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754 25. monasticism
of Scetis and others, correspondingly, withdrew to Gaza. 22 By that time, no
doubt, the growing willingness of desert ascetics to give the cœnobium permanent
status, the fact that many more of them remained within community
walls than graduated to the more independent life of a personal cell,
and the associated emphasis on carefully preserved property and growing
liturgical sophistication, all gave the episcopate an increasing foothold in
monastic circles. Perhaps nothing symbolized the growing liaison more than
the feeling among Sabas’ followers that he could not exercise effective leadership
unless he were ordained a priest. 23 That ordination was achieved by
subterfuge in 490; and Sabas succeeded as general archimandrite in 492.
Three features of ascetic experience, therefore, became obvious in
Palestine: submission to the episcopate, a carefully controlled hierarchy of
masters and disciples, and a calculated encouragement of the community
life. While remaining capable of sustaining a variety of styles, the
Palestinian regime betrayed an openness to church life, not only in its subjection
to episcopal authority, but also in the associated complexity of its
liturgical celebrations, and in its willingness to undertake the conversion
and pastoral care of people beyond its immediate boundaries.
When we move further north, to Syria proper, and in particular to the
country around Antioch, the scene appears to change. Our chief source of
information for the first part of our period (and, indeed, reaching back
beyond it) is Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus and author of an Historia religiosa,
which describes the lives of prominent Syrian ascetics. His most
famous subject is undoubtedly Symeon Stylites; and Symeon and his imitators,
bizarre and extreme in their ascetic discipline, have tended to dominate
the imagination of later readers. 24 Yet very few of Theodoret’s
vignettes depict such lives; and the careful reader soon discerns both the
anxieties of a bishop and the persistent influence of the coenobitic life.
The Syrian church had long been rigorist and demanding in its view of
Christian commitment, probably owing little in the process to anything but
it own reflection upon the gospel. It was at the same time intensely devoted
to the notion of community and to the authority of the bishop; and it
would be surprising to find any contrary emphasis from the pen of one of
its leading churchmen. In story after story, Theodoret refers to the coenobitic
background of his heroes. He gives full details of a coenobitic regime,
with reference to the liturgy of monks, their reception of guests (‘the
divine work of hospitality’), their general order and hard work. 25 He
22 Zach. HE iii.4, vi.1; John Eph. Lives 25. See Binns (1994) 189f.
23 V. Sab. 19. Hirschfeld sees Sabas’ promotion as a victory for the desert ascetics ((1992) 14f.); but
it was achieved at a price.
24 Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Historia religiosa xxvi. For Symeon, see the texts translated and introduced by
Robert Doran (1992). The Life of Daniel the Stylite is also of interest (trans. in Dawes and Baynes, (1977)).
25 Theod. HR (SChrét. 234) ii.5, iii.2, 12, v.2, x.3 (liturgy); iii.14, 20 (quoted), viii.2, x.4f (guests);
iii.22, x.2 (general).
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