Dorotheus
DOROTHEUS
The name of several ecclesiastics in the early and medieval church.
Dorotheus of Antioch, priest of the School of Antioch c. 300, was an authority on the Hebrew language and on Scripture, which he publicly explicated. He became an administrator in the imperial palace. He was admired by eusebius of caesarea (Histoire ecclesiastique 7.32).
Dorotheus of Gaza, 6th-century monk of the convent of Seridon who founded a monastery near Gaza c. 535, gave extremely successful sermons to his monks on cenobitism and monastic virtues. His principal sources were basil of Caesarea and evagrius ponticus.
Dorotheus of Mytilene, 15th-century Byzantine bishop, d. before July 1444, worked tirelessly for union between the Greeks and Latins at the Council of Ferrara-florence and wrote a discourse on the siege of Constantinople in June 1422. Whether he wrote a session-by-session history of the Council of Florence is disputed.
Bibliography: j. quasten et al., Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (Freiburg 1957–65) 3:524–526. g. bardy and v. laurent, Catholicisme 3:1039–40.
[p. roche]