A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Σωφρόνιος). Among the numerous ecclesiastical writers of this name, treated

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of by Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. bk. v. c. 16.7), there are only two that require any notice here.

1. A contemporary and friend of St. Jerome, who gives him a section in his treatise De Viris Illustribus (100.134).

2. Patriarch of Jerusalem, A. D. 629-638, was a native of Damascus, and at first a sophist, afterwards a monk, and in A. D. 629 he succeeded Modestus as patriarch of Jerusalem. He distinguished himself as a defender of orthodoxy ; and at the Council of Alexandria, in A. D. 633, he openly charged Cyrus with introducing heresy into the church under pretence of peace, and renounced all communion with him. When Jerusalem was taken by Omar, in A. D. 636, he obtained for the Christians the free exercise of their worship. He died, according to some, in the same year; according to others, two years later, in A. D. 638.

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