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Sitting in the Cell: The Literary Development of an Ascetic Praxis in Paul of Tamma’s Writings. With an Edition of Some Hitherto Unknown Fragments of De Cella
Abstract
This article focuses on Paul of Tamma, a fourth- or fifth-century Egyptian author who wrote a series of ascetic texts, preserved only in the Sahidic dialect of Coptic. The first part examines the ancient sources concerning Paul of Tamma, which are exclusively hagiographic. Although they contain many unreliable elements, there is good evidence that Paul was a contemporary of the great Egyptian ascetics Shenoute, Aphu of Oxyrhynchus, Pshoi of Jeremiah, Apollo of Tetkooh, and Isidore of Scetis, who all lived at the end of the fourth and early in the fifth centuries. The article goes on to examine the manuscript evidence of the Asceticon of Paul of Tamma, identifying new fragments of his works. I propose that Paul originally wrote in Coptic, not Greek, and that his texts have literary contacts with the ascetic literature of the monastic centres of Scetis, Nitria, and Kellia. The article also includes an edition and English translation of a hitherto unknown Sahidic miniature manuscript of Paul of Tamma's De Cella.
The paper presents extant texts narrating about St. Paisios the Great, that is, Psh?i or Bishoi (ca. 320-ca. 417), a monk who lived in a lavra in Scetis in the Nitrian Desert in Egypt. It brings the basic information about the monastery of St. Paisios in Scetis and his relics, which were transferred there between 830 and 849 from Antinoe, where he had found refuge. His preserved medieval depictions are listed. Conclusions about his cult and representation follow.
This chapter examines the written records of the fourth-and fifth-century monastic wisdom produced in and about the ascetic milieus of Egypt. I focus on two aspects related to ageing in that literature. First, the perception of Christian discipleship as ongoing growth, which culminates in the wisdom of the 'beautiful elder'. Motivated by this understanding, novices learn from the advanced by observing their behaviour, by listening to their wisdom, and by obeying their advice. Second, the understanding of Christian discipleship in terms of novices attending to the needs of the elders. Thus, the elders represent both role models and objects of care. In this light, discipleship, in desert literature, means learning wisdom from and taking care of the elders.
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