ANASTASIUS SINAITA, ST.

Seventh-century Palestinian monk, theological controversialist, and exegete revered as a saint by the Byzantine Church and included in the Roman Martyrology; d. Mt. Sinai, c. 700. He is of unknown origin and is confused with other authors. Anastasius was a monk on Mt. Sinai who left the monastery to dispute with heretics in Egypt and Syria and became known as the New Moses. His writings are edited uncritically and do not permit a fair judgment. The Hodegos, or Viae Dux, in 24 chapters, was composed in the desert against the monophysites (c. 685). The arguments on which it is based are buttressed by Aristotelian definitions and citations from the Fathers and the councils that are frequently faulty, indicating that he quoted from memory. In the Hodegos he mentions four other works: a Dogmatic Tome, the Apologetic Tome, the Treatise against Nestorius, and a Treatise against the Jews, which are now lost. A Quaestiones et Responsiones (Eratopokriseis ) is in substance the work of Anastasius, but in its present form it shows signs of later additions. It deals with the whole gamut of monastic life and secular culture, and answers objections to the faith with Biblical and patristic texts. Eleven books of an exegetical work, Commentary on the Hexameron, are preserved in Latin, and only the twelfth is in the original Greek. The author depends on Pseudo-Dionysius and engages in exaggerated allegorism. A Dialogue on the Jews (Patrologia Graeca 89:1203–72) is not authentic.

Feast: April 21 (Orthodox Church).

Bibliography: Patrologia Graeca, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1857–66) 89:35–1288. b. altaner, Patrology (New York 1960) 633, 644. g. bardy, Revue biblique 42 (1933) 339–343; Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, ed. m. viller et al. (Paris 1932–) 1:546–547. j. d. baggarly, The Conjugates Christ-Church in the Hexaemeron of Ps.-Anastasius of Sinai (Rome 1974). j. b. pitra, Iuris ecclesiastici Graecorum historia et monumenta, 2 v. (Rome 1868) 2:238–294. r. janin, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 2:1482–83. u. riedinger, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:492. h.g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 442–446. m. salsano, Bibliotheca sanctorum (Rome 1961) 1:1059–61.

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