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The Death of Ascetics: Sickness and Monasticism in the early Byzantine Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Peregrine Horden
Peregrine Horden*
Affiliation:
All Souls College, Oxford
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Extract

How should an ascetic die? Aaron the presbyter knew how. He had always led an exemplary life. Born in Armenia, probably during the first quarter of the sixth century, he entered a Monophysite Syrian monastery in early youth. He there distinguished himself for his humility, his unremitting labour in the monastery’s vineyard and guest-house, and his abundant zeal for the ascetic life. Frequently he would stand up all night. Only in old age did he consent to the luxury of a rug-covered plank as his bed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 22: Monks, Hermits and the Ascetic Tradition , 1985 , pp. 41 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1985

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References

1 c38, ed and trans Brooks, E.W. PO 18 pp. 641–5 Google Scholar. Aaron died in 560: see p. 644. John wrote the Lives in the late 560s: see PO 17 p. VII.

2 PO 18 pp. 643–4 (wans Harvey: see n7 below).

3 Cf. among a vast literature Nagel, P., Die Motivierung der Askese in der alten Kirche und der Ursprung des Mönchtums, TU 95 (1966)Google Scholar; Vööbus, [Arthur] [History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient 2 vols to date, CSCO sub 14, 17 (1958, 1960)Google Scholar].

4 c21, PO 17 p. 292.

5 PO 18 p. 644 (trans Harvey).

6 Magoulias, H.J., ‘The Lives of the Saints as Sources of Data for the History of Byzantine Medicine in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries’, BZ 57 (1964) pp. 127–50 Google Scholar at p. 143; Horden, Peregrine, ‘Saints and Doctors in the Early Byzantine Empire: the Case of Theodore of Sykeon’, SCH 19 (1982) pp. 1–13 Google Scholar at p. 10.

7 Harvey, Susan Ashbrook, ‘Physicians and Ascetics in John of Ephesus: an Expedient Alliance’, forthcoming. I am most grateful to Dr Harvey for allowing me to see and profit from this paper, originally read to the Symposium on Byzantine Medicine at Dumbarton Oaks in 1983, in advance of its publication in the proceedings (in DOP). I am also indebted throughout to Chadwick, [H.] [‘John Moschus and his Friend Sophronius the Sophist’, JTS 24 (1974)] pp. 41–74 Google Scholar. Professor Hall, Jonathan Katz, Professor Wallace-Hadrill and Judith Wilson have kindly advised me on particular points.

8 See also Ashbrook, S., ‘Asceticism in Adversity: an Early Byzantine Experience’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 6 (1980) pp. 1–11 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harvey, [S. Ashbrook], ‘The Politicisation of the Byzantine Saint’ [The Byzantine Saint ed Hackel, Sergei, Studies Supplementary to Sobornost 5 (1981)] pp. 37–43 Google Scholar, and Asceticism and Society in the Sixth Century Byzantine East (forthcoming).

9 Palladius, [Historia Lausiaca ed Bartelink, G.J.M. (Verona 1974 Google Scholar)] c12. Cf. c55.

10 Moschus, [Pratum spirituale, PG 87. 3 coll 2851–3112 Google Scholar] c8.

11 Moschus c10. Cf. Apophthegmata Patrutn [alphabetical collection, PG 65 coll 72–440] Daniel 4, trans [Benedicta] Ward [SLG, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (London and Oxford 1975)] p. 52.

12 Apophthegmata Patrum Syncletica 8, trans Ward p. 232.

13 Moschus, ed Nissen, Th., BZ 38 (1938) p. 358 Google Scholar, c5.

14 Vita Theodori [Syceotae ed and trans A-J. Festugière, sub hag 48, 2 vols (Brussels 1970)] cc39, 77.

15 Palladius c26. Cf. Moschus c14. On castration see The Sentences of Sextus ed Chadwick, Henry (Cambridge 1959) pp. 109–12; Vööbus vol 1 pp. 257–8 Google Scholar.

16 La Vie et les miracles de Saint Syntéon Stylite l’ancien ed Chaîne, M. (Cairo 1948) p. 18 Google Scholar (the Coptic Life); Moschus c171.

17 Palladius c2.2.

18 Harvey, , ‘The Politicisation of the Byzantine Saint’, p. 40 Google Scholar.

19 PO 17 cc3, 12, 15; 18 cc34, 35.

20 Cf. Chadwick pp. 61–3, 72–4.

21 Roberta, Cf. Chesnut, C., Three Monophysite Christologies (Oxford 1976) pp. 47–50, 70–75 Google Scholar; Halleux, André de, Philoxène de Mabbog (Louvain 1963) pt 3 Google Scholar.

22 Plerophories ed and trans Nau, F., PO 8 pp. 50–1, 65–7 Google Scholar.

23 Moschus c65.

24 Theodoret (of Cyrus, , Historia Religiosa ed and trans Canivet, Pierre and Leroy-Molinghen, Alice, 2 vols SCR 234, 257 (1977, 1979 Google Scholar)] c22. 4.

25 Theodoret c21. 8, 11. Cf. c2. 18.

26 Apophthegmata patrum Aio, Arsenius 36, Theodore of Pherme 26, trans Ward pp. 16–17, 37, 77–8.

27 The technique Introducilo of installing a catheter had been described in pseudo-Galen, Introductio seu medicus, Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia ed Kühn, C.G. (Leipzig 1821-33, repr Hildesheim 1965) c19, vol 14 pp. 787–8 Google Scholar. On medical schools see now Wilson, N.G. Scholars of Byzantium (London 1983 Google Scholar). Aaron died in 560 (cf. ni above). John says that he lived for eighteen years after his operation, and eighteen sounds more precise than John’s usual round figure of thirty (cf. PO 17 p. 291; 18 p. 626). The operation can therefore be dated to the early 540s, when we know John to have been generally in Constantinople. See PO 18 p. 643 and Honigmann, [Ernest], Evêques et évêchés Monophysites d’Asie antérieure au Vie siècle, CSCO sub 2 (1951) p. 208 Google Scholar.

28 PO 18 p. 536. On John of Hephaistu see Honigmann p. 165. Theodoret, Cf. Letters 114, 115 Google Scholar, ed Azéma, Yvan SCR 40, 98, 111 (1964, 1965, 1982 Google Scholar).

29 Vita Theodori CC145-6. Mt Athos MS Philotheou 8 fol 198v.

30 Cf. Barsanuphe et Jean de Gaza: Correspondance trans Lucien Regnault et al (Solesmes 1972) CC225, 327, 508; Theodore of Petra, Vita Theodosii Coenobiarchae trans Festugière, A-J., Les moines d’Orient vol 3.3 (Paris 1963 Google Scholar) c16; Palladius c7; Syriac and Arabic Documents Regarding Legislation Relative to Syrian Asceticism ed Vööbus (Stockholm 1960) pp. 16, 30, 175; Basil, , Regulae Fusius Tractatae C55, PG 31 coll 1043–52 Google Scholar; Diadochus of Photice, Capita Gnostica ed Edouard des Places SCR 5 (1955) c53.

31 Die 50 Geistlichen Homilien des Makarios ed Dörries, Hermann, Klostermann, Erich and Kroeger, Matthias, Patristische Texte und Studien 4 (Berlin 1964) C48. 3–6 Google Scholar. Makarios/Symeon, Cf., Reden und Briefe: Die Sammlung I des Vaticanus Graecus 694 (B) ed Berthold, H., GCS (Berlin 1973) Logos 55. 3, vol 2 p. 168 Google Scholar. I owe these references, and the final one in n30 above, to the kindness of Dr Chadwick. For a general, comparativist perspective see Vööbus vol 2 cc8, 9.

32 Pace Vööbus. Cf. Lives of the Eastern Saints, PO 17 p. 181, 18 p. 627; Theodoret c21. 6.

33 Palladius C19; Vööbus vol 2 p. 293, with vol 1 pp. 154–5 on ascetic suicide.

34 Cf. Theodoret C2. 18; Historia Monachorum in Aegypto ed A-J. Festugière sub hag 34 (Brussels 1961) bk 10 c17; Vita Theodori c39.

35 Oman, John Campbell, The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India (London 1903 Google Scholar) remains a valuable ethnography. Sprockhoff, Joachim Friedrich, Samnyāsa: Quell-enstudien zur Askese im Hinduismus vol 1 (Wiesbaden 1976 Google Scholar) is more a literary study.

36 Moschus CC3, 36, 194.

37 Cf. pseudo-Justin (? Theodoret) Quaestiones ad orthodoxos C55, PG 6 col 1297; pseudo-Anastasius Sinaita, Quaestiones C94, PG 89 col 732. On Erotapokriseis see Gilbert Dagron, ‘Le saint, le savant, l’astrologue: étude de thèmes hagiographiques à travers quelques recueils de “Questions et réponses” des Ve-VIIe siècles’, Hagiographie, Cultures et Sociétés IVe-XIIe siècles (Paris 1981) pp. 143–55; Theognosti Thesaurus ed Munitiz, Joseph A. CC Series Graeca 5 (1979) pp. CIX–CXXIII Google Scholar. See also Patlagean, Evelyne, Pauvreté économique et pauvreté sociale à Byzance 4e-7e siècles (Paris 1977) pp. 101, 104–5 Google Scholar for the legislation and the hagiography. Passages such as the Greek Vita prima of Pachomius, ed Halkin, F. sub hag 19 (1932 Google Scholar) C52 might also be considered in this context.

38 Pt 3 bk 3 c6, ed E. W. Brooks CSCO 105–6 (1935–6) trans Smith, P. Payne (Oxford 1860) p. 177 Google Scholar.