Amphilochius, Saint

AMPHILOCHIUS, am´´fi-lō´ki-us, SAINT: Apparently a cousin of Gregory Nazianzen, and closely associated with him and with Basil the Great in directing the policy of the Church at the time of the defeat of Arianism. He was originally a lawyer, but retired to a life of devotion and asceticism. In 373 he was chosen bishop of Iconium, the metropolitan see of Lycaonia. The year of his death is uncertain; but Jerome includes him as still living, in his De virus illustribus (392), and he appears as taking part in a synod at Constantinople in 394. Of the numerous works ascribed to him by Combefis (cf. MPG, xxxix.), not a few are doubtless not genuine. Late investigation, however, has brought to light other genuine works of Amphilochius. The Epistola synodica in defense of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity (376), and the Iambi ad Seleucum, ascribed to Gregory Nazianzen (MPG, xxxvii.), not without importance for the history of the canon, are not the only works of Amphilochius which are still extant.

(F. Loofs).

Bibliography: Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Græca, viii. 373-381, Hamburg, 1802; DCB, i. 103-107 (quite exhaustive); J. Fessler, Institutiones patrologiæ, i. 600-604, Innsbruck, 1900; K. Holl, Amphilochius von Ikonium, Tübingen, 1904; G. Ficker, Amphilochiana, part i., Leipsic, 1906.