A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

otherwise called JOANNES MASSILIENSIS and JOANNES EREMITA, is celebrated in the history of the Christian church as the champion of Semipelagianism, as one of the first founders of monastic fraternities in Western Europe, and as the great lawgiver by whose codes such societies were long regulated. The date of his birth cannot be determined with certainty, although A. D. 360 must be a close approximation, and the place is still more doubtful. Some have fixed upon the shores of the Euxine, others upon Syria, others upon the South of France, and all alike appeal for confirmation of their views to particular expressions in his works, and to the general character of his phraseology. Without pretending to decide the question, it seems on the whole most probable that he was a native of the East. At a very early age he became an inmate of the monastery of Bethlehem, where he received the first elements of religious instruction, and formed with a monk named Germanus an intimacy which exercised a powerful influence over his future career. In the year 390, accompanied by his friend, he travelled into Egypt, and after having passed seven years among the Ascetics who swarmed in the deserts near the Nile, conforming to all their habits and practising all their austerities, he returned for a short period to Bethlehem, but very soon again retired to consort with the eremites of the Thebaid. In 403 he repaired to Constantinople, attracted by the fame of Chrysostom, and received ordination as deacon from his hands. When that great prelate was driven by persecution from his see, Cassianus and Germanus were employed by the friends of the patriarch to lay a statement of the case before Pope Innocent I., and since Pelagius is known to have been at Rome about this period, it is highly probable that some personal intercourse may have taken place between him and his future opponent. From tllis time there is a blank in the history of Cassianus until the year 415, when we find him established as a presbyter at Marseilles, where he passed the remainder of his life in godly labours, having founded a convent for nuns and the celebrated abbey of St. Victor, which while under his controul is said to have numbered five thousand inmates. These two establishments long preserved a high reputation, and served as models for many similar institutions in Gaul and Spain. The exact year of his death is not known, but the event must be placed after 433, at least the chronicle of Prosper represents him as being alive at that epoch. He was eventually canonized as a saint, and a great religious festival used to be celebrated in honour of him at Marseilles on the 25th of July.

[W.R]