Gabriel Severus

1541-1616. Greek theologian. Born in Morea and educated at Padua, he later lived in Crete and Venice. In 1577 he was consecrated metropolitan of Philadelphia (Ala-Shehr) in Asia Minor (Turkey). Much of his time was spent in Venice ministering to the Greek-speaking people there. His proximity to the Roman Catholic Church led him to feel the need to expound and defend the principles of his own church. Two of his major works were explanations and defenses of the Orthodox custom of venerating the elements of the Eucharist before the actual consecration had taken place. Another treatise, An Exposition against those who...teach that the members of the Eastern Church are schismatics..., defended the validity of his church against the critical remarks of leading Jesuits such as Bellarmine.* He was known to scholars in England and helped in the edition of Chrysostom's works prepared by Henry Savile in 1610-13.