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(ho tou Moschou, son of Moschus)
Amonk andascetical writer, b. about 550 probably atDamascus; d. atRome, 619. He was surnamed The Abstemious (ho eukratas). He lived successively with themonks at themonastery of St. Theodosius (now Deir Dosi) inJerusalem, among thehermits in theJordan valley, and in the New Laura of St. Sabas south-east of Bethlehem. About the year 578 he went toEgypt with Sophronius (afterwardsPatriarch ofJerusalem) and came as far as the Great Oasis. After 583 he came toMt. Sinai and spent about ten years in the Laura of Aeliatae; he then visited themonasteries, nearJerusalem and the Dead Sea. In 604 he went to Antioch but returned toEgypt in 607. Later he came toCyprus and in 614-615 toRome. On his deathbed he requested Sophronius to bury him, if possible, onMt. Sinai or else at themonastery of St. Theodosius inJerusalem.Mt. Sinai being then invaded by theArabs, Sophronius buried him in themonastery of St. Theodosius. He is the author of one of the earliest hagiological works entitled"Leimon" (Pratum spirituale, Spiritual Meadow). In it he narrates his personal experiences with many great ascetics whom he met during his extensive travels, and repeats the edifying stories which these ascetics related to him. Though the work is devoid of critical discrimination and teems withmiracles andecstatic visions, it gives a clear insight into the practices ofEastern monasticism, contains important data on the religious cult and ceremonies, and acquaints us with the numerousheresies that threatened to disrupt theChurch in the East. It was first edited byFronton du Duc in "Auctarium biblioth. patrum," II (Paris, 1624), 1057-1159. A better edition was brought out by Cotelier in "Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta," II (Paris, 1681), which is reprinted inMigne, P.G. LXXXVII, III, 2851-3112. A Latin translation, byBl. Ambrose Traversari, is printed inMigne, P.L., LXXIV, 121-240, and an Italian version made from the Latin of Traversari (Venice, 1475; Vicenzo, 1479). Conjointly with Sophronius, Moschus wrote a life of John the Almoner, a fragment of which is preserved in the first chapter of the "Vita S. Joanni Eleemosynarii" by Leontius, under the name of"Simeon Metaphrastes" (P.G., CXIV, 895-966).
BARDENHEWER, Patrologie, tr. SHAHAN, Patrology (Freiburg im Br. and St. Louis, 1908), 559-61; HOLE in Dict. Christ. Biog., III, 406-8; VAILHE, St. Jean Mosch in Echos d'Orient, V (Paris, 1901), 107-16 and 356-87; IDEM, Sophrone le sophiste et Sophrone le patriarche in Revue de l'Orient chretien, VII (Paris, 1902), 360-385; VIII (1903), 32-69. A Latin translation of an old life, originally in Greek, is printed in P.L., LXXIV, 119-22, and in USENER, Der hl. Tychon (Leipzig, 1907), 91-3.
APA citation.Ott, M.(1911).Johannes Moschus. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10591a.htm
MLA citation.Ott, Michael."Johannes Moschus."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 10.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1911.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10591a.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by John Fobian.In memory of Joe Natoli.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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