Venerable
Venerable Auxentius of Bithynia
ок. 420 — ок. 470
Venerable Auxentius of Bithynia — a noble courtier at the court of Emperor Theodosius the Younger who left court life for monasticism; a participant in the Fourth Ecumenical (Chalcedonian) Council of 451, a denouncer of the heresies of Eutyches and Nestorius; he labored as a hermit on a mountain in Bithynia later named after him.
Venerable Auxentius was born around 420 and in his youth was a noble courtier at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Younger. Leaving a brilliant court career, he took monastic vows and withdrew for hermit's asceticism to a mountain in Bithynia (Asia Minor), which later took his name — Mount Auxentius. In 451 he took part in the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, where he emerged as a resolute denouncer of the Monophysite heresy of Eutyches and of Nestorianism, defending the Orthodox teaching on the two natures of Christ. He also became known as a church hymnographer. He died around 470. His memory is kept on February 14/27.
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