A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

7. HIEROSOLYMITANUS, or of JERUSALEM, an early Christian writer of considerable repute in his day, many of whose writings are extant. The date of his life and his official rank in the church have been much disputed. Cyril of Scythopolis, in his life of St. Euthymius (Βίος τοῦ ἁγίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Εὐθυμίου, Cotel. Eccles. Graec. Monum. vol. iv. p. 31), speaks of Hesychius, "presbyter and teacher of the church," as being with Juvenal patriarch of Jerusalem, when he dedicated the church of the " Laura," or monastery of Euthymius, A. D. 428 or 429. Theophanes records the προβολὴ, advancement (i.e. ordination ?) of Hesychius, "the presbyter of Jerusalem," A. M. 5906, Alex. era (= = A. D. 414); and notices him again as elninenlt for learning (ἤνθει ταῖς διδασκαλίαις) the year following, A. D. 415. He gives him no higher title when recording his death, A. M. 5926, Alex. era,= = A. D. 434. Photius, who has described some of his works, also calls him" Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem," but without mentioning the time when he lived. Yet, notwithstanding these tolerably clear intimations, Miraeus (Auctarium de Scriptor. Eccles. No. clxxv.), Possevinus (Apparatus Sacer, vol. i. p. 739, ed. Col. 1608 ), Cave, and Thorschmidt (Comment. de Hesychio Milesio), consider Hesychius the writer to be identical with the Isysius or Isacius (Ἰσάκιος), bishop or patriarch of Jerusalem, to whom pope Gregory the Great wrote an epistle (Epistol. 11.40.; Opera, vol. ii. col. 1133, ed. Benedict.), and whose death occurred, according to the Alexandrian or Paschal chronicle, in A. D. 609. (Chron. Pasch. p. 382, ed. Paris, vol. i. p. 699, ed. Bonn.) But the absence of any higher designation than presbyter in Photius and Theophanes forbid the supposition that their Hesychius ever attained episcopal rank; and the want of any distinguishing epithet leads us to conclude that there was no other Hesychius of Jerusalem who had acquired distinction as a writer. The account of Hesychius in the Greek Menology is probably correct in its general outline. According to it, he was born and educated at Jerusalem, where, by meditating on the Scriptures, he acquired a deep acquaintance with divine things. He afterwards left Jerusalem, and followed a monastic life "in the deserts" (it is not stated in what desert, but it was probably in Palestine), gathering from the holy fathers there, with beelike industry, the flowers of virtue. He was ordained presbyter, against his will, by the patriarch of Jerusalem, and spent the rest of his life in that city, or in other places where the Lord Jesus Christ had suffered. Trithemius, who calls him Esytius (De Scriptor. Eccles. No. lxxxii), and Sixtus of Sena (Bibl. Sancta, lib. iv. p. 245, ed. Col. 1586), say, but we know not on what authority, that he was a disciple of Gregory Nazianzen, which is hardly probable.