Abba Silvanus (died before 414) was a Christian monk who lived during the 4th and 5th centuries. He was one of the

Desert Fathers The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Wadi El Natrun, then known as ''Skete'', in Roman Egypt, beginning around the Christianity in the ante-Nicene period, third century. The ''Sayings of the Dese ...

Biography

Scetis and Sinai

Silvanus was born in Palestine. He led a community of 12 disciples in

Scetis Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; , "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, ...

, Egypt, among them Zacharias, Mark the Calligrapher, Netras (later bishop of Paran) and

Zeno Zeno may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Zeno (surname) Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 B ...

. According to his hagiography, he was blessed with the gift of prophecy, guessing the questions of his disciples and knowing their sins before they confessed them. Following the incursion of barbarian tribes into Egypt in 380, the group moved from Scetis to Sinai where they stayed for around a decade or at least enough for Silvanus to become famous and have people visit him from Egypt. The group seems to have enjoyed to host visitors and tended to a garden.

Life in Gaza

Later (around 390) Silvanus and his disciples moved to Gaza where they settled along the Gerar river. Here, they followed the model of the eremitic monasteries of Scetis and build several hermit cells along the watercourse with a church and domestic building that served the needs of the community, similar to the lauras of the

Judean Desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert (, ) is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that stretches east of the ridge of the Judaean Mountains and in their rain shadow, so east of Jerusalem, and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, ...

. During the week they occupied themselves with prayer and various forms of manual labour while on Saturdays and Sundays they gathered for communal prayers and meals and Silvanus would visit the other monks. Silvanus died sometime before 414 A.D. and was succeeded by Zacharias, one of his disciples. Zeno, one of Silvanus' disciples and later teacher of

Peter the Iberian Peter the Iberian ( ka, პეტრე იბერი, tr) (c. 417-491) was a Georgians, Georgian royal prince, theologian and philosopher who was a prominent figure in early Christianity and one of the founders of Neoplatonism and Christianity, ...

, founded another monastery two kilometres south-east of Silvanus' monastery in ca. 440.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silvanus 4th-century births 5th-century deaths 4th-century Christian monks Desert Fathers Palestinian Christian clergy