Paulus Euergetinos

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PAULUS EUERGETINOS

Eleventh-century Byzantine monk and ascetical writer; d. Constantinople, April 16, 1054. Paulus is known as the founder of the monastery of Euergetis near Constantinople (1048) and for the collection of ascetical writings (Paterikon ) that he prepared for his monks known as his Synagoge. It consists of 50 chapters divided into four books, so ordered as to provide an ascetical education in godliness for the members of the monastery. The collected texts include selections from almost all the ascetical literature of the early Church from the vita of St. Anthony by Athanasius to the dialogues of St. Gregory I. It makes no pretense at original considerations but is a reelaboration. Its principal sources are a Gerontikon that is identical with the so-called Alphabeticon Coteliers and a collection of anonyma. These sources account for seven-eighths of the Synagoge. A Horologion also contains a homily on the Mother of God attributed to Paulus.

Bibliography: h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 587. s. vailhÉ, Échos d'Orient 7 (1904) 268276. Bibliotheca hagiographica Graeca, ed. f. halkin (Brussels 1957) 3:1450s50z. w. bousset, Apophthegmata, ed. t. hermann and g. krÜger (Tübingen 1923) 1518.

[f. chiovaro]