Asceticon
The Asceticon ("ascetic discourses") by Abba Isaiah of Scetis is a diverse anthology of essays by an Egyptian Christian monk who left Scetis around 450 AD.
Contents
[edit]Originally composed in Greek, the Asceticon consists of 30 essays ("logos" in singular, "logoi" in plural) on subjects including: advice for novice monks; precepts for those who have renounced the world; sayings and stories by Abba Isaiah; various letters, sermons, and sayings. Logos 30 includes several sayings that were also included in the Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers), but in a different form, giving scholars some evidence on how those sayings evolved into their final form in the Apophthegmata Patrum. Abba Isaiah was also influential in bringing Christianity to Palestine.[1]
The 29 discourses in John Chryssavgis's translation of the Asceticon are:[2]
- Rules for the brothers who live with him
- On the natural state of the intellect
- On the condition of beginners and anchorites
- On the conscience of those who stay in their cells
- Faithful commandments for the edification of those who wish to live peacefully together
- On those who desire to lead a life of good silence
- On virtues
- Sayings
- Commands for those who have renounced (the world)
- Another discourse
- On the grain of mustard seed
- On wine
- On those who have struggled and reached perfection
- Acts of mourning
- On detachment
- On the joy that comes to the soul that desires to serve God
- On thoughts about renunciation and exile
- On forgiveness
- On passions
- On humility
- On repentance
- On the conduct of the new person
- On perfection
- On tranquillity
- To Abba Peter, his disciple
- Recorded by Isaiah's disciple, Abba Peter, who had heard it spoken by his master
- In which he says, "attend diligently"
- The branches of malice
- Lamentations
Sogdian fragments
[edit]The Asceticon was read and translated by the Nestorians of Central Asia. A Sogdian fragment of the 4th discourse, translated from Syriac, was found in MC C2, along with part of a commentary on the 15th discourse by Dadisho Qatraya.[3]
See also
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Chryssavgis, John and Pachomios (Robert) Penkett (eds). Abba Isaiah of Scetis: Ascetic Discourses. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2003. (English translation)
- de Broc, H. Isaïe de Scété: recueil ascétique, 2nd ed. Bégrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1985. (French translation)
- Draguet, René. Les cinq recensions de l'Ascéticon syriaque d'Abba Isaïe. Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1968. [Pages 289–290 (Syriac text), 293–294 (Greek and Latin texts and French translation)]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Harmless, William (2004). Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. pp. 265–267. ISBN 0-19-516222-6.
- ^ Chryssavgis, John and Pachomios (Robert) Penkett (eds). Abba Isaiah of Scetis: Ascetic Discourses. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2003.
- ^ "Abbā Isaiah". Encyclopaedia Iranica. 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-11-12.