Sophronius of Jerusalem

Sophronius of Jerusalem

Sophronius (* 560 in Damascus , † March 11, 638 (?) In Jerusalem ) was Patriarch of Jerusalem from 634 until his death. Before he took this bishopric , he was a monk and as a theologian one of the main exponents of Orthodox teaching in the controversy about the nature of Jesus and his acts of will.

Life

He was initially a teacher of rhetoric and became an ascetic in Egypt around 580 , whereupon he entered the monastery of St. Theodosius near Bethlehem . He traveled to some centers of monastic culture in Asia Minor , Egypt and Rome . He accompanied the Byzantine chronicler Johannes Moschus , who dedicated a treatise on religious life called Leimõn ho Leimõnon ("the spiritual meadow") to him. After Musk's death in Rome in 619, Sophronius brought the body back to Jerusalem for burial. He traveled to Alexandria and Constantinople in 633 to persuade the patriarch there to abandon monotheletism , a doctrine that accepted a unified divine will in Christ and at the same time excluded his human freedom of choice. Sophronius' writings on this question are lost.

Although he was unsuccessful in this endeavor, Sophronius was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem in 634. Soon after his institution, he sent a synodal letter to Pope Honorius I and the Eastern Patriarchs, in which he defended the orthodox belief in two natures in Christ, one human and one divine, against monotheletism, which he considered a subtle form of heretical monophysitism . He also wrote a Florilegium of around 600 texts by the Greek Church Fathers to underpin the position of dyotheleticism . This work has not survived either.

In his Christmas sermon of 634, Sophronius was primarily concerned with keeping the clergy on his line and gave only a few unspecific warnings about the advance of the Arabs into Palestine , mentioning that the Arabs had taken Bethlehem. He died shortly after the fall of Jerusalem in 637 after negotiating the recognition of the (albeit limited) civil and religious freedoms of Christians in return for tribute payments - an agreement that was probably erroneously based on the presumably later so-called Umar Pact is returned. The Caliph Umar is said to have come to Jerusalem himself and met the Patriarch at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher . Sophronius invited him to pray there, but Umar refused, fearing that he would endanger the status of the church as a Christian temple. The reason for this kind reception is reported to be that, according to biblical prophecy, a humble but righteous and powerful man would come on a donkey to prove himself a protector of the Christians of Jerusalem.

The circumstances of his death are unclear. A Latin text, The Suffering of the 60 Martyrs of Gaza , suggests that he was executed by the new rulers for persuading the 60 Byzantine soldiers captured in Gaza not to convert to Islam for the sake of life .

Works

In addition to polemics, there are writings in Sophronius' works about the martyrs Cyrus of Alexandria and John of Alexandria in gratitude for the regaining of his dwindling eyesight. He also wrote 23 anacreontic poems on subjects such as the Arab siege of Jerusalem and liturgical celebrations. His poems 19 and 20 seem to be about homesickness for the holy city. The order of the two poems has probably been reversed; in the correct order, they describe a complete tour of the most important shrines of Jerusalem at the end of the sixth century, which is considered the golden age of Christianity in the holy land . The gates of Jerusalem, the place of Jesus' journey into hell , the rock of the cross , the Constantine Basilica , Mount Zion , the Praetorium , Maria Probatica and Gethsemane (in 20), as well as the Mount of Olives , Bethany and Bethlehem (in 19) are mentioned.

Some of the texts are printed in the original Greek in Jacques Paul Migne (ed.), Patrologia Graeca , Volume 87 c.

Footnotes

1. ↑ See Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture. Volume 2: Co-Ha, p. 110, quoted after the Google archives : “This agreement is traditionally attributed to the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634-644), although most researchers assume that he (sic !) from the time of the caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (r. 717-720). "

literature

• Elżbieta Szabat: Sophronios. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , pp. 341 f.
• David Woods: The 60 Martyrs of Gaza and the Martyrdom of Bishop Sophronius of Jerusalem. In: ARAM Periodical. 15, 2003, ISSN  0959-4213 , pp. 129-150 (reprinted in: Michael Bonner (Ed.): Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times (= The Formation of the classical Islamic World 8). Ashgate Variorum, Aldershot 2004 , ISBN 0-86078-716-8 , pp. 429-450).
• Ch. Von Schönborn: Sophrone de Jérusalem. Vie monastique et confession dogmatique (= coll. Théologie historique, 20). Beauchesne, Paris 1972, 259 pp.
• Diego E. Arfuch: Confesar a Cristo. San Sofronio patriarca de Jerusalem y the debate monoenergista en la Epístola Sinodal. In: Estudios trinitarios , 2014, vol. 48, n. 1.2, pp. 161-233; 2a pars: vol. 48, n. 3, pp. 479-548.
• Diego E. Arfuch: Los poemas anacreónticos para la anunciación y la natividad de San Sofronio de Jerusalem: aspectos literarios y teológicos. In: Studia monastica , Jg. 2014, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 221-255 (ISSN 0039-3258).

Web links

• Literature by and about Sophronius of Jerusalem in the catalog of the German National Library
• Mention of the Arab conquests by Sophronius (in English translation) ( Memento from April 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• English translation of the Umar Pact.

predecessor	Office	successor
Modestus	Patriarch of Jerusalem 633 / 634–638	Sergios I.