Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius

Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe
Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe
Abbot and Bishop
Born	c. 465 Thelepte, Roman province of Africa
Died	(527-01-01)1 January 527 or 533 Ruspe, Kingdom of the Vandals
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast	1 January and 3 January (Augustinian Order)

Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (462 or 467 – 1 January 527 or 533) was bishop of the city of Ruspe, Roman province of Africa, North Africa in modern day Tunisia, during the 5th and 6th century. He was also canonized as a Christian saint.

Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius was born in the year 462 at Telepte (modern-day Medinet-el-Kedima), Tunisia, North Africa, into a senatorial family. His grandfather, Gordianus, a senator of Carthage, was despoiled of his possessions by the invader Genseric, then banished to Italy. His two sons returned after his death; though their house in Carthage had been taken over by Arian priests, they recovered some property in Byzacene.

His father, Claudius died when Fulgentius was still quite young. His mother, Mariana taught him to speak Greek and Latin. Fulgentius became particularly fluent with the former, speaking it like a native. His biographer says that at an early age Fulgentius committed the entire works of Homer to memory. He quickly gained wide public respect for the conduct of his family's affairs. This reputation helped him to acquire a post as a procurator or tax collector of Byzacena. He quickly grew tired of the material life, and this combined with his religious studies, (particularly a sermon of Augustine of Hippo on Psalm 36, which dealt with the transitory nature of physical life), convinced him to become a monk.

Around the year 499 he set out to join the hermits of the Thebaid in Egypt, but changed his mind was once he learned of the influence of monophysitism on Egyptian monasticism from Eulalius, bishop of Syracuse.

He applied to Faustus, a bishop who had been forced from his diocese by the Vandal king Huneric and later set up a monastery at Byzacena. Faustus had serious concerns about Fulgentius's physical weakness, which might have made him a poor candidate for the rigorous life of the monastery, and tried to dissuade the twenty-two-year-old Fulgentius from his request. After Fulgentius persisted, Faustus relented and admitted him on a trial basis.