Inquiry About the Monks in Egypt

270 Pages·2019·2.704 MB·English

by  Rufinus of Aquileia, Andrew Cain

THE FATHERS
OF THE CHURCH
A NEW TRANSLATION
VOLUME 139
THE FATHERS OF
THE CHURCH
A NEW TRANSLATION
EDITORIAL BOARD
David G. Hunter
Boston College
Editorial Director
Paul M. Blowers William E. Klingshirn
Emmanuel Christian Seminary The Catholic University of America
Andrew Cain Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.
University of Colorado Fordham University
Mark DelCogliano Rebecca Lyman
University of St. Thomas Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Susan Ashbrook Harvey Wendy Mayer
Brown University Australian Lutheran College
Robert A. Kitchen
Sankt Ignatios Theological Academy
Trevor Lipscombe
Director, The Catholic University of America Press
FORMER EDITORIAL DIRECTORS
Ludwig Schopp, Roy J. Deferrari, Bernard M. Peebles,
Hermigild Dressler, O.F.M., Thomas P. Halton
Carole Monica C. Burnett, Staff Editor
RUFINUS OF
AQUILEIA
INQUIRY ABOUT THE
MONKS IN EGYPT
Translated by
ANDREW CAIN
University of Colorado
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2019
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
the American National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI z39.48 - 1984.
∞

All the quotations of Gn 12.1–2, Lk 10.19, and Mk 8.28 are taken from the
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rufinus, of Aquileia, 345–410. | Cain, Andrew, translator, editor.
Title: Inquiry about the monks in Egypt / Rufinus of Aquileia ; translated by
Andrew Cain, University of Colorado. Other titles: Historia monachorum in
Aegypto. English. Description: Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of
America Press, 2019. | Series: The Fathers of the church, a new translation ;
Volume 139 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019013232 | ISBN 9780813232645 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Monasticism and religious orders—Egypt—History—
Early church, ca. 30–600. | Desert Fathers—Biography. |
Monks—Egypt—Biography.
Classification: LCC BR195.M65 H5713 2019 | DDC 271.00932—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019013232
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Select Bibliography xi
INTRODUCTION
Rufinus’s Life and Writings 3
The Anonymous Greek Historia monachorum
and Rufinus’s Latin Historia monachorum 12
The New Prophets and Apostles 21
The Egyptian Monks as Redeemers 33
Evagius of Pontus and his Teachings in the LHM 41
About This Translation 55
INQUIRY ABOUT THE MONKS
IN EGYPT
Prologue 59
Chapter 1: John of Lycopolis 64
Chapter 2: Or 90
Chapter 3: Ammon 94
Chapter 4: Bes 96
Chapter 5: Oxyrhynchus 98
Chapter 6: Theon 101
Chapter 7: Apollo 103
Chapter 8: Amoun 125
Chapter 9: Copres 129
Chapter 10: Sourous 143
vi CONTENTS
Chapter 11: Helle 146
Chapter 12: Elias 152
Chapter 13: Pityrion 154
Chapter 14: Eulogius 156
Chapter 15: Apelles and John 157
Chapter 16: Paphnutius 162
Chapter 17: Isidore’s Monastery 169
Chapter 18: Sarapion 171
Chapter 19: Apollonius 173
Chapter 20: Dioscorus 178
Chapter 21: Nitria 180
Chapter 22: Kellia 183
Chapter 23: Ammonius 185
Chapter 24: Didymus 188
Chapter 25: Cronius (Cronides) 189
Chapter 26: Origen 190
Chapter 27: Evagrius 191
Chapter 28: Macarius of Egypt 193
Chapter 29: Macarius of Alexandria 197
Chapter 30: Amoun of Nitria 203
Chapter 31: Paul the Simple 206
Chapter 32: Piammon (Piammonas) 210
Chapter 33: John of Diolcos 212
Epilogue 213
INDICES
General Index 219
Index of Holy Scripture 226
Index of Greek and Latin Words and Phrases 229
Index of Other Ancient Sources 230
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book grew out of my ongoing, intersecting interests in
the anonymous Greek Historia monachorum in Aegypto, an un-
derstudied tour de force of late antique monastic hagiography,
and in Rufinus of Aquileia, an undervalued Latin literary fig-
ure of the late fourth and early fifth centuries. I wish to express
my sincere thanks to Carole Monica Burnett, staff editor at The
Catholic University of America Press, with whom I have had the
great pleasure of working on now two books in the FOTC se-
ries, for the many invaluable suggestions she offered while edit-
ing the manuscript.
vii

ABBREVIATIONS
ABBREVIATIONS
ABBREVIATIONS
AAAd Antichità Altoadriatiche
ABR American Benedictine Review
ACW Ancient Christian Writers (New York: Paulist Press)
AncSoc Ancient Society
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
APB Acta Patristica et Byzantina
ASE Anglo-Saxon England
BASP Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists
BSac Bibliotheca Sacra
CCR Coptic Church Review
CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina
ChH Church History
CollCist Collectanea Cisterciensia
CQ Classical Quarterly
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
DACL Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers
ET Église et Théologie
FAM Filologia Antica e Moderna
FOTC Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic
University of America Press)
GHM Greek Historia monachorum in Aegypto
GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
JAS Journal of Archaeological Science
JbAC Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies
JHSex Journal of the History of Sexuality
JJP Journal of Juristic Papyrology
JLA Journal of Late Antiquity
JRA Journal of Roman Archaeology
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
ix