Deogratias

• Year: 457.
• Feast Day: March 22

He became Bishop of Carthage in North Africa in 456, fourteen years after the repose of his predecessor, St Quodvultdeus, who had been driven into exile by the Arian Vandals. He sold all that he or his church possessed in order to ransom prisoners of the Arian King.

St Victor of Vita in his History of Vandal Persecution wrote this of him: “After these things had taken place, the supplication of the emperor Valentinian brought it about that, after the long silence of desolation, a bishop named Deogratias was ordained for the church at Carthage. If anyone tried to itemize what the Lord did through him, he would run out of words before he could explain anything. But, after he had been made bishop, because of our sins it came to pass that Geiseric, in the ftfteenth year of his reign, seized Rome, the city until then most noble and renowned. At that time he took into captivity the wealth of many kings, as well as people.”