ON SAINT PETER, MONK IN MONOBATIS.
CommentaryPeter, Monk in Monobatis (Saint)
By the author G. H.
[1] The Greek Menaea furnish the name of this Saint on February 7: "The memory of our holy Father Peter, Saint Peter who struggled, or was trained, in Monobatis" -- in Monobatis that is, in solitary places. For in Greek, monos means "alone, singular," monios or monios is the same as monastikos or moneres, "solitary, seeking solitudes," or solitude and monobata are places of solitaries, or of those who walk alone.
[2] John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 9, narrates the discovery of the body of Peter the Solitary of the Holy Jordan -- who appears to be the one treated in the Menaea. "Our venerable Father, Abbot Gregory," he says, whether this is a mention of him in Moschus "Archimandrite of the monastery of our holy Father Theodosius, which is situated in the desert of the holy city of Christ our Lord, narrated to me, that is, to myself and to Brother Sophronius the Sophist, saying: 'When I began to build the church of Saint Quiricus in Phaselide, to Abbot Gregory as I was digging the foundations of the church, a certain monk appeared to me in a dream, of great abstinence as it seemed, who appeared to him clothed in palm, and bearing on his shoulders a small tunic of matting, and he said to me in a very gentle voice:
"Tell me, Abbot Gregory, after so many labors and so great abstinence, did you really have to leave me outside the church and who rebuked the neglect of his body which you are building?"' I indeed, reverencing the old man's voice and appearance, said to him: 'No, Lord, far be it from me to do this.' And he said: 'Truly you have done this.' I then said to him: 'Who are you, Lord?' 'I,' he said, 'am Peter the Solitary of the Holy Jordan.' And so, rising in the morning, I went and searched, digging around the church. When I dug, I found his body lying just as I had seen him in the dream. Having constructed an oratory, I made a distinguished monument on the right side of the church, and there I placed him." then elevated. On Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch and his monastery in the wilderness we treated on January 11; on Saint Cyriacus, who here appears to be called Quiricus, mention was also made there, and we shall treat more fully on September 29.