Pope Benedict XVI Blog

St. Justin was a witness to the eternal truth which is Christ, Pope says at Audience

General Audience

Vatican City, Mar 21, 2007 / 10:21 am (CNA).- Continuing his catechesis on the important Saints of the early Church this Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to some 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on St. Justin, philosopher and martyr. The Holy Father called St. Justin the most important of the Apologist Fathers of the second century.

St. Justin, said the Pope, was born in Samaria around the year 100. He “long sought after the truth” by studying Greek philosophy before converting to Christianity after meeting a mysterious old man who spoke to him “of mankind's incapacity to satisfy his aspiration to the divine through his own efforts,” then indicated “in the ancient prophets ... the path to God and ‘true philosophy,’” exhorting Justin to pray in order to open the “doors of light.”

After his conversion, Justin founded a school in Rome where he taught the new religion to his pupils free of charge. He was denounced for his activities and decapitated during the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

In his works “Justin seeks to explain, above all, the divine project of salvation that comes about in Jesus Christ, the Word of God,” said the Holy Father. “All men and women, as rational beings, share in the Logos, they carry in themselves a ‘seed’ and can catch some glimmers of the truth.

“Thus,” he added, “the same Logos that was revealed in prophetic figures to the Jews in the ancient Law, was also partially manifested as ‘seeds of truth’ to the Greeks. ... And because Christianity is the historical and personal manifestation of the Logos in its entirety, it follows that ‘everything of beauty that has ever been expressed by anyone belongs to us Christians.’”
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 12:41 PM