John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 131
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/430
Context
John Moschus was a monk in the Near East during the late 6th to early
7th centuries, whose writings have been celebrated as potent devotional readings but
have not received due attention also as historical sources. A native of Syria or
Cilicia, John moved throughout his career between ascetic communities in the Jordan
Valley and particularly around Jerusalem, but also in the Egyptian desert, the Sinai,
and Syria. During roughly his final decade, between stays in Cyprus and Rome, he
compiled his famous Spiritual Meadow (Λειμωνάριον, Pratum
spirituale). This long work vividly records his personal encounters with holy
persons across the eastern Mediterranean, including much information about monastic
practice and belief in local communities. The textual history has been notoriously
thorny. Beyond the patent peculiarities of Moschus’ Greek, later readers clearly
reworked the content in places after its composition; the multiple surviving Byzantine
manuscripts contain different stories in different sequences; and we currently possess
no modern critical edition. The best available Greek text, based chiefly on codices of
the 11th and 12th centuries at Paris (Codd. Parisini Graeci 914, 916, 917, 1596, 1605),
was published by the French theologian Jean-Baptiste Cotelier in 1681 and reprinted with
slight changes in Patrologia Graeca 87.3 (1865). The great Italian
humanist Ambrogio Traversari read a separate and longer Greek text preserved in the
Laurentian Library; that text has not been published, but Traversari’s Latin translation
was published in 1479 and reprinted likewise in Patrologia Latina 74.2
(1879) and in facing columns of the PG. This passage from Traversari's
Latin translation, which is longer than the available Greek text of the same passage,
tells of one Procopius from Porphyreon, presumably the town near Caesarea, who consulted
the powerful monk (Abba) Zacchaeus about the severe epidemic
(mortalitas) at Caesarea.
Text
Narravit nobis Procopius scholasticus Porphyronitae de abbate Zachaeo,
dicens: Duo filii mei in Caesarea degebant; facta est autem in
Caesarea magna mortalitas, egoque affligebar propter filios
meos, ne morerentur, et ignorabam quid agerem. Dicebam autem in me ipso si mittam et
accipiam eos inde, iram Dei fugere possibile non est; sed si dimittam eos illic,
morientur, et non videbo illos. Nesciens itaque quid agere deberem, dixi: Vadam ad
abbatem Zachaeum, et quod dixerit mihi hoc faciam. Perrexi igitur in sanctam Sion (illic
enim semper morabatur) et non inveni eum. Veni autem in atrium sanctae Mariae Dei
gentilicis et inveni illum strantem in angulo atrii, dixique illi de filiis meis. Cum
ergo me audisset, ad orientem conversus est et intendit in coelum quasi per horas duas
nihil omnino loquens. Tunc vero conversus ad me, dixit mihi: Confide ac noli affligi;
filii tui non morientur in hac peste, sed et post duas dies cessabit de
Caesareae mortalitas. Quod et factum est juxta verbum senis,
et ista quidem Procopius scholasticus, ut dixi, enarravit nobis.1
Textual Note
Ed. Traversari and Migne 1879Textual Note
Based on Codex Laurentianus Plut. X.3 (12th century)Corrigenda Note
Minor corr. (spelling, puncutation)Translation
Procopius the lawyer, who came from Porphyreon, told us this about
Abba Zachaios: “My two sons were spending time in Caesarea. There
was a deadly plague in Caesarea, and I was very worried that my
children might die, and I did not know what to do. I was asking myself whether I should
send for them to come home from there—it is not possible to flee the wrath of God. But I
should leave them there, they might die without me seeing them. Not knowing what I
should do, I said, ‘I will go to Abba Zachaeus, and whatever he says to me, I will do
it.’ So therefore I went to Holy Sion (he always spent time there), but I did not find
him. So I went into the courtyard of Holy Mary Mother of God and found him standing in
the corner, and I told him about my sons. When he heard this, he turned to the east and
reached up to heaven for about two hours without saying a word. Then he turned to me and
said, ‘Take heart and do not be worried: your children will not die in this plague. In
fact, two days from now, the plague shall abate in Caesarea.’
This happened according to the words of the old man.” As I said, Procopius the lawyer
told these things to me.2
Translation Note
Rev. Wortley 2008Works Cited
- 1 John Moschus, Pratum spirituale, ex Supplemento Ducaei et Cotelerii Monumentis, in Patrologiae cursus completus: series Graeca, ed. Jacques-Pierre Migne and Jean-Baptiste Cotelier, vol. 87.3 (Paris: Thibaut, 1865), 2951–3116, ch: 131, col: 186C-187A.
- 2 John Moschus, De vitis patrum liber decimus, sive Pratum spirituale, in Patrologiae cursus completus: series Latina, ed. Ambrogio Traversari and Jacques-Paul Migne, vol. 74.2 (Paris: Garnier fratres, 1879), 119–240, p: 108-109.
How to Cite This Entry
Joseph L. Rife, “John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 131,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/430.
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Bibliography:
Joseph L. Rife, “John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 131.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2023. Entry published June 30, 2023. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/430.About this Entry
Entry Title: John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 131
Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:
- Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
- Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
- David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editor, “John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 131”
- Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 131”
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- TEI encoding by Joseph L. Rife
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