The Greek Life of *Auxentios (ascetic and monastic founder in Bithynia, ob. c. 470, S01523) recounts the life and miracles of its hero as an ascetic on mount Oxia, near Chalcedon (north-west Asia Minor, near Constantinople), and founder of a nunnery at Gyrita near Chalcedon. It mentions shrines near Chalcedon. Written in Constantinople, probably in the mid 6th century.
E07025
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Life of Auxentios of Bithynia (BHG 199)
Summary:
Life as a layman
[1-2] The author writes a prologue on the utility of reading the lives of saints. In the 35th year of the reign of Theodosius II [443] there was a certain Auxentios who was enrolled as a soldier in the fourth regiment of imperial guards (schola). He loved Christ and was very learned in Christian doctrine. Auxentios enjoyed the friendship of certain holy men of the time: the monk Ioannes, who lived in a hut (kloubos) near Hebdomon; Markianos, initially a Novatian, but later a Catholic and treasurer of the church of Constantinople [= *Markianos, steward of the Great Church in Constantinople, ob. c. 470, S02876]; Anthimos, later deacon and presbyter; and Sitas. They all used to worship together at the church of *Eirene by the Sea [martyr of Magedon, S02162] in Constantinople.
[3] One day, before a service, Auxentios asked for something to drink and a servitor offered him water mixed with wine. Auxentiuos drank it but when Markianos tasted it he upbraided the servitor; Auxentios replied that he had not asked for wine, but since the Lord had provided wine, as at Cana, the gift should not be rejected. The incident demonstrated both Markianos’ rigour and Auxentios’ self-effacement.
[4-5] There was a beggar who was always disturbing Auxentios. Upon his many requests, Auxentios decided to give him his tunic in secret. After that, he asked his brothers to visit the monk Ioannes of Kloubos. Once there, they again saw the man to whom Auxentios had given the tunic, who was now lamenting the theft of his possessions. He confessed that he had possessed seven tunics, and so did not need Auxentios’ one. Auxentios reproached him over his wrongdoing.
[6] When he was en route to the palace, he saw a man being arrested and decided to intervene to free this man, thus enforcing the words of the Psalms according to which it is important to help the poor.
[7] Auxentios worked for three days at a workshop in the Battopolion district, miraculously helping it to have revenue after a period of poverty. He did not drink or eat for three days. On the third day, he gave everything he earned to the poor.
[8] He cast out an evil spirit from a woman, without harming the child she was carrying in her womb.
Asceticism on Mount Oxia
[9] Auxentios foresaw the rise of the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies. He left the army and went alone into an unpopulated part of Bithynia on mount Oxia, around 10 miles from Chalcedon.
[10-11] He lived there, following the example of John the Baptist. With his prayers, he helped some children to find their flock which was lost on the mountain. When the children’s parents learned about his help, they visited him and asked for his prayers. To express their gratitude, they built him a cell.
[12-13] Auxentios’ fame spread across the region. A certain countess (comitissa) from Nicomedia, who was blind, visited him and was cured by him. This is the first miracle performed by Auxentios on mount Oxia. In addition, he cured many people possessed by demons.
[14-17] A friend of Auxentios from the guards went to the saint with a reluctant fellow guardsman who did not believe in Auxentios’ sanctity. This incredulous man was claiming that Auxentios was an imposter who paid people to pretend to be possessed; therefore the holy man refused to speak with him. When the two friends went back to Hemeros (a harbour near the city of Chalcedon), they heard that the daughter of the incredulous one was possessed by a demon. They returned to Constantinople to fetch the daughter and bring her to Auxentios to ask for a cure. On their arrival, Auxentios asked the incredulous guardsman how much his daughter had been paid to fake possession. The incredulous man wept and asked for mercy. Auxentios cured the girl and exhorted everyone to believe in God’s miracles.
[18-21] During his time on mount Oxia, he cured two people suffering from elephantiasis, two women from Phrygia possessed by demons, a paralytic, and a woman possessed by a snake-shaped demon who spoke like a dog. In gratitude, this woman remained at Mount Oxia near Auxentios. All these people were cured by the use of holy oil.
The Council of Chalcedon
[22] Ten years later, during the reign of Marcian, the Council of Chalcedon was convoked against the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches.
[23-24] The emperor and the local bishops summoned Auxentios to the council, but he refused to come, saying that it was not for monks to teach doctrine; they sent soldiers who took him off under armed guard.
[25-30] On his journey, he performed several miracles, curing oxen, and possessed children.
[31] When Auxentios arrived at the shrine of *Thalelaios [martyr of Aigai, S01137] he ordered the poor (ascetics) who had been following him to return to mount Oxia.
[32-35] He was confined at the monastery which is in Philios, near the church of *Ioannes [probably John the Baptist, S00020]; here he cured a possessed young man named Isidoros and met two army commanders. In this monastery, whose members were hostile to Auxentios, the saint conducted a life of extreme frugality, surviving on food that was miraculously brought him by a dove.
[36-37] He was then moved to the monastery of *Hypatios [S02090] at Rufinianae, near a shrine of the Apostles [S00084], where he was welcomed by the monks and many people visited him. He cured many demoniacs and sick, including a noble woman (comitissa).
[38-43] The emperor summoned Auxentios to the Hebdomon to persuade him that the Council of Chalcedon was correct, but it was only after a second summons to Constantinople and further persuasion that Auxentios approved of its doctrines.
Asceticism on Mount Skopa
[43-45] After the Council, Auxentios settled on a mountain named Skopa, where he was enclosed in a cell with only a window through which to converse with visitors; here he had visions and fought against demons.
[46-50] The spiritual teachings of Auxentios.
[51] Many men and women wanted to renounce their possessions of the world and follow Auxentios’ way of life.
[52] Auxentios gave his monks coarse tunics made of hair or leather, symbolising their anchoretic condition. One of Auxentios’ disciples, Basil, set himself up as a hermit twenty miles away but was attacked and hurt by demons while praying at night. Auxentios administered the Eucharist to him and he was cured. He died peacefully three years later.
[53-54] Auxentios’ teachings about temptations and demons.
[55] Auxentios' teaching concerning ascetic practices. He recommended resting, fasting and praying on Saturday, so that the monks might attend the night vigil.
[56] During the first years of Leo I’s rule, Auxentios had a revelation miraculously notifying him of the death of *Symeon the Stylite [Symeon the Elder, stylite of Qal‘at Sim‘ān, ob. 459, S00343].
[57] The writer of the Life of Auxentios certifies the authenticity of this story by mentioning that his source was a close follower and eventual successor of Auxentios, a holy man from Mysia [presumably Bendidianos of Mysia, the successor but one of Auxentios].
[58-59] Miracles involving peasants.
[60] Auxentios cured many people possessed by demons by means of oil from the relics of the saints. Before sending them away, he also ordered them to fast on the fourth day of the week and on Friday. Among these people, there were also imposters who claimed to be possessed in order to gain profit, but Auxentios exposed them as frauds and sent them away.
The foundation of the Nunnery of Gyrita
[61] Eleuthera, a woman of wealthy family and chamberlain of the empress Pulcheria, used to attend services at Auxentios’ community, and gave him some relics. She asked of him to initiate her into the monastic life, and Auxentios reluctantly instructed her to settle at Gyrita, one mile away on the low ground. Soon, she was joined by Kosma and another woman, and Auxentios gave them the habit as nuns.
[62-65] This female community grew to 70 members, and Auxentios ordered them to build an oratory. Auxentios gave sermons of spiritual instruction to the nuns, and three days later fell sick. He died after ten days of illness.
[66] Monks, clergy, and lay people gathered to pay homage to Auxentios. His funeral was held on 14 February. Some monks from Rufinianae wanted to bury his remains at their church of the Apostles. Others wanted to bury him at the shrine of *Zechariah [probably the father of John the Baptist, S00597, or possibly the Old Testament prophet, S00283] in a place called Theatre (Theatron). In the end, he was buried at the nunnery of Gyrita, in the oratory he had built. Miracles occurred at his tomb.
[67] Auxentios died under the emperor Leo I [457-474] on 14 February.
Text: Varalda 2017.
Summary: Efthymios Rizos and Michael Whitby.
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - unspecified
Cult building - monastic
Cult building - independent (church)
Martyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)
Rejection, Condemnation, SceptisismScepticism/rejection of miracles
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
Oral transmission of saint-related stories
Visiting/veneration of living saint
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Revelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)
RelicsBodily relic - unspecified
Contact relic - oil
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Children
Ecclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Foreigners (including Barbarians)
Monarchs and their family
Aristocrats
Soldiers
Heretics
Source
For the manuscript tradition of the text, see Varalda 2017 and:http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/14739/
Discussion
The Life of Auxentios draws a portrait of an extreme ascetic, the founder of a number of monastic centres in the broader area of Chalcedon, active in the mid to later 5th century. The text is distinctly preoccupied with purging the figure of Auxentios (and possibly of his foundations as well) from suspicions for heterodoxy, fraudulent miracles, and avarice. All these accusations, reflected in episodes of the narrative and words of Auxentios, are likely to have circulated both in the hero's lifetime and at the time of the text's composition. The Life is the only surviving text to provide details of Auxentios' life and beliefs; but it is very likely that he was the same man as an Auxentios recorded by Sozomen (Ecclesiastical History 7.21) as a man of a pure life, learned in both pagan and Christian writings, and with a high reputation amongst monks and other pious men.The text is often thought to have been composed shortly after Auxentios' death, in the early 470s. The author, however, states that one source of his information was not his own acquaintance with the holy man, but a successor to Auxentios whose name is not given. This suggests a gap of about a generation between the death of the hero and the writing of the text. The text is avowedly pro-Chalcedonian and strives to convince the reader that Auxentios approved of the Council of Chalcedon, even though from the narrative itself it is evident that the saint refused to take part in the council, and perhaps opposed it altogether. This agenda favours a date after the accession of Justin I (519). If Auxentios' monasteries conformed with the prevailing stance of the imperial church under Zeno and Anastasius (the Henotikon and the sidelining of the Council of Chalcedon), this will have left suspicions of heterodoxy when imperial doctrinal preferences changed. The anonymity in the text of Auxentios' Mysian successor may be explained by this – he may have been a well-known Miaphysite.
All this indicates that the author of the Life of Auxentios wrote under Justin I (518-527) or Justinian (527-565), providing a foundation narrative for the Auxentian monastic communities near Chalcedon in a way which defended their Chalcedonian orthodoxy. In the light of such an agenda, the text resembles other monastic hagiographies which were produced in the same period by Constantinopolitan monasteries, notably the Lives of Isaakios (E06980) and Dalmatos (E07004), in which the founders of these houses are presented as defenders of orthodoxy. One may also contrast the Chalcedonianism of the Life of Auxentios with the silence about this Council in the Life of Daniel the Stylite (E04560) and the Life of Markellos Akoimetos (E07155), both of which were probably written when the doctrines of Chalcedon were out of favour.
Bibliography
Text:Migne, J.-P., Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca 114 (Paris, 1864), 1377-1436.
Halkin F., and Festugière, A.-J., “Vie de S. Auxence (BHG 203b),” in: Dix textes inédits tirés du ménologe impérial de Koutloumous (Geneva, 1984), 44–46.
Varalda, P., Vita sancti Auxentii (BHG 199) (Hellenica 64; Alessandria, 2017) (critical edition, Italian translation, and commentary)
Further reading:
Auzepy, M.F., "Les Vies d'Auxence et le monachisme auxentien," Revue des Etude Byzantines 53 (1995), 205-235.
Déroche, V., and Lesieur, B., "Notes d’hagiographie byzantine. Daniel le Stylite – Marcel l’ Acémète – Hypatios de Rufinianes - Auxentios," Analecta Bollandiana 128 (2010), 283-295.
Efthymiadis, S., and Déroche, V., "Greek Hagiography in Late Antiquity (Fourth-Seventh Centuries)," in: S. Efthymiadis (ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography. Vol. 1: Periods and Places (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 35-94.
Hatlie, P., The Monks and Monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350-850 (Cambridge, 2007).
Varalda, P., "Sulla tradizione manoscritta della vita Auxentii BHG 199," Medioevo Greco 15 (2015), 269-278.
Efthymios Rizos, Michael Whitby
30/10/2018, emended 12/9/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Uncertain | S00042 | John, the Apostle and Evangelist | Uncertain | S00084 | Apostles, unnamed or name lost | Ἀπόστολοι | Certain | S00283 | Zechariah, Old Testament prophet | Ζαχαρίας | Uncertain | S00343 | Symeon the Elder, stylite of Qal‘at Sim‘ān, ob. 459 | Συμεὼν | Certain | S00597 | Zechariah, father of John the Baptist | Uncertain | S01137 | Thalelaios, martyr of Aigai in Cilicia | Θαλέλαιος | Uncertain | S01523 | Auxentios, ascetic and monastic founder in Bithynia, ob. c. 470. | Αὐξέντιος | Certain | S02090 | Hypatios, abbot of Rufinianae, ob. 446 | Ὑπάτιος | Certain | S02162 | Eirene, martyr of Magedon | Εἰρήνη | Certain | S02876 | Markianos, steward of the Great Church in Constantinople, ob. c. 470 | Certain |
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