a copy of the first edition, or the second, prepared c. 385-390, had not yet reached him^[18][19].

Chapman establishes this dating from internal clues: in Book I, Optatus writes that more than sixty years have passed since the Diocletian persecution (303-305), which places the initial redaction c. 366-370; he also speaks of the heretic Photinus as still alive (Photinus died in 376), while the emperor Julian is already dead (363)^[20]. The plan of the work, laid out in Book I, moreover closes logically at the end of Book VI — a further sign that the seventh book is a later addition, intended to update the two episcopal lists (that of the Catholic bishops of Rome and the parallel, far briefer one of the Donatist antipopes at Rome) and to answer new developments in the controversy^[21].

The Appendix: an irreplaceable documentary dossier

Part of the unique manuscript that transmitted Optatus's work preserves an appendix of ten official documents — letters of the emperor Constantine, minutes, acts of the trial before the governor Zenophilus — assembled, it seems, by a Catholic controversialist between 330 and 347, to serve as a reference dossier on the beginnings of the schism^[22]. This collection, already mutilated when it was copied by the single manuscript that has transmitted it to us, remains one of the most precious first-hand documentary sources on the early history of Donatism, alongside Optatus's own account of the judgment given by Pope Saint Miltiades in 313^[23]. The reference critical edition of the treatise in seven books, appendix included, remains the one established by Karl Ziwsa for the Vienna Corpus^[24].

"Where is the one Church?": catholicity against the African withdrawal

Catholics and Donatists agreed on one point: the Church of Christ can only be one. The disagreement concerned the following question: where is this one Church to be found? Optatus absolutely refuses that it could be confined to one corner of Africa:

"The holy Church cannot be found in one part of Africa only. […] She is also in Spain, in Gaul, in Italy, […] through countless islands and so many other provinces." — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, II^[25]

It is here that there appears, in Optatus, the use of the word catholica as a true substantive — "the Catholic Church" — designating the Church spread throughout the whole inhabited world, as opposed to a Donatist Church confined to Africa and even, within Africa, undermined by its own internal divisions^[26].

Parmenian's six "dotes" of the Church

To establish where the true Church is to be found, Parmenian had listed what modern editors call the six dotes ("dowries", constitutive properties) of the one Church. Optatus concedes five of them to his adversaries, but disputes with them the first and decisive one, the cathedra, which he claims for the Catholic Church — and it is on this that he rests the whole of his demonstration^[27][28].

Optatus concentrates his whole demonstration on the first of these properties, the cathedra: if he can show that it legitimately belongs to the Catholics, all the others follow from it^[29].

The single Chair of Peter and the list of the bishops of Rome

Whereas one might expect Optatus first to claim the legitimacy of the Catholic episcopal succession at Carthage itself — since it is there that the conflict between Caecilian and the schismatics was born — he chooses a more radical path: he goes straight back to Rome and to the Chair of Peter.

"We must examine who first sat in the chair, and where. […] You cannot deny that you know that at Rome, upon Peter first, the episcopal chair was conferred, where sat the chief of all the Apostles, Peter — whence also he was called Cephas —, so that in this one chair all might keep unity, lest each of the other Apostles should claim a chair of his own for himself, so that henceforth he would be schismatic and a sinner who should set up a second chair against this one chair. It is therefore in this one chair, the first of the dowries, that Peter first sat, whom Linus succeeded." — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, II^[30]

There follows — a very rare thing in 4th-century Christian literature — a complete name-by-name list of the bishops of Rome, from Linus to the contemporary pontiff, one of the oldest witnesses to this type of list used for directly apologetic ends:

"[…] and to Damasus, Siricius, who is today our colleague, with whom the whole world communes with us in the communion of a single bond, through the exchange of letters of recommendation. Tell us the origin of your chair, you who wish to claim the holy Church for yourselves." — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, II^[31]

Against this unbroken lineage Optatus sets the far briefer and far more recent list of the Donatist antipopes installed at Rome — Victor, Boniface, Encolpius, Macrobius, Lucianus, Claudianus — whose very fragility illustrates, by contrast, the solidity of the Catholic succession^[32]. The argument is simple and formidable: catholicity is verified by visible communion with a see whose origin goes back, unbroken, to the apostle Peter^[33]. For the theology grounding this conviction, see the article dedicated to apostolic succession.

Schismatics, not heretics: a measured position

One trait clearly distinguishes Optatus from many other Fathers in their manner of treating the separated: he refuses to call the Donatists "heretics" and holds them to be mere schismatics, having kept the true doctrine and true sacraments, but broken unity^[34].

This position, gentler than the severity of many Fathers toward schism, is explained in part by Optatus's conviction that true faith ends, in one way or another, by saving those who keep it — a thesis Augustine would later have to nuance and correct in his own anti-Donatist writings^[35]. The fact remains that this charity, far from weakening his doctrine of unity, is its most coherent expression: one can firmly hold that schism is a real evil without despairing of the salvation of those engaged in it through misguided fidelity.

"You are our brethren": charity toward the separated

Optatus pushes this charity to a striking rhetorical gesture: he continues to call the Donatist bishops his brethren, even though they refuse to recognize him as such.

"For you are our brethren, and we are yours, as the Prophet says: 'Has not one God made you, and one Father begotten you?'" — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, IV, 2^[36]

He pushes the argument to its logical conclusion by building on the common prayer of the Our Father:

"Let one of you say then, if he can: 'My Father, who art in heaven,' and 'give me today my bread,' and 'forgive me my offences, as I forgive him who has offended me.'" — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, IV, 2^[37]

Since the Donatists themselves recite the Our Father in the plural — "our Father", not "my Father" — they pray, despite themselves, every day, for the Catholics with whom they refuse communion. The argument, of great spiritual finesse, shows that Optatus thought of the Church's unity not as an abstract thesis, but as a reality already inscribed, despite everything, in the common prayer of separated Christians.

The sacraments are holy in themselves, not through men

Optatus's most lasting theological contribution concerns the objective validity of the sacraments. The Donatists had inherited from Saint Cyprian the conviction that baptism conferred outside the Church, or by an unworthy minister, was null. Optatus, while venerating Cyprian as a master, breaks on this precise point with his teaching:

"Sacramenta per se esse sancta, non per homines." — "The sacraments are holy in themselves, not through men." — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, V, 4^[38]

His demonstration distinguishes, in the sacramental act, three elements: the Trinity, the believer and the minister — and it ranks their importance in precisely this order, the minister coming last^[39]. In other words, it is God himself who confers the grace of the sacrament; the personal holiness or unworthiness of the one who administers it changes nothing. This insight — taken up and systematized a few decades later by Saint Augustine in his theology of ex opere operato — earns Optatus the reputation of being one of the fathers of the Catholic doctrine of the validity of the sacraments independently of the intention of the minister^[40]. See also What is a sacrament? and the sacramental character.

Optatus applies this same logic in denouncing Donatist violence against Catholic worship, notably the profanation of altars by the circumcellions:

"What is so profane as to break, scrape, remove the altars of God, on which you yourselves had once offered, on which the prayers of the people and the members of Christ have been borne, where almighty God has been invoked, where the Holy Spirit has been asked for and has come down, whence many have received the pledge of eternal salvation, the safeguard of faith and the hope of resurrection? […] For what is an altar but the seat of the Body and Blood of Christ?" — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, VI^[41]

Peter himself sinned: the argument of Book VII

In the seventh book, added in the second edition, Optatus develops a final argument in favour of reconciliation. He recalls that the apostle Peter himself committed a very grave fault — the denial of Christ — and yet kept the keys of the Kingdom: the other Apostles, through charity and concern for unity, did not separate themselves from his communion on that account^[42]. The argument serves the practical conclusion of the whole treatise: the Catholic Church must be ready to receive without difficulty the Donatists who return to unity, for there will always be sinners in the Church — the tares are mingled with the good grain —, but charity covers a multitude of sins^[43].

Optatus's style is described by the critical tradition as vigorous and lively, seeking concision and effect rather than the ample oratorical period — and this despite the insistent charity running through all his polemic against those he continues to call his "brethren"^[44]. He makes abundant use of Cyprian, with whom he shares a taste for metrical cadences rhythmic at the end of each sentence, while firmly refuting his error on baptism^[45]. His narratives of events are judged vivid and precise; his allegorical interpretations, on the other hand, sometimes seem forced — although, Chapman notes with a touch of scholarly irony, markedly less extravagant than those of Parmenian himself^[46].

Saint Jerome's testimony

In his bio-bibliographical gallery of Christian writers, Saint Jerome devotes to Optatus a brief but precious notice, the only independent and dated testimony we have on him from his probable lifetime:

"Optatus the African, bishop of Milevis, during the reign of the Emperors Valentinianus and Valens, wrote in behalf of the Catholic party six books against the calumny of the Donatian party, in which he asserts that the crime of the Donatists is falsely charged upon the catholic party." — Saint Jerome, On Illustrious Men, CX^[54]

This notice, written in 392-393, confirms at once Optatus's episcopal office, the dating of his work under Valentinian and Valens, and his already recognized status, barely a generation after him, as the leading Catholic representative in the controversy.

Saint Augustine's testimony

It is Saint Augustine, however, who secures Optatus's true posterity. In his polemic Against Cresconius (Contra Cresconium), Augustine designates him with a formula of marked respect, calling him of venerable memory and a bishop of the Catholic communion:

"Optatus, bishop of Milevis, of venerable memory, of the Catholic communion." — after Saint Augustine, Contra Cresconium, III^[55]

Augustine does not merely cite Optatus out of courtesy: he takes up, develops and systematizes several of his major insights — the distinction between the validity and the fruitfulness of the sacraments, the argument from catholicity against the African withdrawal of Donatism, the use of the Constantinian documentary dossier — to the point that Augustinian anti-Donatist theology can only be fully understood in the light of the work accomplished, a generation earlier, by the bishop of Milevis^[56][57]. It is in this precise sense that Optatus may be said to have been, without the fame, the master before the master of all Catholic anti-Donatist ecclesiology.

A sainthood without solemn process

Optatus never, properly speaking, received any organized ecclesiastical cult: his name is absent from all ancient martyrologies and calendars^[58]. He figures nevertheless, since its late insertion, in the Roman Martyrology, on 4 June^[59][60]. There is nothing abnormal in this for a 4th-century Church Father: at that time, recognition of the sainthood of a bishop, a doctor or a confessor of the faith proceeded from immemorial ecclesial consensus — local cult, gradual insertion into the liturgical books, reception by tradition — and not from a codified canonization process, which would only take shape much later in the Church's history. Optatus thus belongs to that large category of Fathers and saints of the first centuries honoured by tradition without formal process — a real recognition, though of a different nature from modern canonization, comparable in this to the place of Saint Cyprian among the Church Fathers, named in the Roman Canon without any more formalized canonization process.

It should be noted, in the same spirit of precision, that Optatus was never proclaimed a Doctor of the Church: that title presupposes a doctrinal eminence officially recognized by the Magisterium, distinct from sainthood itself. The list of the Doctors of the Church retains other great figures of African and Western Christian antiquity, but Optatus's theological contribution, though decisive, remains appreciated above all as that of a major source for the work of a Doctor who came after him: Augustine.

Seventeen centuries later, reading Optatus retains a precise relevance. It first recalls that a Church torn by a real schism — born of a genuine scandal, the betrayal of certain ministers during the persecution — need not choose between the demands of truth and charity toward the separated: these two demands stand together, in him, in one hand.

It then teaches that the holiness of the Church rests not on the personal holiness of each of its ministers, but on the action of God himself in the sacraments — a truth that frees the believer from scrupulous anxiety before the human weaknesses of the visible Church, without ever minimizing the gravity of sin.

Finally, by his own method, it shows what defending catholicity means: not first claiming one's own local right, but going back up to the common source — the Chair of Peter — where belonging to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church is verified through visible communion.

"You are our brethren, and we are yours." — This sentence of Optatus, addressed to adversaries who refused to return it to him, sums up his whole method: holding firm the truth of unity while never ceasing to love those who have separated themselves from it.

• Saint Augustine of Hippo — Optatus's direct heir, who developed and systematized his anti-Donatist theology.
• Saint Cyprian of Carthage — the African master whom Optatus venerates while correcting his error on the baptism of heretics.
• Saint Jerome — author of the only independent and dated biographical notice we have on Optatus.
• Pope Saint Miltiades — judge, in 313 at Rome, of the first trial between Caecilianus and the Donatists, as reported by Optatus himself.
• Donatism — the full history of the schism of which Optatus is the first great Catholic refuter.
• The validity of the sacraments and the intention of the minister — the doctrine Optatus's formula announces and prepares.
• What is a sacrament? and The sacramental character — to place this doctrine within sacramental theology as a whole.
• Why does the Catholic Church speak of apostolic succession? — the argument of the Chair of Peter developed by Optatus in Book II.
• Outside the Church, no salvation? — for the just scope of the axiom the Donatist schism calls into question.
• The heresies of the first centuries and The Doctors of the Church — to place Optatus within the great controversies and great authorities of the first centuries.