Cyril of Scythopolis
Cyril of Scythopolis (Greek: Κύριλλος ὁ Σκυθοπολίτης, romanized: Kyrillos ho Skythopolitēs; c. 525 – c. 559), also known as Cyrillus Scythopolitanus, was a Christian monk, priest and Greek-language hagiographer or historian of monastic life in Palestine in the early years of Christianity (6th century CE).
Life[]
Cyril was born in Scythopolis, in the province of Palaestina Secunda, sometime around 525.[1] His father John, a lawyer, supervised his early religious education.[1] Shortly after 532 he became an anagnostes (lector), and became a monk in 543.[1] Very soon thereafter he went to Jerusalem and spent some months at a hermit community (lavra) near the Jordan River, before entering the monastery of Euthymius the Great at Jericho in 544.[1] He remained there until 555, when he was one of the orthodox monks sent to replace those expelled for Origenism at the . Two years later he moved to the , where he died sometime in 557/558 or soon after.[1][2]
Cyril was influenced by Saint Sabas the Sanctified, whom he had met when he was still in a young age; in later years, when he was in Jerusalem, he also met Saint John the Silent, bishop of Colonia in Cappadocia.[1]
Works[]
Cyril is known for a number of hagiographies of seven Palestinian monks: Sabas the Sanctified, Euthymius the Great, John the Silent, Cyriacus the Anchorite, Theodosius the Cenobiarch, , and Abramius.[1][2][3] This ambitious undertaking was "fostered both by local patriotism and a firm belief in the relationship between holiness and the desert".[1] As the historical information included in these works is both precise and accurate, Cyril is a valuable historical source for the period, on topics ranging from political affairs to ecclesiastical events and biographical details.[1] Cyril is particularly valuable on the study of the Arab tribes of the region, notably the Ghassanids and their rivals, the Lakhmids.[4]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Baldwin & Talbot 1991, p. 573
- ^ Jump up to: a b Frank 1991.
- ^ Eduard Schwartz (ed.), Kyrillos von Skythopolis, Leipzig: J. C. Heinrichs Verlag, 1939 (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 4. Reihe 4. Band 2. Heft = 49. Band, 2. Heft).
- ^ Shahîd 1995, pp. xxiii–xxiv, 17, 182.
Sources[]
- Baldwin, Barry; Talbot, Alice-Mary (1991). "Cyril of Skythopolis". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 573. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Karl Suso Frank (1991). "Kyrillos von Skythopolis". Lexikon des Mittelalters, V: Hiera-Mittel bis Lukanien (in German). Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler. col. 1600. ISBN 3-7608-8905-0.
- Shahîd, Irfan (1995). Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century. Volume 1, Part 1: Political and Military History. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. ISBN 978-0-88402-214-5.
External links[]
- The Lives of the Monks of Palestine, Eduard Schwartz (ed.), Leipzig, 1939; Greek text and German commentary at the Internet Archive
- 525 births
- 558 deaths
- 6th-century Byzantine monks
- 6th-century historians
- Byzantine historians
- Late Antique writers
- Hagiographers
- People from Beit She'an
- Holy Land during Byzantine rule
- Justinian I