Institutiones Coenobiorum

Castor

bishop of Apt, was born at Nismes about the middle of the fourth century, and married an heiress, by whom he had a daughter. The family being fired with holy zeal, agreed to separate, in order that they might devote their wealth to the endowment of religious establishments, and their lives to seclusion and sanctity. Accordingly, they founded an abbey and a convent in Provence; the husband retired to the former, the wife and her daughter took the veil in the latter.

Works

Letter to Cassianus

There is still extant a letter addressed by Castor to Cassianus [CASSIANUS], soliciting information with regard to the rules observed in the monasteries of Palestine and Egypt. This request was speedily complied with, and produced the work Institutiones Coenobiorum, dedicated to Castor, which was followed by the Collationes Patrum, addressed to his brother, Leontius. The death of Castor took place in September, 419. We are told by Vincent St. Laurent, in the Biographie Universelle, that at a recent period the archives of the cathedral of Apt contained a MS. life of its canonized prelate, in which were enumerated with circumstantial details all the miracles ascribed to him.

Editions

The letter above-mentioned, which is composed in a very rude and harsh style, was first discovered by Gazet, was prefixed to the Institutiones in his edition of Cassianus, and republished in a more correct form, from a MS. in the Royal Library at Paris, by Baluze in his edition of Salvianus and Vincentius Lirinensis, Paris, 1663, 8vo., and in the reprint at Bremen, 1688, 4to.; it is also found in the edition of Vincentius, Paris, 1669.

Further Information

Schoenemann, Bibl. Patrum Latin. 5.27.

[W.R]