Silvanus | |
---|---|
Born | Palestine |
Residence | Scetes |
Died | 414 AD Gaza |
Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
Influenced | Zeno the Prophet |
Tradition or genre | Fathers of the desert |
Abba Silvanus (d. before 414) was a Palestinian Christian monk who lived during the 4th and 5th centuries. He was one of the Desert Fathers. [1]
Silvanus was born in Palestine. He led a community of 12 disciples in Scetis, Egypt, among them Zacharias, Mark the Calligrapher, Netras (later bishop of Paran) and Zeno. [2] According to his hagiography, he was blessed with the gift of prophecy, guessing the questions of his disciples and knowing their sins before they confessed them. [3]
Following the incursion of barbarian tribes into Egypt in 380, the group moved from Scetis to Sinai where they stayed for around a decade or at least enough for Silvanus to become famous and have people visit him from Egypt. [4] The group seems to have enjoyed to host visitors and tended to a garden. [2]
Later (around 390) Silvanus and his disciples moved to Gaza where they settled along the Gerar river. [5] Here, they followed the model of the eremitic monasteries of Scetis and build several hermit cells along the watercourse with a church and domestic building that served the needs of the community, similar to the lauras of the Judean Desert. During the week they occupied themselves with prayer and various forms of manual labour while on Saturdays and Sundays they gathered for communal prayers and meals and Silvanus would visit the other monks. [3]
Silvanus died sometime before 414 A.D. and was succeeded by Zacharias, one of his disciples. [6] Zeno, one of Silvanus' disciples and later teacher of Peter the Iberian, founded another monastery two kilometres south-east of Silvanus' monastery in ca. 440. [5]
Moses the Black, also known as Moses the Strong, Moses the Robber, and Moses the Ethiopian, was an ascetic monk and priest in Egypt in the fourth century AD, and a Desert Father. He is highly venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church. According to stories about him, he converted from a life of crime to one of asceticism. He is mentioned in Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, written about 70 years after Moses's death.
Peter the Iberian was a Georgian royal prince, theologian and philosopher who was a prominent figure in early Christianity and one of the founders of Christian Neoplatonism. Some have claimed that he is the author known conventionally as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.
The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Scetes desert of the Roman province of Egypt, beginning around the third century AD. The Apophthegmata Patrum is a collection of the wisdom of some of the early desert monks and nuns, in print as Sayings of the Desert Fathers. The first Desert Father was Paul of Thebes, and the most well known was Anthony the Great, who moved to the desert in AD 270–271 and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism. By the time Anthony had died in AD 356, thousands of monks and nuns had been drawn to living in the desert following Anthony's example, leading his biographer, Athanasius of Alexandria, to write that "the desert had become a city." The Desert Fathers had a major influence on the development of Christianity.
Damian of Alexandria was the Coptic pope and patriarch of Alexandria from 576.
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Barsanuphius, also known as Barsanuphius of Palestine, Barsanuphius of Gaza or Barsanuphius the Great, was a Christian hermit and writer of the sixth century.
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers is the name given to various textual collections consisting of stories and sayings attributed to the Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers from approximately the 5th century AD.
Abba Poemen the Great was a Christian monk and early Desert Father who is the most quoted Abba (Father) in the Apophthegmata Patrum. Abba Poemen was quoted most often for his gift as a spiritual guide, reflected in the name "Poemen" ("Shepherd"), rather than for his asceticism. He is considered a saint in Eastern Christianity. His feast day is August 27 in the Julian calendar.
The Asceticon by Abba Isaiah of Scetis is a diverse anthology of essays by an Egyptian Christian monk who left Scetis around 450 AD.
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John Rufus, John of Beth Rufina, or John of Maiuma, was an anti-Chalcedonian priest of Antioch, a disciple of Peter the Iberian and an ecclesiastical historian who possibly served as the bishop of Maiuma. He wrote the Plerophoriae, the Life of Peter the Iberian, and the Commemoration of the Death of Theodosius.
Theodosius was one of the leading Christian monks of Palestine opposed to the Council of Chalcedon (451). He was installed as bishop of Jerusalem in opposition Juvenal in 451 or 452, but was forced into exile by the emperor Marcian in 453.
Isaiah the Solitary, also known as Isaiah of Gaza, Isaias the Solitary, Abba Isaiah, or possibly also Isaiah of Scetis, was a Christian ascetic and monastic writer known from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and various Palestinian Miaphysite sources. He is canonized as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church, with his feast day on the 11th day of the month Abib (Epip) in the Coptic calendar.
Christian monasticism first appeared in Egypt and Syria. This is a partial chronology of early Christian monasticism with its notable events listed. It covers 343 years.
Seridus of Gaza was a Palestinian abbot of a monastery that was later named after him. He was disciple of the hermits Barsanuphius and John the Prophet and is venerated as saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church on 13 August.
The monastery of Seridus was a monastic community that flourished during the 6th and early 7th century in Palestine. Founded by Seridus of Gaza after whom the monastery was later named, it housed in the first half of the sixth century the well-known hermits Barsanuphius and John the Prophet who attracted many visitors.
Zeno the Prophet was an Egyptian monk and a Desert Father. He was disciple of the hermit Silvanus of Gaza, became the spiritual guide of the famous Georgian Peter the Iberian and is venerated as saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church on 19 June.
The Diocese of Gaza was a bishopric in the Holy Land. Its episcopal see was the city of Gaza and it is now a vacant Latin Catholic titular see.