Pelagius

Pelagius

ST., an Eastern ecclesiastic, flourished in the second half of the 4th century. He was made bishop of his paternal city, Laodicea, notwithstanding that he was a married man, because he abstained on religious grounds from all sexual connection. He was one of the leaders of the orthodoxy, and in their struggles with the Arians took part at the synods of Antioch (A.D. 361) and Tyana (367). He was banished to Arabia by the emperor Valens in 370, but was permitted to return in a few years, and was present at the Council of Constantinople in 381, and was one of its most honored attendant bishops.