St. Philogonius was a lawyer, eminent for his eloquence. At the same time, the purity of his morals and the sanctity of his life were such that, although a layman, he was chosen Bishop. He succeeded Vitalis in the See of Antioch in the year 318, the same year that the heresiarch Arius, at Alexandria, began to deny the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.Arius was condemned by St. Alexander, his own Bishop, who sent the sentence in a synodal letter to St. Philogonius. During the persecution that the Church endured during the reign of Maxim and of Licinius in the early part of the 4th century, St. Philogonius was among those who suffered for the Faith.
St. John Chrysostom alludes to the flourishing condition of the Church of Antioch as a proof of the zeal and able administration of St. Philogonius. The Saint died in the year 324, the fifth of the episcopal dignity.
PRAYER: God, Light and Shepherd of souls, You established St. Philogonius as Bishop in Your Church to feed Your flock by his word and form it by his example. Help us through his intercession to keep the faith he taught by his word and follow the way he showed by his example. Amen.