Severian of Gabala

Severian, Bishop of Gabala in Syria (Greek: Σεβηριανός; 355 – 408/425), was a popular preacher in Constantinople from around 400 until 404.

When, by the end of 401, the then archbishop John Chrysostom went to Asia, he charged Severian with the pastoral care of the church of Constantinople.

But Severian was opposed and insulted by the deacon Sarapion, whom Chrysostom had delegated the economical affairs of the church.

Several homilies, some of them lost in Greek, were translated into other languages (Latin, Coptic, Georgian, Armenian, Slavonic and Arabic, perhaps also in Syriac.

He is notorious for his six sermons on the Creation, in which he expresses "absurdly literal"[6] views including support for the Flat Earth.