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| - | ==== Bosci; the Grazing Hermits. ==== | + | ==== Bosci or Boskoi; 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, where early Christians literally joined the flock. | + | * βοσκοί (Greek) Boskoi (E) = grazers or browsers; from bovskw, to graze, to feed. |
| + | * Boskoi = name of an [[augmented_foraging]] app we're creating for mobile phone. | ||
| + | |||
| + | 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 behaviour, where early Christians literally joined the flock. | ||
| == Historical back-ground: | == Historical back-ground: | ||
| Line 19: | Line 22: | ||
| </ | </ | ||
| + | W.H.C. Frend claims 178 Boskoi existed in a book entitled 'The Rise of Christianity' | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | There were Boskoi monks,178 those who grazed grass like animals, or burdened themselves with iron collars and heavy chains. On the fringes of orthodoxy, | ||
| + | </ | ||
| Edward Gibbon writes in his work 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', | Edward Gibbon writes in his work 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', | ||
| < | < | ||
| ....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.\\ | ....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.) | + | //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.)// |
| </ | </ | ||
| - | On page 317 in a Chapter called 'The Mental Condition of Hermits' | + | On page 317 in a Chapter called 'The Mental Condition of Hermits' |
| < | < | ||
| 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. | 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. | ||
| </ | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | Derek Krueger writes in his work entitled; ' | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | ...Leontius provides a chronology of | ||
| + | Symeon’s career before his arrival in Emesa in Syria. He narrates how Symeon left his native | ||
| + | Edessa to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, how he and his friend John first entered a monastery in the | ||
| + | Jordan and later lived as hermits, grazing in the desert like sheep. | ||
| + | |||
| + | .....in the first half of the Life, Leontius presents Symeon and his friend John as living as grazers (βοσκοί) in the Syrian desert. An account of such grazers, unrelated to the account Ắ of Symeon of Emesa, can be found in the first book of Evagrius’s History. [47] As Rydén has observed, Leontius seems to combine Evagrius’s account of the boskoi with the account of Symeon of Emesa when he composes his full-length vita.[48] Leontius uses the time Symeon “spent” as a boskos to account for how he achieved the state of apatheia, so important to Leontius’s understanding—indeed his construction—of Symeon. | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | In ' | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | In Mesopotamia and Palestine the Boskoi wandered on all fours, grazing like cattle. St. Mark, of Athens, lived in this way till his body was covered with hair like a wild beast' | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | On page 41 in 'A New History of Chrisianity' | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | Near Nisibis there lived a group of Boskoi or grazing monks. When meal time came they took sickles and sallied forth to cut grass and on this they made their repast as if they were cattle. Others the so-called Dendrites lived in trees. | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | Much like Kevin Butcher in 'Roman Syria and the Near East' p392: | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | Some ascetics became boskoi, ' | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | The sickle also appears in this picture: [[http:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | There is a longer section on Boskoi in ' | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | Writing in Constantinople in the middle of the fifth century, the church historian Sozomen believed the first monks of Syria were those who had ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | Those who graze on grass and roots instead of delicacies, | ||
| + | and in place of lofty dwellings, live in caves.\\ | ||
| + | Like birds they go up to live on rocky ledges,\\ | ||
| + | Where ever one of them goes,\\ | ||
| + | he enjoys the herbs he picked in faith,\\ | ||
| + | he leaves the rest behind and moves on from there,\\ | ||
| + | because he has heard the saying;\\ | ||
| + | Do not be anxious about tomorrow.\\ | ||
| + | |||
| + | Such zealots for ' | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | In Latin Boskoi is occasionally translated as ' | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | This [foraging] work was done sometimes by legionaries, | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== Present day: ==== | ||
| + | Bishop Kallistos Ware on his [[http:// | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | There are even solitaries on Athos today who follow the same way of life as the boskoi [browsers] in primitive monasticism—dwelling with the animals like Adam in Paradise, not building cells but remaining in caves or in the open air, wearing no clothing and eating no cooked food. Although I have not myself seen any such, I have spoken with monks who know about them. They are to be found chiefly near the tip of the peninsula, on the wooded slopes above the Great Lavra and Kerasia. For a description of one such monk, see J. Valentin, The Monks of Mount Athos (London 1960), pp.36-38.</ | ||
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