Apodeipnon
(ἀπόδειπνον, lit. “after supper”), compline, the liturgical hour that completes the monastic day with prayer for a tranquil night free from sin and evil dreams. First seen in the Longer ...
Armenian literature
Armenian literature begins with the invention of an individual script by Mesrop Mas̆tocʼ (c.360–439). Although familiar with Greek and Syriac, Armenian church leaders needed a written form of ...
Basil Elachistos
(“the least”), archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (mid-10th C.); according to R. Cantarella (BZ 25 [1925] 293), he was born in Seleukeia.Basil wrote a commentary on the speeches of ...
Caesarea
(Καισάρεια, mod. Kayseri), metropolis of Cappadocia. When its enthusiastic Christians destroyed pagan temples, Emp. Julian deprived Caesarea of municipal status, but it soon recovered to flourish ...
Diodoros
(Διόδωρος), bishop of Tarsos (from 378) and theologian; born Antioch, died before 394.Educated at Athens, Diodoros became a monk and then hegoumenos of a monastery outside of Antioch. He ...
Fathers of the Church
The early Christian writers, a term usually applied to those of the first five centuries. Sometimes the Greek and Latin fathers are distinguished, the former including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, ...
florilegium
A collection of passages from the writings of previous authors. Special interest attaches to the Greek patristic florilegia. Besides those composed of excerpts from commentaries on the Bible (known ...
Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
(d. 320).These soldiers of the ‘thundering Legion’ were the victims of a persecution by the Emperor Licinius, which required repudiation of Christianity under pain of death. The local governor of ...
Hagiographical Illustration
The primary focus of Byz. hagiographical (see Hagiography) illustration was portraiture: the particular deeds of individual saints played a comparatively minor role in all but the very earliest ...
hermit
A person living in solitude as a religious discipline; the word is recorded from Middle English, and comes via Old French and late Latin, from Greek erēmitēs, from erēmos ‘solitary’.
Hexaemeron
The account of the creation of the universe in six days in Gen. 1; also patristic commentaries on this narrative.
Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim
(c.935–c.1002)First known woman poet of the MA and first known author of dramas since antiquity. She wrote eight saints’ legends in rhymed verse, eight dramas mainly in prose, and ...
intellect
"Intellect", intellectus, means firstly the content of the operation of knowledge and then the supreme faculty or power of knowledge in man. The meaning of faculty and that of object ...
Mamas
(Μάμας), saint; feastday 2 Sept.The earliest panegyrics by Basil the Great (PG 31:589–600) and Gregory of Nazianzos (PG 36:620f) are devoid of factual information: they only call Mamas a ...
novice
A person in a period of probation in a religous house before pronouncing his or her vows. At the end of the noviciate, the postulant had the choice of returning ...
Philokalia
(Φιλοκαλία, lit. “love for the good” [in Church Slavonic translated as dobrotoljubie]). A term for property improvement (in documents) or for scholarly correction (e.g., Epiphanios of Salamis, [PG ...
Philostorgius
(c.368–c.439), Arian historian. His ‘History of the Church’ (c.300–430) survives only in fragments and in an epitome by Photius. It is inaccurate and biased, but is of value because of its use of ...
Physiologus
The work known under the name of Physiologus constituted the original kernel around which were formed the medieval Bestiaries, those collections, usually illustrated, that described animals and their ...
Sabas the Goth
Christian martyr and saint; born in “Gotthia” 334, died 12 Apr. 372; feastday 17 Apr. The account of his martyrdom, written in the form of a letter from the church ...
St Amphilochius
(c.340–95), Bp. of Iconium from 373. A cousin of Gregory Nazianzus, he was president of the Council of Side (390) which excommunicated the Messalians. His Iambics for Seleucus contains a list of ...
