{{Infobox Saint
|name= Saint Magnus Felix Ennodius
|birth_date=~474
|death_date=July 17, 521
|feast_day= July 17 
|venerated_in= Roman Catholic Church
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|imagesize= 250px
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|birth_place= Arles
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'''Magnus Felix Ennodius''' (Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus, bishop of Vienne (died 518). All of them were linked in the tightly-bound aristocratic Gallo-Roman network that provided the bishops of Catholic Gaul.<ref>Ralph W. Mathisen, "Epistolography, Literary Circles and Family Ties in Late Roman Gaul" ''Transactions of the American Philological Association'' '''111''' (1981), pp. 95-109.</ref> He is regarded as a saint, with a feast day of July 17. <ref>Gross, Ernie. ''This Day In Religion.'' New York:Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 1990. ISBN 1-55570-045-4.</ref>

He was born at Arelate (Ennodius.</ref> but impecunious family. He was perhaps a son of Firminus (435 &ndash; ca 485), ''vir nobilis'' at Arelate, and perhaps a son of Flavius Ennodius, but certainly the brother of Euprepia (b. 465 or 470) (the mother of Flavius Licerius Firminus Lupicinus), a sister, and another sister (b. 465) (the mother of Parthenius (485 &ndash; 548), a Patron in 542, married to his relative (?) Papianilla (490 &ndash; ca 530), daughter of Agricola (440 &ndash; after 507), ''vir inlustris'', a Priest and son of Emperor Avitus.

Having lost his parents at an early age, he was brought up by an aunt at Ticinum (Pavia); according to some, at Mediolanum (Milan). After her death he was received into the family of a pious and wealthy young lady, to whom he was betrothed. It is not certain whether he actually married this lady; she seems to have lost her money and retired to a convent, whereupon Ennodius entered the Church, and was ordained deacon (about 493) by Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia.

From Pavia he went to Milan, where he continued to reside until his elevation to the see of Pavia about Theodoric on an embassy to the emperor Anastasius, to endeavour to bring about a reconciliation between the Eastern and Western churches. His epitaph still exists in the basilica of St Michael at Pavia.<ref>''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'', v. pt. ii. No. 6464.</ref>

== Writings ==
Ennodius is one of the best representatives of the two-fold (pagan and Christian) tendency of 5th century literature, and of the Gallo-Roman clergy who upheld the cause of civilization and classical literature against the inroads of barbarism. But his anxiety not to fall behind his classical models--the chief of whom was Virgil -- his striving after elegance and grammatical correctness, and a desire to avoid the commonplace have produced a turgid and affected style, which, aggravated by rhetorical exaggerations and popular barbarisms, makes his works difficult to understand. It has been remarked that his poetry is less unintelligible than his prose.

The numerous writings of this ecclesiastic may be divided into:
#letters
#miscellanies
#discourses
#poems
The letters on a variety of subjects, addressed to high church and state officials, are valuable for the religious and political history of the period. Of the miscellanies, the most important are:
*The ''Panegyric of Theodoric'', written to thank the Arian king for his tolerance of Catholicism and support of Pope Symmachus (probably delivered before the king on the occasion of his entry into Ravenna or Milan); like all similar works, it is full of flattery and exaggeration, but if used with caution is a valuable authority
*The ''Life of St Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia'', the best written and perhaps the most important of all his writings, an interesting picture of the political activity and influence of the church
*''Eucharisticon de Vita Sua'', a sort of confessions, after the manner of Augustine of Hippo
*the description of the enfranchiseinent of a slave with religious formalities in the presence of a bishop
*''Paraenesis didascalica'', an educational guide, in which the claims of grammar as a preparation for the study of rhetoric, the mother of all the sciences, are strongly insisted on.
The discourses (''Dictiones'') are sacred, scholastic, controversial and ethical. The discourse on the anniversary of Laurentius, bishop of Milan, is the chief authority for the life of that prelate; the scholastic discourses, rhetorical exercises for the schools, contain eulogies of classical learning, distinguished professors and pupils; the controversial deal with imaginary charges, the subjects being chiefly borrowed from the ''Controversiae'' of the elder Seneca; the ethical harangues are put into the mouth of mythological personages (e.g. the speech of Thetis over the body of Achilles).

'''Magnus Felix Ennodius''' (* 473 oder 474 wahrscheinlich in Arles; † 17. Juli 521 in Pavia), auch '''Ennodius von Pavia''', war Bischof von Pavia und verfasste eine Vielzahl von christlichen Schriften in lateinischer Sprache.

== Leben ==

Ennodius entstammte einer adligen Familie. Nach dem frühen Tod seiner Eltern zog er zu seiner Tante in Pavia. Dort wurde er wahrscheinlich in den profan-klassischen Gebieten (den ''Artes'') ausgebildet. Nicht ganz klar ist, ob er mit seiner Frau, einer Tochter seiner Tante, nur verlobt war oder sie auch heiratete; jedenfalls führte er zunächst ein weltliches Leben. Er trat spätestens im Jahr 494 zum Christentum über und entschloss sich, ein geistliches Leben zu führen.

In seiner Selbstbiographie (dem ''Eucharisticum de vita sua''), die sich stilistisch an den ''Confessiones'' des Augustinus orientiert, schreibt er, dass er mit diesem Werk ein Versprechen an den Heiligen Viktor eingelöst habe. Der Hilfe des Hl. Viktor, so Ennodius, habe er die Genesung von einer schweren Krankheit zu verdanken und dieses Erlebnis habe ihn zu einer Lebensumkehr bewogen. Allerdings erkrankte er erst im Jahr 511 und seine Bekehrung erfolgte deutlich früher.

Er begleitete Bischof Theoderichs des Großen. 

Im Streit um die Papstwahl vom Symmachus und Laurentius zum Papst gewählt wurden, engagierte sich Ennodius zu Gunsten des Symmachus. Auf der sogenannten ''Synodus Palmaris'' vom 23. Oktober 501, die Theoderich in Rom einberufen hatte, hatte die Synode entschieden, dass sie nicht über einen Papst richten dürfe, denn dieses sei Gott vorbehalten. Dieser Meinung schloss sich Ennodius in seinem ''Libellus pro synodo'' an. 

Seit dem Jahr 513 war Ennodius Bischof von Pavia und in dieser Funktion wurde er in den Jahren 515 und 517 von Papst Akakianischen Schismas zu bewegen. Allerdings blieben seine Bemühungen ohne Erfolg.

== Schriften ==

Vor seiner Zeit als Bischof verfasste Ennodius etwa 500 Werke. Historisch bedeutend als Geschichtsquelle sind eine Lobrede auf Theoderich (der ''Panegyricus Theoderico regi dictus'') und eine Biographie über Epiphanius von Pavia, seines Vorgängers als Bischof von Pavia (die ''Vita Epiphanii episcopi Ticinensis''). 

Weiterhin sind 297 Briefe erhalten, die er nach dem Vorbild des Symmachus verfasste. Ennodius schrieb außerdem 28 Reden zu verschiedenen Anlässen wie Schulfeiern, der Einweihung einer Basilika oder zum Jahrestag des Amtsantrittes des Bischofs Laurentius von Mailand. Ganz in der Tradition antiker Gelehrsamkeit stehen seine 151 Lieder und Epigramme, denen wenig literarische Bedeutung zugemessen wird: „''Das Versemachen wirkt improvisiert und an passende Gelegenheiten gebunden''”. <ref name="Rohr">[http://www.sbg.ac.at/ges/people/rohr/ennodius/operad.htm Kommentierte Liste zu Werken des Ennodius]</ref>

Vermutlich im Auftrag von Leontius, des Abtes des Klosters von Lérins, verfasste Ennodius im Jahr 506 eine Vita des Antonius von Lérins (die ''Vita Antonii monachi Lerinensis''). 