FULGENTIUS, SAINT (468-533), bishop of Ruspe, in the province of Byzacene, in north Africa, was born at Telepte. He was well educated and became fiscal procurator, but later took up the monastic life. About the year 500, persecution drove him to Syracuse and Rome. On his return he was made abbot of a small community on an island, and in 508, against his will, was elected bishop of Ruspe. Two years later he was banished, with other African bishops, whom he represented at a disputation before King Thrasimund in 515. On the death of the king in 523, Fulgentius was able to return to Ruspe, where he re mained until 532, when he retired to a monastery on the island of Circe, and practised a strict asceticism. He died on Jan. 1, 533. Of his works, which were written against Arianism and Pelagianism, and are penetrated by the thought of St. Augustine, the chief are Ad Trasimundum regent Vandalorunt libri tres, Dc Fide, Ad Monimum, De Veritate praedestinationis et gratiae Dei, De remission peccatorum and Contra Arianos.
The best edition is in Migne, Patrol. Lat., vol. lxv. See also A. Mally, Das Leben des heiligen Fulgentius (1885) , and 0. Bardenhewer, Patrologie (Freiburg, 1901).