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 (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. M. 5906, Alex. era (= = A. M. 5926, Alex. era,= = 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 (Epistol. 11.40.; Opera, vol. ii. col. 1133, ed. Benedict.), and whose death
occurred, according to the Alexandrian or Paschal chronicle, in 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.
His principal writings are,--
The authorship and original language of this work have been much disputed. In some
passages the writer evidently speaks as one to whom the Latin tongue was vernacular; and in
some of the MSS. he is called Isychius, presbyter of Salona, not to be confounded with the
Hesychius the correspondent of Augustin (Augustin, Ep. 197, 198, 199;
Opera, vol. ii. col. 737, &c., ed. Benedict. 1679, and vol. ii. p. 1106, ed.
Paris, 1836), whom Augustin addresses as his "coepiscopus;" but Tillemont thinks that the
original was in Greek, and that there are internal indications that the writer lived at
Jerusalem; and Cave suggests that the passages in which the writer speaks as a Latin are
the interpolations of the translator, whom he supposes to have been Hesychius of Salona.
The work is cited as the work of Hesychius of Jerusalem by Latin writers of the ninth
century. The Latin version is ancient, though subsequent to the time when the Latin version
of the Scriptures by Jerome came into general use in the church. Considerable pains are
taken in the work to confute the opinions of Nestorius, and, as is thought by many, of
Eutyches. Now, as the heresy of the
(or
ADRIANUS], 4to. Augsburg, 1602.
or
It was printed with the
A Latin version of it is given in the
Several extracts from this piece are given by Photius (
ascribed in some MSS. to Gregory Nuyssen, and printed in some editions of his works.
This piece is of very doubtful genuineness.
Martii, vol. ii. (a. d. xv)
Hist. Litt. vol. i. p.
398, ed. Oxford, 1740-1743.
Some fragments of this are given by Cardinal Antonio Caraffa in his
These are all the works of Hesychius, of which the whole or any considerable fragments have been published. He wrote also,
77 ad 107, inclusive, et in Ps. 118, extant in
MS, and sometimes ascribed to Chrysostom, from whose published commentary on the Psalms it
is altogether different. Anselmo Banduri promised to publish this commentary of Hesychius,
but did not.
Several other pieces are extant in MS., but some of the most important of this writer's works are lost, including,
A Latin version of a passage in this is cited in the
Cotelerius speaks of this work (Eccles. Graec. Monumenta, vol. iii.
p. 521 ) as having been mentioned by Usher, but does not give a reference to the place in
Usher's works.
Phot. Bibl. ll. cc., ed. Bekker; Theophanes, Chronog. vol. i. pp. 71, 79, ed. Paris, vol. i. pp. 129, 142, ed. Bonn; with the notes
of Goarus in loc. in both editions; Acta Sanct. ll.c. and Martii, vol. iii. p. 173; Menolog. Graec. jussu Imp. Basil.
edit. (ad Mart. xxviii.) pt. iii. p. 33; Cotelerius, Eccles. Gr. Monum.
ll. cc.; Cave, Hist. Litt. l.c., and vol. i. p. 570, &c., ed.
Oxford, 1740-43; Tillemont, Mémoires, &c., vol. xiv. p. 227,
&c., and notes, p. 744, &c.; Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. vii. pp.
419, 548, et alibi.