Hierotheos (monk)

Hierotheos was a monk in the hinterland of Constantinople who is known as the author of a comparatively extensive collection of letters . Based on information in his work, his lifetime can be dated to the third quarter of the 12th century. He can hardly be identical with the monk of the same name, who was a younger friend of the early 13th century scholar Thomas Magistros and who withdrew to Mount Athos without his consent .

The epistolography of the earlier Hierotheos offers detailed insights into the monastic life of the Greek Middle Ages, but has not yet been edited or translated (or only in tiny excerpts) . The manuscript, the majority of which (270 out of 335 letters) make up the letters of Hierotheus, is kept in the Romanian Academy of Sciences under the name gr. 508.

What is remarkable is the great importance attached to letters in Byzantine culture; Hierotheus describes it in one of his own letters as a "gift from God". The work of Hierotheos is therefore to be seen as an artistic activity and not just as a pure conveyance of information.

literature

Jean Darrouzès : Un recueil épistolaire du XIIe siècle. Académie Roumaine cod. gr. 508. In: Revue des Études byzantines 30, 1972, pp. 199-229.
Michael Grünbart : News from the hinterland of Constantinople. The collection of letters from the monk Hierotheos (12th century) . In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift 100, 2007, pp. 57–70.
Michael Grünbart: Nuns ask for imperial help against the ravages of time (Hierotheos ep. 157) . In: Exemplon. Studi in onore di Irmgard Hutter (= Nea Rhome , Vol. 6). 2009, pp. 389-392.

Individual evidence

↑ Ιερόθεος. In: Erich Trapp et al. (Ed.): Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . Vienna 1976–1996 (CD-ROM version Vienna 2001), No. 8132.
^ Margaret Mullett: The Classical Tradition in the Byzantine Letter. In: Dies., Roger Scott (ed.): Byzantium and the Classical Tradition (Thirteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, 1979). University of Birmingham, Birmingham 1981, pp. 75-93, here p. 77.

personal data
SURNAME	Hierotheus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Byzantine monk
DATE OF BIRTH	12th Century
DATE OF DEATH	12th Century

[1] Ιερόθεος. In: Erich Trapp et al. (Ed.): Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . Vienna 1976–1996 (CD-ROM version Vienna 2001), No. 8132.

[2] Margaret Mullett: The Classical Tradition in the Byzantine Letter. In: Dies., Roger Scott (ed.): Byzantium and the Classical Tradition (Thirteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, 1979). University of Birmingham, Birmingham 1981, pp. 75-93, here p. 77.