Our Father among the Saints Maximus, Bishop of Turin
Life
Maximus of Turin was a fifth-century hierarch remembered as the first known Bishop of Turin in northern Italy. He is best known through his large surviving body of homilies and sermons, which made him one of the more important Latin preachers of his age. The Church commemorates him on June 25.
He was born around the year 380, probably in Rhaetia, a region of the late Roman Empire in the central Alps. He is said to have entered upon the see of Turin around the year 398, at a time when Turin was a suffragan see under the metropolitan authority of Milan. His episcopate fell during the troubled era of the barbarian invasions of Italy, and his writings preserve memories of the upheavals of that period.
Timeline 5 moments
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c. 380Birth in RhaetiaBorn around the year 380, probably in Rhaetia in the central Alps.
c. 398Bishop of TurinSaid to have become Bishop of Turin, a see then under the metropolitan authority of Milan.
451Synod of MilanPresent at the synod of Milan, where the bishops of northern Italy accepted the dogmatic letter of Pope Leo the Great; he subscribed eighth of nineteen.
465Synod of RomeAttended the synod of Rome, subscribing immediately after the pope as the eldest of forty-eight bishops present.
after 465ReposeDied shortly after the year 465.
Contributions & Legacy
2 contributions
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Episcopal Ministry and the Councils
As bishop, Maximus shepherded the church of Turin during the disorders of the barbarian inroads into Italy. His preaching addressed both the doctrinal instruction and the practical Christian life of his flock, and his sermons are valued by historians as witnesses to the religious and social conditions of his region.
He took part in two important gatherings of bishops. In 451 he was present at the synod of Milan, where the bishops of northern Italy received the celebrated dogmatic letter of Pope Leo the Great; among the nineteen who subscribed, Maximus stood eighth, a placement understood to indicate that he was then about seventy years of age. He also attended the synod of Rome held in 465, where his signature followed immediately after that of the pope, marking him as the eldest of the forty-eight bishops assembled. Some scholars have questioned whether the bishop active near the end of the fourth century is identical with the one who subscribed at these mid-fifth-century councils, since that identification would require an unusually long life and episcopate.
Homilies and Writings
Maximus left a substantial literary legacy, and roughly a hundred of his discourses survive. The collection traditionally ascribed to him comprises one hundred eighteen homilies, one hundred sixteen sermons, and six treatises.
His homilies were grouped by subject. Those numbered one through sixty-three are de tempore, addressing the seasons of the church year and the feasts of the Lord; numbers sixty-four through eighty-two are de sanctis, preached on the saints commemorated on the day of their delivery; and numbers eighty-three through one hundred eighteen are de diversis, treating exegetical, doctrinal, and moral subjects. Through these works his pastoral voice and his account of his own turbulent times have been preserved.
