Hahn, Johannes and Volker Menze. Eds. 2020. The Wandering Holy Man: The Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism, and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine. Oakland: University of California Press.
Composed in Syriac, the Life of Barsauma offers new resources for understanding the construction of holiness in late antiquity. This edited volume provides an essential guide to this lengthy composition within its literary, social, and religious contexts. Several of the authors present nuanced analyses of the particularities of ascetic practice among Syrian holy men, especially wanderers and mourners; others examine Christian relations with Jews, pagans, and Samaritans in Palestine and the Near East; and still others turn their attention to the historical figures mentioned in the Life and to the relations between Christianity and empire in the late Roman world. The Life abounds in hyperboles and other rhetorical strategies used to portray Barsauma’s holiness, so questions about the historicity of narrated events form one of the threads running throughout the volume. Prior to the publication of this edited volume, scholars were limited to French translations of selections of the Life of Barsauma by François Nau. Thus, Andrew Palmer’s English translation of the whole of the Life, appended to the volume (pp. 187-271) is one of the many contributions of The Wandering Holy Man.[1]
Menze’s Introduction draws parallels between themes found in the Life and the broader corpus of late antique Syriac hagiographies. The Life’s representation of an ascetic inflicting substantial bodily harm upon himself, allusion and comparison to figures from the Israelite past, and the holy man’s opposition to Jews, heretics, and pagans stand as common in Syriac hagiography (pp. 4-5). Part of what makes the Life of Barsuma distinctive, however, are its numerous, extensive descriptions of violent (even deadly) acts its protagonist perpetrates upon his enemies (pp. 5-7). The last half of Barsauma’s Life, Menze points out, focuses on the doctrinal debates into which he entered, clearly highlighting his anti-Chalcedonian stance (p. 6). Menze shows that the text can be considered both a Syriac and a Palestinian hagiography. In addition to the typically Syriac hagiographic elements outlined above, the text’s original language was Syriac. Nevertheless, it also focuses on Barsauma’s travels to the “Holy Land” (p. 7). Menze also surveys various proposals about the date of the text, arguing that an early version was likely written in the fifth century at some point after the Council of Chalcedon in 451. According to the Life, Barsauma lived approximately in 384-456. Conciliar documents confirm that Theodosius II invited Barsauma to participate in the Second Council of Ephesus (449) as a monastic representative, and these writings imply that Barsauma was not as prominent at the Council of Chalcedon. After 451, Menze notes, there are no further records of Barsauma outside of the Life.
In the first chapter, “Barsauma and the Emperors,” Simon Corcoran discusses Barsauma’s sojourns in Constantinople as well as his contact with emperors and imperial officials. In one pivotal event, Theodosius II gave the saint a signet ring after Barsauma refused to accept the emperor’s offer of an episcopal see. According to the Life, this ring conferred imperial power and authority, but Corcoran argues that there is no evidence that such an imperial gift function like this (pp. 29-30). Corcoran considers letters and other historical documents pertaining to the Second Council of Ephesus in parallel with the Life, concluding that Barsauma and Theodosius did meet before this council at least once, although it is difficult to establish when (pp. 37-8). Building on discussion of Barsauma’s connections with Marcian II, Pulcheria, and Valentinian III, Corcoran contends that the hagiographer was likely limited to Syriac sources, which resulted in a limited representation of Barsauma’s time in Constantinople and his contact with emperors.
In “Ascetic History and Rhetoric in the Life of Barsauma,” Cornelia B. Horn discusses the Life’s descriptions of Barsauma as a “mourner.” She considers how his early ascetic formation from childhood shaped his severe – often tearful – ascetic practice. As an archimandrite, Barsauma is presented in the Life as both “a passive mourner and an active authority” (p. 51). Horn refers to conciliar records to confirm that Barsauma was likely given a distinctive role in the Council of Ephesus because Theodosius hoped that, as a “holy man” renowned for his ascetic feats, Barsauma would be able to unite the laity and the archimandrites (pp. 57-9). Horn points out that Barsauma’s Life relies on mourning as an identifiable way of practicing Syrian asceticism, which included a specific clothing and hairstyle regimen as well as often living on mountaintops consuming food intended for animals. These narrative elements of Barsauma’s Life would have resonated with Syriac speaking audiences.
Günter Stemberger’s “Barsauma’s Travels to the Holy Land and Jewish History” considers the possible routes that Barsauma and his monks might have taken to Jerusalem based on the topographical information the Life provides, and concludes that many of his travels diverged from more common routes (p. 76). Stemberger also highlights Barsauma’s violent rhetoric and actions towards the Jewish community as well as the complete destruction of a synagogue at Rabbat Moab. He argues, however, that in the absence of any archaeological evidence of a Jewish community or synagogue there, this is among the fictional stories told in Barsauma’s Life. These details were likely added by the author to emphasize Barsauma contention with pagans, Samaritans, and Jews (p. 87).
Jan Willem Drijvers’s “Barsauma, Eudocia, Jerusaleum, and The Temple Mount” is a close analysis of Barsauma’s fourth and last visit to Jerusalem and his interactions with Eudocia while there. According to this narrative in the Life, Jews reentered Jerusalem and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with permission from the empress, Eudocia. Drijvers argues that this episode ought not be considered an account of historical events but rather a literary fabrication (p. 91). Since this episode is absent from other literary sources of Eudocia’s travels and the Life omits any mention of Eudocia’s Christianizing efforts, Drijvers suggests that the hagiographer uses Eudocia to further his anti-Jewish rhetoric, contrasting her support of Jews with Barsauma’s defense of Christianity (p. 96). Importantly, Drijvers also notes that Barsauma’s Life should be read with attention to the history of the Temple Mount as a contested sacred space and to the concerns Christians had following Emperor Julian the Apostate’s efforts to rebuild the temple. While this text resembles other Syriac-Christian texts containing anti-Jewish sentiments and highlighting the triumph of Christianity over Jerusalem, he argues that the Life is to a great degree fictional (pp. 102-3).
The following essay, Reuven Kiperwasser and Serge Ruzer’s “Cleansing the Sacred Space: The Holy Land and Its Inhabitants in the Pilgrimage Narrative of Barsauma,” contends that Barsauma’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem reflected a need to establish his authority in opposition to the “Jewish Other” as well as against clergy whose Christological views were different from his own. Kiperwasser and Ruzer also focus on the Life’s account of Barsauma’s fourth pilgrimage to Jerusalem, arguing that this episode shows different perceptions of the Temple Mount among Christians and Jews. Ultimately, they read Barsauma’s Life as a response to perceptions of “the imminent danger of a Jewish Reconquista of Jerusalem.” Within this framework, Eudocia is likened to Julian the Apostate as one willing to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem (p. 115). In comparison with Genesis Rabbah, Kiperwasser and Ruzer also point out that both texts indicate resistance towards “messianic activism” (118).
Johannes Hahn’s “‘It is not lawful for Samaritans to have dealings with Christians!’: Samaritans in the Life of Barsauma” treats two episodes within the Life featuring Samaritans. Hahn observes that Barsauma’s treatment of the Samaritans in the Life is far less hostile and violent than his treatment of Jews and pagans, and the narrative depicts Samaritans as one of the major religious groups in this region, (pp. 126, 131). These passages portray Samaritans not as enemies but as a group well-versed in the Bible and equipped to engage in theological debate. Barsauma succeeds in converting the Samaritans, showing his skill as a peaceful missionary. The ease with which Samaritans are converted in this text is also reflected, Hahn argues, in rabbinic sources featuring Samaritans readily converting to avoid personal risk and improve their political standing (p. 134). Given that the Life relates crucial aspects of Samaritanism, Hahn concludes that these two episodes have some historical significance, allowing one to date at the very least these passages to ca. 435-438, at some point during Barsauma’s lifetime, and before the Samaritan revolts in 484, 529, and 555/6, which the Life does not acknowledge (p. 145).
In the last essay of the volume, “Wandering Monks Remembered: Hagiography in the Lives of Alexander the Sleepless and Barsauma the Mourner,” Daniel E. Caner compares the hagiographies of these two wandering holy men and how these paradigms for holiness establish a particular perception of the saints. Caner argues that in the Life of Alexander, the hagiographer employs an “apostolic paradigm,” in contrast to the “penitential” paradigm adopted in the Life of Barsuma, While Alexander follows the paradigm of holiness associated with depictions of the original apostles in early Christian literature, Barsauma is presented as a “mourner.” As Caner notes, within Syriac literature the performance of mourning is an ascetic practice which emphasizes a commitment to ensuring the forgiveness of one’s sins on Judgement Day by way of one’s penance on earth (p. 163). Ultimately Caner argues that these two texts represent the lives of Alexander and Barsauma in ways that reflect both how these wandering monks diverge in their ascetic practices and the individual authors’ apologetic aims (p. 154).
The conclusion of the volume, Johannes Hahn’s “Barsauma between Hagiography and History,” returns to one of the central threads running through the various contributions: What historical significance can be attributed to the Life of Barsauma? Hahn proposes approaching Barsauma’s Life as a text about a saint rather than a historical person. And yet, Hahn also cautions readers against labeling the Life of Barsauma as completely fictional. While Barsauma is destined to remain an elusive figure, the work of the authors and editors of this important volume demonstrate the ways this hagiography sheds light on the late antique world in Syriac and Palestine.
[1] See also the introduction, overview, and full translation published by Andrew Palmer, The Life of the Syrian Saint Barsauma: Eulogy of a Hero of the Resistance to the Council of Chalcedon (Oakland: University of California Press, 2020).
Natalie Reynoso is a Ph.D. student in History of Christianity at Fordham University. Her research examines connections between body, identity, and death in early Christian thought and practice, and seeks to understand representations of death as an embodied transition in late ancient Christian texts. Her current work centers on martyrs in the Sassanian empire, with a particular focus on Zoroastrian converts to Christianity in Syriac sources, read in conversation with Greek, Latin, and Coptic martyrdoms.