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E04901: Evagrius Scholasticus in his Ecclesiastical History mentions miracles of the early 6th c. holy men Zosimas (monk near Tyre in Phoenicia, ob. 6th c., S01834) and Ioannes (monk of Choziba and bishop of Caesarea, both in Palestine, ob. c. 535, S02030). Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria), 593/594.

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posted on 2018-02-05, 00:00 authored by erizos

Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, 4.7

Summary:

This chapter recounts the stories of the holy monk Zosimas, who lived at the village of Sinde near Tyre, and of Ioannes, a monk of Choziba and later bishop of Caesarea of Palestine.

While at Caesarea of Palestine, Zosimas miraculously sensed the great earthquake of Antioch in 526. This was witnessed by a certain Arkesilaos, a notable of Caesarea.

Ioannes was a contemporary of Zosimas, and comparable to him. He lived as an ascetic at Choziba and became bishop of Caesarea. At some point, the same Arkesilaos’ wife had an accident which caused the pupil of her eye to fall out. The injury was miraculously healed and the eye restored by Ioannes, then bishop of Caesarea, and the prodigy was miraculously revealed to Zosimas.

During a journey, Zosimas compelled a lion which had eaten his donkey to bear his burden and accompany him to the gates of Caesarea.

Text: Bidez and Parmentier 2011 Summary: Efthymios Rizos

History

Evidence ID

E04901

Saint Name

Zosimas, ascetic in Palestine, 5th c. : S01834 Ioannes, ascetic of Choziba and bishop of Caesarea, ob. c. 535 : S02030

Saint Name in Source

Ζωσιμᾶς Ἰωάννης

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

593

Evidence not after

594

Activity not before

593

Activity not after

594

Place of Evidence - Region

Syria with Phoenicia

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Antioch on the Orontes

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

Antioch on the Orontes Thabbora Thabbora

Major author/Major anonymous work

Evagrius Scholasticus

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Composing and translating saint-related texts

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops Ecclesiastics - abbots

Source

Evagrius was born in about 535 in the Syrian city of Epiphania. Educated at Antioch and Constantinople, he pursued a career as a lawyer at Antioch, serving as a legal advisor to Patriarch Gregory (570-592). He wrote the Ecclesiastical History in 593/4, with the express purpose of covering the period following the coverage of the mid 5th century ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. His narrative starts with Nestorius and the Council of Ephesus (431) and stops with the death of Evagrius’ patron, Gregory of Antioch, in 592. The work offers a balanced mixture of ecclesiastical and secular events in the East Roman Empire, being best informed about Antioch and Syria. Evagrius also published a dossier of original documents from the archive of Patriarch Gregory of Antioch, which has not survived.

Discussion

Evagrius is the only source mentioning Zosimas. Ioannes/John of Choziba (ob. c. 535) was an ascetic of Egyptian origins, who converted from Monophysitism to the Chalcedonian faith after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and settled as a hermit at Choziba. He became bishop of Caesarea, but resigned the see in c. 520.

Bibliography

Text and French translation: Bidez, J., and Parmentier, L., Evagre le Scholastique, Histoire ecclésiastique (Sources Chrétiennes 542, 566; Paris, 2011, 2014), with commentary by L. Angliviel de la Beaumelle, and G. Sabbah, and French translation by A.-J.Festugière, B. Grillet, and G. Sabbah. Other translations: Whitby, M., The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus (Translated Texts for Historians 33; Liverpool, 2000). Hübner, A., Evagrius Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica = Kirchengeschichte (Fontes Christiani 57; Turnhout, 2007). Carcione, F., Evagrio di Epifania, Storia ecclesiastica (Roma, 1998). Further Reading: Allen, P., Evagrius Scholasticus, the Church Historian (Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, Etudes et Documents 41; Leuven, 1981). Aubert, R. “Jean le Chozibite,” DHGE 26 (1997), 1407-1408. Treadgold, W., The Early Byzantine Historians (Basingstoke, 2006), 299-308.