Contained within John’s scholia we also encounter a somewhat ambiguous and selective approach both to Origen and to Evagrius.122 Indeed, it has been suggested that the same prevarication places John within the Origenist camp in Palestine—that is, within the circle of those who pursued a spirit of intellectual liberalism—and moreover explains the otherwise quite remarkable silence of Cyril’s Lives, in which his fellow Scythopolite does not feature.123 I would propose a quite different explanation, however: if we accept that the label “Origenist” signifies more than mere dedication to theological experiment and in fact implies (at least) an interest in the Evagrian tradition of spiritual contemplation, then it becomes problematic to place John within the same camp, since the liturgical vision that he promotes is in itself antagonistic to the presumptions of singular monastic practice.124 Both Cyril and John, in effect, share the same desire to situate monasticism within a broader institutional context and thus also to deemphasize more singular spiritual endeavor; but each approaches the same tension from a quite different perspective, corresponding to their respective vocations, monastic and clerical. Thus, while Cyril (as Flusin has demonstrated) is careful to acknowledge the theoretical subordination of his heroes to the patriarch of Jerusalem, it is above all the institution of monasticism that for him constitutes the perfect terrestrial society;125 in contrast, for John (as for Pseudo-Dionysius) that same society is realized in the entire worshipping community, gathered around the altar of communion. In the end, despite their common purpose, the views of Cyril and John on the place of monasticism within the Christian cosmos are quite antithetical. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that the former might prove hostile to the latter, refusing him the (inapposite) title “Origenist” but nevertheless condemning him through silence.
Within the Justinianic Near East, then, and in particular in Palestine, we witness something of the intellectual tensions that remained within and around monastic circles, tensions that the Chalcedonian legislators had failed to address. While the bishops gathered in 451 had lent an ecumenical impetus to preexistent notions of monks’ legal and economic dependence on their clerical superiors, those same bishops did not—indeed could not—legislate against the spiritual independence long enshrined within the dominant traditions of ascetic thought, in particular that of Evagrius. Those traditions were, as we have seen, indifferent (though not hostile) to the hierarchical and sacramental structures of the Church and located salvation in complex processes of ascetical self-transformation and spiritual contemplation, for the most part detached from wider dependences. In time, however, that independence would in turn be challenged, as various post-Chalcedonian authors attempted a theological renegotiation of ascetics’ relation to the wider world. Two authors are of particular note: first, Cyril of Scythopolis, whose hagiographies sought to reorient monastic practice around the monastic institution, deemphasizing the individualistic, contemplative tradition and demonizing its adherents or admirers as Origenists; and second, Pseudo-Dionysius, whose liturgical vision presented nothing less than the full institutional, cosmological, and spiritual dependence of monks upon the external realities of the Church.
HAGIOGRAPHY AND THE EUCHARIST AFTER CHALCEDON
If, as we have seen, the eucharistic minimalism of earlier ascetic thought is complemented in the general eucharistic minimalism of the earlier hagiographies, is the post-Chalcedonian shift toward a more sacramentalized vision of the ascetic life—so evident in the works of the Areopagite and his commentator—also paralleled within the period’s hagiographies? This might of course be expected, for the process of monastic ordination that various authorities promoted, and that served as a prominent medium through which ascetic charisma was integrated within ecclesial structures, was in this period far more advanced. But, to repeat, we are interested here not in fleeting references to monastic participation in rituals or sacraments but rather in the deliberate and developed attempt of hagiographers to articulate a new, more sacramentalized vision of the ascetic life. Thus, for example, Cyril of Scythopolis reports his heroes’ ordination but, coterminous with his moral elevation of monasticism above the clerical vocation, devotes minimal attention to the eucharist. In the same period, however, we do discover elsewhere hagiographic visions of ascetics-cum-priests that include an unprecedented eucharistic emphasis. Those visions are contained within the Lives of the stylites.126
Eucharistic participation presented a particular problem both to pillar saints themselves, stood atop their remote columns, and to those ecclesiasts who would attempt to subordinate them to regular submission to a priest.127 It is nevertheless notable that despite these difficulties, the hagiographers of these saints, rather than relegating a eucharistic emphasis in order to focus on their heroes’ superior ascetic prowess as in most earlier hagiographies, chose in fact to dwell upon communion in order to demonstrate their subjects’ integration within the wider Church. Within a context in which significant ideological constraints had been placed upon the practice of more singular ascetic feats, and in the light of the rather extreme ascetic singularity that stylites represented, it was no doubt now crucial that these same hagiographers demonstrate their heroes’ consciousness of, and place within, local ecclesial structures.
One such hagiographer is the anonymous author of the Life of Daniel the Stylite, that fifth-century disciple and imitator of Symeon the Elder who established a column outside Constantinople during the reign of the emperor Leo I.128 Within the Life Daniel’s integration within the surrounding world is above all emphasized in political terms, in the patronage of successive emperors, the saint’s predictions concerning the future of the state, and the supplications of foreign diplomats before him;129 but his radical ascetic practice is also offset through his integration within the local church through ordination and a subsequent emphasis upon the reciprocal bond that tied him to the Constantinopolitan patriarch. Soon after Daniel established himself in the capital, the Life reports, the emperor commanded the patriarch Gennadius to make Daniel a priest. The latter’s column then provides the stage for a quite remarkable scene expressing the mutual cohesion of saint and patriarch, for after the ritual of ordination Gennadius ascends on a ladder and the pair receive communion from each other’s hands.130 Although in the earliest stages of his career Daniel had fallen under criticism from local Constantinopolitan priests, he now becomes the patriarch’s companion and supporter.131 Thus, during the reign of the usurper Basiliscus, and in the context of an imperial edict abrogating Chalcedon, the patriarch Acacius summons Daniel, and the saint descends from atop his column and travels to the cathedral church, uniting with Acacius and writing to rebuke the emperor as a new Diocletian.132 Daniel then presides over the reconciliation of emperor and patriarch in church.133
In Daniel’s Life, however, as in the Lives of Cyril of Scythopolis, the saint’s or saints’ reported ordination above all emphasizes a commitment to the wider Christian ministration; the celebration of the eucharist itself, however, infringes little upon the narrative.134 We can nevertheless contrast this relative absence with another Life of the post-Chalcedonian period, that of the sixth-century Antiochene stylite Symeon the Younger, an imitator of his more illustrious fifth-century namesake.135 Like Daniel, Symeon is portrayed as the spiritual patron of an emperor (Justin II) and, like Daniel again, his life is presented as one of progressive integration within the wider ecclesiastical establishment.136 In his early career atop his column, he is frequented and feted by the bishops of Seleucia and Antioch, and ordained as a deacon;137 at some later stage, under pressure from his monks and the local population, he becomes a priest;138 and throughout his life, he predicts the careers of the great and the good of the Eastern patriarchal scene—Anastasius of Antioch and John the Faster, for example.139
At the same time, Symeon’s hagiography is notable for the