Theoctistus

ON ST. THEOCTISTUS, MONK AND HEGUMEN IN THE TERRITORY OF JERUSALEM, IN THE TERRITORY OF JERUSALEM.

In the year CDLXVII.

His public veneration; the year of his death; the place of his dwelling; another Theoctistus distinct from today's.

Theoctistus, monk and hegumen in the territory of Jerusalem (St.)

J. P.

In vol. 1 of February, on the 4th day of that month, we designated at p. 466 various namesakes called Theoctistus on occasion of the martyr He is venerated among the Greeks on this day: who is there treated of. Among them today's Theoctistus was there mentioned, and we indicated that many notable things are related concerning him on the 20th day of January in the Life of St. Euthymius the Great. Thither we now send the reader, since we do not know that any other Acts of his are extant which were written separately. He is venerated among the Greeks on this day, and is found in the Typicon of St. Sabas, as they call it, and in the printed Menaea; in both places given the title of synascete, that is, companion in the ascetic life of Euthymius the Great: which is done elsewhere also. For in our Supplement to the printed Menaea of the Greeks, from the ancient parchment synaxary MS. of Sirmond, or of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus at Paris, he is thus announced: Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ μνήμη τοῦ ὁσ. πατρὸς ἠμῶν Θεοκτίστου συνασκητοῦ τοῦ μεγ. That is, On the same day (the 3rd of September) the memory of our holy father Theoctistus, synascete of Euthymius the Great. In the Greco-Muscovite Ephemerides among us, before vol. 1 of May, he is named by the peculiar term of monk alone. In the Greek Menaea of the monastery of St. Mark of the Fathers Preachers at Florence he is called Theoctistus, companion of St. Euthymius. The Slavo-Russian Menology of Sparwenfeld has these words: Of our holy father Theoctistus, fellow-faster of the great Euthymius, who died in the year CDXXI.*

[2] This is a parachronism, straying far from the true year of St. Theoctistus' death, the year of death 467 as is established from the chronology of St. Euthymius and of others on the said 20th day of January, where at p. 301 are these things to our purpose: St. Sabas in the 18th year of his age, in the year of Christ CDLVII, came to Jerusalem: he dwelt in the monastery of St. Passarion: he approaches St. Euthymius, and in the 82nd year of the latter's age, in the year of Christ CDLVIII, he is sent to the monastery of St. Theoctistus. The latter dies in the 90th year of St. Euthymius' age, in the year of Christ CDLXVII, when Sabas had now been dwelling with him for the tenth year. Maris succeeds Theoctistus; and to him, after two years, in the year of Christ CDLXIX, Longinus. Then, some things being interposed, the death of St. Euthymius is assigned to the year of Christ 473. He is praised in the printed Menaea of the Greeks on this day among those things which are recited in their Office. Now I subjoin an account of the place in which St. Theoctistus lived and presided over monks.

[3] he presides over a monastery in the territory of Jerusalem. On the 20th day of January, p. 298, on occasion of the aforesaid St. Euthymius, there is discourse concerning the first monastic institution in Palestine, and concerning the places in the territory of Jerusalem. Among the other monasteries built there, the New Laura is treated of, to which another is subjoined, erected by the same Saint: Not far from it, as is narrated in the cited place, at the cave of Saul, in the wilderness formerly called Engaddi, and then Ziphon, St. Euthymius built a monastery. But he did not stay there long. By the Jericho road he passed the chief part of his life: first in a cell outside the Laura of Pharan; afterward in the lower monastery, over which he had set St. Theoctistus, ten thousand paces from the Holy City; finally in the Laura which was called St. Euthymius', and which was distant from the lower monastery of St. Theoctistus by three thousand paces toward the South, on the right of the Jericho road. From these things it is clear in what place St. Theoctistus flourished. He died in the year 467, as has already been said, on the 3rd day of September: from the Life of St. Euthymius, p. 318. If anyone desires to know more about him in detail, let him consult the same Life, as I have advised above; which Cotelier also published in Greek and Latin in vol. 2 of the Monuments of the Greek Church, p. 200 and following. For the rest, concerning the public cult of St. Theoctistus Castellan was not sufficiently informed, who in his universal Martyrology indeed announces him, but assigns to him only the title of venerable. This Saint is recorded also in the additions to Usuard by Molanus, of the second edition.

[4] Today's Theoctistus is not to be confounded with his namesake. Moreover care must be taken that this Theoctistus be not confounded with another of the same name: on which matter Matthew Rader, one of ours, in his MS. notes on the Menaea observes the following: There were two Theoctisti, and two Euthymii. The former Theoctistus was an intimate of St. Macarius, by whom he was also cured of the snares of the devil and of impure thoughts: of whom there is frequent mention throughout the Lives of the Fathers, and whom they also name Theopemptus; and he has nothing to do with St. Euthymius. The other Theoctistus was St. Euthymius' closest companion and messmate, who is often praised in the Life of St. Euthymius in Metaphrastes, Lipomano, and Surius, on the 20th of January. The other Euthymius was an Origenist, with whom St. Theoctistus had no dealings. See Baronius' annotations on the 20th of January.

con-jejunatoris*