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grazing_hermits [2008-05-28 16:27] – theunkarelse | grazing_hermits [2008-05-29 07:12] – theunkarelse | ||
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- | Bosci the Grazing Hermits. | + | ==== Bosci; the Grazing Hermits. |
- | On one of my explorations through hagiographic literature in the Central Library of Amsterdam, I came across a text which just mentioned a piece of very very odd behavior. | + | On one of my explorations through hagiographic literature in the Central Library of Amsterdam, I came across a text which just mentioned a piece of very very odd behavior, where early Christians literally joined the flock. |
+ | == Historical back-ground: | ||
When Christianity was legalized by Roman Emperor Constantine, | When Christianity was legalized by Roman Emperor Constantine, | ||
- | In 'Tales of Early Ages' by Horace Smith, this passage appears claiming the grazing hermits where known by the name of Bosci and were located it the Thebaid, the Southern most part of Egypt. | + | ==== In Literature: ==== |
+ | In 'Tales of Early Ages' by Horace Smith, this passage appears | ||
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.....Of the same class but labouring under a less desperate hallucination were the Bosci, or grazing hermits, hirsute, bearded, satyr-like savages, clad in the skin of wild beasts; who having neither cells nor habitation of any sort, but living like the cattle in the fields, spent their whole time in praying and singing psalms, and when hungry, tore up with their nails the grass and wild herbs, which they devoured without cooking. | .....Of the same class but labouring under a less desperate hallucination were the Bosci, or grazing hermits, hirsute, bearded, satyr-like savages, clad in the skin of wild beasts; who having neither cells nor habitation of any sort, but living like the cattle in the fields, spent their whole time in praying and singing psalms, and when hungry, tore up with their nails the grass and wild herbs, which they devoured without cooking. | ||
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+ | In 'An introduction to the history of the Western tradition' | ||
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+ | The Anchorage is to be met in such extravagant types as grazing hermits, those living on grass or herbs, and pillar saints such as Saint Simeon Stylites, who spent some thirty years atop of a sixty foot pillar. | ||
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+ | Edward Gibbon writes in his work 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', | ||
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+ | ....some savage saints of both sexes have been admired, whose naked bodies were only covered by their long hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to the rude and miserable state in which the human brute is scarcely distinguishable above his kindred animals; and the numerous sect of Anachorets derived their name from their humble practice of grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia with the common herd. They often usurped the den of some wild beast whom they affected to resemble; they buried themselves in some gloomy cavern, which art or nature had scooped out of the rock; and the marble quarries of Thebais are still inscribed with the monuments of their penance.\\ | ||
+ | note: Sozomen, l. vi. c. 33. The great St. Ephrem composed a panegyric on these or grazing monks, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 292.) | ||
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+ | On page 317 in a Chapter called 'The Mental Condition of Hermits' | ||
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+ | If they were not recorded by many truthful authors, the extravagancies of some of these enthusiasts would pass belief. Men and women ran naked upon all fours, associating themselves with the beasts of the field. In the spring season, when the grass is tender, the grazing hermits of Mesopotamia went forth to the plains, sharing with the cattle their filth and their food. | ||
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