Table Of ContentCISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES:
NUMBER EIGHTY-EIGHT
Theodoret of Cyrrhus
A HISTORY OF THE MONKS OF SYRIA
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I I
I I
b~J Theodoret of C~Jrrhus
Translated with an Introduction
and Notes 6~ R. M. Price
CISTERCIAN PUBLICATIONS
A translation of the Religious History of Theodoret of Cyrrhus based on the
critical edition of P. Canivet and A. Leroy-Molinghen in the series Sources
Chretiennes (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1977-79).
A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press
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© 1985 Cistercian Publications, Inc.,© 2008 by Order of Saint Benedict, College
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Press, Saint John's Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus.
A history of the monks of Syria.
(Cistercian studies series; no. 88)
Translation of Philotheos historia, based on the critical edition entitled
Histoire des moines de Syrie, edited by P. Canivet and A. Leroy-Molinghen and
published in the series Sources chretiennes by Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1977-79.
Bibliography: p. 208.
Includes indexes.
I. Monasticism and religious orders-Syria-History. 2. Monks-Syria
Biography. 3 Nuns-Syria-Biography. 4· Syria-Church history.
5· Syria-Biography. I. Title. II. Series.
fRcFACE
N
O APOLOGY is needed for the first English translation of
the Religious History by Theodoret of Cyrrhus, our major
source for the monasticism of northern Syria in the fourth
and fifth centuries.The text translated is that of the recent Sources
Cbretiennes edition (Paris, 1977-9) by P. Canivet and A. Leroy
Molinghen. My two departures from it (in XXV.I and XXVI.18) are
both trivial. I do, however, defend the authenticity of two of the
several passages which these editors condemn as interpolations (see
the commentary on l.1o and XXVI.13).
The lack of translations into modern languages-Canivet's is the
first-has restricted acquaintance with the text, but scholars have not
neglected it. The studies of the seventeenth-century French scholars
Garnier and Tillemont are still fundamental, and have been sup
plemented during the last hundred years by many scholarly
monographs. These include the Russian biography of Theodoret by
Glubokovsky, the German contributions by Lietzmann and Schiwietz,
and the recent English work by Peter Brown. However, it is the work
of French writers that continues to dominate the field. The fine studies
v
Vl A History of the Monks of Syria
of Festugiere, and the fieldwork of French archaeologists during the
period of the French mandate in Syria, form the foundation for
Canivet's Le monacbisme syrien selon Tbeodoret de Cyr (1977), the most
comprehensive study both of the composition of the Religious History
and of the data it presents. This extensive literature, together with
English writing on Late Antique Syria by A.H.M. Jones, Liebeschuetz
and others, provides that massive sum of acquired knowledge from
which my own commentary modestly derives.
I would like to make a few acknowledgements: first to my parents,
who taught me to love learning and provided me with a traditional
classical education; also to Peter Brown, who introduced me to the
Religious History fifteen years ago; then to the well-stocked libraries of
London, especially those of Heythrop College and of my own com
munity, the Brompton Oratory; and finally to my publishers, who
commissioned this translation at a time when most academic publish
ing houses are displaying more discretion than valor.
The Oratory, London R.M. Price
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION lX
A HISTORY OF THE MONKS OF SYRIA
(THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY)
Prologue 3
I. James (of Nisibis) 12
II. Julian (Saba) 23
III. Marcianus 37
IV. Eusebius (ofTeleda) 49
V. Publius 58
VI. Symeon the Elder 63
VII. Palladius 69
VIII. Aphrahat 72
IX. Peter (the Galatian) 81
X. Theodosius 89
XI. Roman us 94
XII. Zeno 96
XIII. Macedonius 100
XIV. Maesymas 110
XV. Acepsimas 114
XVI. Maron 117
XVII. Abraham 120
XVIII. Eusebius (of Asikha) 126
XIX. Salamanes 129
XX. Maris 131
XXI. James (of Cyrrhestica) 133
XXII-III. Thalassius, Limnaeus, John 150
XXIV-V. Zebinas, Polychronius, Asclepius 154
XXVI. Symeon (Stylites) 160
XXVII. Baradatus 177
XXVIII. Thalelaeus ISO
XXIX. Marana and Cyra 183
Vll
Table of Contents
Vlll
XXX. Domnina 186
Epilogue: On Divine Love
190
LIST OF WORKS CITED 208
INDEX OF NAMES
214
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 220
INTRODUCTION
T
HEODORET OF CYRRHUS (Ao 393-466) is a writer with
a variety of claims on the attention of students of christian
antiquity.1 As a controversial writer, he was the main cham
pion of Antiochene Christology against the attacks of Cyril of Alexandria
and his adherents, and lived to see his stand vindicated at the Council of
Chalcedon. As an apologist, he wrote what has been judged the finest
vindication of the superiority of Christianity over paganism-The
Cure of Hellenic Maladies. As an exegete, he expounded the Church's
traditional typological interpretation of Scripture, in conscious cor
rection of both the allegorism of Origen and the literalism of
Theodore of Mopsuestia. As an historian, he penned an Ecclesiastical
History, a continuation ofEusebius down to 428, notable for its fluency
and vigor. A further historical work is the text translated here, the
Religious History or Ascetic Life (see Prologue 10 for these tides), an ac
count of around thirty notable ascetics of northern Syria from the
time of Constantine to Theodoret's own day.
IX
A History of the Monks of Syria
X
This amounts to an f.lUVre unequaled in range by any of his contem
poraries. It is true that he lacked originality and is never really pro
found, but he had a clear perception of what in any topic was really at
issue; his reasoning is sharp and incisive, his exposition lucid and
uncluttered. Add to this the verve and elegance of his style, and
Theodoret emerges as the most attractive writer of his generation;
meanwhile, his role on the stage of the history of the Church was sec
ond only to those of Cyril of Alexandria and Leo of Rome. Yet he
has never attracted quite the attention he deserves. At the Ecumenical
Council of 553 the vindication of Cyril and condemnation of Theodore,
his supposed teacher, were accompanied by the anathematization of
his specific writings against Cyril and in defense of Theodore and
Nestorius; it was only his standing at Chalcedon that protected him
from personal condemnation. From then on his name was viewed
with circumspection, and his writings were denied canonical status.
The modern age that has rehabilitated Theodore and Nestorius na
turally looks on Theodoret with a kindlier eye; but the crude, if use
ful, schematization that sees the Council of Ephesus as a duel between
Cyril and Nestorius, and Chalcedon as the victory of Leo over
Eutyches, has kept Theodoret at the rear of the stage, despite his uni
que position as a leading contestant in the whole twenty-five years of
the debate and his weighty theological contribution, which is second
only to Cyril's.
A quite separate, but not dissimilar bias has contributed to the
neglect of his Religious History in particular. It is our principal source
for early Syrian monasticism, a movement as preeminent in its ancho
rites as was Egypt in coenobitic monasticism. Later developments have
favored coenobitism over anchoritism, in the East as well as theWe st;
consequently, Egyptian monasticism receives pride of treatment, and
the Syrian variety can appear even slightly deviant, as a rococo exag
geration of the genuine article. As a result, Theodoret's eulogy of the
monks of Syria, while never forgotten as a prime historical source, has
not enjoyed the same respect and canonical status as the classic ac
counts, by Cassian and Palladius, of their Egyptian peers.
Recent scholarship, however, has achieved some correction of this
imbalance: both Theodoret and the monks of Syria are now accorded
more sympathetic attention than for centuries past. This is a result
