Today, the Church remembers St. Vincent of Lérins.
Saint Vincent of Lérins, who died c. 445 A.D., was a Gallic monk and author of early Christian writings. One example was the Commonitorium, c. 434, which offers guidance in the orthodox teaching of Christianity. As a critic of St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Vincent was out of step with the Church of Rome, which had made of St. Augustine the center of their theology, but because of his orthodox teaching he is nevertheless venerated as a saint by the Church. He opposed the Augustinian model of Grace and held to a model of Grace more closely resembling the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Vincent upheld tradition and seemed to have objected to much of Augustine's work as "new" theology, embedded with too much of the philosophical categories of new-Platonism, which he did not think befit the teaching of the Jesus, the apostles, and the Apostolic Fathers (a view still held by the Orthodox Churches). In the Commonitorium he listed theologians and teachers who, in his view, had made significant contributions to the defense and spreading of the Gospel; he omitted Augustine from that list.
Vincent wrote his Commonitory to provide himself with a general rule to distinguish Catholic/ Orthodox truth from non-Christian beliefs, committing it to writing as a reference. It is known for Vincent's famous maxim:
"Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all."
Blessed Vincent, you devoted your life to the learning of, and the teaching of, the Christian Faith of the undivided Early Church. Pray for us who follow the same vocation, that we may be faithful teachers of the Faith, able to discern Truth from falsehood, and so declare the Gospel of Jesus undiluted, that all the world might know the redeeming power of the Resurrected Lord.
Ora pro nobis.
Amen.
