John Moschus, in his Spiritual Meadow (154), 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.
Evidence ID
E05335
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Monastic collections (apophthegmata, etc.)
Major author/Major anonymous work
John Moschus
John Moschus, The Spiritual Meadow, 154
Summary:
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.
Cult Places
Cult building - monastic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - 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. That of Elpidios is identified with the lavra of Douca on a mountain near Jericho (the modern Jebel Quarantal) in Palestine. It was perhaps named after Elpidios, the martyr (with Hermogenes) of Melitene in Armenia (S01014); but it is very possible that the Elpidios of the monastery was its founder.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.
Record Created By
Julia Doroszewska
Date of Entry
16/04/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01014 | Elpidios and Hermogenes, martyrs of Melitene | Ἐλπίδιος | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
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