Doukaton
(δουκα̑τον), rare term designating a territorial unit. Hagiographical texts of the 6th–7th C. understand doukaton as a district under the command of a doux: doukata of Palestine (Cyril of Scythopolis ...
eulogia
Literally a blessing, the word had a wide extension in early Byzantine use. It was used for gifts of a sacred nature, e.g. bread, consecrated or merely blessed, sent to ...
Great Lavra Of Sabas
(Mar Saba), monastic settlement southeast of Jerusalem, traditionally founded in 483 by the ascetic St. Sabas. After having visited the Egyptian desert, Sabas lived in Palestine as a solitary and ...
Jeweler
The Byz. distinguished the goldsmith (chrysochoos) from the silversmith (argyrokopos) (Koukoules, Bios 2.1:225, 228). Often they used the word chrysochoos in the broad sense of a jeweler, for ...
koinē
The form of Greek (koine = common) which was the international language after the death of Alexander the Great (323 bce) both in cities of Greece and throughout the Hellenistic world. It is a ...
Leontius of Byzantium
(6th cent.), anti-Monophysite theologian. He is probably to be distinguished from the Scythian monk of the same name who took part in the Theopaschite controversy, but practically nothing is known of ...
pastophorion
(Gk. παστοφόριον).In the E. Church, the sacristy adjacent to the apse, used at least from the end of the 4th cent. (Apostolic Constitutions, 8. 13) for the reservation of the Sacrament.[...]
Prokopios
(Προκόπιος), saint; feastday 8 July.According to Eusebios of Caesarea (De mart. Palest. 1.1–2), he was the first Palestinian martyr, beheaded in Caesarea during Diocletian's persecutions of 303 after ...
Skythopolis
(Σκυθόπολις, Hebr. Beth Sh'an or Shean, Ar. Baysān), largest city of northern Palestine and administrative and episcopal capital of Palaestina II. In the 4th C. there were imperial linen workshops ...
St Euthymius
(377–473), monk. A native of Armenia, he came to Jerusalem in 405 and established a lavra at Khanel-Ahmar c.426. He was loyal to the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon and he exercised a formative ...
Stephen the Younger
(715–765)Martyr (feast 28 Nov);Stephen, called the Younger to differentiate him from the protomartyr, was a monk put to death by Constantine V (741–775) because he incited those close to ...
Theodosios the Koinobiarches
(Κοινοβιάρχης), saint; born in village of Garissos or Mogarissos, Cappadocia, died in his monastery near Jerusalem 11 Jan. 529, reportedly almost 100 years old. Hagiographers are silent about his ...
Wilderness of Judea
Term for the rocky and sparsely inhabited region south of Jerusalem and Jericho and west of the Dead Sea as far as Arad and Elusa, which became the principal area ...
Xenodochos
(ξενοδóχος), director of a xenodocheion or xenon, usually acting under the supervision of the local bishop. The Epanagoge (9.19) lists xenodochoi between the oikonomoi and nosokomoi as officials ...
