|
Isaiah The Solitary
Isaiah the Solitary (? – 11 August 491), also known as Isaiah of Gaza, Isaias or Isaiah the Solitary, Abba Isaiah, or possibly also Isaiah of Scetis, was a Christian ascetic and monastic writer known from the ''Sayings of the Desert Fathers'' and various Palestinian Miaphysite sources. He is canonized as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church, with his feast day on the 11th day of the month Abib (Epip) in the Coptic calendar. His work "On Guarding the Intellect" can be found in the Philokalia. Life Isaiah the Solitary lived in asceticism on a mountain in Egypt then moved to Palestine. Although he was active in Gaza (as he was quoted by Barsanuphius of Gaza), Isaiah was a product of the Egyptian monasticism which had developed in the 4th century in the Kellia (Cells) of the desert of Scetes, where he was first a monk. He lived in Egypt during the early 400s. Much of Isaiah's writings were instructive for monks and solitaries. Very few of his writings are extant, as the majo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaza City
Gaza (;''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998), , p. 761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory in Palestine, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". ar, غَزَّة ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of 590,481 (in 2017), making it the largest city in the State of Palestine. Inhabited since at least the 15th century BCE, Gaza has been dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its history. The Philistines made it a part of their pentapolis after the Ancient Egyptians had ruled it for nearly 350 years. Under the Roman Empire Gaza experienced relative peace and its port flourished. In 635 CE, it became the first city in Palestine to be conquered by the Muslim Rashidun army and quickly developed into a center of Islamic law. However, by the time the Crusaders invaded the country starting in 1099, Gaza was in ruins. In later centuries, Gaza experienced several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barsanuphius
Barsanuphius ( gr, Βαρσανούφιος, Barsanouphios, it, Barsonofio, Barsanofrio, Barsanorio; died c. 545), also known as Barsanuphius of Palestine or Barsanuphius of Gaza, was a Christian hermit and writer of the sixth century. Born in Egypt, he lived in absolute seclusion for fifty years, and then near the monastery of Saint Seridon of Gaza in Palestine. He wrote many letters, 800 of which have survived. He corresponded mainly with John the Prophet, abbot of the monastery of Merosala and teacher of Dorotheus of Gaza. Barsanuphius and John ''Letters'', translated by John Chryssavgis Catholic University of America Press (2002) At the old age he convinced the emperor to renew the concordant relationship with the Church of Jerusalem. Veneration His relics arrived in Oria, in Italy, with a Palestinian monk in 850 AD and placed in the present-day church of San Francesco da Paola by Bishop Theodosius. During a Moorish siege and taking of the city, the relics were lost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egyptian Christian Monks
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of recorded history ** Egyptian cuisine, the local culinary traditions of Egypt * Egypt, the modern country in northeastern Africa ** Egyptian Arabic, the language spoken in contemporary Egypt ** A citizen of Egypt; see Demographics of Egypt * Ancient Egypt, a civilization from c. 3200 BC to 343 BC ** Ancient Egyptians, ethnic people of ancient Egypt ** Ancient Egyptian architecture, the architectural structure style ** Ancient Egyptian cuisine, the cuisine of ancient Egypt ** Egyptian language, the oldest known language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family * Copts, the ethnic Egyptian Christian minority ** Coptic language or Coptic Egyptian, the latest stage of the Egyptian language, spoken in Egypt until the 17th centur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermits
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament (i.e., the 40 years wandering in the desert that was meant to bring about a change of heart). In the Christian tradition the eremitic life is an early form of monastic living that preceded the monastic life in the cenobium. In chapter 1, the Rule of St Benedict lists hermits among four kinds of monks. In the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to hermits who are members of religious institutes, the Canon law (canon 603) recognizes also diocesan hermits under the direction of their bishop as members of the consecrated life. The same is true in many parts of the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the United S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
491 Deaths
__NOTOC__ Year 491 ( CDXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Olybrius without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1244 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 491 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Byzantine Empire * April 9 – Emperor Zeno, age 66, dies of dysentery (or of epilepsy) after a 17-year reign. He has no sons to succeed him and Anastasius, palace official (''silentiarius'') and favoured friend of empress Ariadne, is elevated to the throne. * May 20 – Anastasius I marries Ariadne shortly after his accession. His reign is disturbed by religious distractions and a civil war started by Longinus, brother of late emperor Zeno. * Anti-Isaurian riots break out in the Hippodrome at Constantinople. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
5th-century Births
The 5th century is the time period from 401 ( CDI) through 500 ( D) ''Anno Domini'' (AD) or Common Era (CE) in the Julian calendar. The 5th century is noted for being a period of migration and political instability throughout Eurasia. It saw the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, which came to an end in 476 AD. This empire had been ruled by a succession of weak emperors, with the real political might being increasingly concentrated among military leaders. Internal instability allowed a Visigoth army to reach and ransack Rome in 410. Some recovery took place during the following decades, but the Western Empire received another serious blow when a second foreign group, the Vandals, occupied Carthage, capital of an extremely important province in Africa. Attempts to retake the province were interrupted by the invasion of the Huns under Attila. After Attila's defeat, both Eastern and Western empires joined forces for a final assault on Vandal North Africa, but this campaign was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Saints
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Writers
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geʽez
Geez (; ' , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient Ethiopian Semitic language. The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today, Geez is used as the main liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church and Eritrean Catholic Church, and the Beta Israel Jewish community. The closest living languages to Geez are Tigre and Tigrinya, with lexical similarity at 71% and 68%, respectively. Most linguists believe that Geez does not constitute a common ancestor of modern Ethio-Semitic languages but became a separate language early on from another hypothetical unattested common language. Phonology Vowels Historically, has a basic correspondence with Proto-Semitic short and , with short , the vowels with Proto-Semitic long respectively, and with the Proto-Semitic diphthongs and . In Geʽez there still exist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asceticon
The ''Asceticon'' ("ascetic discourses") by Abba Isaiah of Scetis is a diverse anthology of essays by an Egyptian Christian monk who left Scetis around 450 AD. Contents Originally composed in Greek, the ''Asceticon'' consists of 30 essays ("''logos''" in singular, "''logoi''" in plural) on subjects including: advice for novice monks; precepts for those who have renounced the world; sayings and stories by Abba Isaiah; various letters, sermons, and sayings. Logos 30 includes several sayings that were also included in the ''Apophthegmata Patrum'' (''Sayings of the Desert Fathers''), but in a different form, giving scholars some evidence on how those sayings evolved into their final form in the ''Apophthegmata Patrum''. Abba Isaiah was also influential in bringing Christianity to Palestine. The 29 discourses in John Chryssavgis's translation of the ''Asceticon'' are:Chryssavgis, John and Pachomios (Robert) Penkett (eds). ''Abba Isaiah of Scetis: Ascetic Discourses''. Kalamazoo, MI: Ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scetes
Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; Coptic: , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt deposits, salt marshes and freshwater marshes. In Christian literature it is usually known as Scetis ( in Hellenistic Greek) or Skete (, plural in ecclesiastical Greek). It is one of the three early Christian monastic centers located in the Nitrian Desert of the northwestern Nile Delta. The other two monastic centers are Nitria and Kellia. Scetis, now called Wadi El Natrun, is best known today because its ancient monasteries remain in use, unlike Nitria and Kellia which have only archaeological remains. The desertified valley around Scetis in particular may be called the Desert of Scetis.. Fossil discoveries The area is one of the best known sites containing large numbers of fossils of large pre-historic animals in Egypt, and was known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kellia
Kellia ("the Cells"), referred to as "the innermost desert", was a 4th-century Egyptian Christian monastic community spread out over many square kilometers in the Nitrian Desert about 40 miles south of Alexandria. It was one of three centers of monastic activity in the region, along with Nitria and Scetis (Wadi El Natrun). It is called al-Muna in Arabic and was inhabited until the 9th century. Only archaeological sites remain there today. History Founded in 338 C.E. by Saint Amun, under the spiritual guidance of Saint Anthony, it was designed for those who wished to enter the cenobitic life in a semi-anchoritic monastery. An account of its founding, perhaps legendary, is in the ''Apophthegmata Patrum''.William Harmless. ''Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism'', Oxford University Press, Jun 17, 2004pg. 281/ref> Amun, who was then a monk at Nitria, one day talked with Anthony saying that he and some brothers wanted to move away "that they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
