CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES: NUMBER TWO-HUNDRED NINETEEN Witness to Holiness Abba Daniel of Scetis CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES: NUMBER TWO-HUNDRED NINETEEN Witness To Holiness Abba Daniel Of Scetis TRANSLATIONS OF THE GREEK, COPTIC, ETHIOPIC, SYRIAC, ARMENIAN, LATIN, OLD CHURCH SLAVONIC, AND ARABIC ACCOUNTS Edited, with an Introduction, by Tim Vivian Translations by Sebastian P. Brock • Vitaly Dudkin • Jehanne Gheith • Rowan A. Greer • Michael Kleiner • Maged S.A. Mikhail • Jeffrey Burton Russell • Mark Swanson • Tim Vivian • John Wortley With the Assistance of Apostolos N. Athanassakis, Mark Moussa, and Hany N. Takla Cistercian Publications Kalamazoo, Michigan © Copyright, Cistercian Publications, 2008. All rights reserved. The work of Cistercian Publications is made possible in part by support from Western Michigan University to the Institute of Cistercian Studies Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Witness to holiness : Abba Daniel of Scetis / edited, with an introduction by Tim Vivian. p. cm. — (Cistercian studies series ; no. 219) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87907-419-7 1. Daniel, of Sketis, Saint, 6th. cent. 2. Holiness—Christianity. I. Vivian, Tim. II. Title. BX4705.D253W58 2008 270.2092—dc22 [B] 2008003589 Printed in the United States of America. To Rozanne Elder Editorial Director, Cistercian Publications Nec lingua valet dicere, Nec littera exprimere Expertus potest credere Quid sit Iesum diligere Saint Bernard of Clairvaux De nomine Iesu, 17-20 Table of Contents Translators xi Preface xv Abbreviations xvii INTRoDUCTIoN 1 HOLINESS 1 The Daniel Dossier 4 Abba Daniel of Scetis 8 Abba Daniel: A Locative and Chronological Search 11 The Narrator as Disciple and Eyewitness: Hagiography and History 17 Disciple and Abba: Portraying the Holy Man 25 Witness to Holiness 31 An Expansive Perversity 38 1. THE GREEK ACCOUNTS 41 A NOTE ON T H E GREEK T EXTS 41 I. Stories About Abba Daniel 43 I.1. Mark the Fool 43 I.2. Abba Daniel Atones for a Murder He Committed 45 I.3. The Holy Mendicant 46 I.4. The Sister Who Pretended to be Drunk 47 I.5. Andronicus the Money-Changer and His Wife Athanasia 50 I.6. Concerning Thomaïs, the Chaste and Holy Young Woman 65 I.7. A Monk, Tempted by Sexual Sin, Receives a Blessing from Thomaïs 69 I.8. The Patrician Lady Anastasia 69 I.9. Eulogius the Stonecutter 77 II. Stories Attributed to Abba Daniel 83 II.1. A Monk in a Tomb is Ignored by Two Demons 83 II.2. The Monk Falsely Accused of Theft 83 vii viii Witness to Holiness III. A Story Attributed to Daniel Elsewhere 87 III.1. Concerning a Monk and His Sister 87 IV. A Story . Associated with John Moschus 90 IV.1. Abba Daniel Refutes Slanderous Charges 90 IV.2. The Female Monastic Possessed by a Demon 90 V. Stories about Abba Daniel from other Sources 91 V.1. Daniel Predicts the Fall of a Monk Who Frequents the Baths 91 V.2. The Importance of Monastic Stability 93 V.3. Abba Silvanus Speaks of Abba Longinus and Abba Daniel 94 2. THE COPTIC LIFE OF DANIEL 97 Introduction 97 The Coptic Life of Daniel 105 Proemium 105 Mark the Fool 105 Concerning Eulogius the Stonecutter 107 The Thief who Repented 113 Abba Daniel Refuses to Accept the Tome of Leo 115 Abba Daniel Goes to Tambokµ 116 Abba Daniel Returns to Scetis; Its Destruction 116 Abba Daniel Returns to Tambok;µ The Death of Abba Daniel 117 Concluding Doxology 118 Appendix: . From the Coptic Synaxary 119 I. 10 Hatur (6 November): [Mark the Fool] 120 II. 19 Kihak (15 December): The Departure of John, Bishop of El-Borollos 121 III. 26 Tubah (21 January): Anastasia 123 IV. 8 Bashons (3 May): Daniel [and Anastasia and Eulogius] 124 V. 1 Abib (25 June): The Departure of Saints Bioukha and Tayaban [Banayen] 125 3. THE ETHIOPIC LIFE OF DANIEL 127 Introduction 127 The Life of Daniel 131 Anastasia 131 Mark the Fool 133 Contents ix Eulogius the Stonecutter 135 Concerning Thomaïs 140 A Monk Receives a Blessing from Thomaïs 140 Concerning the Woman Who Pretended to be Mad 141 The Thief who Repented 143 The Female Hermit 145 Abba Daniel Refuses to Accept the Tome of Leo 146 Abba Daniel Goes to Tambokµ 147 Abba Daniel Returns to Scetis 148 The Death of Abba Daniel 148 Appendix I: Entries from the Ethiopic Synaxary (Sinkissar) 150 I. 16 Khidar: Abba Daniel of the Monastery of Saint Macarius 150 II. 7 Tahksas: Abba Daniel of Däbrä-Sihat 152 III. 8 Ginbot: Abba Daniel of Scetis 155 IV. 1 Hamle:µ Beyoka and Benyamin 156 V. 28 Hamle:µ Andronicus 158 Appendix II: Ethiopic Apophthegms 161 Eth 268 (Patericon Aethiopice): Abba Daniel Refutes Charges 161 Eth 68 (Geronticon): The Holy Mendicant 162 Eth 70 (Geronticon): The Patrician Lady Anastasia 163 Eth 71 (Geronticon): Andronicus and Athanasia 166 Eth 72 (Geronticon): Eulogius the Stonecutter 171 Eth 472 (Geronticon): The Woman Who Pretended to be Insane 178 4. SYRIAC ACCOUNTS 181 Introduction 181 Syriac Accounts 183 1. The Woman Who Pretended to be Insane 183 2. Andronicus and Athanasia 185 3. The Patrician Lady Anastasia 192 4. Eulogius the Stonecutter 195 5. The Narrative of Abba Daniel Concerning a Monk and His Sister 202 5. ARMENIAN ACCOUNTS 207 Introduction 207 x Witness to Holiness Armenian Accounts 210 1. Mark the Madman 210 2. A Holy Mendicant 211 3. The Drunken Nun 214 4. Andronicus and Athanasia 220 5. Concerning Thomaïs 226 6. A Monk Receives a Blessing from a Young Woman 229 7. The Patrician Lady Anastasia 230 8. Eulogius 234 9. A Monk in a Tomb is Ignored by Two Demons 242 6. LATIN ACCOUNTS 243 Introduction 243 Latin Accounts 245 1. About a Young Man 245 2. (Eulogius the Stonecutter) 245 3. About a Eunuch (Anastasia) 252 4. About a Monk (Thomaïs) 254 5. About a Monk (The Monk Falsely Accused of Theft) 256 6. Abba Daniel and a Nun (The Woman Who Pretended to be Drunk) 260 7. OLD CHURCH SLAVONIC ACCOUNTS 263 Introduction 263 Anastasia 263 8. ARABIC ACCOUNTS 269 Introduction 269 Arabic Daniel among the Melkites 269 Arabic Daniel among the Coptic orthodox 271 Excursus: Abba Daniel on Film 273 Arabic Accounts 275 The Woman Who Pretended to be Mad 275 The Thief Who Repented 277 Primary Sources andTranslations 281 Bibliography 285 Notes 295 Index 391 Translators Sebastian Brock, Emeritus Reader in Syriac Studies in the University of oxford, is the author of many books, including Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, Hymns on Paradise, Holy Women of the Syrian Orient (with Susan Ashbrook Harvey), and The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem. Vitaly Dudkin, currently the Rector of Holy Trinity orthodox Church in New Salem, Pennsylvania, has more than fifty publications in the field of Philosophy of Religion and has taught in various institutions in both Russia and the United States, including Moscow University and Saint Tikhon’s orthodox Seminary. He has studied over ten years at the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department, Russian Academy of Sciences. Jehanne M. Gheith is Associate Professor and Chair of the Slavic and Eurasian Studies Department at Duke University, where she co-directs International Comparative Studies. Her current project, ‘A Dog Named Stalin: Memory, Trauma, and the Gulag’, is based on her interviews with Gulag survivors. An article on Gulag survivors’ non-narrative responses to catastrophic loss will shortly appear in the journal Mortality. She also co-facilitates bereavement groups and is pursuing master’s degrees in social work and divinity to explore connections between bereavement and narration. Rowan A. Greer is a priest of the Episcopal Church and Professor of Anglican Studies Emeritus at the Yale Divinity School, where he taught from 1966 until 1997. His latest books, published by Crossroad, are Christian Hope and Christian Life and Anglican Approaches to Scripture. Michael Kleiner studied Middle Eastern and Northeast African His- tory at the Universities of Freiburg-im-Breisgau and Hamburg and has made Ethiopian History his field of specialization. He has been a xi xii Witness to Holiness member of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica editorial team and has held aca- demic positions at the Universities of Hamburg and Marburg. Jeffrey Burton Russell, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is the author of nineteen books on the history of Christianity, including two books on the history of christian ideas of heaven: A History of Heaven (1997) and Paradise Mislaid (2006). Mark N. Swanson is the Harold S. Vogelaar Professor of Christian- Muslim Studies and Interfaith Relations at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. With Emmanouela Grypeou and David Thomas he co-edited The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam (Brill 2006); his book on The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt is forthcoming from the American University in Cairo Press. Tim Vivian, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at California State University, Bakersfield, is the author of numerous books and articles on early christian monasticism, including The Life of Antony (with Apostolos N. Athanassakis) and Words to Live By: Journeys in Ancient and Modern Egyptian Monasticism (both Cistercian Publications). John Wortley is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Manitoba. For Cistercian Publications he has translated The Spiritual Meadow of John Moschus and The Tales of Paul of Monembasia. His transla- tion of John Skylitzes’ Synopsis Historiarum is in press and his edition of the text and translation of the ‘Anonymous’ Apophthegmata Patrum (alias ‘Nau’) is in preparation. Saint Seraphim of Sarov, when asked what it was that made some people remain sinners and never make progress while others were becoming saints and living in God, answered: ‘only determination’.