THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYfanciful stories about female ascetics who were repentant prostitutes and who
disguised themselves as men in the ascetic life; particularly well-known exam-
ples are Pelagia, according to the story a courtesan from Antioch in the late
fourth century, and Mary of Egypt, whose story is known in Latin in the sixth
century, and who was said to have came originally from Alexandria to visit the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and subsequently lived for many years in male
disguise on the banks of the Jordan. Many versions of the story are known,
including a Greek version attributed to Sophronius.^51 These are monastic sto-
ries, and John Moschus, who travelled with Sophronius and died in Rome in
619, was another Palestinian monastic writer in the late sixth century who col-
lected anecdotes about such ascetics in Egypt, Palestine and Sinai in his Spir-
itual Meadow. Egypt, Palestine and Syria were thickly populated not only with
monasteries but also with individual ascetics who spent long periods travel-
ling or living in remote and diffi cult places; however, despite the ideology of
isolation they were not totally cut off, and a delicate balance was preserved
between the solitary life and interaction with others.
A sixth-century text which gives a vivid impression of monastic life in the
area around Amida is John of Ephesus’s Lives of the Eastern Saints, already
referred to in Chapter 7, and indeed the ascetic ecosystem of the Near East
in late antiquity is very well documented. It continued beyond the Arab con-
quests, and extended into Mesopotamia and regions further east in what is
now Iraq. It also transcended language barriers; works were translated from
and into a variety of languages – Greek, Syriac, Georgian, Latin, Arabic –
which must be a sign of their extreme popularity, and of the vigour of the
ascetic ideal, whether in living or historical examples or in stories. It was an
ideal that found expression in the building and occupation of many monas-
teries, and which exercised a powerful effect on the minds and imagination
of contemporaries. Over and above their personal ascetic struggle, these holy
men and women played many roles in relation to their milieu. Some were local
mediators in village society, according to the infl uential model set out by Peter
Brown forty years ago,^52 others did live lives of near-total isolation, but others
again were prominent leaders in their communities and beyond, or famous
stars of the late antique world; we see the aged St Sabas in action in 518 when
the decree came from Justin I to reinstate adherence to the Council of Chal-
cedon after the death of Anastasius, travelling to cities in the region, and later
even to the court of Justinian, pleading the case of the church of Palestine
after the damage done by the Samaritan revolt.^53 Justinian responded with tax
remission, gold, restoration of burnt buildings, erection of a hospital and a
new church of the Theotokos in Jerusalem (known as the Nea and shown on
the mosaic map of Jerusalem at Madaba), and a portion of the tax revenues of
the province for the buildings of fortifi cations to protect Sabas’ monasteries.
Eliciting patronage, including imperial patronage, and predicting the future,
were just some of the essential gifts in the repertoire of such a holy man.