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E05335: John Moschus, in his Spiritual Meadow, mentions a monastery of *Elpidios (perhaps the martyr of Melitene, S01014; or the name of a monastic founder) near Jericho in Palestine. Written in Greek, probably in Rome, in the 620s or 630s.

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posted on 2018-04-16, 00:00 authored by julia
John Moschus, The Spiritual Meadow, 154

In this chapter Moschus retells what he heard from Abba Jordanes the grazer, who told him that there was an Abba Nicholas who lived at Wadi Betasimos in a cave between [the monastery of] Elipidios [near Jericho] and the monastery known as 'of the Strangers' [in Jericho, Gr. τοῦ μοναστηρίου τοῦ λεγομένου τῶν Ξένων].

Text: Migne 1865 (PG 87.3). Summary: J. Doroszewska.

History

Evidence ID

E05335

Saint Name

Elpidios and Hermogenēs, martyrs at Melitene : S01014

Saint Name in Source

Ἐλπίδιος

Type of Evidence

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

Language

  • Greek

Evidence not before

614

Evidence not after

634

Activity not before

530

Activity not after

634

Place of Evidence - Region

Palestine with Sinai Rome and region

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Rome

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

Caesarea Maritima Καισάρεια Kaisareia Caesarea Kayseri Turris Stratonis Rome Rome Rome Roma Ῥώμη Rhōmē

Major author/Major anonymous work

John Moschus

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - monastic

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits

Source

John Moschus (c. 540/550–634) was a monk and spiritual writer. He lived successively with the monks of the monastery of St. Theodosios, south-east of Jerusalem, among the hermits of the Jordan Valley, and at the Lavra of Pharan in the Judaean Desert, where he spent ten years. About the year 578 he went to Egypt with Sophronius, his close friend to whom he was to dedicate the Spiritual Meadow. After 583 he perhaps came to Mount Sinai where he spent about ten years. In around 604 he went to Antioch but returned to Egypt later in the same decade. In around 614-619 he went to Cyprus, then to North Africa, and then to Rome, where he died before ‘the beginning of the eighth indiction’ (i.e. September 634). He wrote the Spiritual Meadow and co-authored with Sophronius a Life of John the Almoner. The Spiritual Meadow (Gr. Leimōn pneumatikos; Lat. Pratum spirituale) was written in the 620s or 30s, very probably in Rome. The work narrates Moschus' personal experiences with many of the ascetics whom he met during his extensive travels, mainly through Palestine, Sinai and Egypt, but also Cilicia and Syria, and recounts the edifying stories and sayings that he received from them. The title of the work is explained as an analogy between picking flowers in a springtime meadow and picking edifying stories and sayings from the lives of holy men and women. The number of chapters varies depending on the manuscript.

Discussion

The monastery of the Strangers was located in Jericho. [The monastery of] Elpidios is identified with the lavra of Douca on a mountain nearby Jericho (the modern Jebel Quarantal) in Palestine.

Bibliography

Edition: Migne, J.P, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 87.3 (Paris, 1865), 2851-3116. Translations: Maisano, R., Giovanni Mosco, Il prato (Naples, 2002). Rouët de Journel, M.-J., Jean Moschus, Le Pré Spirituel (Sources chrétiennes 12; Paris, 1946, repr. 2006). Wortley, J., John Moschos, The Spiritual Meadow (Cistercian Studies Series 139; Kalamazoo, 1992). Further reading: Baynes, N.H., "The Pratum spirituale," Orientalia Christiana Periodica 13 (1947), 404-414; repr. in Baynes, Byzantine Studies and Other Essays (London, 1955), 261-270. Binggeli, A. “Collections of Edifying Stories,” in: S. Efthymiadis (ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography II: Genres and Contexts (Farnham, 2014), 143-160, esp. 146-147. Chadwick, H.J., "John Moschus and his friend Sophroonios the Sophist," Journal of Theological Studies 25 (1974), 41-74. Follieri, E., "Dove e quando mori Giovanni Mosco?," Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici 25 (1988), 3-39. Mioni, E., "Il Pratum Spirituale di Giovanni Mosco: gli episodi inediti del Cod. Marciano greco II.21," Orientalia Christiana Periodica (1951), 61-94. Mioni, E., "Jean Moschus, Moine," Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 7 (1973), cols. 632-640. Nissen, T., "Unbekannte Erzählungen aus dem Pratum Spirituale," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 38 (1938), 351-376. Pattenden, P., "The text of the Pratum Spirituale," Journal of Theological Studies 26 (1975), 38-54.

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    Evidence -  The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

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