ARAM, 15 (2003), 173-184 173

PALESTINIAN MONASTICISM IN
THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW OF JOHN MOSCHOS

PACHOMIOS (ROBERT) PENKETT

A little over ten years ago John Binns published a paper entitled “The Dis-
tinctiveness of Palestinian Monasticism 450-550 AD”1 in which he argues that
two factors in particular made monastic life in Palestine distinctive: first, the
desert of Judaea encouraged a specific kind of eremitic life and, secondly,
Jerusalem itself fostered a special type of relationship between monk and city:
“The way of life of the monks was shaped by their environment, or, more accu-
rately, by their two different environments – the City of Jerusalem and the Desert
which was so close to it.”2

Binns’ argument is based on a major text concerning Palestinian monasti-

cism, the Lives of the Monks of Palestine, a set of seven biographies of some of
the greatest monks of the early Byzantine period, written in the mid-6th century
by Cyril of Scythopolis (c.525-c.558), himself a Palestinian who knew both the
desert and the city at first hand.3 Towards the end of his paper Binns warns
against the assumption that “a new and revolutionary approach to the monastic
life was being pioneered and perfected in Palestine” and suggests that the
works of later authors paint a picture of life in the Palestinian monasteries that
differs little from the monastic life elsewhere.4 Amongst these works The Spir-
itual Meadow of John Moschos (c.550-619/634) stands as the second most
valuable written source of information on the history of monasticism in the
Judaean desert after Cyril’s Lives.5 In this communication, which I hope might
1
The paper (hereinafter referred to asJ. Binns, Distinctiveness), published in Monastic Studies:
the continuity of tradition, ed. J. Loades (Bangor, 1990), pp. 11-20, was read at the Monastic Stud-
ies Conference, University College of North Wales, Bangor, in September, 1989. See also J. Binns,
Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: the monasteries of Palestine 314-631 (Oxford, 1994).
2
J. Binns, Distinctiveness, p. 13.
3
Cyril of Scythopolis, Vitae, ed. E. Schwartz (Texte und Untersuchungen 49: 2, Leipzig,
1939), ET R. M. Price and J. Binns, Lives of the Monks of Palestine (Cistercian Studies 114,
Kalamazoo, 1991).
4
J. Binns, Distinctiveness, p. 18.
5
John Moschos, LeimÉn, Patrologia Graeca 87/3: 2843-3116, supplemented by E. Mioni, “Il
Pratum Spirituale di Giovanni Mosco: gli episodi inediti del Cod. Marciano greco II.21”, Orientalia
Christiana Periodica 17 (1951), pp. 61-94, and T. Nissen, “Unbekannte Erzahlungen aus dem Pra-
tum Spirituale”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 38 (1938), pp. 351-376 hereinafter referred as N, ET
J. Wortley, The Spiritual Meadow of John Moschos (CS 139, Kalamazoo, 1992). See also
J. S. Palmer, El monacato oriental en el Pratum Spirituale de Juan Mosco (Madrid, 1993), P. Pat-
tenden, Prolegomena to a new edition of the Pratum Spirituale of John Moschos with a specimen of
the edition (Oxford, D.Phil. thesis 1979 [i.e. 1980]) and P. Penkett, The Gates of Perception: ecsta-
tic experience and ascetic practice in The Spiritual Meadow of John Moschos (Reading, M.Phil. the-
sis, 2001).
174 PALESTINIAN MONASTICISM IN THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW OF JOHN MOSCHOS

serve as a footnote to John Binns’ paper, I would like to briefly examine what
The Spiritual Meadow teaches us about Palestinian monasticism, especially in
the light of Cyril’s Lives, and consider whether the distinctive characteristics of
Palestinian monasticism referred to by John Binns continued after Cyril’s death
or if, by that time, these characteristics had indeed become little different from
those experienced in monasteries elsewhere in the Middle East.6
In examining the references to Palestinian monasticism in The Spiritual
Meadow and comparing these references with those made in the Lives of the
Monks of Palestine, we must, I think, begin by learning a little about their
authors and understanding what sort of texts we are looking at. All that we
know about Cyril comes from the few autobiographical passages in his Lives.
Cyril was born into an ecclesiastical environment during the 520s. His father
served in the bishop of Scythopolis’ residence as the metropolitan’s assessor
and his mother was “a servant of God” (Life of Sabas, 75).7 Cyril was nur-
tured by “our pious father” Sabas and educated in the bishop’s house, later
becoming a monk and, at some point, a priest. He went to Jerusalem where
John the Hesychast, a noted ascetic and – like Sabas – the subject of one of
Cyril’s Lives, encouraged him to enter the monastery of Euthymios. Cyril
remained in this monastery for ten years. In 555 Cyril was at the New Lavra
and in 557 he went to the Great Lavra. During these two years he produced his
seven Lives. We do not hear anything further about him after 558 and assume
that he died about this time. The whole of Cyril’s short life was spent in Pales-
tine: in Scythopolis (Beth-Shan or Beth-Shean of the Old Testament),8
Jerusalem and the desert. He sets down the achievements of the great Palestin-
ian monks and the way of life in the monasteries with great care “so as to
achieve close investigation of the truth in these matters” (Life of Sabas, Pref-
ace). He writes in order to prevent these details from being lost in the “abyss
of distant time and oblivion” (Life of Sabas, Preface). The writing of these his-
tories bears a resemblance to, inter alia, the Life of Antony,9 the Lives of
Pachomios,10 the History of the Monks of Syria of Theodoret of Cyrrhus
(c.393-c.460)11 and the Lives of the Eastern Saints of John of Ephesus (c.507-

6
The standard study of Egyptian and Palestinian monasticism is D. Chitty, The Desert a
City: An Introduction to the Study of Egyptian and Palestinian Monasticism under the Christian
Empire, (Oxford, 1966, reprint London, 1977).
7
The English translations given in this article are taken from the publications referred to in
the footnotes.
8
On Beth-Shan, or Beth-Shean, cf. Joshua 17: 11 and 16; Judges 1: 27; 1 Kgs 4: 12; and
1 Chron. 7: 29.
9
Vita Antonii, PG 26: 835-976, ET R. C. Gregg, The Life of Antony and the Letter to Mar-
cellinus, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York, 1980).
10
Pachomian Koinonia, ET A. Vielleux, 3 vols (CS 45-47, Kalamazoo, 1980-82).
11
Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Historia religiosa, ed. P. Canivet and A. Leroy-Molinghen (Sources
Chrétiennes 234 and 257, Paris, 1977 and 1979), ET R. M. Price, A History of the Monks of Syria
(CS 88, Kalamazoo, 1985).
 P. PENKETT 175

86).12 We find in Cyril’s Lives a wealth of chronological, historical and topo-

graphical detail and the work is recognized as one of the most formative writ-
ten sources that has come down from the Palestine of the first millennium.
Like Cyril, John Moschos includes a handful of autobiographical references
in The Spiritual Meadow but to these may also be added an anonymous bio-
graphical note that exists in Latin, which is attached to some manuscripts of
The Spiritual Meadow,13 and the entry on The Spiritual Meadow included by
Photios (c.810-891), patriarch of Constantinople, in his Murióbiblíon or Bib-
liotheca that dates from the second half of the 9th century.14 From these three
sources we learn that John was born about the middle of the 6th century, per-
haps in Cilicia. He was tonsured at the Judaean monastery of Theodosios prob-
ably only a few years after Cyril had been writing his Lives. After undergoing
his basic training there, John withdrew to a more remote and austere place, the
New Lavra at Pharan in the Judaean desert, where he remained for ten years.
It was possibly at Pharan, if not earlier at the monastery of Theodosios, that
Sophronios (c.560-638), later patriarch of Jerusalem, became John’s disciple.
From Pharan John and Sophronios journeyed together to the Lavra of the
Aeliotes, where they stayed for a further ten years, before travelling to
Jerusalem in order to be present at the installation of Amos as patriarch (594).
In the opening years of the 7th century the pair went, first, to Antioch and
thence to Alexandria. After 614 John and Sophronios went to Cyprus, Samos,
and on to Rome, or possibly Constantinople, where John died in 619 or 634,15
in either case having lived a considerably longer time than Cyril. These jour-
neys were undertaken in order to personally experience the religious life in a
variety of monasteries and to grow in asceticism, sharing the same spirit that
inspired Egeria, the monks from the Mount of Olives, Palladios (c.364-
between 420 and 430), and John Cassian (c.365-c.435) to leave their homes
and to travel. The writing of The Spiritual Meadow finds its historical roots in
such works as the Pilgrimage of Egeria,16 the narrative of the journey of a
devout woman to Egypt, the Holy Land, Edessa, Asia Minor and Constantino-
ple in the early 380s, the History of the Monks in Egypt,17 an anonymous
account of a journey made among the desert fathers by seven monks in 394
that was narrated to the community of the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem and

12
John of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, Patrologia Orientalia 17-19.
13
Patrologia Latina 74: 119-22.
14
Photios, Murióbiblíon, PG 103.
15
See A. Louth, “Did John Moschos really die in Constantinople?” Journal of Theological
Studies, new series 49/1 (1988), pp. 149-54.
16
Itinerarium Egeriae, ed. E. Franceschini and R. Weber (Corpus Christianorum Series
Latina 175, Turnhout-Paris, 1965), ET G. E. Gingras, Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage (Ancient
Christian Writers 38, New York, 1970).
17
Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, ed. A. -J. Festugière (Subsidia Hagiographica 53, Brus-
sels, 1971), ET N. Russell, The Lives of the Desert Fathers (CS 34, Kalamazoo, 1981).
176 PALESTINIAN MONASTICISM IN THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW OF JOHN MOSCHOS

translated into Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia (c.345-411) in the opening years

of the 5th century, the Lausiac History of Palladios,18 a Galatian who spent sev-
eral years visiting monastic communities in Egypt before becoming bishop of
Helenopolis in Bithynia, and the Conferences and Institutes of John Cassian,19
a monk from Bethlehem who travelled to Egypt, Constantinople and Rome
before settling in Gaul. In his Prologue to The Spiritual Meadow John
Moschos notes that in compiling this “copious and accurate collection”, he
has emulated “the wisest bee, gathering up the spiritually beneficial deeds of
the fathers” – an analogy taken from the opening of Cyril’s Life of Euthymios.
John adds, “the virtuous life and habitual piety do not merely consist of study-
ing divinity; not only thinking on an elevated plain about things as they are
here and now. It must also include the description in writing of the way of life
of others.” Amongst these “spiritually beneficial deeds” are details of Pales-
tinian monks, many of whom are mentioned only in The Spiritual Meadow.
On the one hand, then, we have a set of biographies that offers a “model for
those who wish to take thought for their salvation” (Life of Euthymios, 1) and,
on the other, we have a collection of about 250 apophthegmata and lives writ-
ten “to inform the love” of Sophronios, the dedicatee and first reader of The
Spiritual Meadow, and, through him, “the world at large”. Together, the Lives
of the Monks of Palestine and The Spiritual Meadow, the one following
closely on the heels of the other, form a complementary and important part of
the oral and literary tradition of Gerontika that date back to the 4th century.20
From the most cursory glance at The Spiritual Meadow it is clear that
monastic life in Palestine continued to flourish during the decades after the
death of Cyril of Scythopolis. Building on Cyril’s invaluable references to
Palestinian monastic foundations, John mentions 16 monastic communities in
the desert of Judaea (ten coenobia and six lavras), 13 in the desert of the Jor-
dan (seven coenobia and six lavras) and a further 14 other monasteries, of
which the majority were situated in or near towns, including no less than seven
in Jerusalem itself. These references in The Spiritual Meadow to 43 monaster-
ies far exceed the total number of monastic communities mentioned elsewhere
by John Moschos: Armenia (one), Cilicia (three), Constantinople (two),
Cyprus (one), Egypt (seventeen), Greece (one), Lycia (one), Mesopotamia
(one), Rome (one), Samos (one) and Syria (two)). The names of some of these
monastic communities have come down to us through The Spiritual Meadow
alone. It is a sobering thought that if it were not for The Spiritual Meadow we
18
Palladius, Historia Lausiaca 2 vols, ed. C. Butler (Texts and Studies 6 i and ii, Cambridge,
1898 and 1904), ET R. T. Meyer, The Lausiac History (ACW 34, London, 1965).
19
John Cassian, Conferences, ed. E. Pichéry (SC 42, 54 and 64, Paris, 1955, 1958 and 1959),
ET C. Lubheid, John Cassian: Conferences (CWS, New York, 1985) and Institutions, ed.
J. -C. Guy (SC 109, Paris, 1965).
20
On the Gerontika, see D. Chitty, “The Books of the Old Men”, Eastern Churches Review
6 (1974), pp. 15-21.
 P. PENKETT 177

would probably not have read about the monastery of Abraham on the Mount
of Olives (c 187), or the coenobia of Chorembe (c 157), or of Penthoukla
(cc 3, 13-15 and N 13), or of Sampson or Sapsas (cc 2-3 and 170), or Soubiba
(c 157), or the lavra of Kopratha (cc 20 and 91) in the Jordaean desert, or a
monastic foundation in Caesarea (c 132). There are also monastic communities
elsewhere in the Byzantine Empire that are referred to only by Moschos.21 On
many occasions, too, the names, and numbers, of monks who lived in various
communities have been handed down only through The Spiritual Meadow.
In addition to mentioning monastic communities, John Moschos, like Cyril
of Scythopolis, also refers to different types of monks who lived alone in the
desert. Firstly, he mentions hermits (ânaxwr±tai), most of who lived in caves.
First, we have the story of two monks who lived in the Judaean desert buried
the corpse of a female hermit (c 170). Next we come across hermits who lived
in the Jordaean desert. Alexander the Cilician was a hermit who poured scorn
on a demon because it appeared to him when the abba was a weak old man
(c 182).22 Another hermit, Barnabas, would not allow anyone to heal his sep-
tic foot, saying that “the more the outer man suffered, the more the inner man
flourished.” (c 10) Mark the hermit fasted all week long for 69 years with the
result that some thought him incorporeal (c 13). A fourth Jordaean hermit,
Nicolas, was greatly edified by a man of the world (cc 154 and 155). Another
hermit, Paul the Greek, was fed by a lion (c 163). Sisinios the hermit aban-
doned his bishopric and became a solitary (cc 93 and 136). Theodore the her-
mit was given a copy of the New Testament on “extremely fine skins”
(c 134). There are, in addition, an unnamed hermit (c 2) and two female
hermits (cc 19 and 179) who also lived in the Jordaean desert. We hear of a
hermit who lived in Arona, Paul the Roman, who, because a lion treated him
gently, knew that he had been forgiven an earlier sin (c 101). Then we
encounter Sergios, who fed a lion (cc 125, 138 and 139), and his attendant,
Sergios the Armenian, who lived in the desert of Rouba. We read of John the
hermit whose lamp before an icon of the Theotokos was kept miraculously
alight who lived in a cave near the Socho estate (c 180). Finally, there are Gre-
gory whose prayer for rain was answered (c 174) and John the Red (cc 97 and
179) whose provenances are unknown.
Secondly, there is a handful of references in The Spiritual Meadow to
anchorites (∂gkleistoi): Cyprian Cuculas, whose monastery was outside the
gate of Caesarea (c 132), Damiana the female anchorite, the mother of Atheno-
genes, bishop of Petra (cc 127 and 128), David, a native of Mesopotamia,
whose cell was lit with divine light (cc 69 and 70), George of Scythopolis who

21
See J. S. Palmer, El monacato oriental en el Pratum Spirituale de Juan Mosco (Madrid,
1993), pp. 188-189.
22
See J. S. Palmer, Demonologia en el Pratum Spirituale de Juan Mosco in Actas del viii
Congreso Espagnol de Estudios Clasicos, vol. iii (Madrid, 1994), pp. 303-308.
178 PALESTINIAN MONASTICISM IN THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW OF JOHN MOSCHOS

received a vision of the Theotokos pleading before “one who sat on a high
throne” (c 50), Kalinikos the anchorite at the Monastery of Sabas (c 137), an
anchorite on the Mount of Olives who never ceased venerating an icon of the
Theotokos (c 45) and two brothers at the coenobium of Theodosios in the Jor-
daean desert who swore never to be separated from each other (c 97).
Thirdly, mention is also made of a stylite (stulítjv) living in the region of
Petra who was frequently visited by those seeking spiritual guidance (c 129).
In addition to hermits, anchorites and stylites, the deserts of Palestine
encouraged one specific type of solitary life – that led by grass eaters (boskoí) –
which seems to have been common in Palestine. Although John Binns does
not refer to grass eaters by name in his paper, he does note that:
“The desert in which the monks lived was small in size and varied in vegeta-
tion… In this environment the monks could easily find an empty, inaccessible and
rocky ravine ideally suited to the solitary life; water would run most of the year
along the bottom of the valley, and the dry, non-absorbent soil ensured that such
rain as fell would not soak into the ground but could be collected in reservoirs and
cisterns. The collection of plants formed a valuable ascetic labour and could sup-
plement the ascetic diet… And the desert stretched south in the Negev for endless
miles, an invitation to the advanced ascetic seeking an austere Lenten retreat. All
this was available within ten miles of the City of Jerusalem. It was the dramatic
contrast between Desert and City, in close proximity yet sharply delineated by
geographic factors, which made the Palestinian desert an inviting terrain for the
prospective monk.”23

The Judaean desert was grazing land, not farming land, and the grass eaters
lived on the green vegetation that they found growing near their caves.
Rufinus makes one of the earliest references to these grass eaters in a story
about Heliodoros who died c. 427:
“He left the world and lived on the summit of mountains and in the forests of
Taurus in Cilicia. Having chosen to live with wild animals for many years, he
remained there devoid of human company. He ate the raw shoots of trees and wild
plants for food and his hair provided clothing during the winter and summer
alike.”24

Sozomenos (d. after 450), writing in the mid-5th century, provides another
early reference to these grass eaters in his Historia Ecclesiastica:25
“They ate neither bread nor meat, and drank no wine but dwelt constantly on the
mountains and passed their time in praising God with prayers and hymns, accord-
ing to the rites of the Church. At the usual mealtimes, they each took a sickle, and
went to the mountain in order to cut some grass there, as though they were flocks
in pasture; and this served for their repast.” (6: 33)
23
J. Binns, Distinctiveness, p. 13.
24
Patrologia Orientalis 8/1: 74-75. I am grateful to Shafiq AbouZayd for pointing out this
reference. See S. AbouZayd, IÌidayutha: a study of the life of singleness in the Syrian
Orient from Ignatius of Antioch to Chalcedon 451 A.D. (Oxford, 1993), esp. pp. 247 and 377-78.
25
Sozomenos, Historia ecclesiastica, PG 67: 1393.
 P. PENKETT 179

In his Life of Sabas Cyril of Scythopolis mentions anchorites and grass

eaters who came to join Sabas in a gorge near Siloam in the early 480s. Their
number included John, later hegoumen of the New Lavra, James, who founded
the Lavra of the Towers by the Jordan, Serverianus, who built the monastery
near Caparbaricha, Firminus, who founded the lavra in the region of Machmas,
and Julian surnamed Cuerus, who created the lavra called after Neelkeraba by
the Jordan (c 16).
Evagrios the Scholar (d. c.600), writing his Historia Ecclesiastica towards
the end of the 6th century, also refers to grass eaters:
“These men practise the extreme and unusual form of ascetics of living off plants
like animals.”26 (1: 21)

But what seemed strange to Sozomenos and Evagrios was commonplace to

John Moschos who does not seem to find the grass eaters’ way of life unusual,
or even one worthy of special comment.
Grass eaters were discovered elsewhere in the Middle East.27 Theodoret of
Cyrrhus mentions in his History of the Monks of Syria a grass eater named
James of Nisibis who,
“gaining the tops of the highest hills, lived upon them. In spring, summer and
autumn he used the thickets, with the sky for a roof; in the winter season a cave
received him and provided scanty shelter. He had food not sown and produced
with labour but that which grows up by itself: it was by gathering the natural
fruits of wild trees and edible plants and vegetables that he provided his body with
the bare necessities for life, rejecting the use of fire.”28 (c 1)

John Moschos himself mentions grass eaters who lived in Cilicia (cc 84 and
86) and on the Sinaï peninsular (cc 115 and 177). References to grass eaters
continue to be made in the later 7th century, for example, in the Life of Symeon
of Emesa (2: 4) of Leontios of Neapolis (d. after 668).29
However, it seems that it is mainly in Palestine that grass eaters are known
and details of no fewer than eleven of these living there in practically intoler-
able conditions have reached us through having been recorded in The Spiritual
Meadow.
The first grass eater that John refers to is Elias who, having been aroused by
a woman, experienced an ecstasy in which he fell down into the earth and saw
rotting corpses, badly decayed and burst open, filling the place with an

26
Evagrios, Historia ecclesiastica PG 86: 2480.
27
See A. Vööbus, A History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient (Corpus Scriptorum Chris-
tianorum Orientalium 184/Sub. 14 and 197/Sub. 17, Louvain, 1958 and 1960), vol. 1,
p. 150, and vol. 2, p. 22.
28
Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Historia religiosa, ed. P. Canivet and A. Leroy-Molinghen (SC 234
and 257, Paris, 1977 and 1979), ET R. M. Price, A History of the Monks of Syria (CS 88, Kala-
mazoo, 1985).
29
Leontios of Neapolis, Vita S Symeonis Sali confessoris, PG 93: 1688.
180 PALESTINIAN MONASTICISM IN THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW OF JOHN MOSCHOS

unspeakably foul smell. An angel pointed out that the bodies belonged to a
man, a woman and a child and told the monk to do whatever his passion dic-
tated but to be aware how much of his ascetic labour he would destroy for just
one hour’s pleasure. The grass eater, overcome by the stench, perceived that
the demon of fornication had attacked him and returned to his cave near the
Jordan, praising God (c 19).
John continues with a story told by Gerontios, hegoumen of the monastery
of Euthymios. Gerontios and two other (anonymous) grass eaters saw a fourth
grass eater towards Besimon being attacked by Saracens, one of whom struck
off his head. As the three on the mountainside were grieving, a bird suddenly
seized the Saracen and carried him up into the air. Then it dropped him to the
ground where he was turned into carrion (c 21).
Two more grass eaters were very attached to each other and, together, vis-
ited a stylite in the region of Petra over a number of years (c 129).
Mention is made of Jordanes the grass eater and two hermits who visited Nico-
las at the Wadi Betasimos where they were greatly edified by a man of the
world (cc 154 and 155).
George, archimandrite of the monastery of Theodosios, received a vision of
Peter the grass eater, as he was about to build the Church of St Kerykos at
Phasaelis. George enlarged the plan of the church, constructed a monument in
the right hand aisle, and interred Peter’s corpse there (c 92).
There is also a reference to Agathonikos, hegoumen of Sabas at Castellium,
who said that he visited Poemen the grass eater at Rouba in the depths of win-
ter. Agathonikos remained the night in a cave and suffered greatly from the
freezing cold. The following morning Poemen told his visitor that he had not
suffered because a lion had slept beside him. “But I tell you, brother,” contin-
ued Poemen, “I shall be devoured by wild beasts.” When asked why, Poemen
explained that when he had been a shepherd in Galatia, he had not prevented a
stranger from being devoured by his dogs and knew that he, too, would suffer
the same fate. Three years later wild beasts devoured the elder as he himself
had foretold (c 167).
Sophronios (not the disciple of John Moschos) lived as a grass eater near the
Dead Sea for seventy years and demons were unable to enter his cave (c 159).
No other text includes such a number or variety of stories relating to grass
eaters as The Spiritual Meadow of John Moschos.
Turning to the other factor that made monastic life in Palestine distinctive,
we must now consider the Holy City of Jerusalem itself. In his paper John
Binns writes, “Jerusalem – the Holy City – dominated the consciousness of
the monk from the start.”30 Jerusalem, set high on the summit of the hills that
divide the Jordan from the Mediterranean, overlooked her monasteries. For

30
J. Binns, Distinctiveness, p. 13.
 P. PENKETT 181

many, Jerusalem had always been a place of encounter and engagement31 in a

strange, if not unique, reversal of the more usual monastic progression from
city to desert. Sabas “conceived a desire, pleasing to God, to repair to the Holy
City” (Life of Sabas, 6) and Euthymios “led by the Holy Spirit, came to Jeru-
salem in the twenty-ninth year of his life.” (Life of Euthymios, 6) Cyril of
Scythopolis also writes, “[John the Hesychast] conceived the plan pleasing to
God of withdrawing to the holy city and living by himself in isolation from the
affairs of this life.” (Life of John the Hesychast, 4) Again, “[Kyriakos’] heart
was pierced with the fear of God and he resolved to withdraw to the holy city
and renounce the affairs of this life.” (Life of Kyriakos, 2) Monks and others
made their pilgrimage up to Jerusalem, ascending to a holy place on a moun-
tain, a few perhaps conscious that this journey personified their monastic call-
ing, a symbol of ongoing pilgrimage.
Continuing Cyril of Scythopolis’ references to Jerusalem, John Moschos
also records many stories in which Jerusalem is seen as a place of with-
drawal.32 Some went to Jerusalem in order to receive the divine gifts (c 127),
others simply to pray there (cc 127 and 174). Some received baptism at
Jerusalem (c 165), while still others reverenced the Holy Cross and the other
Holy Places (c 180). Thalelaios, a disciple of Gregory the anchorite, perceiv-
ing his end was near, begged the elder to take him to Jerusalem in order that
he could venerate the Holy Cross and the Holy Sepulchre of Christ. John
notes, “they worshipped at the holy and venerable places, then went down to
the holy Jordan and were baptised.” (c 91)
Cyril of Scythopolis comments on the relationships between the monks and
the Jerusalem patriarchate and, it seems, that the concern of the monks for the
holy places, preserved and presided over by the bishop, and for the people who
worshipped there continued into the 7th century. In the same vein, John
Moschos notes that Christopher the Roman went to venerate the Holy Cross at
Jerusalem. When he was coming out of the antechamber of the Holy Cross, he
saw a brother at the door, neither going in nor coming out. He also saw two
ugly crows flying in that brother’s face and brushing their wings against his
eyes, effectively preventing him from entering the shrine. Knowing the crows
to be demons, Christopher asked the brother why he was hesitating at the door
and was told by the brother that he had conflicting emotions, one urging him

31
See, for example, the Itinerarium Egeriae, ed. E. Franceschini and R. Weber (CCSL 175,
Turnhout-Paris, 1965), ET G. E. Gingras, Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage (ACW 38, New York,
1970).
32
See S. A. Harvey, “The Politisation of the Byzantine Saint” in S. Hackel, The Byzantine
Saint, Fourteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies (Studies Supplementary to Sobornost
5, London, 1981), pp. 37-42 and J. S. Palmer, “El monje y la cuidad en el ‘Pratum Spirituale’
de Juan Mosco” in R. M. Aguilar, M. Lopez Salva. I. Rodriguez Alfageme edds, XARIS
DIDASKALIAS. Homenaje a Luis Gil, (Madrid, 1994), pp. 495-504.
182 PALESTINIAN MONASTICISM IN THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW OF JOHN MOSCHOS

to enter, the other luring him away. Christopher took the brother’s hand and
led him into the shrine and immediately the crows flew away (c 105).
Roads connecting Jerusalem with Syria and the east brought vast, cos-
mopolitan crowds, some rich, others not, to the city and the monasteries
thrived in this climate. I have already mentioned that John refers to no less
than six monasteries in the city of Jerusalem itself. The Monastery of Abraham
between holy Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives was founded by Abraham
the Great, of the New Church of the Holy Theotokos, Mary, (c 68) and is only
known in the literary sources through The Spiritual Meadow (c 187). The
Monastery of the Byzantines on the Mount of Olives was founded in the early
6th century (cc 40 and 97). The Monastery of Eustorgios possibly on Mount
Sion was founded in the mid-5th century (c 1) and is mentioned by Cyril of
Scythopolis in his Life of Kyriakos. The Monastery of the Holy Theotokos,
Mary (c 6), named after the nearby New Church of the Holy Theotokos, Mary,
sometimes called Holy Mary the New (cc 61, 68, 131 and 187), was founded
by Justinian (527-65) and consecrated in 543. There are unique literary refer-
ences, also, to the Monastery of Cosmas and Damian (c 127) and the
Monastery of Holy Sion (c 131).
Monasteries provided welcome for ongoing waves of visiting pilgrims and
relief for the poor and sick. John Moschos mentions an elder who travelled the
road from the Jordan to Jerusalem carrying bread and water. If he saw some-
one overcome with fatigue, he would shoulder that person’s pack and carry it
all the way to the Mount of Olives. He would do the same on the return jour-
ney, if he found others, carrying their packs as far as Jericho. This elder was
seen, sometimes sweating under a great load, sometimes carrying a youngster
on his shoulders. There was even an occasion when he carried two of them at
the same time. Sometimes he would sit down and repair the footwear of men
and women if this was necessary, for he carried with him what was needed for
that task … If he found anyone naked, he gave him the very garment that he
wore … If ever he found a corpse on the road, he said the appointed prayers
over it and gave it burial (c 24).
John mentions Peter, a native of Pontus, who travelled with Theodore (who
became bishop of Rhossos) from the Jordan to Mount Sinaï, from Sinaï to
Alexandria, and from Alexandria to Jerusalem. During the whole of that jour-
ney Peter ate on only three occasions: once on Mount Sinaï, once at St Menas,
near Alexandria, and once in Jerusalem (c 100).
Reference is also made to Auxanon, “a man of compassion, continence and
solitude”, who treated himself so harshly that over a period of four days,
sometimes as long as a week, he would only eat a twenty lepta loaf of bread,
such as is offered at the Holy Liturgy. Towards the end of his life this father
fell ill with a stomach complaint and was carried to the patriarchal infirmary at
Jerusalem (c 42).
 P. PENKETT 183

John Moschos also refers to a number of bishops. Elias (494-516) never

drank wine as a monk and after becoming patriarch continued to observe the
same rule (cc 1 and 35). Peter (524-52) wanted to appoint a female deacon to
anoint women but did not do so because he believed that this would have been
contrary to custom (cc 3 and 127). Makarios II (552 and 563-c.575) seems to
have antagonized several monks so much that they ceased to be in communion
with him (cc 19 and 96). Eutychios (552-563/4) had compassion on an abba
who had been so harsh in the treatment of himself that he developed dropsy
(c 8). Amos (594-601) was terrified at being consecrated patriarch, especially
at the responsibility of ordaining priests and deacons (c 149). A passing refer-
ence is made to John IV (574-594) (c 134).
It does seem, then, that the characteristics of Palestinian monasticism that
Cyril of Scythopolis mentions did indeed continue after his death and were
referred to by John Moschos. On the one hand, the desert continued to encour-
age a specific kind of eremitic life. Grass eaters eating wild vegetation contin-
ued to live out the life of John the Forerunner who left the tumult of the towns
and went away into the desert. On the other hand, Jerusalem continued to fos-
ter a special type of relationship between monk and city. Monks engaging with
civil authority in the Holy City continued to relive a crucial part of Christ’s
own ministry.
At the end of John Binns’ paper, the author writes, “The work of later
authors, notably John Moschus, paints a picture of life in the Palestinian
monasteries which differs little from the life elsewhere.”33 What I would ven-
ture to suggest is that, without playing down in any way John Binns’ most use-
ful paper, the distinctive monastic ideals of the Palestinian desert described by
Cyril of Scythopolis did, in fact, live on as may be witnessed in John
Moschos’ The Spiritual Meadow. Moreover, within a few generations The
Spiritual Meadow was regarded as a spiritual classic and the Greek text was
translated into Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Old Georgian, Latin and Old
Slavonic. The Spiritual Meadow continued to exert a strong influence on the
lives of men and women living in the second part of the first millennium. A
chapter (c 45) from the Greek text was included in the Pro sacris imaginibus34
of John of Damascus (c.655-c.750) and three chapters (cc 45, 81 and 180)
were quoted in the debate on icons at the Second Council of Nicaea (787).35 In
the fourth quarter of the ninth century John the Deacon also quoted two chap-
ters in his Life of Gregory the Great.36 Fifteen chapters from the Greek text

33
J. Binns, Distinctiveness, p. 18.
34
John of Damascus, Pro sacris imaginibus, PG 94: 1279 and 1316.
35
See P. Penkett, “The contribution of The Spiritual Meadow of John Moschos to the debate
on the holy icons”, Reading Medieval Studies (forthcoming).
36
John the Deacon quotes cc 151 and 192 in chapters 213 and 186 respectively in his Vita
Gregorii Magni, Patrologia Latina 75: 59-242.
184 PALESTINIAN MONASTICISM IN THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW OF JOHN MOSCHOS

were included by Paul of Evergetinos (d. 1054) in his Synagoge, a vast com-
pendium of spiritual texts made during the eleventh century.37
During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries The Spiritual Meadow has
continued to attract a widespread and growing audience, with translations into
Dutch, English, French, German, modern Greek, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

Abbreviations used in the footnotes:

ACW: Ancient Christian Writers (New York)
CCSL: Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout-Paris)
CS: Cistercian Studies (Kalamazoo)
CSCO: Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Louvain)
CWS: Classics of Western Spirituality (New York)
Patrologia Graeca (Paris)
SC: Sources Chrétiennes (Paris)

37
Paul Evergetinos, Sunagwgß (Athens, 1957-66).