University of Oxford
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

E03333: Palladius of Helenopolis in his Lausiac History mentions an anonymous female ascetic in Antinoopolis (Middle Egypt), who had a vision of *Kollouthos (physician and martyr of Antinoopolis, S00641), inviting her to have dinner in his shrine in anticipation of her death. Written in Greek at Aspuna or Ankyra (both Galatia, central Asia Minor), 419/420.

online resource
posted on 2017-07-18, 00:00 authored by erizos
Palladius of Helenopolis, Lausiac History (BHG 1435-1438v; CPG 6036), 60

60. Περὶ παρθένου τινὸς καὶ Κολλούθου τοῦ μάρτυρος

(1.) Ἄλλη τις γειτνιῶσά μοι, ἧς τὴν ὄψιν οὐχ ἑώρακα, προῆλθε γὰρ οὐδέποτε, ὡς λέγουσιν, ἀρ’ οὗ καὶ ἀπετάξατο· πληρώσασα δὲ ἑξήκοντα ἔτη ἐν τῇ ἀσκήσει μετὰ τῆς μητρὸς τῆς ἰδίας, ἐς ὕστερον ἔμελλε μεταβαίνειν τὸν βίον. Καὶ παραστὰς αὐτῇ ὁ μάρτυς ὁ ἐν τῷ τόπῳ, Κόλλουθος ὀνόματι, λέγει αὐτῇ· «Σήμερον μέλλεις ὁδεύειν πρὸς τὸν δεσπότην καὶ ὁρᾶν πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους· ἐλθοῦσα οὖν ἀρίστησον μεθ’ ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ μαρτυρίῳ». Ἀναστᾶσα οὖν ὄρθρου καὶ ἐνδυσαμένη καὶ λαβοῦσα ἐν τῇ σπυρίδι τῇ ἑαυτῆς ἄρτον καὶ ἐλαίας καὶ λεπτολάχανα, μετὰ τοσαῦτα ἔτη ἐξελθοῦσα καὶ ἀπελθοῦσα εἰς τὸ μαρτύριον ηὔξατο. (2.) Καὶ καιρὸν ἐπιτηρήσασα τῆς πάσης ἡμέρας ἐν ᾧ οὐδεὶς ἦν ἔνδον, καθεσθεῖσα προσκαλεῖται τὸν μάρτυρα λέγουσα· «Εὐλόγησόν μου τὰ βρώματα, ἅγιε Κόλλουθε, καὶ συνόδευσόν μοι ταῖς προσευχαῖς σου». Φαγοῦσα οὖν καὶ πάλιν προσευξαμένη ἦλθε περὶ ἡλίου δυσμὰς ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ. Καὶ δοῦσα τῇ μητρὶ τῇ ἑαυτῆς σύγγραμμα Κλήμεντος τοῦ Στρωματέως εἰς τὸν προφήτην Ἀμώς, εἶπε· «Δὸς αὐτὸ τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ τῷ ἐξωρισμένῳ, καὶ εἰπὲ αὐτῷ· “Εὖξαι περὶ ἐμοῦ· ὁδεύω γάρ”». Καὶ ἐτελεύτησεν ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ νυκτὶ μὴ πυρέξασα μὴ κεφαλαλγήσασα, ἀλλ’ ἑαυτὴν ἐνταφιάσασα.

‘About a virgin and Kollouthos the martyr.

There was another woman living near me, but I did not see her face, for she had never come out, as they say, since she had renounced the world. Having spent sixty years in ascetic discipline together with her mother, she was eventually about to depart this life. The martyr of that region, Kollouthos by name, appeared to her and said to her: "Today you are going to depart for the Master and see all the saints. Come then and share a meal with us at the shrine (martyrion)." So she got up early, dressed herself, and, taking in her basket bread and olives and vegetable leaves, she came out after all those years, went to the shrine, and prayed. She waited the whole day for an opportunity when no one was inside, sat down and called on the martyr, saying: "Bless my food, holy Kollouthos, and accompany me in your prayers." Thus, having eaten and prayed again, she went home about sunset. She gave her mother a book by Clement, the author of the Stromateis, on the prophet Amos, and said: "Give this to the exiled bishop and say to him: Pray for me, for I am departing." And she died that very night, with no fever or headache, but having prepared herself for burial.’

Text: Bartelink et al. 1974. Translation: E. Rizos.

History

Evidence ID

E03333

Saint Name

Kollouthos, physician and martyr of Antinoopolis (Middle Egypt), ob. early 4th cent. : S00641

Saint Name in Source

Κόλλουθος

Type of Evidence

Literary - Hagiographical - Monastic collections (apophthegmata, etc.)

Language

  • Greek

Evidence not before

419

Evidence not after

420

Activity not before

406

Activity not after

415

Place of Evidence - Region

Asia Minor Asia Minor

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Aspuna Ankyra

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Aspuna Nicomedia Νικομήδεια Nikomēdeia Izmit Πραίνετος Prainetos Nicomedia Ankyra Nicomedia Νικομήδεια Nikomēdeia Izmit Πραίνετος Prainetos Nicomedia

Major author/Major anonymous work

Palladius of Helenopolis

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Prayer/supplication/invocation

Cult Activities - Miracles

Miracle during lifetime Miracles experienced by the saint Miracle after death Apparition, vision, dream, revelation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Women Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits Ecclesiastics - bishops

Cult Activities - Relics

Contact relic - saint’s possession and clothes

Source

Born in 364 in Galatia in central Asia Minor, Palladius became a monk in 386, spending some years in Palestine, before moving to Alexandria. In c. 390, he joined the monastic community of Nitria, where he spent nine years, under Makarios of Alexandria and Evagrios of Pontus. In c. 399, he returned briefly to Palestine and then left for Constantinople where he became closely associated with John Chrysostom. By 400, he was ordained bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia (north-west Asia Minor), probably by Chrysostom. Palladius stood by his new protector throughout John’s conflict with Pope Theophilos of Alexandria over the affair of the Tall Brothers and the Council of the Oak. One year after John’s exile in 404, Palladius visited Rome in order to plead on John’s behalf with Pope Innocent I (401-411). Returning to Constantinople, he was arrested and one year later (406), he was exiled to Syene (Aswan) and Antinoe in Egypt. There he received the news of John’s death in Pontus (407) and wrote the Historical Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom (in 408 or shortly after, E02400). In the 410s, he was allowed to return to his native Galatia, and was restored as a bishop in the imperial church, being appointed to the see of Aspona. After his return from exile, in c. 419/420, Palladius published the Lausiakon (‘Book for Lausos’, widely known as the Lausiac History), a book commissioned by and dedicated to the patrician Lausos (imperial chamberlain in 420-422). Along with the History of the Monks of Egypt (E03558, composed in 395/397), Palladius’ work inaugurates the monastic genre of edifying stories and apophthegms. It immediately became a success: two decades after its publication, the ecclesiastical historian Socrates used the Lausiac History as a source (4.23.78), and it was translated into Latin and Syriac. There are also Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Arabic translations. Its copious manuscript tradition (242 manuscripts) and unstable transmission render a definitive critical edition of the text very difficult. On the manuscript tradition of the Greek text, see: http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/6840/ Like all monastic collections, the Lausiac History was mainly written to provide exemplars of ascetic virtue and edifying stories for broader spiritual benefit, rather than to encourage the active cult of the men and women included within it – indeed some of them serve as negative examples to avoid. It was, therefore, difficult for us to decide how to treat this work in our database, focused as it is on the cult of saints. At one extreme, we could have entered every (positive) figure within it as a saint, while, at the other extreme, we might have ignored the text altogether. In the end we came to a compromise position, with one overview entry for the full text (E03176), where all the holy men and women are named, and individual entries for chapters that either reveal interesting incidental details of saintly cult or cover major figures who, in time, came to attract cult. The Lausiac History in its many manuscripts and its many translations was in fact one of the principal ways these figures came to be known, and often venerated, across the Christian world. Some of its chapters were, indeed, later detached from the collection, and circulated as independent pieces of hagiography.

Discussion

This chapter refers to Palladios' years of exile in Egypt, and especially to the time he spent in the area of Antinoopolis. The story is one of the earliest dated testimonies for the cult of the highly popular martyr Kollouthos. We should notice the autobiographical aspect of the account: this holy woman, although she never met the exiled Palladius, knew about him and his tribulations. Her gift to him of a copy of the Strometeis is probably presented as a subtle acknowledgement of the suffering imposed on Palladius for sake of the theological tradition he espoused, the ancient teachings of Origen and his teacher, Clement.

Bibliography

Text: Butler, Cuthbert. The Lausiac History of Palladius: Greek Text Edited with Introduction and Notes. Texts and Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1904. Bartelink, G. J. M., Barchiesi, M. and Mohrmann, C. Palladio, La Storia Lausiaca. Scrittori Greci E Latini. Milano: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, Arnoldo Mondadori, 1974. (with Italian translation) English Translations: Wortley, J. Palladius, the Lausiac History, Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2015. Meyer, R. T. Palladius, the Lausiac History, Westminster MD: Newman Press: 1965. Lowtber Clarke, W. K. The Lausiac History of Palladius, London: Macmillan, 1918. Further reading: Katos, D. Palladius of Helenopolis: the Origenist Advocate. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Rapp, C. ‘Palladius, Lausus and the Historia Lausiaca.’ In C. Sode, S. Takács (eds.), Novum Millennium. Studies on Byzantine History and Culture Dedicated to Paul Speck, 19 December 1999, Aldershot: Ashgate, 279-289.

Usage metrics

    Evidence -  The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC