99 Mobility, immobility and sainthood Mobility is therefore one of the discursive strategies that the authors used to construct their subjects as holy men. 2.4 Hesychia, immobility and mobility in the Life of Elias the Younger The Life of Elias the Younger illustrates that there are also other possible discourses on hesychia and mobility. Hesychia does not play such a prominent role in the Life of Elias the Younger compared to the Lives of Gregory and Euthymius. The term only occurs once as a noun, once as a cognate noun (hesychasterion) and twice as a verb in the Life.323 However, one of the passages, already cited at the start of this chapter, is highly revealing on the perceived relation between hesychia and mobility. The passage from the Life of Elias the Younger illustrates well how there is a perceived tension between mobility and hesychia. Namely, the hagiographer apparently felt the need to explain how the high degree of mobility of the saint and a state of hesychia are compatible, possibly to anticipate scepticism from the audience.324 This passage also shows that a state of hesychia was desired by monks, and perhaps even expected of monastic saints. If not, why would the hagiographer feel the need to include this passage? Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις τόποις μεταβαίνοντες οἱ θεοφιλεῖς οὗτοι πατέρες, ἥκιστα τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἤμειβον, ἀλλ’ οἱ αὐτοὶ ἦσαν, καὶ καταμόνας ἀσκούμενοι καὶ κοσμικοῖς συνδιάγοντες καὶ τοὺς τόπους ἀμείβοντες· τοῖς γὰρ κατὰ Θεὸν ζῶσι πᾶς τόπος ἀσφαλής· οὐ γὰρ ἐν τόπῳ ἡ ἀρετὴ περιγράφεται.325 And often these god-loving fathers while moving to other places, they changed not in the least with regard to their hesychia, but they remained the same, both while exercising in solitude and while passing time together with worldly people, and while changing places: since for the ones living according to God every place is safe, for virtue is not circumscribed in a certain place. The passage can be interpreted in the context of the chapters immediately preceding this one. The passage of Life of Elias 30 immediately follows the founding of a ‘monastery’ in Salinas. In the context of the narrative, the frequent movement to other places (πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις τόποις μεταβαίνοντες) seems to refer to the travels in the region of Elias and Daniel after they founded the monastery in southern Italy. Namely, immediately 323 Life of Elias the Younger 30 and 38-39. 324 This reminds of similar discourse in Epicurian philosophy, in which travel is perceived to endanger ataxaria (a state of tranquillity). Lien Foubert observed that this view differed from that of Stoics. See Foubert (2018). See also (on Seneca) Montiglio (2006). 325 Life of Elias the Younger 30. 2
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