John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 132
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/431
Context
John Moschus was an energetic 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, only available in
Traversari's Latin translation, tells of the monk (Abba) Cyprian at
Caesarea who survived a severe epidemic (mortalitas).
Text
Abbas autem Cyprianus, cognomento Cuculas, cuius monsterium est extra
portam Caesareae, narravit nobis cum ad illum venissemus, dicens:
Cum vastaret urbem istam saeva illa et horrenda mortalitas, inclusi me ipsum in cella
mea, deprecans clementiam Domini, ut nostri misereretur, et averteret imminentem iram.
Venitque mihi vox dicens: Annas Zachaeus accepit hanc gratiam.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
Abba Cyprian, surnamed Cuculas, whose monastery was outside the gate
of Caesarea, told us this when we went to see him: “When that
savage and horrendous plague ravaged this city, I shut myself in my cell and prayed the
clemency of God to have mercy on us and to turn aside the wrath threatening us. A voice
came to me, saying, ‘Abba Zachaeus has obtained this favor.’”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: 132, col: 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: 109.
How to Cite This Entry
Joseph L. Rife, “John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 132,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/431.
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Bibliography:
Joseph L. Rife, “John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 132.” 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/431.About this Entry
Entry Title: John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 132
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 132”
- Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow 132”
Additional Credit:
- TEI encoding by Joseph L. Rife
- URNs and other metadata added by Joseph L. Rife
- Electronic text added by Joseph L. Rife
- Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife