Timothy

ON ST. TIMOTHY, BISHOP OF ANTINOË IN EGYPT,

FOURTH CENTURY

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Timothy, bishop of Antinoë. (S.)

BY P. P.

[1] The Alexandrian synaxarion on St. Timothy Outside the Arabic synaxarion of the Coptic church, which the Abyssinians follow here, as they usually do elsewhere, scarcely any memory has been preserved anywhere of a certain holy confessor named Timothy, who in the age of Diocletian and Constantine the Great was bishop of the city of Antinoë in Upper Egypt. Indeed, even in the first form of the Alexandrian synaxarion, which Michael, bishop of Athribis and Malig, patched together about the middle of the 13th century [See Fr. Cöln, Der Nomokanon Mîḫâils von Malîg, in Oriens Christianus, vol. VI (1906), pp. 75–78.], the elogium of St. Timothy does not seem to have existed. For it is absent from the codex of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 4860 [R. Basset, Le Synaxaire arabe jacobite (rédaction copte), in Patrologia Orientalis, vol. III n.d., p. 286; J. Forget, Synaxarium Alexandrinum, in Corpus Scriptorum christianorum Orientalium, Scr. arab., Textus, ser. 3, vol. XIX (1912), pp. 312, 315.], which is among the older ones, and perhaps the oldest of all that have become known in Europe, if it really reaches back to the end of the 14th century, as René Basset asserts without hesitation Basset, op. cit., Patrologia Orientalis, vol. I, p. 220.. Either by John, bishop of Paralos, then, or by one of those who revised the work of Michael at a more recent date, the mention of Timothy must have been added. From where this later synaxarist drew it we cannot attain by conjecture.

[2] it relates an empty history And indeed the saint's history, such as it is presented to us, is so empty of facts that by its very emptiness it escapes investigation. It can be summed up in a few words as follows. Timothy, born of unknown parents, at an uncertain time and place, embraced the monastic life from his earliest age: in what monastery and under what master, it would be importunate to wish to find out. Nor is it any more certain when and by whose will he was made bishop of Antinoë. While the emperor Diocletian was raging against the Christians, he was thrown into prison with very many other faithful, the greatest part of whom perished in torments. Three years later, when Constantine the Great had restored peace to the church, Timothy was released from custody with the few confessors who survived, and, returning to his church, instituted a solemn supplication for the unjust judge by whom he had suffered so many ill-treatments. When this reached the ears of the prefect, he, moved by wonder at the thing, gave himself over to the bishop's instruction, and, having received baptism, resigned his office and became a monk. And St. Timothy continued in ruling his flock and finished his life in peace. So the synaxarist.

[3] and to a widespread pattern Now it would be trifling to search out one by one the blemishes and errors of a history of this kind, which plainly was narrated to us in a later age by an unlearned man, who did not even suspect that after the birth of Christ there had ever been a time when monks did not exist in Egypt. Above all, its resemblance to certain plainly fabulous little narratives is suspicious. For in the hagiographical books of the Copts other confessors are celebrated, or martyrs without the shedding of blood, who in Egypt, and indeed in that same city of Antinoë, were released from prison after Diocletian had been driven from rule. Let St. Poemen (Bamin) of Miniat Chasib, in the territory of Hermopolis Magna (Asmunaïn), be an example, who is said to have suffered very many torments at Antinoë, until, idolatry having been overthrown, he was freed by the emperor Constantine [Coptic synaxarion at 9 Choiak; Basset, Patrologia Orientalis, vol. III, pp. 412–15; Forget, op. cit., vol. XVIII, pp. 144–46; cf. the Ethiopic synaxarion at 9 Tāḫsās; Zotenberg, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de la Bibliothèque Nationale, p. 166.]; and likewise St. Nub or Anub, confessor [Whether he is the one whose church near Hermopolis (Ašmunaïn) Abū Ṣāliḥ records, or someone else, is uncertain. Cf. B. A. Evetts, The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring countries attributed to Abû Ṣâliḥ the Armenian, in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic series, vol. VII (1895), fol. 38a.], who is mentioned in that man's Passion, or rather synaxarion, and has his own elogium on the 23rd day of the month Payni. He indeed is said, together with seventy-one others released from custody, to have been summoned by the emperor Constantine himself for the sake of honour [Synaxarium Alexandrinum, Forget, op. cit., vol. XIX, pp. 184–85; cf. the Ethiopic synaxarion at the 23rd day of Sane, ed. Ign. Guidi, Patrologia Orientalis, vol. I (1907), pp. 661–64.]. Very like these is the image of St. Nabraha, whose Acts survive in Coptic. He likewise at Antinoë was afflicted by the governor Arianus with a manifold variety of tortures, until the edict of Constantine. He [Ed. H. Munier, Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale, vol. XV, 2 (1918), p. 258.]: decreed that all the Christians who were shut up in prisons on account of the name of Christ should be released. When, therefore, those who were in the mines (μέταλλον) and in custody (φυλακή) were released, from Alexandria

as far as Antinoë, there was released also the blessed (μακάριος) lord Nabraha; who went off to his house… This is almost the very formula which is read in the synaxarion of our Timothy. piously invented, Whence it may be conjectured with very great probability that this was abridged from some Coptic Passion, which in turn was invented after some traditional archetype, say the Life of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, or of someone else. Nevertheless it is separated from the monstrous folly of those fables by a certain simple and sober gravity suited to the forming of morals, which is wonderfully foreign to the Passions of the Coptic martyrs. You would rather believe that this history was taken either from the Lives of the Fathers or from some compilation of soul-profiting narratives, where, among other examples of virtue, those also were praised who had been distinguished for ἀμνησικακίᾳ. Of books of this kind there was once an almost infinite variety in Egypt, and it has not been settled beforehand by any sure argument that the synaxarist did not by chance light upon some stray rivulet flowing from that perennial spring [On the sources of the Coptic synaxarion, see what Ignazio Guidi touched on in passing with outstanding learning, The Ethiopic Senkessar, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1911, pp. 739–41.].

[4] of which nothing is known from elsewhere. As far as the matter itself is concerned, the city of Antinoë, which was founded by the emperor Hadrian and in which the dukes of the Thebaid at one time had their seat [J. Maspero and G. Wiet, Matériaux pour servir à la géographie de l'Égypte, Première série, in Mémoires publiés par les membres de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, vol. XXXVI (1914), pp. 25–27.], was already from the beginning of the 4th century counted among the dioceses of Upper Egypt. Its bishop, Tyrannus by name, was present at the council of Nicaea [H. Gelzer, H. Hilgenfeld and O. Cuntz, Patrum Nicaenorum nomina latine graece coptice syriace arabice armeniace (Leipzig, 1898), pp. LX, n. 14, 8, 62, 98, 120, etc.]. Whether another named Timothy preceded him is uncertain from other sources See Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, vol. II, 593–594., and certainly cannot be demonstrated from our synaxarion. Yet who would dare obstinately to deny it? Antinoë was also made famous by a number of illustrious martyrs, although they do not seem to have been of the multitude which the synaxarist boasts [H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, pp. 253–54; Les martyrs d'Égypte, in Anal. Boll., vol. XL, pp. 33–34.]. In short: the whole question must be left open, until some document emerges from oblivion to bathe it in a less uncertain light.

[5] Sources of the edition. The synaxarion of St. Timothy has been edited twice in the Arabic language: by the Rev. Jules Forget [Op. cit., vol. XVIII, pp. 104–105; in Latin, op. cit., Versio, ser. 3, vol. XVIII (1922), pp. 117–18.] from the Vatican codex Arab. 62 of the year 1712 [Mai, Codices arabici bibliothecae Vaticanae, in Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, vol. IV (1831), pp. 92–109.], collated with the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, arab. 256 and 4860 Forget, op. cit., vol. XIX, p. 310., and by the learned René Basset Patrologia Orientalis, vol. III, pp. 286–87. from the same Paris codex 156, of the 16th century. How much each of these and other codices [Among these two Göttingen codices are known to some extent, from which Ferdinand Wüstenfeld translated the first six months of the Coptic synaxarion into German, Synaxarium das ist Heiligen-Kalender (Gotha, 1879), cf. pp. 113–14.] is to be valued, there is no leisure to inquire in this place. For the question spreads widely, and cannot be decided from the single elogium of our Timothy. In this one, indeed, the Vatican codex, which J. Forget principally followed, seems less to need emendation. This, therefore, we too have preferred. And since the most distinguished editors did not seem everywhere to agree with each other in reading the Paris codex 256, we have taken its text afresh from the source itself (= P). Together with this, the codex of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 4770 for the most part departs from the Vatican exemplar in a very few places; its variant readings we have borrowed from the edition of J. Forget (= B).

LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY, BISHOP

Timothy, bishop of Antinoë. (S.)

From the codices of the Alexandrian synaxarion, Vatican Arab. 62 and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Arab. 4860 (= B), following the edition of Jules Forget; collated with the codex Bibl. Nation. Paris. Arab. 256 (= P). Cf. Preliminary Commentary, no. 5.

The thirteenth day of the month Hatur.

St. Timothy, bishop On this day rested the holy father Timothy, bishop of the city of Antinoë. This saint was pious and innocent, who, having become a monk from a tender age, pursued in all things the most excellent manner of life. The prefect of Antinoë seized him because he confessed Christ and taught men His faith. from harsh custody He afflicted him with various punishments, and did not cease time and again to send him back to prison and to bring him out from there, torturing him for three continuous years. There were with him in prison many saints seized on account of the faith, of whom the prefect neque sanctus a carcere suo recessit, cum interea praefectus … P. did not cease from time to time to bring out some, whom he tortured and whose pure blood he shed; until in his prison there remained only a small band (of captives), among whom was that father. But postquam autem evertit P. the Lord overthrew the impious Diocletian, and the king dear to God, Constantine, obtained the rule, from whom a letter arrived advenerunt eius legati cum litteris P. that the confessors should be brought out of all the prisons of the whole world. scarcely released, In the number, then, of those who were released, that saint too was released. And when he reached his cell, he called together the monks and priests of his diocese, and through a whole night besought God with mighty prayers that He would set free the soul of the governor who had tortured him, using these words: he prays for his judge "This is he, Lord, who conferred very many benefits on me, and gave me access to Thee, O God: grant therefore, Lord, that that governor may have the means of access to Thee." Men marvelled at the candour of soul of this father. And when the report of the matter reached the governor, he said, marvelling within himself: "I indeed thought that he would be hostile to me because of the punishments with which I afflicted him, and so would pray evil upon me: but now he prays good for me. Surely in the religion of this Christian people there must be a divine mystery." Accordingly he ordered the bishop to be sought out, from whom he wished to learn the law of the Christians. The father therefore taught him the things that pertain to the incarnation of the Son of God; how all the prophets had spoken of it many years before, and he joins him to Christ. and how their sayings had been proved true. He read the Gospel to him. He believed in Christ, through the work of this father, by whom he was also baptized. Then he resigned the prefecture and became a monk of the flock of this father. And this father persevered for the rest of his life in instructing and guarding his flock, and at length rested in peace. May the blessing of the prayer of this father be with us. Amen.