ON ST. ANASTASIUS PRESBYTER
MONK SINAITE IN ARABIA,
AND ST. ANASTASIUS PATRIARCH
OF ANTIOCH IN SYRIA,
AROUND THE YEAR 600.
CommentaryAnastasius Presbyter, monk Sinaite, in Arabia (St)
Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch, in Syria (St)
BY G. H.
CHAPTER I.
Sacred cult and deeds of St Anastasius Sinaita.
St Anastasius Sinaita flourished among the Easterners, distinguished by outstanding doctrine and piety: whose solemnity the Greeks celebrate on April 20 and especially 21. On the former day according to the Menologion composed by order of Basil Porphyrogenitus, Eulogy of St Anastasius monk Sinaita from the Menologion of Emperor Basil, in the tenth century of Christ, this eulogy is recited: On the same 20th day of April, the memory of our holy Father Anastasius, who lived on Mount Sinai. Anastasius, a religious worshipper of God and our Father, generously abandoned the world and all things which are in the world, and taking up his cross, according to the precept of the sacred Gospel, followed Christ with eager spirit: and going to a certain monastery, became a monk there. But desiring to undergo greater contests, and to attain more perfect virtue, he went to Jerusalem: and when he had adored those sacred and venerable places, he went away to Mount Sinai: where, having found several religious and holy men practising the monastic life, he remained with them, obeying them and serving with ready spirit. Therefore, because of the virtue of such great humility, he received from God the gift of knowledge and of manifold wisdom, whence also he wrote the Lives of the holy Fathers, and composed many sermons for the benefit and profit of souls: many of which afterwards were found, and were set forth to those eager to learn, and were promulgated for the salvation and profit of souls. But after these things, pleasing to God in all things and exceedingly dear, he departed in peace. These things are in the said Menologion of Emperor Basil on April 20: and in other Greek calendars. which nearly the same on this 16th of April are read in the old Ms. Synaxarium of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus at Paris, in the great printed and manuscript Menaea of the Greeks, and in Maximus Bishop of Cythera ἐν βίοις Ἁγίων, in all of which he is said to have died in extreme old age. In the printed Menaea this distich is added:
Ἀναστάσιος ἐν Σινᾷ Μώσης νέος, καὶ πρὶν τελευτῆς τὸν Θεὸν βλέπειν ἔχει.
Anastasius here on Sinai a new Moses, Before his end was worthy to see God.
In the Menologion of Sirletus these few things are contained: On the same day April 21, of our holy Father Anastasius of Mount Sinai. The Muscovites imitate the Greeks in the usual manner, and in the tables of their Kalendar express this Saint, not as a Bishop, which error we shall refute below; but as a monk, and indeed without a stole, by which in that place Hegumens or Abbots are commonly designated. Mount Sinai, most celebrated throughout the whole world for the memory of Moses the Prophet and the laws received from heaven, was afterwards surrounded on all sides by the asceteries of Christian monks. There SS. Sabbas, Isaiah, and thirty-six other monks affected with martyrdom under Diocletian, have been reported by us on the 14th day of January, After several holy monks of Mount Sinai on which day also are remembered SS. Theodulus Presbyter, Paul, John, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Benjamin, Elias and others, in the following century slain by Barbarians; whose martyrdom was written by St Nilus, then a monk there, inserted in the sacred Calendars on November 12. The companion of St Nilus was St Theodulus, reported on the same January 14. No less celebrated was St John Climacus, Abbot of the holy Mount Sinai, he lived under St John Climacus, who ended his life there towards the end of the sixth century: whose Acts were illustrated by us on March 30, written both by Daniel a monk of the neighbouring cenobium of Raithu, and by a Sinaite monk who asserts that he was his Superior and Abbot. This Sinaite monk we think to be St Anastasius, of whom we treat, and wrote the Lives of the holy Fathers, who wrote the Lives of the holy Fathers, Βίους Πατέρων συνεγράψατο ἁγίων. Why not especially of those who lived in the monasteries of Mount Sinai and neighbouring places? From that treatise we have given an Appendix to the Life of St John Climacus, in which mention is made of another Anastasius, who was there living as a venerable monk, when St John Climacus was tonsured around the year 520, and is plainly different from this St Anastasius; and therefore what we there noted about him we now wish to be removed. he died under Emperor Heraclius. Now St Anastasius reached by living (as one who described things done formerly, but in his own time, under the Emperor Maurice) to the times of the Emperor Heraclius, who reigned from the year 610 to the year 641. The name of Anastasius was sufficiently frequent and celebrated in that age among monks: and such had St Anastasius the Persian assumed, slain in the year 628, Various monks of those times called Anastasius, before he was made a monk in the monastery of the holy Abbot Anastasius four miles distant from Jerusalem. As is clear from the Life of the aforesaid St Anastasius the Persian elucidated on January 22. St John the Almoner, who died in the year 616, among others sent Anastasius Prefect of the great mount of Antony, to ransom those who had been led away into captivity, providing an almost innumerable amount of gold. As is handed down in his Life on January 23. The mount of St Antony has been treated of before his Life §2. So also in John Moschus, who also flourished at that time, in the Spiritual Meadow chapters 48 and 49, Anastasius Presbyter narrated various things, and custodian of the ornaments of the holy resurrection of God and our Lord Jesus Christ; as also in chapter 50 Anastasius Abbot of Scythopolis the metropolis of second Palestine.
Among these monasteries of Palestine and Egypt lie those of which we here treat, situated on Mount Sinai.
[3] St Anastasius was piously educated, St Anastasius himself, in a certain Oration of his on the New Sunday and on the Apostle Thomas, narrates how purely and holily from his tenderest nails as a boy and youth he was educated in the orthodox faith, and so listened to the words of the Gospel as if he had heard Christ speaking: so gazed upon and venerated the image of Christ, as if he had adored Christ looking upon him: with such great piety received the holy Eucharist, as if he had carried Christ with bodily arms. His words we give below in no. 13. How much the same man laboured for the Church of God even to old age, his various writings show, which we shall relate; when we shall have treated of the Patriarchate of Antioch, administered in succession by two Anastasii; because these by some are not sufficiently distinguished from St Anastasius Sinaita. Most of all shines forth the zeal of this Sinaite against the Acephali, indicated in his book which is entitled Ὁδηγός or Guide of the Way. St Sophronius Archbishop of Jerusalem, who flourished at this time, he fought for the Church against the Acephali. in the Oration on the Hypapante of the Lord edited by us on February 2 chapter 2, calls the heresy of the Acephali a wretched and truly headless gangrene. It was divided into various sects, which the Sinaite in chapter 6 of the aforesaid book calls enemies of the Church, disciples of Jacob, Severus, Theodosius, Timothy, and Dioscorus, and from the first thereafter especially called Jacobites, who had as Patriarchs of their sect the enemies of the Council of Chalcedon. Against these St Anastasius contended not only in his monastery by his writings, but by going to Syria, Arabia, Egypt, everywhere attacked the said heresy, and strove according to his strength to overthrow it: all of which are known from his own confession.
CHAPTER II.
The deeds and cult of St Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch, the errors of Nicephorus Callistus detected.
[4] In the said sixth century and beginning of the following there were two Patriarchs of Antioch or Theopolis, The time of the See of St Anastasius Patriarch, called Anastasius. The first of these, by some (but wrongly) called Sinaita, held that See from the year 561 under the last times of the Emperor Justinian; but was thrown down from the See by Justin the Younger in the year 572, George being substituted, after whose death, while Maurice reigned, he recovered his former dignity, and lived in it until the year 598, or the following; when, he being dead, there succeeded him another Anastasius, called Martyr, because he was tortured by the Jews around the year 608 or the following, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the 25th day
of December, as the former on this 21st of April in these words: At Antioch, of St Anastasius Sinaita Bishop, sacred cult: and in the Notes it is indicated that the Greeks treat of the same on this day in the Menologion: who indeed mention Anastasius Sinaita, but with no mention made of Antioch or of the Episcopate. The same is counted among the holy Fathers in the Second Council of Nicaea, and frequently in the titles prefixed before his works indicated below. A writer of this time was Evagrius Scholasticus, who in book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History chapter 38 asserts that after Domninus Bishop of Theopolis, that is of Antioch, Anastasius was made Bishop, and in chapter 39 sets forth his studies and deeds in these words.
[5] outstanding in doctrine and good character, Anastasius was a man exceedingly well-versed in the knowledge of sacred letters, and in morals and in all his manner of life so refined that even in trifling matters he had great care, nor would he depart in them from the constant and firm purpose of his mind, much less in matters of the greatest moment and weight, and which seemed to concern God Himself. Moreover he so tempered his character that neither on account of mildness of spirit and affability did he too easily yield to those things which were less in accordance with reason; nor on account of severity and harshness did he reluctantly assent to those things which right reason demanded. To hearing serious matters his ears were open, and as he flowed in speech, so was he sharp and perspicacious in resolving questions, but to foolish and worthless matters he closed his ears: his tongue he so restrained as with a bridle, that he both moderated his speech with reason, and made silence more excellent than speaking. Against him as against a most fortified tower Justinian began to attack with every kind of engine, embracing in his mind the thought, against the Emperor Justinian introducing heresies, that if he should overthrow him, he would occupy the whole city without labour, he would reduce the right dogmas of the faith as it were into slavery, and would at last carry off captive the sheep of Christ from the Church. But Anastasius was so lifted up by a certain divine sublimity of mind (for he stood upon the firm rock of the faith) that he contradicted Justinian freely and openly through his letters, he shows that the body of Christ was passible and mortal: both very clearly and eloquently showing that the divine Apostles and holy Fathers had confessed and handed down, that the body of the Lord was subject to destruction, and partook of those affections which are by nature impressed upon souls, and which are free from reproach. In the same manner also to the monks of greater and lesser Syria, asking his opinion on this matter, answering, he confirmed the minds of all, and prepared them to enter into the contest: in the church at last he read daily that sentence of Paul the vessel of election: If anyone should preach a gospel to you besides that which you have received, even if an Angel from heaven, let him be anathema. Gal. 1, 19 To which all, a few excepted, assenting, declared a like zeal for the defence of the faith.
[6] The same Anastasius moreover, when he had learned that Justinian wished to send him into exile, wrote to the Antiochenes an oration, he strengthens the Antiochenes by which he might strengthen their spirits in the faith: which certainly, both for the elegance of the language, and for the frequency of sentences, and for the abundance of testimonies sought from the sacred Letters, to be sent into exile by Justinian, and finally for the history, which is so aptly narrated in it, by best right certainly is to be very highly esteemed. But Justinian's edict, by divine providence, by which better provision was made for us, was by no means published. For Justinian, who had decreed exile to Anastasius and his Priests, suddenly stricken, when he had reigned thirty-eight full years and eight months, departed from the light. Thus far he. Eustathius, a contemporary author, in the Life of St Eutychius Patriarch of Constantinople, also driven into exile by Justinian for the same cause, interposes these things in number 31 on the 6th day of April. For all the Patriarchs and many Bishops, and especially the Easterners, refused to subscribe to the Imperial opinion, and resisted him both in Synod and in writings, but before all the most holy Patriarch of Theopolis Anastasius, who endured the same, shall I call them afflictions or crowns, as the great Eutychius. Thus Eustathius. Justinian died on the 14th of November in the year 566, when he had reigned 39 years, 7 months, 23 days. He was succeeded by Justin the Younger, his nephew by his sister Vigilantia. Concerning him and Anastasius the same Evagrius in book 5 chapter 5 hands down these things: Justin moreover drove Anastasius, he is driven from his See by Justin the Younger. with these crimes objected to him, first that he had squandered the sacred treasure beyond measure and for no necessary use, then that he had cast insults at him (for Anastasius, when he was asked what was the cause why he had so lavishly consumed the sacred treasure, is said to have answered frankly: Lest it should be plundered by Justin, the common destruction of the whole world), from the See of Antioch. Moreover Justin is said to have been angry with Anastasius because, when he had asked him for money, when he was designated Bishop, Anastasius had refused to give. Other crimes I pass over, objected by certain ones who, I believe, were zealous to serve the Emperor's design. After him Gregory was raised to the sacred grade of the Episcopate. When he died, says the same Evagrius chapter 23, in the time of Maurice he is restored, at the time when Gregory the Great held the Episcopate of ancient Rome, Anastasius after twenty-three years was restored to his Antiochene See. And then Evagrius ends his history in the 12th year of the reign of the Emperor Maurice, which began on the 13th of August in the year 593.
[7] St Gregory the Great among his Letters wrote one, reported in book 1 of the Register chapter 24, St Gregory the Pope often writes to him, to John Bishop of Constantinople, Eulogius of Alexandria, Gregory of Antioch, John of Jerusalem, and Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch, still driven from his See: to whom separately he sent the following epistle 25, and in these he treats of the pastoral burden imposed on himself, and in chapter 27 he writes to Sebastian Bishop of Risinium, indicating that he had made a suggestion full of the greatest prayers with the most pious Lords, he would gladly have received him at Rome, that they should have transferred the most blessed man, Lord Anastasius the Patriarch, with the use of the pallium granted, to the thresholds of Blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles, to celebrate with him the solemnities of the Masses, so that if it should not be permitted him to return to his See, at least he might live with him in his honour. He desires that the mind of the same Lord Anastasius be known and whatever has pleased him in this matter be indicated to him. But in book 4 epistle 37, given in Indiction XIII in the year 594, he congratulates the same that he has been restored to his Antiochene See, in which towards the end he has these words: he congratulates him on his restored See. Your blessing we have received with our mind as we ought, well-smelling, well-tasting: and we give thanks to Almighty God, because what you do, what you say, what you give, are both fragrant and savoury. Of your life therefore let us speak together, let us all speak, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. To him then on various occasions St Gregory wrote, of which letters 24 and 31 of book 6, were given in the year 597 Indict. XV, and 3 of book 7 was given in the year 598 Indict. I, by which he consoles him amid the adversities of this world. Behold, he says, in holy old age your Beatitude labours under many tribulations. And afterwards: Your most sweet Holiness indicates to me, that you would have wished, if it could have been done, to speak with me without paper and pen, and grieves that the space of nearly the whole East and West lies between us. But I say this which I feel to be true: and on paper your mind speaks to me without paper: he praises his charity, because in the words of your Holiness only charity sounds, and we are not divided by places, we who by the gift of the Almighty Lord are united by the bond of love. Why therefore do you seek to receive the wings of the silvered dove, which you already have? For its wings are the charity of God and of neighbour. For by them the holy Church flies, by them she transcends all earthly things: which if your Holiness did not have, you would not have come to me with such great charity through letters. I ask however, that for the weakness of my heart you earnestly pray, he commends himself to his prayers: that Almighty God may guard my mind through your intercession, and quickly snatch me from so many storms of this tempest, and lead me to the eternal shores of rest. But I have received all the most rich blessings which have been directed, which you have transmitted to me, O man of God poor in Spirit, concerning which you say: For what does the poor man give, except those things which are of the poor? But unless you were poor through the spirit of humility, and prays well for him. your blessings would not have been rich. May Almighty God defend you by His protection from all evils: and because your life is very necessary for all the good, after yet long times may He lead you to the joys of the heavenly fatherland. Thus there to Anastasius the Bishop was written, as can be seen in book 1 no. 49, book 2 nos. 13 and 49, and book 4 nos. 1 and 25.
[8] Nor did Anastasius the Patriarch live long afterwards, who perhaps still in this year 598 or at the beginning of the following ended his life, and ceded his Patriarchate to another Anastasius, from whom when St Gregory the Pope had according to custom received a profession of faith, he wrote to him an epistle in Indiction II, in the year 599, which is in book 7 of the Register chapter 47. Of both Anastasii there is mention in the Tables inserted in the Chronography of Theophanes, [Nicephorus Callistus attributes to him the death brought upon his successor by the Jews,] and in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Antioch in St Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople, and in the Ecclesiastical History of Nicephorus Callistus, who from Evagrius, the things we have given above, describes in book 17 chapter 29 towards the end, in chapter 39 entirely, concerning his deposition in chapter 36, and concerning his restoration in book 18 chapter 26. But destitute of the said guide Evagrius, he plainly errs, when in chapter 44 of the said book 18 he writes that Anastasius lived until the times of the Emperor Phocas; and that he was slain by the Jews: for this befell his successor, also called Anastasius, in the 7th year of the reign of Phocas, concerning which Theophanes thus writes: In this year, a sedition being stirred up, the Hebrews of Antioch were in tumult, and having slain Anastasius the great Patriarch of Antioch they thrust his privy parts into his mouth, and dragged him through the middle streets of the city and killed him. This second Anastasius in the tables of Theophanes is substituted for the former in the 19th year of the reign of Maurice. Moreover this error, and wrongly calls him Sinaita. by which Nicephorus fused two Anastasii into one, could have been more easily noted by many than another committed by the same in the former Anastasius, when he made him and St Anastasius the Sinaite monk one and the same. This he did, as we have already admonished, when he describes from the history of Evagrius chapter 39 of book 4, changing the title; and whereas Evagrius prefixed this: Περὶ Ἀναστασίου Ἀρχιεπισκόπου
Ἀντιοχείας, he himself places that in book 17 chapter 29: Περὶ Ἀναστασίου τοῦ Θεουπόλεως τοῦ Σιναίτου. In the same way in book 18 chapter 16 he has this title: How after Gregory Anastasius Sinaita received his See. But he did this most of all in chapter 44 of the same book 18, where combining both of his errors he says: To this Anastasius, because he had philosophized on Mount Sinai, and there had subdued the sense of the flesh, the surname of Sinaita was given. And indeed he ended his life slain in a tumult of the people. The last things are to be attributed to his successor Anastasius, and the earlier things to St Anastasius the monk of Mount Sinai, an equally illustrious writer, as will become clear from what follows.
CHAPTER III.
Books written by St Anastasius Sinaita.
[9] This controversy scarcely any of the Latins has touched upon, because they have been led by Nicephorus Callistus into that error, the writings of both Anastasii are to be separated: that they have believed one and the same man to be the Sinaite monk and the Antiochene Patriarch. Moreover, that Nicephorus's history is not to be read without discrimination and sharp judgment, learned men have admonished, Philip Labbe hands down in his Dissertation on Ecclesiastical Writers, as one which contains many fables and trifles, gathered from uncertain writers of doubtful faith. It is therefore the part of a prudent reader to separate the precious from the vile, and to collect gems from a dunghill. Having therefore set aside these trifles of Nicephorus, with Leo Allatius, a Greek man, originating from the island of Chios, we separate both Anastasii, as he did in his diatribe on the writings of the Simeons.
[10] Books of St Anastasius the Sinaite on the Hexaemeron, Michael Glycas, two hundred years before the said Nicephorus, wrote Annals in four parts, in which besides History, Physical and Theological matters are contained. In these Anastasius is cited about twenty times; and he is never called Bishop or Patriarch of Antioch, but ten times or oftener Anastasius Sinaita, a divine man and a distinguished man. Sometimes, the divine man Anastasius, or divine Anastasius, but with the same books cited, the first of which is a Commentary on the works of the six first days. These are, eleven books of Anagogical contemplations on the Hexaemeron to Theophilus, in the Libraries of the Fathers edited in Latin by an unknown interpreter, who, seduced by the fables of Nicephorus, in the title calls "Our Holy Father Anastasius Sinaita, Patriarch of Antioch." More often also is cited by Michael Glycas Anastasius Sinaita, orations on the Resurrection, the divine man in his oration on the Resurrection. Among the five Orations translated into Latin by Francisco Turriano Theologian of the Society of Jesus, and edited by Peter Stevartius, and inserted in the Cologne Library of the ancient Fathers, and on the Passion of Christ. the fourth is of Anastasius Sinaita on the Passion and Impassibility of Christ; and the fifth is of Anastasius Sinaita on the Resurrection of Christ: but in it are not read the sentences which are cited by Michael Glycas, so that either this one edited by Turriano is another, or at least imperfect.
[11] ὁδηγός or Guide of the Way Jacob Gretser from the Augsburg library edited an illustrious work, whose title is Ὁδηγός, that is Guide of the Way, which Nicephorus Callistus ascribed to Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch. But the title in the manuscript codex is of this sort: Ἀρχὴ βιβλίου τοῦ ὁσίου Ἀναστασίου μοναχοῦ τοῦ Σινᾶ ὄρους. Beginning of the book of St Anastasius monk of Mount Sinai: and in the fourth chapter this title is read: Of Anastasius the least, Presbyter of the holy Mount Sinai, a work on the faith, on the economy of Christ the Son of God, written to the holy Catholic Church at Babylon, at the request of our Brothers who are there zealous for Christ and orthodox. And in chapter 6 he sets forth the dogmas of Severus the heresiarch, against the Acephali: and asserts that he himself, both in Syria and in Egypt and at Alexandria, had been taught that those who maintain one nature in Christ reduce and interpret all the sayings of Scripture and of the Fathers according to the rule and prescription of Severus, which also at Babylon was objected to him: and in chapter 10 he produces his disputation held with the heretics at Alexandria, where also Anastasius monk of the holy Mount Sinai wrote a profession of faith, and thus calls himself elsewhere "the least monk." Another book, ascribed by Nicephorus Callistus to Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch, is a Commentary on the sixth Psalm of David, which, translated into Latin by Philip Suevenzelus of the Society of Jesus, exists in Greek and Latin, Commentary on the 6th Psalm: in volume 3 of the Antiqua Lectio edited by Henry Canisius under this title. Τοῦ ἁγίοις Πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἀναστασίου μοναχοῦ τοῦ Σινᾶ ὄρους, λόγος εἰς τὸν ἕκτον ψαλμόν. Oration of our holy Father Anastasius, monk of Mount Sinai, on the sixth Psalm. The same book Francis Combefis edited twice in his new Auctarium of the Library of the Greek Fathers with his interpretation, the former from those edited by Canisius, the latter from a Greek codex of the Most Christian King. In these appears the time when the author at least as a young man lived under the Emperor Maurice, ἐπὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας γενεὰς ἐπὶ Μαυρικίου τοῦ τῶν Χριστιανῶν Βασιλέως γεγονότος, in our age, or for us born, while Maurice the Emperor of the Christians was established. But in the latter copy, without mention of his own age, it is said that in the times of Maurice the pious Emperor a robber was converted, so that even hence it may be inferred that this St Anastasius still as a monk lived on Mount Sinai, when the other had long been Patriarch of Antioch, or even had departed from life. Another Oration exists with the said Canisius and Combefis, orations on the sacred Synaxis. τοῦ μακαρίου Ἀναστασίου μοναχοῦ τοῦ Σινᾶ ὄρους λόγος, περὶ τῆς ἁγίας συνάξεως, καὶ περὶ τοῦ μὴ κρίνειν καὶ μνησικακεῖν. Oration of blessed Anastasius monk of Mount Sinai on the sacred Synaxis, and on not judging and on the forgetting of injuries. In it a notable example of a dying monk, who had judged no one, nor had been mindful of injuries, is produced towards the end.
There exists an "Expositio materiaria" of those things which are said by Theologians about God, distributed into ten decades, with John Sapiens, surnamed Cyparissiota, as author, and Francis Turriano of the Society of Jesus as translator, printed at Rome in the year 1581, and then transferred into volume XI of the Library of the Fathers of the Cologne edition, in which in decade 6 chapters 4, 5, and 7, the author alleges sentences of Anastasius Sinaita, or of Anastasius who dwelt on Mount Sinai, on the Transfiguration, in an Oration on the Transfiguration. This appears to be that which Leo Allatius in the Diatribe on the writings of the Simeons alleges on page 116 with this beginning: Ὡς φοβερὸς ὁ τόπος οὗτος συνεξιστάμενος κἀγὼ τῷ Πατριαρχῇ Ἰακώβ. Another is indicated by the same Allatius on page 111, an Oration of Anastasius Sinaita εἰς τοὺς κοιμηθέντας ἐν Κυρίῳ, and on those who have fallen asleep in Christ. on those who have fallen asleep in Christ, with this beginning: Τί τοῦτο σήμερον ἀγαπητοί; σπουδαίων ὁμοῦ τε καὶ ὄξεος. We do not yet know these books to have been given to the press.
[13] History about St Theodore, St John Damascene, who around the year 740 was flourishing in Syria, and was strenuously contending against the Iconoclast heretics, in book 3 On Images reports from the history of St Anastasius of the holy Mount Sinai, a temple four miles distant from Damascus erected in honour of St Theodore, profaned by the Saracens, an image wounded with flowing blood, and the sacrilegious punished: where towards the end he adds: Many of those who saw the thing and were there at that time, are still alive. And I saw his image and have handed down in monuments what I saw. Consult what we said on February 7 on the Life of St Theodore the General §4. The same Damascene in the same oration reports a fragment of Saint Anastasius of the holy Mount Sinai on the new Sunday and on the Apostle Thomas, where St Anastasius thus describes his own pious education: and St Thomas the Apostle. Those who saw Christ in the flesh reckoned Him to be a Prophet himself. But we who did not see Him, at once from our tenderest nails as boys and youths confess Him to be God Himself, Lord, and Almighty, and maker of the ages, and splendour of the Father: for so we listen to His Gospel with faith, as if we saw Christ Himself speaking. And receiving the unspotted pearl of His Body, we think that we are bearing that same Christ. Moreover, if we behold His divine likeness expressed even in a painting only, we regard it as gazing upon us from heaven, we adore it, we fall down before it. Great now is the faith of Christ. Sermon on holy Communion Finally of St Anastasius Sinaita a fragment from a sermon on holy Communion exists in volume 1 of the Library of the Ancient Fathers of the second Parisian edition, which the Reader will find there in column 344. Certain things also against John Philoponus the heretic seem to be his, and refutations of Philoponus, concerning which Gretser treats in the book cited above.
CHAPTER IV.
Books edited by St Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch: others wrongly attributed to him.
[14] Epistles to St Gregory the Great. Not by less doctrine on account of books written did St Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch become famous, whose epistles, would that we had them, written to St Gregory the Great and other illustrious men. Some things from St Gregory's responses and epistles to him we have collected above. Moreover in epistle 22 of book 10 to John the Roman subdeacon Gregory has these words: Anatolius the Deacon, of most beloved memory, his Pastoral Rule translated into Greek. to the seeking and ordering Roman Emperor gave the book of the Pastoral Rule; which my most holy Brother and Fellow-Bishop Anastasius of Antioch translated into Greek, being also skilled in the Latin tongue. Of this translation mention is made by John the Deacon in book 4 of the Life of St Gregory, by Sigebert and commonly by more recent writers. In the Second Ecumenical Synod of Nicaea, held in the year 787, among the other holy Fathers brought forward on behalf of the worship and veneration of sacred images, John Presbyter and Vicar of the Apostolic throne of the East offered a book in which Blessed Anastasius teaches about the various kinds of adoration, from which by order of the holy Synod Stephen the monk is said to have read these words there: Τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀναστασίου Ἐπισκόπου Θεούπολεως ἐπιστολή &c. An epistle of St Anastasius Bishop of Theopolis to a certain Scholastic, epistle to a Scholastic, by which he answered him to a difficulty put to him by him: whose beginning is: If so much wisdom should be attributed to one asking for wisdom. And after a few words: And let no one be offended by the meaning of adoration. For we adore holy men and Angels, yet we do not serve them: for the Lord, says Moses, the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve &c. Constantine also, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, produced a book of St Anastasius Bishop of Theopolis, sermon on the Sabbath, from which Stephen the Deacon and Notary read these words: Of our holy Father Anastasius to Simeon Bishop of Bostra a sermon on the Sabbath, whose beginning is. If it is necessary, as has been said and as you yourself confess, to interrogate the Fathers, and also the elders. And after a few words. For as, while the Emperor is absent, his image is adored in place of himself: but when he is already present, it is superfluous, the original being forsaken, to adore the image &c. The same things, with Anastasius Bishop of Antioch to Simeon Bishop of Bostra cited, are read in St
John Damascene in his third oration on Images, from which above we produced two testimonies of St Anastasius Sinaita; whence you may understand that in the same oration two Anastasii are most clearly distinguished by Damascene.
[15] Leo Allatius, in the Diatribe above mentioned on the writings of the Simeons, orations on the Annunciation. has two Orations on the Annunciation of the Virgin Mother of God: the beginning of the first is indicated on page 109 in these words: Σήμερον ὑμῖν, ὦ ἄριστοι παῖδες, λόγον ἐρῶ. The beginning of the other on page 111 is handed down: Τί πάλιν ἐπὶ γῆς ὁ μέγας βούλεται Γαβριὴλ ἡμῖν. Both orations John Meursius edited in Greek at the Elzevir press of Leiden in his book Various Divine Matters, with this title prefixed by the Greeks: Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἀναστασίου Ἀρχιεπισκόπου Ἀντιοχείας εἰς τὸν εὐαγγελισμὸν τῆς παναχράντου καὶ Θεοτόκου Μαρίας λόγοι β'. Both, edited by the said Meursius, Francis Combefis rendered in Latin, and inserted them into the Greek-Latin Auctarium of the Library of the Fathers and into volume 6 of the Library of the Fathers for Preachers on March 25, and he added from a Royal codex another under this title: A sermon of our holy Father Anastasius, Archbishop of Antioch, and on the Transfiguration, on the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ: which same he also edited in Latin in volume 7 of the Library of the Fathers for Preachers on the 6th day of August. And this is plainly different from that which we said above was written by St Anastasius Sinaita. Three other orations of his exist, translated from Greek by Francis Turriano at Ingolstadt, and inserted by Peter Stevartius in a singular volume of distinguished authors, and afterwards reprinted at Cologne in volume 6 of the Library of the Ancient Fathers, which formerly existed from the interpretation of Godfrey Tilmann in the Library of the Fathers printed at Paris: on the Holy Trinity, the essence of God, the Incarnation the general title of all is, Of St Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch, on the right dogmas of our most true faith; and then, Oration I, on the Holy Trinity, Oration II, on the Uncircumscribed Essence of God; Oration III, on the Divine Economy, that is, on the Incarnation. Leo Allatius, mentioned before, indicates another oration of Anastasius Archbishop of Theopolis on page 104, on the Hypapante or the Meeting of the Lord, with this beginning: Hypapante, Πάλαι Συμεὼν ἐν ἀγκάλαις βαστάζει τὸν Δεσπότην. Nicephorus Callistus in the cited chapter 44 of book 18 asserts that he had read a certain oration of Anastasius written to the Antiochenes at his entry: and another pacificatory one, which in the twenty-third year, after returning by restoration to his throne, he composed, while Maurice obtained the Empire, whom also in that writing, because he had been recalled from exile, he extols with praises. Which undoubtedly, if they ever existed, were of St Anastasius of Antioch: whom with the Second Ecumenical Synod of Nicaea and other ancient writers we call Saint. Evagrius above praises his oration written, when under the Emperor Justinian exile had been decreed for him.
[16] Among the other lucubrations of this Anastasius Leo Allatius on page 83 reckons a relation of things done in Persia with this beginning: History concerning things done in Persia Βασιλεύοντος Ἀρηνάτου τῆς Περσικῆς χώρας, γέγονε φιλονεικία. Gretser in the Preface to Anastasius Sinaita's Guide of the Way asserts that he found it under the name of Anastasius Bishop of Theopolis in an Augsburg manuscript codex, and that in it is treated a disputation of the Christian Prelates with Pagans, Greeks, and Jews, with Aphrodisian Archimage of the King of the Persians as judge, at which also Anastasius says that he himself was present, and indeed alone of the Bishops of the Roman Empire. But that oration, as he adds, smells I know not what of fables, so that it is difficult to believe that it came forth from the workshop of Anastasius. full of fables, does not seem to be his. He had begun himself to translate it into Latin: but from the multitude of errors and fables he drew back his foot and thinks that to no one will this διήγησις be accessible, unless one acquires a more corrected or more manuscript copies. What sort of copy Allatius obtained we do not know. At least in the lifetime of Anastasius of Antioch there was no King of the Persians "Arenatus" indicated above, but for 48 years Chosroes, and then Hormisdas for 15 years, as Theophanes presents them.
[17] There exists a Response of Anastasius Bishop to the questions of certain orthodox Christians concerning various Ecclesiastical headings: Response to questions under the name of Anastasius Bishop of Nicaea, which Gentian Hervet rendered into Latin, and attributed to a certain Bishop of Nicaea, called Anastasius, printed in the first volume of the second Parisian edition of the Library of the Fathers. Against this treatise, and its text, very many cautions were prescribed by John Maria of Brasichella, censured, Master of the sacred Apostolic palace, in the first volume of the Index of prohibited books; some also were added by Nicholas Alamannus, once Prefect of the Vatican library: all of which James Gretser edited together: who edited the said Questions and Responses much enlarged in Greek and Latin; but propped up with a deceptive title, in these words: A book which is called Ὁδηγός, wrongly attributed to the Patriarch of Antioch: that is, Guide of the Way. Of our holy Father Anastasius Sinaita, Bishop of Antioch, Interrogations and Responses on various headings proposed by various persons. The solutions he took not from himself, but from experience and from sacred letters. Thus some Greek, perhaps Nicephorus Callistus, or another following him, unless someone a little older furnished the occasion for going astray, stuffed in the errors of the Greeks. Namely, because Anastasius Sinaita had composed an illustrious treatise, which was called Ὁδηγός, that is Guide of the Way, the same title the bran-like author adopted for this work: who, because Nicephorus Callistus had wrongly called the same Anastasius Sinaita Bishop of Antioch, wished to appear one and the same, both Sinaita and Antiochene, excerpting many things from the Constitutions of the Apostles, which under the name of Clement of Rome were thrust forth by later men, written by later Greeks: and by this very thing showing himself to be an impostor. In those Questions also are cited Canons of the Quinisext or Trullan Synod, held at Constantinople in the year 707, that is a full century after the death of both Anastasii: there is also cited St Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople, whom we have shown to have died in the year 828 at his Life on March 13: finally are cited Olympiodorus, who belongs to the tenth century; St Maximus monk and Martyr, Moschus and others, all more recent. Finally to question 117 it is answered towards the end, that now the seven hundredth year is being passed, since the Arians were expelled from the Holy Places, and these have been occupied by the Barbarians, so that it is no wonder if so many errors of the later Greeks are stuffed into these Questions and Responses, which we altogether judge to be eliminated from the catalogue of Treatises, both of those which St Anastasius Sinaita composed, and of those which Anastasius of Antioch composed.
[18] [A Compendious explanation of the faith from the works of SS. Cyril and Anastasius.] A compendious explanation of the orthodox faith of Anastasius Patriarch of Theopolis and of Cyril of Alexandria exists in volume 4 of the Library of the Fathers in the second Parisian edition, which in the Cologne edition part 2 of volume 6 is attributed to the younger Anastasius Patriarch of Antioch, slain by the Jews: which Aubert Miraeus likewise did in On Ecclesiastical Writers page 213. But for what cause they so judged, they are wholly silent. That compendious explanation of the faith seems rather to have been extracted by some third person from the books of SS. Cyril and Anastasius. Margarinus de la Bigne commemorates some unedited Anastasian works, namely, Responses to the Questions of the Monasteries of the First and Second Syria; but these perhaps are those of which we have already treated before. To the Antiochenes συντακτήριον, or Concerning the Coordination or Discipline. Certain unedited works cited. On the Construction of Man, two books. Mystical Contemplation of the Passions of Christ. Encomium of Egypt. Question against those who say there are three essences in the divine nature. Against the Jews, two books. These last, rendered into Latin by Francis Turriano, the book Against the Jews is of Anastasius the Abbot were edited in volume 3 of the Antiqua Lectio of Henry Canisius, but the author is cited as Anastasius Abbot against the Jews, who expresses his own age, when he says, that already the eight hundredth year and more is passing, since God dispersed the Jews and called Titus and Vespasian to destroy the city. written towards the end of the 9th century. This Abbot Anastasius therefore flourished towards the end of the ninth century. The cited Mystical Contemplation of the Passions of Christ seems to be of Anastasius Sinaita on the Passion and Impassibility of Christ. And thus other books perhaps lie hidden under other titles.
[29] As opportunity offered I sent a synopsis of this Commentary to Rome to the Reverend Father Peter Possinus, who on the day after the Kalends of May of the year 1671 thus replied: To those things which Your Reverence enquires and learnedly notes concerning the Anastasii and their writings, that I might set down something, Possinus's judgment, I consulted the Vatican indices and found in them many more than are known to you. The catalogue of the works of the Sinaita alone preserved there fills four great pages. Altogether there could be usefully published a splendid edition of the lucubrations of that Father, as also of very many others: but where will be found one who can and will undertake that labour? where one who will contribute the expense for the edition? Thus far Possinus. But because from the doubtful works we have not seen many, and there has not been leisure to compare others among themselves, if here and there we have swerved from the truth, let the critical reader remember, that we wished to do only this, to demonstrate that the works of the Sinaita and of the Antiochene are to be distinguished; in examining and illustrating which any other who has obtained more leisure could deserve praise. Once it seemed that Lucas Holstenius was inclined to this labour: but while he was too morosely applying himself to preparing and editing books, he was taken from life in the year 1661, when to him dying we rendered that last service, which in such an article religious Priests can and are wont to render to their friends.