THE HERMITS IN SINAI
A NEW era in the history of Sinai began with the advent of the
Christian hermit. The desert has ever been the home of liberty. The
desire to follow the New Way, coupled with the need of escaping the
Roman governor, drove many Christians into the wilderness, where,
remote from the claims and the unrest of citizen life, they embraced
life in a form which meant reducing physical needs to a minimum.
This life in itself was no new departure. Again and again in the course
of history, a recoil from civilisation led men to seek enlightenment
in remoteness, simplicity and solitude. Elijah the Tishbite, with
rough mantle and flowing locks; John the Baptist, who lived on locusts
and wild honey; the Essenes in Palestine, and the Therapeutæ near
Alexandria, were one and all actuated by the belief that a higher life
is possible here below, provided that the amenities and the comforts of
this world count as nothing.
The hermits who came to dwell in Sinai, settled in the mountains of
the south where many natural springs rendered possible the cultivation
of vegetables and fruit, their staple articles of diet. Here they were
outside the sphere of Roman influence. The extent of this influence can
be gauged by the _Table Peutinger_.
On this Table two roads, the one coming from Syria, the other from
Egypt, lead to _Pharan_ in Sinai proper. The road from Egypt passed
_Arsinoë_, _Clesma_, _Lacus Mar_, and a station, the name of which
is obliterated, but which Weill reads as Medeia. From this it was 80
miles to Pharan. The road from Syria, starting from Jerusalem, passed
_Oboda_, _Lyssa_, _Cypsana_, _Rasa_, _Ad Dianam_ (later Ghadiana),
i.e. _Aila_, from where it was 60 miles to _Pharan_. Pharan was no
doubt the κωμὴ, _i.e._ village Pharan of Ptolemy, the later seat
of the episcopate. This was, therefore, the southernmost point of
Roman administration in the peninsula. It was beyond this, among the
mountains of the south and on the coast near Tur, that the hermits
settled by preference.
The inhabitants of the peninsula at this period were called Ishmaelites
or Saracens. The origin of the word Saracen has been much discussed.
Ptolemy, the geographer, located Sarakene on the borders of Egypt, and
the Sarakeni east of the Gulf of Akaba.[138] According to Eucherius
(† _c._ 449), the Arabs and the Agarenes in his time were called
Saracens.[139] But the historian Sozomenus († 443) held that the
Ishmaelites deliberately called themselves Saracens in allusion to
Sarah, because they resented the association with Hagar.[140] Sprenger
connected the word with _saraka_, Arabic for robber; the present view
is that it signifies easterner.
The Saracens are mentioned in a letter which Dionysius, bishop of
Alexandria, wrote about the year 250, in which he mentioned that the
Christians fled to the desert to escape persecution. “Many were seized
in the Arabian mountains by the heathen Saracens and carried off into
captivity.”[141] By the Arabian mountain he probably meant the hills
between the Nile valley and the Red Sea, but he may be referring to
Sinai.
An early hermit of Sinai was St. Onophrius, whom Nectarius, in his
_Epitome of Holy History_, numbered among the founders of ascetic
life.[142] Onophrius dwelt in a grotto in the Wadi Leyan, south of the
Gebel Musa, which was visited during the Middle Ages by pilgrims and is
still pointed out to travellers.[143]
Paphnutius († _c._ 390), a monk of Egypt, came across Onophrius on his
wanderings and wrote a life of him. Onophrius told him that he had been
in the desert seventy years. Originally he dwelt in the Thebaid with
about a hundred monks, but hearing of Elijah and John the Baptist, he
decided that it was more meritorious to dwell alone in the desert, so
he wandered away, led by an angel, and met a hermit who urged him to go
five days further where he reached “Calidiomea” (perhaps a corruption
of _calybem_, a hut), near which stood a palm tree where he remained.
He suffered from hunger and thirst, from cold and heat, and lived on
dates, his clothes gradually dropping from him. He took Paphnutius
into his hut, and they were conversing together when a sudden pallor
overspread his countenance, and he intimated that Paphnutius would
bury him. He died there and then, and Paphnutius tore a piece off his
own cloak, in which he wrapped him and laid him in a crevice in the
rock.[144]
Onophrius was perhaps the unnamed hermit who was visited by a monk
of Raithou, “where stood seventy palm trees in the place which Moses
reached with the people when he came out of Egypt.” This monk described
how, on his wanderings, he came to a cell in which he found a dead monk
whose body dropped to dust when he touched it. In another place he came
upon a hermit who had lived in an ascetic community at Heroöpolis,
but he associated with a professed nun, and yielded to temptation,
whereupon he fled into the distant desert where, as time went on, his
hair grew and his clothes dropped from him.[145]
Of similar appearance was the hermit whom Postumianus was bent on
seeing when he went from Italy into Sinai some time before 400. In the
_Dialogues_ of Severus the words are put into his lips: “I saw the
Red Sea and I climbed the height of Mount Sinai (jugum Sina Montis),
the summit of which almost touches heaven and cannot be reached by
human effort. A hermit was said to live somewhere in its recesses, and
I sought long and much to see him, but was unable to do so. He had
been removed from human fellowship for nearly fifty years and wore no
clothes, but was covered with bristles growing on his body, but of
divine gift he knew not of his nakedness.”[146]
Another hermit who was drawn to Sinai was Silvanus, a native of
Palestine, “to whom on account of his great virtue, an angel was wont
to minister. He lived in Sinai and afterwards founded, at Gerari (?
Gerra), in the wadi, a very extensive and noted cœnobium for many good
men, over which the excellent Zacharias, afterwards presided.”[147]
Like other hermits, Silvanus shared his cell with a youthful disciple,
and cultivated a garden that was surrounded by a wall and served by a
water conduit. Various anecdotes told of him bear witness to his good
sense and humility.
“A certain brother once came to Sinai where he found the brethren hard
at work and he said to them, Labour not for the meat that perishes.
Silvanus, who overheard the remark, directed his disciple Zacharias
to give him a book and lead him to an empty cell. When the ninth hour
came, the brother looked towards the entrance expecting to be called to
a meal, but no one came, so he went to Silvanus and said, Father, do
not the brethren eat to-day? Silvanus replied, Oh yes, they have eaten.
Then why was I not called? Because, said Silvanus, thou art a spiritual
man who needs no such food. We others, being carnal, must eat, and
therefore we work. Thou hast in truth chosen the better part, and art
able to study all day requiring nothing. On hearing this, the brother
saw that he was at fault, and said, Father, forgive me. Silvanus
replied, Surely Martha is necessary to Mary, it was due to her that
Mary was able to pray. Silvanus himself worked with his hands, chiefly
at basket-making, so as to earn his living and not depend on alms.”
The baskets, we gather from other remarks, were used to pack dates for
export. Like other hermits, Silvanus had visions. One day he sat for a
long time without speaking and then burst into tears. It was, he said,
because he saw men of his own kind going to hell, while many secular
persons went to heaven. Among the sayings attributed to him was this
one, “Woe unto him who has more renown than merit.”[148]
Other early hermits were Galac̭tion and his wife Episteme, whose
experiences were noted in the _Menology_ of Basileus,[149] and were
worked up into a longer account by Simeon Metaphrastes. They were from
Emesa and took ten days to reach the height called Pouplios (? _Rubus_,
the Bush), near Mount Sinai (τὸ Σινᾶ ὄρος), where they found ten
hermits who were joined by Galac̭tion. Episteme dwelt at some distance
with four virgins. But the Roman governor (Ursus) sent for Galac̭tion.
Episteme, apprised by a dream, came forward to die for him. Both
endured the penalty of death, and Eutolmios, at one time their slave,
recovered and brought back their bodies.[150]
The settlement where Episteme dwelt was afterwards allotted to
the slaves who were brought into Sinai and appointed to serve the
convent by the emperor Justinian († 563). The settlement lay on a
slope north-east of the convent facing the valley, and was pointed
out to Bishop Pococke in the year 1734.[151] The existence here of a
settlement of women, and the value which was set on the bodies of the
hermits, are worth noting in connection with the finding of the body of
St. Katherine of Alexandria, to which we shall return later.
Other saints who were connected with Sinai were the well-known Cosmas
and Damianus, Arab doctors who taught Christianity. There are no
traditions regarding their coming into Sinai, but their names were
attached to a hermitage, now dilapidated, which stood at Tholas, in the
Wadi Tla’ah, and was dedicated to them.
It was customary at the time for the hermits to wander from place to
place. Among the famous hermits who visited Sinai was Julian Sabbas (†
363), who left his cell near Osrhoene (Edessa), and, with a few devoted
followers, sought the remoteness of Sinai where he remained some
time. On reaching the desired height (τὸ ποθούμενον ὄρος), he built
a church and set up an altar on the stone on which Moses, prince of
prophets, rested. Theodoret (_c._ 450), who related this, stated that
the altar remained in his day.[152] Antoninus Martyr (_c._ 530) noted
the existence of an oratory above Pharan, with its altar on the stones
which supported Moses when he prayed.[153] The plan and ruins of an
oratory are figured in the Ordnance Survey (pl. X), which probably mark
this spot. Its erection helped to locate the struggle of Moses and the
Amalekites in this valley, which, according to other views, took place
further south.
The hermits at this period occupied caverns and huts, an older man,
called _abbas_, _i.e._ father, usually dwelling with a younger
disciple. But as time wore on the cells were more and more grouped
around a centre where the hermits assembled once a week for religious
service. These centres or churches sometimes consisted of a square
tower built of stone, its entrance raised above the ground, and in
these the hermits sought refuge in times of danger. One such tower or
church stood near Raithou, and formed part of the later convent of St.
John; another, the Arbaïn, now in ruins, stood in the Wadi Layan, near
the grotto of Onophrius; a third was near the Bush, and was included in
the present convent. Tradition claimed that the tower near the Bush,
was built by Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine, and was
dedicated to the Theotokos in order to commemorate the spot where the
Lord appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush.[154] The tower was pointed
out to Burckhardt, and was described by him as of older construction
than the convent.[155] The pilgrimage of Helena to the East in the year
326 is well authenticated, but there is no contemporary reference to
her entering Sinai. If there were, it would be the earliest association
of the site of the convent with the coming of Moses.
We first hear of bishops established in cities of Sinai in connection
with religious discussions and difficulties. At the beginning of the
fourth century Arius raised doubts regarding the fundamental truth of
the Divine Sonship, and a synod of three hundred and ninety bishops met
at Nicæa in the year 325 to discuss the question. Among those who set
their signature to the declaration of faith which rejected the claims
of Arius was Peter, bishop of Ahila, _i.e._ Aila, a city which, by
virtue of its situation was included in the province of Palestine.[156]
As a sequel to these discussions a Council was held in the church of
St. Thekla at Seleucia in September of the year 359 by order of the
emperor Constantius, at which there were present a hundred and sixty
bishops, about two-thirds of whom were semi-Arians. Theoctistes,
bishop of Ostracine, was among them.[157] He was therefore deposed by
Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria († 371), who appointed, in his
stead, Serapion.[158] But the representatives of the neighbouring see
of Rhinocorura firmly held by Athanasius, and Sozomenus († 443), after
praising the hermits of Nitria, wrote of Rhinocorura, “celebrated at
this period for its holy men, who were not from abroad, but natives
of the place. Among the most eminent philosophers were Melas, who
then administered the church in the country; Dionysius, who presided
over a monastery to the north of the city; and Solon, the brother
and successor of Melas in the bishopric.” When, owing to a decision
of Valens (_c._ A.D. 364), there was a reaction in favour of Arius,
officers appeared at Rhinocorura who were charged with orders to eject
those opposed to Arianism. Melas, who did the lowliest work, offered
a meal to the officers, waiting on them himself, and declared his
willingness to go into exile. His brother Solon gave up commerce in
order to embrace the monastic life. “The church of Rhinocorura having
been thus from the beginning under the guidance of exemplary bishops,
never afterwards swerved from their precepts and produced good men. The
clergy of this church dwell in one house, sit at the same table, and
have everything in common.”[159] Among these bishops was Polybius, a
disciple of Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus († 403), who wrote
a supplement to the _Life of Epiphanius_.
The religious difficulties, combined with the general unrest which
followed the conjoint rule of the imperial brothers, Valentinian and
Valens (364-367), are reflected in the account told by the Egyptian
monk Ammonius of what happened at the time when he was on a visit to
Sinai with the hermits at the Bush. The account which he wrote in
Coptic is preserved in Greek, in Syriac, and in Latin.[160] It is a
composition of considerable merit, to which the condensed account,
which follows, can do but scant justice.
“It occurred to me,” wrote Ammonius, “as I sat in my little cell near
Alexandria at the place called Canopus, that I could go a journey and
thus escape the persecutions (by the Arians) of the faithful, who
included our holy bishop Peter (II, 372-380), who was obliged to go
into hiding, first at one place and then at another, and was thereby
hindered from ministering to his flock. I was, moreover, fired by the
desire to see the memorable places, including the Holy Sepulchre, the
place of the Resurrection, and others that were associated with our
Lord Jesus Christ. After worshipping at these places, I decided to seek
the holy mountain called Sinai, going the desert journey together with
others who were bent on the same purpose, and I journeyed thither (from
Jerusalem) with the help of God in eighteen days. And when I had prayed
I remained with the holy fathers in order to visit their several cells
to the profit of my soul.”
A description follows of the occupations of the hermits, their solitary
life on week-days, and their gatherings in church on Sundays. “Their
aspect was that of angels, for they were pallid and, so to say,
incorporeal, owing to their abstaining from wine, oil, bread, and other
food that tends to luxury, living on dates only, just enough to keep
themselves alive.”
“A few days later,” Ammonius continued, “Saracens, whose sheykh (or
king) had died, fell upon the fathers in their cells and slew them,
so that I, together with the superior Doulas and others sought refuge
in the tower, while the barbarians slew all the hermits who were in
Thrambe (Syriac, Gethrabbi),[161] Choreb (Horeb), Kedar (Codar), and
other places. They would have dealt the same with us, but a great fire
appeared on the mountain which scared them so they fled, leaving behind
their women, children and camels. We who saw this from the tower, gave
thanks to God, and then sallied forth to the other settlements. We
found 38 hermits who were dead. Twelve belonged to Thrambe, including
Isaiah and Sabbas who were badly hurt. Isaiah died while Sabbas
lamented that he was not in the company of the saints. But he died four
days later (on the last day of the year).”
They were lamenting his death when an Ishmaelite brought the news that
the fathers who dwelt at Elim (Raithou) had been raided also. Raithou
is described as “a level plain, situated at a distance of about twelve
miles, with mountains to the east like a wall, which those only could
cross who were familiar with the country. To the west was the Red Sea,
which extended to the ocean.” The words correctly describe the district
about Tur.
The settlement here was attacked by the Blemmyes, a nomad race of
Nubia, of whom we now hear in Sinai for the first time. Psoes, a
fugitive hermit, who arrived in the wake of the Ishmaelite, gave
Ammonius particulars regarding the hermits at Raithou, and their
message. He had lived 20 years at Raithou himself, he said; others
had lived there 40, 50, and 60 years. There was Abba Moses of Pharan,
who had the power of exorcising demons, and who had cured Obedianus,
a sheykh of the Ishmaelites, which led to many conversions. There was
also Sabbas, of whom Psoes was a disciple, but the way of living of
Sabbas was so hard that Psoes left him. Again, there was Joseph from
Aila, who built himself a cell with his own hands at a distance of two
miles from the springs.
Forty-three hermits dwelt near Raithou, to which place the news was
brought that the Blemmyes had seized an Egyptian boat which was bound
for Clysma, and were coming across the sea. The men of Raithou at once
collected their camels, their women and children, while the hermits
sought refuge in the church. The barbarians spent the night on the
shore, and then bound the sailors to the boat which they left in charge
of one of themselves, and came across the mountain to the springs where
they were met by the men of Raithou. But the invaders were the more
skilful archers, and killed 140 men, the rest fled. Then they seized
the women and children, and rushed to the tower or church, expecting to
find treasures, and went round it screaming and uttering threats in a
barbarous language while the hermits inside prayed and lamented.
Paul of Petra, who was the superior of the settlement, uttered words
which were full of dignity, and concluded with saying: “O athletes of
God, do not regret this good conflict; let not your souls be faint,
and do nothing unworthy of your cowl, but be clothed with strength and
joy and manliness, that you may endure with a pure heart, and may God
receive you into His kingdom.”
In the meantime the barbarians, encountering no resistance, heaped
tree-trunks against the wall from outside, broke open the door of the
church, and rushed in, sword in hand. They seized Jeremiah, who was
sitting on the door-sill, and commanded him through one who acted as
interpreter, to point out the superior. When he refused, they bound
him hand and foot, and tearing off his clothes, used him for a target.
“He was the first to gain the crown” (of martyrdom). Then the superior
Paul came forward declaring his identity, and they bade him reveal his
treasures. In his usual gentle voice he replied: “Forsooth, children,
I own nothing but this old hair-cloth garment that I am wearing.” And
he held it out, displaying it. But the barbarians hurled stones at him,
shouting: “Out with your treasures,” and, after ill-using him, cleft
his head in twain with a sword.—“Then I, miserable sinner,” continued
Psoes, “seeing the slaughter and the blood and the viscera on the
ground, bethought me of a hiding place. A heap of palm branches lay in
the left-hand corner of the church. Unnoticed by the barbarians, I ran
to it, saying to myself, If they find me, they can but kill me, which
they are sure to do, if I do not hide.”
From his hiding place he saw the barbarians cut down the hermits who
were in church. He saw them seize the youth Sergius, whom they would
have dragged away with them, but he snatched a sword from a barbarian
and hit him across the shoulder, whereupon he was cut down himself.
The barbarians after killing the hermits, searched for treasures not
knowing that the saints own nothing here on earth, their hope being of
the world to come. Finally they rushed off intending to embark. But the
man who was left in charge of the boat, being a Christian, had cut the
rope, so that the boat ran ashore and foundered; he himself escaped to
the mountain. The barbarians, who were at a loss what to do, murdered
the women and children, and then lit a fire and cut down and burnt
nearly all the palm trees of the place.
In the meantime the Ishmaelites from Pharan, some six hundred in
number and all of them expert archers, drew near at dawn and attacked
the barbarians, who, seeing no chance of escape, met them bravely and
perished, to a man. Of the men of Pharan eighty-four were killed,
others were wounded. The hermits were all dead except Andrew, who was
wounded and recovered, Domnus, who died of his wounds, and Psoes, who
was left to tell the tale. The men of Pharan left the dead enemies to
the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air. They buried their
own dead at the foot of the mountain above the springs, and made a
great wailing. Then, led by the sheykh Obedianus, they brought costly
garments, in which, with the help of Psoes and Andrew they buried the
saints. Psoes himself then left Raithou, which was deserted, for the
Bush, where he begged to be allowed to stay with Doulas, a request
which was readily granted. The account concludes with saying that
Ammonius wrote all this down after his return to Memphis, and the words
are added in one MS., “I, presbyter John, found this account written in
Coptic in the cell of a hermit near Naukratis, and, knowing Coptic, I
translated it into Greek.”
* * * * *
The attacks made on the hermits were part of a wider movement. History
relates that Mavia (or Mania), the widow of the phylarch or king of
the Saracens, collected her forces and led them in person against
Palestine and Egypt. The Romans, because they had to do with a woman,
expected to quell the disturbance without difficulty. But the advantage
was on her side, and the expedition was celebrated in song among the
Saracens. Mavia proffered peace to the Romans on condition that Moses,
a converted Saracen, should be consecrated bishop of Pharan, and Moses
went to Alexandria under a military escort. But here a new difficulty
arose. The patriarch Peter II (372-380), the same to whom Ammonius
referred, was still absent. The Arian prelate Lucius (_c._ A.D. 378)
occupied his see, and Moses refused to be ordained by him. The story
was told by Sozomenus († 443), and by Socrates († _c._ 478), both of
whom lived soon after the event.
“I account myself indeed unworthy of the sacred office,” Moses said,
“but if the exigencies of the state require my bearing it, it shall
not be by Lucius laying his hand on me, for it has been filled with
blood.” When Lucius told him that it was his duty to learn from him the
principles of religion and not to utter reproachful language, Moses
replied, “Matters of faith are not now in question: but your infamous
practices against the brethren sufficiently prove that your doctrines
are not Christian. For a Christian is not a striker, reviles not, does
not fight, for it becomes not a servant of God to fight. But your deeds
cry out against you by those who have been sent into exile, who have
been delivered up to the flames. These things which our own eyes have
beheld are far more convincing than what we receive from the report of
another.” As Moses expressed these and like sentiments, his friends
took him to the mountain, that he might receive ordination from the
bishops who lived in exile there. Moses having been consecrated, the
Saracen war was terminated, and so scrupulously did Mavia observe the
peace thus entered into with the Romans that she gave her daughter in
marriage to Victor the commander-in-chief of the Roman army. Such were
the transactions in relation to the Saracens.”[162]
The fame of Moses continued. In the _Itinerary of Willibald_ (_c._ 750)
we read that, after his return from Palestine, he was received by Pope
Hadrian in Rome at a time when St. Boniface was asking for help on his
mission to evangelise the Germans. The Pope, in his desire to persuade
Willibald to undertake the task, referred to Moses the hermit, famous
for innumerable miracles in the desert, “who was torn away from the
solitary life he was leading at the request of Queen Mania to the Roman
emperor, and placed as bishop over the nation of the Saracens, and in a
short time he won to Christ that most fierce nation, and clothed them
in the fleece of lambs.”[163] The name of Moses was inscribed in the
Roman Martyrology on Feb. 27. “In Egypt the feast of Moses, a venerable
bishop, who at first lived a solitary life in the desert, and then,
at the request of Mauvia, queen of the Saracens, being made bishop,
converted that most ferocious nation in great part to the faith, and
made glorious by his merits rested in peace.”[164]
Moses was followed in the see of Pharan by Natyr, a disciple of
Silvanus, who was a strict ascetic.