Apolinaire de Laodicée

Apollinaris Laodicenus

Biographie

Born around 310, Apollinaris became Bishop of Laodicea in 360 and died around 392. He has the same name as his father, a priest and writer from the same city. Both father and son were linked to Athanasius in the struggle with Arianism. The expression “one sole nature incarnate of the Word of God", later taken up by Cyril of Alexandria who believed it to be from Athanasius, was in fact from Apollinaris. His doctrine, which was condemned at the Council of Constantinople of 381, is difficult to know precisely except via his opponents, such as Gregory of Nazianzus: according to Apollinaris, Christ assumed the body and soul of a man, but not the rational human mind (nous). A prolific writer and poet, he is the author of dogmatic writings, sometimes disguised under the name of orthodox authors (Athanasius, for example), sometimes partially reconstructable from florilegia or, in the case of his Antirrheticus, from the refutation made by Gregory of Nyssa. His apologetic and exegetical works are even less well preserved, and only in fragments, especially in exegetical catenae. A Paschal homily, transmitted under the name of John Chrysostom, was attributed to him by E. Cattaneo (SC 36).