Jerome of Stridon

His Life, Writings and Legacy

Josef Lössl, Andrew Cain

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780754664079
• eBook ISBN: 9781317111184
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This book assembles eighteen studies by internationally renowned scholars that epitomize the latest and best advances in research on the greatest polymath in Latin Christian antiquity, Jerome of Stridon (c.346-420) traditionally known as "Saint Jerome." It is divided into three sections which explore topics such as the underlying motivations behind Jerome's work as a hagiographer, letter-writer, theological controversialist, translator and exegete of the Bible, his linguistic competence in Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac, his relations to contemporary Jews and Judaism as well as to the Greek and Latin patristic traditions, and his reception in both the East and West in late antiquity down through the Protestant Reformation. Familiar debates are re-opened, hitherto uncharted terrain is explored, and problems old and new are posed and solved with the use of innovative methodologies. This monumental volume is an indispensable resource not only for specialists on Jerome but also for students and scholars who cultivate interests broadly in the history, religion, society, and literature of the late antique Christian world.

PART I
Hagiography, Letters, Heresy, and the Man

Chapter 1
Inventing an Ascetic Hero: Jerome’s Life of Paul the First Hermit

Stefan Rebenich

Jerome was upset. Although he had tried very hard to portray the life of Paul of Thebes, the first hermit, there were, nevertheless, malicious people who did not cease to criticize his writing and be suspicious of the solitary existence of Paul.¹ However, the voces maledicorum about which Jerome complains bitterly in his Vita Hilarionis could not lessen the success of his Vita Pauli primi eremitae.² The Latin vita was even so popular that it was translated into Greek, Coptic, Syriac and Ethiopic, as well as into various vernacular languages at a later stage.³ Countless manuscripts proclaimed the fame of Paul of Thebes.⁴ Generations of devout readers of the monk’s life did not have any doubts regarding his existence. At the end of the sixth century Gallic pilgrims set out on the arduous journey into the Egyptian desert in order to explore the spelunca Pauli situated about 25 miles west of the Red Sea.⁵ In the meantime, an impressive monastery had been built at that location, the monks of which venerated the cave and grave of the saint.⁶ Communities of hermits regarded him as their caput; he was the acclaimed founder (fundator) of the order of the Fratres S. Pauli Primi Eremitae (OSPPE).⁷ Individual passages of the Vita inspired artists to create masterpieces. It suffices to refer to the Isenheim Altar by Matthias Grünewald, who contrasts the conversation between Antony and Paul with the temptation of Antony, and to the famous painting by Diego Velázquez, which depicts the encounter of the two elderly hermits Antony and Paul in a wide and rough landscape. Painted around 1634 for a hermitage in the park of Buen Retiro, it can be viewed now at the Prado in Madrid.⁸

But the naïve veneration of the proto-anchorite Paul came to an end when the Protestant ecclesiastical historian Hermann Weingarten wrote an article on the origins of monasticism in the post-Constantinian era. His work was published in the first volume of the Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte in 1877, and thus in the middle of the Kulturkampf.⁹ Weingarten not only stated that Paul of Thebes had never lived, but he also described Hilarion of Gaza and the Syrian Malchus as products of Jerome’s imagination. In addition, he disputed that Athanasius had been the author of the Vita Antonii and asserted that Christian monasticism had been established only after the death of Constantine the Great, as a reaction to the secularization and institutionalization of the Church. In the end he traced the origins of monasticism back to the pagan Egyptian Serapis cult. Barely one of his provocative theses stood up to closer scrutiny, and soon afterwards individual voices were heard arguing for the historicity of Paul.¹⁰ In the middle 1920s Hippolyte Delehaye expressed the ingenious hypothesis¹¹ that Paul is mentioned in a letter by the Luciferians Marcellinus and Faustinus addressed to the emperors Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius, which is dated to the year 383 or 384.¹² But the famous Bollandist was immediately refuted by Ferdinand Cavallera.¹³

As it was not possible to prove that the hero of Jerome’s vita really had lived in the upper Egyptian Thebaïs, the apologists of his historicity contented themselves with the supposition that Jerome merely had been told about the first hermit and, while living in the desert of Chalcis, where the sun burnt on his head, had decided to write an elaborate account about him.¹⁴ Susan Weingarten has most recently argued that Jerome in his Vita Pauli carefully portrays the Christian holy man in contradistinction to the existing traditions about a Jewish rabbi about whom he may have heard from a converted Jew.¹⁵ Consequently, the primus eremita would be the product of late antique oral history. This is a truly fascinating idea that is of added appeal as even the great collections such as the Historia Monachorum, the Historia Lausiaca and the Apophthegmata Patrum are primarily based on oral reports about hermits and monks living in Egypt, Palestine and Syria.¹⁶

But we have to be aware that we possess no independent testimony concerning the existence of Paul of Thebes.¹⁷ In view of this extremely difficult predicament it does indeed seem, to cite Richard Reitzenstein, as if the diligence and astuteness was wasted with which some theologians and historians at least defended the possibility that monks of this name could have lived.¹⁸ In any case, the critical assessment of the sources undermined the veneration of Paul of Thebes by the Catholic Church, which had lasted for many centuries. During the second Vatican Council it was decided to remove his feast day (15 January) from the calendar of saints.

It may be concluded that a renewed discussion of the historicity of Paul of Thebes is not very rewarding. Therefore, I shall focus on the factors that made Jerome’s Vita Pauli so successful, despite contemporary criticism, that Paul became a model of anchoritic perfection.

The Vita Pauli

Let us first recall the plot of the story. Supposedly, thus Jerome informs the reader right at the beginning, the persona and the life of the first hermit were surrounded by legends already in his day. It was reported that Paul had lived in a subterranean cave and that his hair had reached down to his heels. Jerome wanted to describe the life of his hermit based on the accounts of two pupils of Antony. He could report that at the time of the persecution of Christians by Decius (c.250) Paul, aged about sixteen, had fled first to the remote country estate (villa) of his brother-in-law in the lower Thebaïs. Fearful of being denounced by his relative, he retreated to the seclusion of the mountains to await the end of the persecution. Gradually he made a virtue of necessity and penetrated even more deeply into the karstified mountain range until he found a large cave in the interior of which he came across a spacious chamber, which he chose for his abode. An old palm with widely spread branches offered protection and provided him with food and clothing, and fresh water bubbled out of a clear spring. At this place he eked out the rest of his existence in solitude and prayer.

Without ever setting eyes on a living soul, Paul spent more than ninety years in his hermitage. Humanity would not have heard anything about this instance of renunciation of the world, though, if the younger Antony, who lived two days’ march away from Paul in the same desert, had not followed an inner voice and set out at the age of at least ninety to meet his older associate. On his trek through the desert he encountered a centaur, which showed him the way, received dates from a satyr as provisions for the journey and finally found the spelunca of Paul with the help of a she-wolf that had almost died of thirst. When Antony had at last been able to persuade the shy cave-dweller to grant him admission they fell into each other’s arms, greeted each other with their respective names and sat down to talk. For the meal a raven, which for sixty years had daily presented the hermit with half a loaf of bread, now brought a whole loaf (militibus suis Christus duplicavit annonam).¹⁹ They were nearly unable to enjoy the double ration, as at first they could not decide who should break the bread. Paul referred to the etiquette of hospitality, Antony refused citing the privilege of age. In the end both of them took hold of the loaf of bread at opposite ends and pulled on it to the best of their ability until it broke apart.

The next day Paul revealed to his visitor that the time of his death had arrived and he asked him to bury his mortal remains in the coat, which Athanasius had given to Antony. Antony obeyed, fetched the pallium from his monastery and rushed back to Paul, driven by the fear of finding him to be no longer alive. Shortly before reaching his destination he caught sight of Paul, who was ascending to heaven surrounded by bright light and in the midst of choirs of angels and apostles. Shortly afterwards Antony found only the lifeless body in the cave. He carried the mortal remains outside and paid his last respects to Paul. The required pickaxe was replaced by two lions with fluttering manes, which dug the grave with their paws and afterwards, with Antony’s blessing, retreated back into the desert. Antony laid the sanctum corpus to rest and on the following day picked up the tunic of the deceased, which was woven out of palm leaves. Thereupon he returned to his monastery, told his pupils everything in turn and always wore the robe of Paul over Easter and Pentecost.

We do not know when exactly Jerome wrote this work. It is certain only that he composed it during his stay in Syria around the mid-seventies of the fourth century. In those days he either resided in the metropolis of Antioch for the second time or he lived a secluded life on the country estate Maronia,²⁰ which belonged to his rich patron Evagrius of Antioch.²¹ However, the exact place and the precise point in time of the writing are irrelevant. Only its success matters.

In the past, as in the present, the Vita cast its spell over readers because Jerome had given a fine literary form to the work. In his pioneering work on Hellenistische Wundererzählungen Richard Reitzenstein correctly speaks of a “Kleinod der erzählenden Literatur” (“gem of narrative literature”).²² Following Reitzenstein, a multitude of studies has revealed motives and elements which Jerome borrowed from Gr...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• I Hagiography, Letters, Heresy, and the Man
• II The Science of Scripture: Philology, Exegesis, and Translation
• III Reception: Fifth through Sixteenth Centuries
• Bibliography
• Index