Georgius Chozebites

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George of Choziba (died around 625) was a Greek Cypriot monk and leader of the Choziba monastery near Jerusalem. Today the monastery is named after Georg.

Life

George was born in Cyprus and was orphaned at a young age. He was brought up in a monastery under one of his uncles. His older brother joined the Lawra of Calamon in the Jordan Valley, but George's application for admission was denied and he was sent to the Coenobium of Choziba, founded by John of Thebes around 480.

According to his biographer, Georg and his brother gave up wine in the Lavra of Calamon and in Choziba. From Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon, Georg kept a night watch in the coenobium of his monastery. Otherwise he and his fellow monks lived in their cells. When the Persians invaded Palestine in 614 and sacked Jerusalem, George stayed in Choziba.

A resemblance to George can be found among the 36 saints (mainly native desert monks) who are painted on the plastered walls of a burial cave in the Mar Saba monastery . It can be recognized by an inscription. He could be the last saint depicted, and archaeologist Andreas Evaristus Mader suggested that the paintings date between his death and the Arab conquest of Jerusalem in 638.

literature

A hagiography by Georg ( BHG 669 and CPG 7985) was written by his student Antonius von Choziba. It is a conventional hagiography but offers an eyewitness account of the Persian invasion of 614 and sheds important light on its impact on Palestinian monasteries. It has been edited and translated into English:

  • Charles Houze: Sancti Georgii Chozebitae Confessoris et Monachii . in: Analecta Bollandiana 7 (1888). Pp. 95-144, 336-359.
  • Tim Vivian and Apostolos Athanassakis: The Life of Saint George of Choziba and the Miracles of the Most Holy Mother of God at Choziba . San Francisco 1994, ISBN 1883255597 .
  • Tim Vivian: Journeying Into God. Seven Early Monastic Lives . Minneapolis 1996, pp. 71-105, ISBN 0800628551 .
  • David Olster: The Construction of a Byzantine Saint: George of Choziba, Holiness, and the Pilgrimage Trade in Seventh-Century Palestine . in: Greek Orthodox Theological Review 38 (1993), pp. 309-322, ISSN  0017-3894 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph Patrich: Sabas, Leader of Palestinian Monasticism. A Comparative Study in Eastern Monasticism, Fourth to Seventh Centuries . Dumbarton Oaks 1995, p. 263, ISBN 0-88402-221-8 .
  2. ^ Patrich: Sabas . P. 209.
  3. ^ Patrich: Sabas . P. 239.
  4. ^ Martin Hinterberger: The Byzantine Hagiographer and His Text . in: Stephanos Efthymiadis (ed.): The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography, Volume II: Genres and Contexts . Farnham 2014, pp. 221-222, ISBN 978-1-4094-0951-9 .
  5. ^ Patrich: Sabas . Pp. 143-144.
personal data
SURNAME Georgius Chozebites
ALTERNATIVE NAMES George of Choziba
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek Cypriot monk and saint
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century
DATE OF DEATH at 625