96 Chapter 2 not find it there and therefore was motivated to travel away from his current location. At his destination at Mount Athos, the narratives implies, the monk expects to find hesychia. The narrative continues, however, to indicate that Euthymius could not find hesychia at Athos either. This is because ‘the monks were distracting him, especially his own monks’.314 So he moves away again, distancing himself even further from civilisation by moving to an island with only one other monk.315 The search for hesychia thus inspires mobility. However, in the narratives it takes more than one journey to a suitable space to reach and maintain the (immobile) state of hesychia. Because spaces have permeable boundaries, they do not guarantee hesychia. Thus, hesychia continues to inspire mobility.316 The conducted analysis leads to tentative conclusions on middle-Byzantine attitudes towards monastic mobility. Because hesychia is presented as a desirable monastic ideal that is important for the spiritual development of a monk, mobility inspired by hesychia might have a positive connotation for the hagiographers. There is no attempt by the hagiographers to counter any negative associations the audience may have had with this type of monastic mobility. The hagiographers thus probably anticipated a neutral or positive attitude of the audience towards mobility inspired by hesychia. Furthermore, mobility, in these cases, is represented mostly as a change of location. It is not so much the journeying itself that is emphasised in the narratives, nor is the journey itself presented as an important element in reaching hesychia. Rather, the arriving at a fitting place or the leaving of an unsuitable place is relevant for hesychia and thus the spiritual advancement of the saint. So more precise than travelling, it is translocation that is represented here as positive and functional. The search for hesychia contributes to the representation of sainthood: it represents the monks as living exemplary ascetic lives and as humans that through their hesychia come closer to God and a divine status. Moreover, the representation of the boundaries between spaces of seclusion and civilisation as permeable makes transgression between them easier and therefore the attaining of hesychia harder, evinced by the need felt by monks to move from one place to another. The reaching and pursuit of hesychia therefore reflects positively on monks, making them special and dedicated persons. As mobility is necessary for reaching hesychia, it contributes indirectly to the representation of sainthood. Mobility and the permeable boundaries between seclusion-civilisation are essential in the narratives in yet another way: they enable the alternation and therefore combination of different modes of monastic life and of different contradictory expectations of sainthood. 314 Life of Euthymius the Younger 37.3; translation by Talbot in Alexakis (2016), p.117. 315 The island is called Hiera in the narrative, but it not clear to which island this corresponds. No details of the island are narrated, except that he stayed there for half a year at the very end of his life (from May 8th until October 13th; by then he had fallen ill and, it is suggested, moved to a cave somewhere else and died two days later, on October 15th). Life of Euthymius the Younger 37. 316 While this applies to both the Lives of Gregory and Euthymius, it should be acknowledged that the motive is more prominent in the Life of Euthymius.
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