"Although Severus was an active lobbyist at the imperial court, a pastor, administrator and scholar, his works have come down to us only in fragments in the original Greek after they were condemned by imperial edict in A.D. 536. This volume translates a key selection of his writings and introduces readers to Severus's life and times, his thought, homiletic abilities, and his pastoral concern as expressed through his letters and hymns. Severus is a truly pivotal late-antique figure, who is here for the first time rehabilitated as such."--BOOK JACKET.