74 Chapter 2 This saying illustrates some of the main aspects of the usage of hesychia in late-antique monastic literature. The first aspect of hesychia in late-antique monastic literature that scholars have observed and which is discernible from this saying is the connection that is made between hesychia and the monastic cell (τὸ κελλίον).238 This is often considered to be the appropriate place for reaching hesychia.239 Other texts, such as a letter by Basil of Caesarea (330-379) or the Religious History by Theodoret of Cyrrhus (c. 393- c. 466), show that hesychia is not exclusively associated with monastic cells, but also with other types of places, such as a mountains (in Pontos for Basil, and Mount Sinai for Symeon the Stylite).240 The connection to space is related to one of the scholarly insights on the usage of hesychia by late-antique authors, namely that it is a state referring to, or dependent on, exterior circumstances (such as space).241 Another often-mentioned circumstance that hesychia is associated with is solitude. In some cases, scholars have observed, hesychia may even be used interchangeably with solitude.242 The association with solitude is reflected in the passage cited above as well: ‘loitering outside a cell’ and the resulting interaction with people obstructs attaining hesychia. However, in this passage, and also in other late-antique texts, it is not complete solitude that is referred to, but withdrawal from ‘worldly’ people.243 Space and (relative) solitude are thus circumstances exterior to the monk himself, that – 238 E.g., observed by Gemeinhardt on this passage. Gemeinhardt (2015), p. 69. 239 E.g., also in the writings of Evagrius Ponticus, e.g., Evagrius’ Foundations 8, see Sinkewicz (2003); Bitton-Ashkelony (2005). 240 On his ascetical retreat on a mountain in Pontus, Basil wrote to his friend Gregory of Nazianzus, in his Letter 14: Ὃ δὲ μέγιστον εἰπεῖν ἔχομεν τοῦ χωρίου, ὅτι πρὸς πᾶσαν ὑπάρχον καρπῶν φορὰν ἐπιτήδειον δ᾿ι εὐκαιρίαν τῆς θέσεως, ἥδιστον ἐμοὶ πάντων καρπῶν τὴν ἡσυχίαν τρέφει, οὐ μόνον καθότι τῶν ἀστικῶν θορύβων ἀπήλλακται, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι οὐδὲ ὁδίτην τινὰ παραπέμπει πλὴν τῶν κατὰ θήραν ἐπιμιγνυμένων ἡμῖν. (‘The highest praise, however, which I can give to the place is that, although it is well adapted by its admirable situation to producing fruits of every kind, for me the most pleasing fruit it nourishes is tranquillity, not only because it is far removed from the disturbances of the city, but also because it attracts not even a wayfarer, except the guests who join me in hunting’.) Basil, Letters 14. Translated in Deferrari (1929), p. 111. Also in Theodoret’s narration of the life of Symeon the Stylite, a desire for hesychia drives the saint to Mount Sinai (‘Ἀλλὰ πάλιν τῆς ἡσυχίας ἐρῶν τὸ Σίναιον ὄρος καταλαβεῖν ἐπεθύμησεν). Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Religious History 6.7 in Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen (1977). In the same work narrating the life of James Nisibis, Theodoret connects hesychia both with mountains and caves (τὸν ἐρημικὸν καὶ ἡσύχιον ἠσπάσατο βίον καί, τὰς τῶν ὑψηλοτάτων ὀρῶν καταλαβὼν κορυφάς, ἐν ἐκείναις διῆγεν, ἐν ἔαρι μὲν καὶ θέρει καὶ μετοπώρῳ ταῖς λόχμαις χρώμενος καὶ ὄροφον ἔχων τὸν οὐρανόν· τὸν δὲ τοῦ χειμῶνος καιρὸν ἄντρον αὐτὸν ὑπεδέχετο, σκέπην βραχεῖαν παρέχον; [James of Nisibis] ‘embraced the solitary and quiet life, and occupying the peaks of the highest mountains lived on them, making use of the thickets in spring, summer, and autumn, and having the sky as his roof; in the wintertime a cave received him, providing sparse shelter’). Theodoret, Religious History 1.2; translation by König (2022), p. 291. 241 This is observed by for example by Vos with regard to the Apophthegmata Patrium, including a discussion on the passage cited above. Sinkewicz, with regard to the writings of Evagrius, observed that: ‘As Evagrius uses the term, hesychia refers to both the exterior and interior stillness that the monk must continually cultivate, for it can so easily be disrupted or lost. Both in his choice of physical space and in his regulation of his own interior space, the monk seeks for the state of perfect tranquillity that will allow him to devote himself single-mindedly to the practice of contemplation’. Barbara Müller argued that, at least before the fifth century, hesychia in general primarily referred to the ‘äusseren Wohnortes’. Koder observed that for Basil his mountain retreat guaranteed his ‘äussere und innere Ruhe (hesychia)’. Bitton-Ashkelony noted that monks might travel to particular places in order to attain hesychia, such as Julian Saba in Theodoret of Cyrrhus’ Religious History. Vos (2016), p. 517; Sinkewicz (2003), p. 1; Müller (2017), p. 153; Koder (2017), p. 219; Bitton-Ashkelony (2005), p. 159. 242 E.g., Hausherr (1966a), pp. 168–169. 243 Vos, for example, stresses the communal context of monks in the Apophthegmata, even in cases where a monk stresses solitude in a saying (e.g., the sayings themselves presuppose social interaction between a monk and a disciple, to whom the saying is communicated). Vos (2016), p. 519.
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