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752 25. monasticism
practised asceticism, like Euthymius, in his native district, in a large and
well-developed monastery. Again it was Jerusalem – just as in the case of
Euthymius – that first attracted him to Palestine, rather than the Judaean
desert. Like many before him, Euthymius sent him to be schooled by
Theoctistus; and then he practised asceticism in a remoter cave. The
description of his regime sums up the pattern of Palestinian practice:
‘spending the day in physical labour and passing the night without sleep in
giving praise to God, making humility and obedience the root and foundation
of his life, and showing aptitude and great zeal in the office of the holy
liturgy’. 16 Once he had attracted disciples of his own, he exercised over
them an authority based predominantly on his own experience – the hallmark
of the charismatic master in the north Egyptian tradition. He also
acquired in time, however, a Theoctistus of his own – another
Cappadocian, named Theodosius, with whom he divided authority.
Theodosius, near Jerusalem, governed coenobites in the spirit of Basil, his
fellow countryman. By this time, in the 470s, cœnobia were becoming established
features of the desert fringe: extensive walled communities with
refectories and dormitories for more than a hundred monks, together with
accommodation for visitors and for the sick, the buildings added to decade
by decade. A large church provided the setting not only for the eucharist
but for regular hymns and psalms. Sabas, meanwhile, in his ‘Great Laura’,
closer to the Dead Sea, commanded more scattered ascetics; but he also
developed something akin to ‘rules’, which were general enough to be
imposed upon later foundations as they were established. Here too, prayer
as well as discipline was catered for, the monks in their weekday cells
responding to the same signal that summoned their coenobitic colleagues. 17
So, while leading a life of some freedom and eccentricity, Sabas busied
himself with the material details of an increasingly complex and prosperous
empire. Patrons in Jerusalem were a source of regular funds; but he also
travelled on two occasions to Constantinople, in a.d. 511–12 and 531,
where he gained apparently easy access to the court, and returned with considerable
wealth for his communities. His own Great Laura thus acquired
a coenobitic offshoot, a hospital and a new church. 18
When it came to relations with bishops, Palestinian monasticism had by
this time adopted a style of administration peculiar to itself, reflecting in
part the small scale of the desert region and its easy access to Jerusalem. 19
The patriarch of the city appointed one ascetic – Sabas being only the most
16 V. Sab. 8, tr. Price (1991) 100. Earlier asceticism: V. Sab. 1f. First endeavours in Palestine: V.
Euthym. 31; V. Sab. 7f.
17 Authority: V. Sab. 16. Relations with Theodosius: V. Sab. 30, 65; V. Jo. Hesych. 6 (see Hirschfeld
(1992) 15, and Binns (1994) 45). ‘Rules’: V. Sab. 42, 74, 76.
18 V. Sab. 18, 25, 32; 27, 31, 35; 51f., 71f.; Patrich (1995).
19 Emphasis on a close link between monks and church in Palestine is the chief mark of Binns
(1994). On Jerusalem, see especially 80f., 178f.
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