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Le saint, le moine et le paysan

 | 
Olivier Delouis
, 
Sophie Métivier
, 
Paule Pagès

Caves, demons and holy men

Alice-Mary Talbot

Texte intégral

  • 1 The papers from this seminar, at which it was my privilege to present a communication on sacred mo (...)
  • 2 This paper is a more fully developed version of a presentation in London at the 2006 International (...)

1In the late 1990s Michel Kaplan directed a memorable seminar in Paris devoted to the concept of sacred space in Byzantium and the West.1 The present contribution addresses a facet of this topic not included in the volume of published papers, that of the sanctified or sacred space of caves,2 and is a small token of appreciation for all I have learned about monasticism and hagiography from Michel’s important publications.

  • 3 Vita of Paul the Anchorite (in Syriac), in Lives of the Eastern Saints, ed. and trans. E. W. Brook (...)

2From the limited evidence at our disposal we can deduce that Byzantines had an ambivalent attitude toward the cavernous hollows that are to be found throughout the varied terrain of their empire. On the one hand, they represented convenient shelter from the elements for travelers in isolated locations, and some degree of protection from wild animals and brigands, but at the same time their inky blackness and occasional fathomless depths gave them an air of mystery and a reputation as the abode of demons and entrance to the underworld. Thus we are told, for example, in the vita of Paul the Anchorite of the fear and trembling which beset those who journeyed on a road along the banks of the Tigris on account of a cave on the cliffs above, which was reputed to house “malignant fiends.”3

  • 4 3 Kings 19:8; 1 Kings 22:1.
  • 5 Heb. 11:38.
  • 6 See, e. g., John Moschos, Spiritual Meadow, trans. J. Wortley, Kalamazoo MI 1992 (Cistercian Studi (...)

3A similar ambivalence can be seen among the hermits and holy men who throughout the Byzantine era sought temporary or permanent refuge in caves, whether in the deserts of Egypt and Syro-Palestine or in the forested mountains of Anatolia and Greece, the Balkans, Sicily and southern Italy. Following in the footsteps of the Hebrews of the Old Testament, like Elijah on Mt. Horeb or David in the cave of Odolman,4 they lived “in dens and the caves of the earth,” in the words of St. Paul,5 for a variety of motives, in flight from persecution, in deliberate spiritual retreat from the secular world, in search of greater mortification of the body, or in the conscious effort to exorcise the demons which infested so many caves. It is in fact a commonplace of many hagiographical accounts of the lives of saints that the most ascetic holy men (and very rarely women6) consciously chose to spend at least a portion of their monastic career in the gloomy darkness of a cavern. This topos may be modeled on the experience of the very earliest desert fathers, St. Paul the First Hermit and Antony the Great, in the eastern Egyptian desert, but clearly reflects reality as well, as can be seen from the innumerable cliffside chapels and monasteries that had their origins in a hermit’s cave. In this paper I propose to examine the experiences of these latter-day “cavemen,” on the basis of archaeological evidence and hagiographical descriptions, as well as their reasons for choosing this form of eremitism and the symbolic associations of the cave as a dwelling place.

4In Byzantium there was always a certain tension between the ideals of the cenobitic and the eremitic life. Following a vocation in a communal monastery was the more common choice, posing the challenge of absolute obedience to the abbot, and offering the advantages of economic self-sufficiency and the spiritual value of regular chanting of the monastic office and reception of the eucharist. The anachoretic life, on the other hand, viewed as suitable only for particularly committed and ascetic monks, offered greater opportunities for intense focus on solitary prayer, chanting of the psalter, and mortification of the body, without the distractions of other human beings.

Daily life for the cave-dwelling hermit

5For the hermit who sought to disassociate himself from the material world, residence in a cave was in many ways a logical option. Above all, caves were a natural shelter, provided by God for the anachorete who eschewed a built environment. Caves offered protection from the elements, whether sun, rain, wind or snow, and, if located high atop a mountain or on a cliff face, they were difficult of access for would-be pilgrims or disciples, prying visitors, brigands or pirates. These advantages were also disadvantages: the cool air of a cave that was welcome in summer was frigid and damp in winter; the darkness that provided relief from the sun was at the same time gloomy and depressing; the inaccessibility of caves made it difficult for the hermit to obtain food and water; the same cavernous recesses that discouraged human visitors were often the abode of wild animals.

  • 7 J. Patrich, Sabas, Leader of Palestinian Monasticism: A Comparative Study in Eastern Monasticism, (...)

6Surveys and excavations by archaeologists, supplemented by textual evidence, have shed some light on the realities of residence in a cave, and suggested ways in which hermits coped with the harsh demands of a lifestyle that seems better suited to wild beasts than human beings. One of the most exhaustive surveys is that made by Joseph Patrich on the cliff faces of the Kidron gorge near Mar Saba in the Judean Desert, and at other “cliff koinobia” such as the nearby Monastery of the Cave. His research has demonstrated a spectrum of cave dwellings from totally unaltered natural caverns to caves with a modicum of added amenities, such as benches, beds and niches carved into the rock, as well as stone hearths and chimneys, and cuttings for wooden doors. In the simplest arrangement a niche cut in the eastern wall of the cave might serve as a focus for prayer, a place for an icon or a candle; in more elaborate caves, a chapel might be added in a separate walled off space or a natural annex. One of the caves inhabited by St. Sabas the Great, outside the koinobion of Theoktistos, was approximately 5 meters deep, 3 meters wide, and 2.5 meters in height, thus enabling him to stand up straight in it. The uneven floor was leveled by the addition of wooden flooring, indicated by cuttings in the rock.7

  • 8 E.g., Spiritual Meadow, trans. Wortley, ch. 51, 87, 180; vita of Paul of Latros (BHG 1474), ed. H.(...)
  • 9 See, for example, Princeton, ms Garrett 16, reproduced in J.R. Martin, The Illustration of the Hea (...)
  • 10 Ibid., figs. 50, 60.

7The evidence for daily life furnished by archaeological survey is supplemented by texts which mention some of the objects which were among the essentials of eremitic life: a water bottle, a wooden bowl, a gospel book, writing tablets, an icon, a lamp, a flintstone, a cloak.8 Manuscript illustrations and icons likewise depict some of the meager possessions of cave-dwelling hermits: lamps, books, water bottles, cooking pots, icons and wooden lecterns.9 Such images also help us to visualize the cave dwellers’ daily activities, as they engaged in prayer or meditation, venerated icons, and read books, carved wooden spoons, wove palm-fiber baskets or even copied manuscripts to earn some income.10 This handwork served another purpose as well, to help the monks stay awake and maintain vigilance, and not succumb to the demon of ἀκηδία or depression.

  • 11 Patrich, Sabas (cited in n. 7), p. 82, 84.
  • 12 Ibid., p. 128.
  • 13 Life of Peter of Atroa (BHG 2364), ed. and trans. V. Laurent, La vie merveilleuse de saint Pierre (...)
  • 14 E.g., St. Sabas hung a rope from his cave: “He hung a rope at the mouth of the cave to use when as (...)

8The living space in a cave might be protected by a wooden or stone wall, or expanded by the construction of terrace walls on the narrow ledge outside the cave entrance, or this same ledge might be used for the cultivation of a small vegetable garden.11 Some caves had their own water supply, in the form of a perennial spring; elsewhere hermits collected water in small cisterns or natural rock pools, or walked some distance to a spring. At Sabas’s cave near the koinobion of Theoktistos the nearest water cistern was “several dozen meters distant.”12 Peter of Atroa had to walk a half mile from his cave to find water, and his hagiographer noted that it was very tiring to carry water up the hill.13 Caves on cliff faces were accessed by using ropes or wooden or rope ladders, or wooden scaffolding.14

  • 15 See Patrich, Sabas (cited in n. 7), p. 42, 195, 209, 223, 344. Rehav Rubin has suggested the ident (...)
  • 16 St. Euthymios the Younger (BHG 655) and his companion Joseph collected acorns, chestnuts and the f (...)
  • 17 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 13 and 15, ed. Schwartz, p. 96, 98, trans. Price, p. 105, 107.
  • 18 Vita of Paul of Latros, ed. Delehaye, ch. 13, p. 113.
  • 19 Princeton, Garrett 16, fol. 4r, illustrated in Byzantium at Princeton: Byzantine Art and Archaeolo (...)

9Hermits who aspired to live as close as possible to nature became foragers, living off wild plants that grew near their cave; in the desert these might be the buds and pods of the caper plant; maloa, an edible saltbush; the hearts of reeds; onions; and the roots of the melagrion.15 In the northern climes of Greece and Anatolia foragers or “grazers” gathered acorns, chestnuts and other wild nuts, fruits and berries, and carob pods.16 As already mentioned, some hermits who aimed at self-sufficiency, following the model of St. Antony of Egypt, tended small vegetable plots. Others depended upon the kindness of strangers who would bring them food; thus St. Sabas the Great was sustained in the Judean Desert by gifts of dates, bread and cheese from Saracens.17 Yet others were regularly supplied by monks from a nearby monastery or visiting pilgrims. St. Paul of Latros, who inhabited a lofty cave in western Anatolia for twelve years, received his provisions, such as food, a lamp, oil and a flint, from a local goatherd.18 Some manuscript illustrations depict hermits in inaccessible caves pulling up baskets of supplies with a rope.19

Reasons for cave dwelling

  • 20 PG 88, col. 632-644, 664-677.
  • 21 Vita of John the Hesychast, ch. 11, ed. Schwartz, p. 209, trans. Price, p. 228.
  • 22 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 24, ed. Schwartz, p. 108, trans. Price, p. 117.
  • 23 Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, ed. J. P. Thomas and A. C. Hero, Washington DC 2000 (Dumb (...)
  • 24 Ibid., p. 1351, ch. 5. The biblical citation is from Ps. 4:8.
  • 25 Vita of Paul of Latros, ed. Delehaye, ch. 13, p. 112.
  • 26 Vita of Sabas the Younger (BHG 1606), ed. D. Tsames in Φιλοθέου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως τοῦ Κοκκίνου ἁγ (...)

10Hagiographers stressed that a hermit’s withdrawal to a cave dwelling in an isolated, inaccessible location offered the optimum circumstances for a lifestyle totally devoted to prayer and conversation with God, devoid of any distractions from the outside world. This retreat to the desert or wilderness permitted the ascension of two rungs on the Ladder of John Climax, rung one, “the renunciation of [secular] life,” and rung three, “isolation from the world (xeniteia).”20 Thus John the Hesychast was described as living in a cave in the Palestinian desert of Rouba for six years, “separating himself from all human intercourse, yearning to consort with God in solitude and to purify the eye of the mind by long philosophy so as with unveiled face to behold the glory of God.”21 An unnamed anchorite in the vita of St. Sabas the Great was so successful in his pursuit of solitude that he managed to go 38 years without laying eyes on another human being.22 In the twelfth century St. Neophytos related how he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land to seek out a hermit whose disciple he might become. But after searching the caves of the Judean Desert “like a hunter of bees,”23 he failed in his goal and returned to Cyprus, where God gave him a “precipice and this smallest of caves which was deserted and a resting-place of various birds, but to me it appeared desirable because of the solitary nature of the place, and in hope I settled in it alone.” He took up residence here at age 25, digging out the cave to widen it and remove “its unsound parts.”24 In some cases a hagiographer intimates that a holy man chose a cave in an elevated location in order to emulate stylites who sought to live closer to God. Thus Athanasios, a 9th-c. iconodule monk who fled to Mt. Latros during the iconoclast persecution, holed up for twenty-two years in a natural cave at the top of a rocky pillar, a “pillar not made by human hands.”25 This literal physical ascent to a higher and inaccessible abode could also represent a metaphorical ascent toward heaven. Only rarely does a hagiographer mention the possibility that a cave-dweller might derive pleasure from the view from his lofty abode; thus Philotheos Kokkinos comments on the fine vista of the sea enjoyed by Sabas the Younger in his cave near Thracian Herakleia.26

  • 27 Vita of Paul the Anchorite, ed. Brooks, Lives of the Eastern Saints, p. 113.
  • 28 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 19; vita of Maximos Kausokalybites by Theophanes (BH (...)
  • 29 Vita of Lazaros of Galesion, ch. 39, ed. AASS, p. 521, trans. Greenfield, p. 125.
  • 30 Vita of Ioannikios by Peter (BHG 936), ed. J. Van den Gheyn in AASS Nov. II. 1, ch. 45, trans. D. (...)
  • 31 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 39, trans. Sullivan, p. 297.
  • 32 BMFD, t. 4, p. 1592.
  • 33 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 18-22.

11Despite the fact that there were certain physical comforts to be derived from residence in a cave, there is no doubt that withdrawal to a cave necessitated mortification of the body. In addition to the deprivation of human intercourse, there were the difficulties of obtaining food and water, and the damp, dank, chilly gloom of the cave itself. The hermit might be endangered by boulders falling from above,27 or might slip on the cliff face and plunge into a ravine. Despite the harsh weather many cave dwellers in northern climes who practiced extreme asceticism deliberately went without fire, either to cook their meager food or to provide light and warmth.28 Quarters were often constricted and cramped. The ascetic Paphnoutios, who did penance by living for three years in a cave on Mt. Galesion, never stood upright, foraged for “plants which grew in front of the cave, and his drink was the water that trickled down from the rock above it and was caught by that below, lying stagnant where it was hollowed out a little.”29 St. Ioannikios of Bithynia deliberately withdrew to a cave without a nearby water source: “For he always rejoiced to live in harsh places in order to mortify his flesh with fasting and thirst, with cold and nakedness.”30 He also constricted his movements by chaining himself to a rock in his cave for three years.31 In the Palaiologan period, Ioacheim, metropolitan of Zichna, writing about the early life of his uncle Ioannikios, the future founder of the monastery of the Prodromos on Mt. Menoikeion, relates that he too decided to take up his abode in “a harsh cave, which was even difficult to enter. Fixing his residence in the cave, he remained there for some time. When his health had suffered considerably as a result of the constant moisture in the cave, he left there…”32 Other solitaries, such as the early Athonite hermits St. Euthymios the Younger and his companion Joseph, brought additional hardships upon themselves by taking vows not to emerge from their cave for long periods of time; in addition to thus exacerbating the difficulties of obtaining provisions and water, their clothes rotted so that they ended up virtually naked and were tormented by swarms of lice. After one year had passed Joseph could stand it no longer and departed, but Euthymios remained a full three years, as he had vowed.33

Associations of caves with death and burial

  • 34 La Vie d’Étienne le Jeune par Étienne le Diacre (BHG 1666), ed. and trans. M.-F. Auzépy, Aldershot (...)
  • 35 Ibid., ch. 31.
  • 36 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 18.

12In the vitae of some saints residence in a cave is likened to the “practice of death” or “meditation on death” (reminiscent of the sixth rung of the Ladder of St. John Climax, μνήμη θανάτου), as the saint meditates on his forthcoming demise. In the 8th c. St. Stephen the Younger moved from a cave on Mt. St. Auxentios into a cramped cave-like refuge underneath an overhanging cliff, with such a low ceiling that he was unable to stand upright. His disciples called it “a tomb for the burial of his flesh” rather than a dwelling place, and his hagiographer described it as a “tomb-like dwelling.”34 Later on, however, when St. Stephen is dragged out of this sepulchral abode, now termed a “cave,” it is likened to a spiritual bridal chamber.35 Euthymios the Younger, when proposing a rigorous three-year confinement in a cave for himself and his companion on Mt. Athos, referred to their coming ordeal as a μελέτη θανάτου, a “practice of death.”36

  • 37 Patrich, Sabas (cited in n. 7), 124.
  • 38 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 24, ed. Schwartz, p. 108, trans. Price, p. 117.
  • 39 Vita of St. Paul the Anchorite, in Brooks, Lives of the Eastern Saints, p. 115 and 118.
  • 40 Vita of Kyriakos (BHG 463), ch. 19, ed. Schwartz, p. 234, trans. Price, p. 258.
  • 41 Vita of Euthymios the Great (BHG 647-648), ch. 42, ed. Schwartz, p. 61, trans. Price, p. 58. A bur (...)
  • 42 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 26, p. 191.

13The connection between caves, death and burial was long-standing, attested since antiquity. In Egypt some monks took up residence in burial caves that dated from the Pharaonic or Roman periods.37 Many a hermit died in the cave which had been his abode, and was buried there; thus the nameless anchorite discovered by St. Sabas the Great after 38 years of solitude in his inaccessible cave passed away while kneeling in prayer, and was laid to rest in the same cave, which was walled up with large stones.38 St. Paul the Anchorite declared to demonic apparitions who tormented him in his cave above the Tigris, “This is my grave, and my place for ever.” And indeed upon his death some 25 years later he was buried in that spot “in accordance with his promise.”39 Other hermits who received a similar burial were the anchorite Maria,40 St. Euthymios the Great,41 and Joseph the companion of Euthymios the Younger.42

  • 43 Vita of Elias Spelaiotes (BHG 581), AASS Sept. III, ch. 72, 78.
  • 44 C. Galatariotou, The Making of a Saint: The Life, Times and Sanctification of Neophytos the Reclus (...)
  • 45 D. Popović, The Cult of St Petar of Koriša, Stages of Development and Patterns, Balcanica 28, 1997 (...)

14Yet other hermits dug their own graves within their cave in order to remain ever mindful of their mortality and the transitory nature of life; thus the South Italian holy man Elias Spelaiotes carved out a tomb beneath the bed in his cave, and constantly moistened it with his tears as he reflected upon his impending death and burial in this grave.43 Neophytos the Recluse likewise excavated a tomb for himself in the cave where he lived near Paphos,44 while St. Petar of Koriša (d. mid-13th c.) asked his disciples to carve out a grave for him in his cavernous abode.45

Spiritual transformations in caves

  • 46 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 10, trans. Sullivan, p. 264-265.
  • 47 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 22.
  • 48 Vita of Luke the Stylite (BHG 2239), in H. Delehaye, Les saints stylites, Brussels 1923 (Subs. Hag (...)
  • 49 Vita of Gregory of Dekapolis (BHG 711), in F. Dvornik, La Vie de s. Grégoire le Décapolite et les (...)
  • 50 A.-M. Talbot, Les saintes montagnes à Byzance, in Le sacré et son inscription dans l’espace (cited (...)
  • 51 Popović, Petar of Koriša (cited in n. 45), p. 187.

15For some saintly hermits the decision to take up residence in a cave is represented as a conscious step toward a higher level of asceticism, greater knowledge of the divine, and spiritual progress. This is demonstrated in the vita of Ioannikios of Bithynia who chose to live as a solitary in a cave for thirteen years for the purpose of contemplation. The hagiographer describes how he “entered into the spiritual darkness” (γνόφος) of the cave, a phase of searching for knowledge of God, and like Moses emerged into the light as a leader of men “out of the transitory and dark life, to the brilliant and heavenly abode.”46 In similar fashion, at the end of a lengthy period of physical suffering and torment by demons which he battled into submission, Euthymios the Younger emerged from his cave “as if from a holy sanctuary or the vaults of heaven.”47 In other words through his saintly presence, his ascetic exercises such as fasting and standing vigils, his recitation of psalms, chanting of prayers, and triumphs over demons, he had transformed the darkness of the cave into a holy shrine or even heavenly abode. Likewise Luke the Stylite emerged in a hallowed state from his cave after battles with demonic wild dogs and torments by lice: “He came out as if from a holy sanctuary and as if initiated into the mysteries.”48 After Gregory of Dekapolis overcame the demons that infested his cave, he had a vision of divine light that radiated throughout the darkness and filled his abode with ineffable sweet fragrance.49 I have argued elsewhere that the presence of holy men could rid mountains of demonic spirits and turn them into “holy mountains”50; so too holy solitaries purified caves and made them into sacred places around which monasteries would later be built and where pilgrims would come. The Serbian vita of St. Petar of Koriša vividly demonstrates this point. After his victory over a demonic snake which he chased away from the cave, he “began to venerate the snake’s cave like God’s church and a holy place.” And after Petar achieved a later triumph over demons, the hagiographer describes the cave as being miraculously illuminated with rays of light.51

  • 52 Vita of Sabas the Younger, ed. Tsames, ch. 34-36, p. 226-230.

16One of the most developed narratives of the spiritual enlightenment of a solitary cave-dweller is found in the 14th-c. vita of Sabas the Younger by Philotheos Kokkinos. Sabas, who spent part of his ascetic career wandering through Cyprus and the Holy Land, withdrew at one point to a cave near the Jordan where he spent three years in prayer and self-mortification. After a battle with a serpent/dragon (described below), he emerged victorious but sorely wounded, lying half-dead on the floor of his cave. During the night the roof of his cave seemed to open up and brilliant light poured in, and the holy man underwent a transfigurational experience similar to that of Christ on Mt. Tabor. He also had an ecstatic vision of Christ, and was imbued with the fragrant odor of sanctity.52

Encounters with wild animals and demons

  • 53 For a fuller discussion of this topic, see N.P. Ševčenko, The Hermit as Stranger in the Desert, in (...)

17A commonplace of accounts of the residence of holy men in caves is a description of their confrontations with wild animals and demonic spirits, sometimes one and the same.53

Peaceful encounters with wild animals

  • 54 Palladius: The Lausiac History, trans. R. T. Meyer, Westminster MD 1965 (Ancient Christian Writers (...)
  • 55 Spiritual Meadow, trans. Wortley, ch. 2, 18, 163, 167.
  • 56 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 33, ed. Schwartz, p. 118-119, trans. Price, p. 128.
  • 57 Vita of Paul of Latros, ed. Delehaye, ch. 22, p. 118.
  • 58 Vita of Euthymios the Great, ch. 8, ed. Schwartz, p. 15, trans. Price, p. 11.
  • 59 Spiritual Meadow, ch. 107, trans. Wortley, p. 88; cf. the remarks of Ševčenko, The Hermit as Stran (...)

18Hermits who lived for years on end in deserts or mountainous areas frequently encountered wild animals whose habitat they had encroached upon. Sometimes these encounters of men and beasts were peaceful, as in an Edenic paradise. Thus in the Historia Lausiaca of Palladios we read about St. Pachon, who entered a cave frequented by hyenas, and deliberately courted death in order to escape the torments of demons. But the hyenas licked him all over, and then went away, leaving their cave to the holy man.54 John Moschos’s Spiritual Meadow tells tales of hermits feeding lions who came into their cave, or deliberately living in a lion’s den, being kept warm at night by the heat of the beasts’bodies.55 In Palestine the hermit Sabas the Great took up residence in a cave near Scythopolis which was the abode of an enormous lion. When the lion returned and found Sabas sleeping in his customary spot, he tugged at the hermit’s clothing, trying to remove him from the cave, but to no avail. Then Sabas arose to begin his night psalmody, and the lion temporarily withdrew, but returned at the close of his spiritual devotions. Sabas offered to share the cave with the lion, but the beast relinquished his den to the holy man after Sabas pointed out his superiority since he was created in the image of God.56 In similar vein a middle Byzantine text, the vita of St. Paul of Latros, recounts how the holy man sought refuge from a rainstorm in a cave, as did a leopard which lay down tranquilly at the feet of the holy man.57 The vita of Euthymios the Great explicitly states that through the presence of pious hermits singing holy hymns and making ceaseless prayers a “cave [which] had earlier been a lair of wild animals… [was] tamed… and [became] a church of God.”58 These stories of wild animals domesticated by hermits have a specific moral, that these holy men possess a charisma reflective of that of Adam before the Fall, when “the beasts were in subjection to Adam before he disobeyed the commandment and fell from the comfort of paradise.”59

Battles with wild animals

  • 60 Athos, Stauroniketa, cod. 50, fol. 1v, reproduced in Martin, Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder ( (...)
  • 61 Vita of Ioannikios by Peter, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 29, trans. Sullivan, p. 285-286. At another ti (...)
  • 62 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 48, trans. Sullivan, p. 306-307.
  • 63 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 46, trans. Sullivan, p. 303-304.

19More often encounters in caves between holy men and beasts were not so peaceful. All kinds of dangerous creatures made their abode in these dark hollows of the earth. Very common were poisonous snakes and dragons, sometimes hard to distinguish from each other because the Greek word δράκων means both dragon and snake or serpent. An illustration from a manuscript of the Ladder of St. John Climax shows how the Byzantines visualized dragons.60 In this case a monk is falling off the ladder headlong towards a cave where a terrifying dragon lurks. St. Ioannikios the Great was a famed vanquisher of dragons. Early in his career he killed a large dragon that was devouring cattle on Bithynian Mt. Olympos by courageously confronting the beast, armed only with a cross and making the sign of the cross three times.61 On another occasion, Ioannikios was caught in a storm and took shelter in a cave. Seeing fiery embers in the cave interior, he dropped dry leaves on the embers, hoping to kindle a fire to warm himself. But the glowing embers turned out to be the blazing eyes of a dragon, which was clearly annoyed by having leaves dropped on its face, and began to thrash about. Ioannikios was protected by God’s grace, however, and spent the night in the cave unharmed, side by side with the great beast.62 On yet another occasion Ioannikios’s prayers to God were sufficient to cause the death of a 60-cubit (28 meters) long dragon which lived in a cave into which Ioannikios wished to move.63

  • 64 Vita of Sabas the Younger, ed. Tsames, ch. 33, p. 222-225.

20It should be noted that in all the above instances Ioannikios did battle with a dragon that was already resident in a cave, being a manifestation of the devil and symbolizing the unknown dangers that might lurk in the deep recesses of the earth. In other cases holy men were attacked by serpents/dragons when they were already in residence in the cave, symbolizing their internal struggles against demonic temptations that could be overcome only through prayer to Christ. Thus in the 14th c. St. Sabas the Younger engaged in combat in his cave with a νοητὸς δράκων, an “intelligible serpent,” i. e. the devil, which insinuated itself into the body of an enormous and terrifying αἰσθητὸς δράκων, or “perceptible serpent.” After a terrific battle, in which Sabas was left lying sprawled on the ground, unarmed and naked, almost dead from his wounds, the snake was overcome by the holy man’s prayers and simply disappeared from view.64

  • 65 Vita of Luke the Stylite, ed. Delehaye, ch. 10.
  • 66 Bats: Vita of Elias Spelaiotes, AASS Sept. III, ch. 42; scorpions and soldiers: vita of Gregory of (...)

21Demons that were manifestations of hermits’ sinful thoughts (λογισμοί) took many forms. St. Luke the Stylite, who lived incommunicado in a cave for 2 ½ years, was attacked nightly by two black wild dogs with gaping mouths which he finally drove away through the power of prayer and the sign of the cross.65 Other demons manifested themselves to cave-dwelling hermits as bats, scorpions, black crows or attacking soldiers.66

Conclusions

22Our texts provide little explicit information on the hermits’perception of the desert wilderness or mountain fastnesses in which they chose to make their abode. We do not know whether they enjoyed the spectacular views that some of their caves afforded, marveled at such natural wonders as the rocky spires of Meteora, or delighted in the sounds of nearby waterfalls and songs of birds. We can be sure, however, that they suffered in the desert summer heat of Palestine or frigid winter weather of the Balkans, were tormented by stinging and biting insects, and menaced by venomous snakes.

  • 67 P. Gautier, Le De daemonibus du Pseudo-Psellos, REB 38, 1980, p. 105-194 at p. 153291.

23Indirectly, however, we can perhaps glean some further indications of the hermits’response to their cavernous abodes, especially the terror evoked by subterranean darkness. The frequent hagiographic motif of caves as ominous places, the black and gloomy abodes of chthonic spirits and demons, reflects the Byzantine view that these cavernous hollows were in fact points of contact with the underworld, places where demons emerged from and returned to hell. As Pseudo-Psellos’s treatise On Demons states, among the most dangerous kinds of demons are those who dwell “beneath the earth” (ὑποχθόνιοι) and those who prefer darkness to light (μισοφαεῖς).67 The Byzantines did indeed imagine the underworld as being beneath the earth’s crust, and obviously caves were places which could be perceived as entrance points to the abode of Hades. The holy man who was courageous enough to take up residence served to neutralize this dangerous space by exorcizing the demons through prayer and rituals and transforming it into a place of divine radiance.

  • 68 Martin, Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder (cited in n. 9), p. 11, 15-16.
  • 69 See fol. 92 in the facsimile edition, Iakovos, Monachos. Marien-Homilien: codex Vaticanus graecus (...)
  • 70 For an image, see P. Underwood, The Kariye Djami. 3, The Frescoes, New York 1966 (Bollingen Series (...)

24Depictions of the underworld in middle and late Byzantine art typically represent the netherworld as a dark cavern inhabited by dragons or demons and Hades. In manuscripts of the Ladder of St. John Climax, sinful monks may end up falling into a black hole where sometimes a dragon lurks.68 In the Vatican Kokkinobaphos manuscript demons are shown in a dark abyss being attacked by flying angels with long lances.69 The visualization of Hell as a dark cave can be seen especially in depictions of the Anastasis, also known as the Harrowing of Hell or Christ’s Descent into the Underworld, as described in the Gospel of Nikodemos. In the Vatican Kokkinobaphos (fol. 49v), for example, Christ descends into dark cave-like recesses to stab Hades with His cross. In the Anastasis fresco at the parekklesion of Kariye Camii, Christ is depicted in luminous garments and mandorla standing on a rocky ledge right above the inky blackness of Hell, where the brown figure of Hades lies bound in fetters and helpless.70 These visual parallels to the holy man’s entrance into the recesses of the earth and his victory over demons suggest that residence in a cave was a way for the holy man to reenact Christ’s triumph over the forces of darkness and turn a cavern infested with demons into a luminous and sacred place.

Notes

1 The papers from this seminar, at which it was my privilege to present a communication on sacred mountains, were published in a volume entitled Le sacré et son inscription dans l’espace à Byzance et en Occident. Études comparées, ed. M. Kaplan, Paris 2001 (Byz. Sorb. 18).

2 This paper is a more fully developed version of a presentation in London at the 2006 International Congress of Byzantine Studies, in the context of a roundtable organized by N.P. Ševčenko on “The Natural World.” I should note that a book in preparation by Veronica della Dora (Royal Holloway, University of London) tentatively titled Topographies of the Sacred East, will include a chapter on sacred caves, of which I have seen a preliminary version [published: Landscape, Nature, and the Sacred in Byzantium, Cambridge 2016].

3 Vita of Paul the Anchorite (in Syriac), in Lives of the Eastern Saints, ed. and trans. E. W. Brooks, Paris 1923 (PO 17), p. 111-112.

4 3 Kings 19:8; 1 Kings 22:1.

5 Heb. 11:38.

6 See, e. g., John Moschos, Spiritual Meadow, trans. J. Wortley, Kalamazoo MI 1992 (Cistercian Studies 139), ch. 19 about a hermitess who lived in a cave near the river Jordan, ch. 170 about another female cave-dweller, and ch. 18 of the vita of St. Lazaros of Mt. Galesion (BHG 979), AASS Nov. III, p. 515B, trans. R. Greenfield, The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion, Washington DC 2000 (Byzantine Saints’Lives in Translation 3), p. 100: “There is a cave above the river bed [near the lavra of Mar Saba], and we know that a nun has lived in it for a long time.”

7 J. Patrich, Sabas, Leader of Palestinian Monasticism: A Comparative Study in Eastern Monasticism, Fourth to Seventh Centuries, Washington DC 1995 (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 32), p. 126.

8 E.g., Spiritual Meadow, trans. Wortley, ch. 51, 87, 180; vita of Paul of Latros (BHG 1474), ed. H. Delehaye, in T. Wiegand, Milet. 3.1, Der Latmos, Berlin 1913, ch. 13, p. 113.

9 See, for example, Princeton, ms Garrett 16, reproduced in J.R. Martin, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus, Princeton NJ 1954 (Studies in Manuscript Illustration 5), figs. 37, 49.

10 Ibid., figs. 50, 60.

11 Patrich, Sabas (cited in n. 7), p. 82, 84.

12 Ibid., p. 128.

13 Life of Peter of Atroa (BHG 2364), ed. and trans. V. Laurent, La vie merveilleuse de saint Pierre d’Atroa, Brussels 1956 (Subs. Hag. 29), ch. 18, p. 111.

14 E.g., St. Sabas hung a rope from his cave: “He hung a rope at the mouth of the cave to use when ascending or descending because of the difficulty of the ascent;” vita of Sabas the Great (BHG 1608), ch. 15, ed. E. Schwartz, Kyrillos von Skythopolis, Leipzig 1939, p. 98, trans. R. M. Price, Lives of the Monks of Palestine by Cyril of Scythopolis, Kalamazoo MI 1991 (Cistercian Studies 114), p. 107.

15 See Patrich, Sabas (cited in n. 7), p. 42, 195, 209, 223, 344. Rehav Rubin has suggested the identification of melagrion as asphodel; see R. Rubin, The Melagria: On Anchorites and Edible Roots in Judaean Desert, Liber Annuus 52, 2002, p. 347-352.

16 St. Euthymios the Younger (BHG 655) and his companion Joseph collected acorns, chestnuts and the fruits of the strawberry tree (arbutus) before confining themselves in a cave (L. Petit, Vie et office de saint Euthyme le Jeune, ROC 8, 1903, ch. 18, p. 184).

17 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 13 and 15, ed. Schwartz, p. 96, 98, trans. Price, p. 105, 107.

18 Vita of Paul of Latros, ed. Delehaye, ch. 13, p. 113.

19 Princeton, Garrett 16, fol. 4r, illustrated in Byzantium at Princeton: Byzantine Art and Archaeology at Princeton University: Catalogue of an Exhibition at Firestone Library, Princeton University, ed. S. Ćurčić and A. St. Clair, Princeton NJ 1986, pl. H; Martin, Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder (cited in n. 9), fig. 59.

20 PG 88, col. 632-644, 664-677.

21 Vita of John the Hesychast, ch. 11, ed. Schwartz, p. 209, trans. Price, p. 228.

22 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 24, ed. Schwartz, p. 108, trans. Price, p. 117.

23 Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, ed. J. P. Thomas and A. C. Hero, Washington DC 2000 (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 35), t. 4, p. 1350, ch. 4 (hereafter BMFD).

24 Ibid., p. 1351, ch. 5. The biblical citation is from Ps. 4:8.

25 Vita of Paul of Latros, ed. Delehaye, ch. 13, p. 112.

26 Vita of Sabas the Younger (BHG 1606), ed. D. Tsames in Φιλοθέου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως τοῦ Κοκκίνου ἁγιολογικὰ ἔργα. Αʹ, Θεσσαλονικεῖς ἅγιοι, Thessalonike 1985, ch. 53.

27 Vita of Paul the Anchorite, ed. Brooks, Lives of the Eastern Saints, p. 113.

28 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 19; vita of Maximos Kausokalybites by Theophanes (BHG 1237), ed. F. Halkin, Deux Vies de s. Maxime le Kausokalybe, ermite au Mont Athos (xive s.), An. Boll. 54, 1936, ch. 24, p. 95.

29 Vita of Lazaros of Galesion, ch. 39, ed. AASS, p. 521, trans. Greenfield, p. 125.

30 Vita of Ioannikios by Peter (BHG 936), ed. J. Van den Gheyn in AASS Nov. II. 1, ch. 45, trans. D. Sullivan in Byzantine Defenders of Images, ed. A.-M. Talbot, Washington DC 1998 (Byzantine Saints’ Lives in Translation 2), p. 303.

31 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 39, trans. Sullivan, p. 297.

32 BMFD, t. 4, p. 1592.

33 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 18-22.

34 La Vie d’Étienne le Jeune par Étienne le Diacre (BHG 1666), ed. and trans. M.-F. Auzépy, Aldershot 1997 (Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs 3), ch. 20.

35 Ibid., ch. 31.

36 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 18.

37 Patrich, Sabas (cited in n. 7), 124.

38 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 24, ed. Schwartz, p. 108, trans. Price, p. 117.

39 Vita of St. Paul the Anchorite, in Brooks, Lives of the Eastern Saints, p. 115 and 118.

40 Vita of Kyriakos (BHG 463), ch. 19, ed. Schwartz, p. 234, trans. Price, p. 258.

41 Vita of Euthymios the Great (BHG 647-648), ch. 42, ed. Schwartz, p. 61, trans. Price, p. 58. A burial chapel was constructed on the site of the cave which had served as Euthymios’s residence.

42 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 26, p. 191.

43 Vita of Elias Spelaiotes (BHG 581), AASS Sept. III, ch. 72, 78.

44 C. Galatariotou, The Making of a Saint: The Life, Times and Sanctification of Neophytos the Recluse, Cambridge 1991, p. 14; BMFD, t. 4, p. 1351, ch. 5.

45 D. Popović, The Cult of St Petar of Koriša, Stages of Development and Patterns, Balcanica 28, 1997, p. 181-212 at 188. Popović’s article reveals many similarities between Serbian cave-dwelling ascetics and their counterparts in Greece, Anatolia and the Near East.

46 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 10, trans. Sullivan, p. 264-265.

47 Vita of Euthymios the Younger, ed. Petit, ch. 22.

48 Vita of Luke the Stylite (BHG 2239), in H. Delehaye, Les saints stylites, Brussels 1923 (Subs. Hag. 14), ch. 10, p. 205.

49 Vita of Gregory of Dekapolis (BHG 711), in F. Dvornik, La Vie de s. Grégoire le Décapolite et les Slaves macédoniens au ixe siècle, Paris 1926, ch. 6, p. 51.

50 A.-M. Talbot, Les saintes montagnes à Byzance, in Le sacré et son inscription dans l’espace (cited in n. 1), p. 272-274.

51 Popović, Petar of Koriša (cited in n. 45), p. 187.

52 Vita of Sabas the Younger, ed. Tsames, ch. 34-36, p. 226-230.

53 For a fuller discussion of this topic, see N.P. Ševčenko, The Hermit as Stranger in the Desert, in D. Smythe, Strangers to Themselves: The Byzantine Outsider, Aldershot 2000 (Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. Publications 8), p. 75-86.

54 Palladius: The Lausiac History, trans. R. T. Meyer, Westminster MD 1965 (Ancient Christian Writers 34), ch. 23, p. 82.

55 Spiritual Meadow, trans. Wortley, ch. 2, 18, 163, 167.

56 Vita of Sabas the Great, ch. 33, ed. Schwartz, p. 118-119, trans. Price, p. 128.

57 Vita of Paul of Latros, ed. Delehaye, ch. 22, p. 118.

58 Vita of Euthymios the Great, ch. 8, ed. Schwartz, p. 15, trans. Price, p. 11.

59 Spiritual Meadow, ch. 107, trans. Wortley, p. 88; cf. the remarks of Ševčenko, The Hermit as Stranger in the Desert (cited in n. 53), p. 85.

60 Athos, Stauroniketa, cod. 50, fol. 1v, reproduced in Martin, Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder (cited in n. 9), fig. 133, and, in color, in Οἱ θησαυροὶ τοῦ Ἁγίου Ὄρους. Αʹ. Εἰκονογραφημένα χειρόγραφα, vol. 4, ed. P. K. Chrestou et al., Athens 1991, fig. 362 and commentary, p. 340-341.

61 Vita of Ioannikios by Peter, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 29, trans. Sullivan, p. 285-286. At another time he took it upon himself to remove from a cave a fearful dragon that was terrifying the local populace. Armed only with a cross, he went to the cave and prayed to God all night long. The next morning the dragon departed from the cave, threw itself into a lake, swam away and vanished; see Vita of Ioannikios by Peter, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 37, trans. Sullivan, p. 294-295.

62 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 48, trans. Sullivan, p. 306-307.

63 Vita of Ioannikios, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 46, trans. Sullivan, p. 303-304.

64 Vita of Sabas the Younger, ed. Tsames, ch. 33, p. 222-225.

65 Vita of Luke the Stylite, ed. Delehaye, ch. 10.

66 Bats: Vita of Elias Spelaiotes, AASS Sept. III, ch. 42; scorpions and soldiers: vita of Gregory of Dekapolis, ed. Dvornik, ch. 5; crows: vita of Ioannikios by Peter, ed. Van den Gheyn, ch. 33, trans. Sullivan, p. 289.

67 P. Gautier, Le De daemonibus du Pseudo-Psellos, REB 38, 1980, p. 105-194 at p. 153291.

68 Martin, Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder (cited in n. 9), p. 11, 15-16.

69 See fol. 92 in the facsimile edition, Iakovos, Monachos. Marien-Homilien: codex Vaticanus graecus 1162, Zurich 1991 (Codices e Vaticanis selecti 79).

70 For an image, see P. Underwood, The Kariye Djami. 3, The Frescoes, New York 1966 (Bollingen Series), pl. 201.

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