This paper from www.geocities.com/serban_marin/gaspar2002.html is a very interesting contribution to the knowledge of a great italogreek author: Philagathos of Cerami.  At this  moment the edition of his homilies is frozen because the big work it demands: about a hundred is the number of manuscripts containing his writings and maybe in some uncatalogued library fund you could find the missing speechs about Pascha and other important feasts. (I wonder why the fundamental Rossi Taibbi's edition has the fault of a misleading Italian title of its first volume: Omelie per le feste fisse = Homilies for the fixed feasts, whereas it includes movable feasts too.)

 

 

Praising the Stylite in Southern Italy:

Philagathos of Cerami on St Symeon the Stylite

of

Cristian-Nicolae Gaspar,

 

Philippos-Philagathos of Cerami: the Recovery of an Author

 

It took more than seven centuries to discover the true identity of the author who produced an impressive, learned, and elegant collection of homilies for the Sunday readings and for all the feasts of the liturgical year, usually referred to as the  “italo-griechische Homiliar” (A. Ehrhard). Until Giuseppe Rossi Taibbi published his accurate study on the textual tradition of this homiletic corpus[1], and brilliantly recovered the identity of its author as Philippos-Philagathos the Philosopher,[2] entire generations of readers and scholars had considered it the work of a never existing “most learned and most eloquent Theophanes Kerameus, archbishop of Taormina in Sicily.”[3] As Rossi Taibbi plausibly explained, this identity was forged around 1250 by a Byzantine scribe (probably working in Constantinople), who was commissioned to copy a manuscript containing 61 of Philagathos’ homilies and which had been brought to the Capital from Sicily.[4]

As in the original manuscript the homilies did not follow any logical order, the anonymous scribe felt it necessary to rearrange the texts according to the liturgical calendar of the Byzantine Church; he, therefore, made them follow the order of the liturgical readings: menologion, triodion, pentekostarion, and orthros. In a note penned after the end of the thirtieth homily, this unknown scribe informed his future readers about just how arduous a task he had undertaken: “it should be noticed that the old copy which had been brought from Sicily was not arranged in such a good order, but it was we who laboured [over it] and, having first made a table of contents, we later rightly arranged all the discourses according to the proceeding of the Typikon.”[5]

The new collection became increasingly popular during the following centuries as attested by the large number of manuscripts in which it survives.[6] This popularity, however, was achieved at a high price: the complete obliteration of the original author of the homilies. Only in a small number of manuscripts, produced and circulated in Sicily and Southern Italy, was the original attribution of the works preserved.[7]

Rossi Taibbi recognised the value of this branch of the textual tradition and used it as a basis for his (unfortunately incomplete) critical edition of the text.[8] Some of the remaining homilies are available in Migne’s Patrologia graeca[9]; a few have been critically edited by Stefano Caruso,[10] while still an important part of the corpus remains unedited.[11]

Even in these circumstances, Rossi Taibbi’s works have revealed a fascinating figure: Phillipos the Philosopher, more commonly known as Philagathos, the name he assumed after becoming a monk in Rossano at the Monastery of New Hodegetria in Calabria.[12] Important research carried out by scholars such as Bruno Lavagnini,[13] Stefano Caruso,[14] Carolina Cupane,[15] Ernst Kitzinger,[16] Aristide Colonna,[17] and others[18] have uncovered a wealth of information about the long forgotten author of the “italo-griechische Homiliar.”

Philagathos has thus emerged as “un personaggio chiave”[19] in the process that led to a brief but intense flowering of Greek culture in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, most notably in the times of Roger II (1130-1154) and William I (1154-1166). Philagathos was probably born in the last quarter of the eleventh century at Cerami (a small place in north-eastern Sicily, which in 1063 had seen one of the important battles fought between the Arabs and the Normans in their conquest of Sicily).[20] After completing the first stages of his education, mainly by self-sustained efforts (as it seems), young Philippos acquired quite a reputation for learning, which later brought him the nickname Ð filÒsofoj.[21] The amount and the quality of his classical Greek and Christian knowledge come almost as a surprise if one thinks that it must have been “interamente acquisita in loco.”[22]

He probably carried on with his readings even after becoming a monk and changing his name to Philagathos (which Lavagnini interpreted as a polemical farewell to his pre-monastic life).[23] His “curiosità intelettuale fuori del comune, che le ricche biblioteche monastiche potevano in larga parte soddisfare”[24] would probably account for a monastic life which, one guesses, was in part dedicated to further readings, to writing, and, to a greater extent, to preaching. Indeed, it is probable that Philagathos’ main claim to fame during his lifetime was his performance as an elegant and effective preacher. As the inscriptions of his homilies attest, he travelled widely through Calabria and Sicily, delivering his elaborate rhetorical compositions in various churches, and even before a royal audience.[25] To my mind, however, it seems exaggerated to claim that he became “predicatore ufficiale alla corte dei re normanni.”[26] Equally questionable is the assertion that he was, at some time, “al vertice di un organico di recente formazione” aimed at “l’istituzione di un controllo ufficiale sull’insegnamento religioso, esercitato tramite la creazione di una vera e propria cariera didattica.”[27]

On the other hand, it seems that he travelled intensively and that his preaching might have been connected with his being among the Greek monks invited to Sicily from Calabria by King Roger II in order to revive the Greek monastic communities on the island.[28] An important part of this project was the newly established Monastery of the Holy Saviour in Messina.[29] Founded by Roger II and entrusted with significant authority over Greek monasteries in Sicily and in Calabria, this monastery received the status of m£ndra, and Luke, its newly appointed head, direct archimandrital authority over a number of 24 monasteries.[30] The first settlers of the m£ndra were twelve monks from Rossano, the monastery with which Philagathos himself is closely associated. We find Philagathos preaching in the church of the Monastery of Christ Saviour in Messina,[31] in Rossano,[32] in Reggio,[33] in several churches in the capital of the Kingdom, Palermo,[34] in Taormina,[35] in his own birthplace,[36] and on other, unidentifiable, locations.[37]

It is probable that, besides his preaching, Philagathos led an intensive scholarly life. Sometime in his old age he produced a Christian ˜rm»neuma of Heliodoros’ novel Ethiopica,[38] and he could have also been the author of a sort of grammatical handbook.[39] In any case, a homily by one Sabas, from Misilmeri, styled “his [scil. Philagathos’] disciple” survives among the works of our author as a proof that he did become involved with teaching during the later period of his life.[40] As for his end, it seems probable that he did not live long after the reign of William II (1166-89).          

Although Philagathos’ homilies could claim scholarly attention in various ways,[41] in what follows I wish to briefly address only one precise question connected with the first homily of his corpus, that dedicated to the Indiction or the ecclesiastic New Year.[42] Besides an allegorical interpretation of the Indiction, this homily also includes a relatively short account of the life of St Symeon the Stylite (d. 459) as well as an equally allegorical exegesis of his life.[43] I intend to analyse the possible sources which Philagathos used in order to get acquainted with the first Stylite. One reason for conducting such an inquiry is adding a new element to the existing picture of the Stylite’s cult throughout history.[44] An incentive for exploring Philagathos’ view of Symeon is the exquisite and highly original quality of his interpretation, so far unknown to modern exegetes of the Stylite.[45] In order to fully reveal this original interpretation, it seemed useful to include a commented English translation of the homily, dwelling on those aspects which seem peculiar to Philagathos as a reader and exegete of hagiographic works. Finally, as none of the philagathean homilies have been rendered into English to this date, I wish to argue through the present translation that both their interesting contents and their exquisite literary quality could make them worth such an undertaking.

    

Which Stylite? The Possible Source(s) of Philagathos’ Account of Symeon

 

Although elsewhere Philagathos explicitly mentions the authors of hagiographic texts he used in his homilies,[46] this does not apply in the case of Symeon the Stylite, whose life is briefly recounted in Hom. 1. 12-13 (ed. Rossi Taibbi, p. 7). Thus we are left with the task of trying to identify the possible source(s) for the version of the Stylite’s life available to Philagathos for his allegorical interpretation.

 The brevity of his account could indicate that he borrowed it from a synaxarion. This is rendered improbable by the fact that the published synaxaria lack several of the concrete details of the saint’s life mentioned by Philagathos such as Symeon’s dwelling in a dry well, the episode of the rough rope wrapped around his body or the exact dimensions of his column.[47]

It is then plausible that the hagiographic text read during the service previous to Philagathos’ preaching[48] was a somewhat longer narration, including all these episodes. From the three hagiographic accounts of Symeon that would have been available to Philagathos,[49] the Life attributed to “his disciple Antonios” seems to be the most unlikely candidate (at least prima facie!): the figures it gives in connection with the height of Symeon’s column do not fit those reported by Philagathos.[50] Theodoret’s version (Philotheos historia 26. 12, ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen, p. 182) agrees with Philagathos on this point, and so does that of Metaphrastes (Vita Sym. Styl. 19, PG vol. 114, col. 337), whose text is mostly a reworking of Theodoret’s. However, in a section of the metaphrastic Life containing material from the Ecclesiastic history of Evagrius, the final height of the column is given as forty cubits. This variant appears in par. 59 of the metaphrastic text (PG vol. 114, col. 392), a fact that indicates that its author omitted to harmonise the various narratives he had incorporated in his Life of Symeon. If Philagathos indeed used a metaphrastic menologion (as it seems probable[51]), he deliberately cast aside the information contained in Ch. 59 of the metaphrastic text, since it would probably not fit his allegorical interpretation of the Stylite, which revolved around the symbolic meanings of number six.

While it seems plausible that the text of Metaphrastes (and, through it, that of Theodoret) could both have served as a basis for Philagathos’ homily, there is one detail in the short narrative provided by our learned preacher for the benefit of his readers, that cannot be found in either of them. This appears in the passage concerning Symeon’s conversion to a monastic lifestyle: according to Philagathos, this happened “on the advice of some elder.”[52] Both Theodoret and Metaphrastes remain vague about the person who advised young Symeon to become a monk.[53] Now, the only other possible source for the story of the old man is the Vita by “Antonios” (or, possibly, a text dependent on it), where the dialogue between Symeon and the old man plays an important part in the narrative of the saint’s Life.[54] One conclusion seems obvious: the Life of Symeon by “Antonios” was also known to Philagathos, who probably supplied the detail “concerning the old man” into the larger hagiographic framework, most probably imported from a metaphrastic menologion.

To offer a definitive solution at this point would be unwise as long as the metaphrastic Life of Symeon has not been critically edited. It remains plausible that Philagathos had known a version of the Life ascribed to “Antonios” by the time he composed his own homily on the Stylite. Another possibility is that Philagathos had read a version of Symeon’s life that combined Theodoret with “Antonios” (much like Metaphrastes did in his own text). Although I am much inclined to favour the first solution, until further texts are published that could shed some light on this matter, I must admit that the only reasonable (if temporary) verdict is a non liquet.        

 

Note on the Present Translation

 

The present translation of Philagathos’ Hom. 1, the first into any modern language as far as I know, is based on the Greek text published in Rossi Taibbi’ s edition (p. 3-9). In the few instances when I have chosen not to follow Rossi Taibbi’s text, I have mentioned and justified this in the annotations, where I have also indicated several scriptural allusions and quotations from various authors not identified by Rossi Taibbi. I have tried to render Philagathos’ complex, learned, and most elegant Greek as best I could in English without making the text obscure. In this, I have received precious help from Matthew Suff (Central European University, Budapest), whom I wish to kindly thank here. However, the responsibility for the remaining errors is entirely mine.

 

 

Homilies for the Gospel Readings on Sundays and for All the Feasts of the Year

 

Homily I: For the Beginning of the Indiction[55] and for Saint Symeon the Stylite

 

By

 Philippos of Cerami, Also Called Philagathos the Philosopher

 

1. Blessed be God, Who has deemed us worthy of going through a complete temporal cycle and of reaching the end of the year! From here, as if springing from a starting-block,[56] we shall begin anew the race of our life, spinning the same cycle all throughout our life until that endless age, not measured by spans of time and by the movement of the sun, will receive us.

 

2. According to history, to what has happened, and to what has been accomplished (for let us put at the very beginning of our speech some sort of seasoning[57] for those of you interested in learning[58]), the day here present represents the renewal of the temporal cycle and is called Indicta in the language of the Romans, for this is how they call the “imposition.”[59] For the Hebrews, it is the month they call Nisan,[60] which marks the beginning of the year, this being the beginning of the vernal equinox and of the rebirth of the world, as is proved by the growth of plants, bushes, and trees. Now, for the Romans of old, it was January that marked the beginning of the year. However, when Caesar Augustus defeated Antony in the month of September, he wished to make his victory famous and changed the Roman custom by granting this month the primacy, as if it were the first spoils [of the battle].[61]

 

3. Our Good Lord, in turn, by revealing Himself to us according to the flesh, and by gathering into one fold[62] Jews, Romans, and Hellenes, wanted to sanctify the day when He was in Nazareth and entered the synagogue, as is narrated by the refined Luke.[63] And taking in His hands the Book, He read aloud those things which had been foretold about Him by the Prophet [Isaiah].[64] For this reason the Church has traditionally received this day as a feast blessed by God.[65]

 

But think of these [words merely] as of the outer body of our discourse (to speak as St. Maximus does[66]), and let us now breathe the spirit into it by considering its innermost significances![67]

 

4. This month, then, called Gorpiaios by the Greeks,[68] Thoth by the Egyptians,[69] Elul by the Hebrews,[70] and by us September in the language of the Romans, contains a symbol and a type of both the Old and the New [Testaments], of this transitory life[71] and of the existence to come. And God has showed this through a parable, when He ordered that three festivals should be observed during this month, namely, that of the trumpets, that of the atonement, and that of the tabernacles.[72] And He said to Moses: “On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and lasting seven days, there shall be the festival of tabernacles to the Lord, and you shall present [the Lord’s] offerings by fire and sacrifices for seven days!”[73]

 

5. And the seventh month after Nisan is [precisely] this one, Elul.[74] He also ordered them to sound their trumpets as well as to have a festival and a repose on the first and on the seventh days. And the Law also enjoins taking branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees, of willows and of goodly trees, and in this way rejoice in the holiday.[75]

 

6. Now, the festival of the trumpets is a type of both the prophets and of the knowledge they foretold. The atonement, on the other hand, is a symbol of God’s reconciliation with mankind: the Father put forth as a sacrifice for atonement[76] the One Who assumed the condemned nature, as Paul says.[77] And the [festival] of the tents symbolises the time of the Resurrection,[78] which for us is thrice longed for [as the great Cyril said][79]; this shall rightly happen during the seventh month, for after a seven-fold passing of time the Resurrection is expected,[80] when man will change, through incorruptibility, his abode. Also, the immortal soul is united with the decaying body in the same manner as those celebrating this festival mix together leaf-shedding trees with evergreen ones. I, for one, think that even the injunction concerning the sounding of trumpets refers to the same [meaning], for on the last day, as it is said, “the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised.”[81]

 

7. Perhaps someone wishing to cast some doubt will ask: “And why would this month have been chosen to bear all these symbols of the end of [our] present life and of the mystery of the Resurrection?” Obviously, it is because this month is most appropriate to symbolise them, since not only is it the seventh after Nisan, as my discourse has already shown, but it also marks the disappearance of the crops that had started to grow in spring.

 

8. For you surely realise that the life to come means the end of all that develops through birth and extinction as long as Creation lasts. Furthermore, it is also because the Sun, proceeding through the circle of the zodiac, during this month enters its twelfth [sign], namely, that of the Scales.[82] This probably signifies the justice of the retribution according to God’s impartial judgement. As the month itself is the seventh according to the Hebrews and the first according to our reckoning, the same being both things at once, it thus marks the end of the crops and the beginning of the harvest. We should understand that in the same way this seventh millennium[83] represents on one hand the cessation of birth and extinction, while on the other it announces the beginning of the spiritual harvest, for we shall be placed in that future wine-press. And, as happens there,[84] when healthy and beautiful grapes are put under the press, a sweet and well-scented wine will pour forth, which with the passing of time will develop both beauty and a pleasant odour. However, if the wine is pressed from rotten or sour grapes, it will immediately become spoiled[85] and unfit for drinking, either developing a bad odour or some acid quality, or decaying through some other process of decomposition and producing worms. In the same way at the [time of the] Resurrection, when our deeds, like the grapes, will be passed through the testing fire of Judgement,[86] as in a press, the fruits of the labours of every one of us will be revealed.

 

9. Do you see what great mysteries are contained in this seemingly small holiday and how this month was not uninspiredly called September by the Romans? Not only because it is the seventh in a row (for septe<m> is the Latin name of the number seven), but also because it is holy (septÒj) and venerable (seb£smioj)![87] And think also of how on this day, which is the beginning and the crowning of the year, we celebrate the common feast of many saints who help us to live virtuously throughout the year!

 

10. For on this day we celebrate the memory of the Saviour’s reading in the synagogue, of the holy icon of the Mother of God,[88] of Joshua son of Nun, of the seven bloodless martyrs of Ephesus,[89] of the forty virgins,[90] of Calliste, Euodos, and Hermogenes, brothers in blood and in faith[91]; also, Symeon the Stylite illuminates the feast. All these sanctify the beginning of the year: our Saviour Jesus “blesses the crown of the year”[92]; our most holy Lady, who is worshipped through her icon, intercedes with God on our behalf; Joshua, son of Nun, teaches us that we will follow in the footsteps of the true Jesus if we make haste to destroy the walls of sin as he did with those of Jericho[93]; the seven youths [from Ephesus] consecrate the year which is measured in weeks, thus revealing the mystery of the Resurrection through which they were themselves resurrected after having slept for a long time; mighty Symeon by the example of his column bids us to lift ourselves through virtue from earthly things and to keep our mind set on the heavenly [things]. We shall hardly separate Calliste, Euodos, and Hermogenes, for they were not kept apart either by their characters, or by their thoughts, by their unanimity or by their identical combats. And, indeed, these will most rightly (k£llista) guide us on our path (eÙodèsousi), preserving our harmony (¡rmon…an) with God, “whose offspring (gšnoj) we are,” as the wise has said.[94]

   

11. You have heard the evangelist Luke saying that on this day Christ arrived in his homeland, Nazareth, and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”[95] Come yourself to your own homeland, the spiritual Nazareth,[96] which in the Greek language is translated as “purity”! Come towards a life of purity! This is the homeland and the world, I mean the real homeland and the real world of the soul! If you come towards this, then the Spirit of God is upon you. Let the beginning of the year be the beginning of a purer life for you! Have you been enslaved by some sin until now? Make it end now, at the end of the year! Let the Indiction become for you the beginning of a virtuous way of life! Let us imitate the deeds of the saints, those of the others and those of the holy Symeon, whose Life we have all listened to with admiration! However, the lives of the saints were written not only for the purpose of stirring admiration; nay, through our admiration we should rather be drawn to become their imitators! But someone will say: “Now, how is it possible to imitate him, when his ascetic feats go beyond human nature’s limits?” I will explain it to you in a few words; first, though, I will quickly go through [the events of] his life.

 

12. Even while he was still a child, this great [saint] became a shepherd of sheep. Mind you, he did not live in the company of pigs as that dissolute youth did, who deserted his father’s house and became a swineherd.[97] Nor did he pasture the mules as did Doeg the Edomite.[98] Nor did he learn how to tame horses, but he guarded a flock of sheep in the same way as Moses,[99] Jacob,[100] David,[101] and Amos.[102] When he once entered the church and heard the words of the Gospel, on the advice of some elder, he did not take any account of all the things of this life and he made himself part of the spiritual flock instead of commanding over beasts.

 

13. And, at first, he wrapped a rough rope around his loins. Then, having been discovered, he threw himself into a well, and took to living underground. And when they pulled him out of there, he chose for himself the life of a stylite, being the first ever to do so. He kept increasing the height of his column by small additions, first lifting himself at the height of six cubits, then increasing this until [he reached] thirty-six cubits.[103] Thus, having lifted himself above the ground and having become the author of many miracles (he chased demons, tamed the savage character of the barbarians, and turned many to God), he migrated to the eternal abode and left behind his column as a memorial of his way of life.[104]

 

14. Now, by his example, Saint Symeon teaches us that, while we are still children and at an imperfect spiritual age, we should not live in the company of people of swine-like habits, with those who wallow in the mire of incontinence or with those who shepherd sin like some sterile mules (for, as the race of mules cannot get any offspring from themselves, so vice does not receive its multiplication from God[105]), nor should we have any intercourse with those who, like horses, are crazed with desire for females.[106] On the contrary, we should avoid all these and seek the company of people who share the same thoughts and intentions that we ourselves “shepherd.”

 

15. When all our thoughts will be guarded, like sheep, by the will of the overseeing reason[107] and we shall live in meekness, [only] then will the message of the Gospel illuminate our souls. This will teach us virtue with the help of those ahead of us and will stir us up towards the perfect life, in order that we might distance ourselves from worldly passions and walk the strait and narrow path,[108] wrapping our loins[109] with the rough and difficult life of chastity,[110] and restraining, as if with a rope, the irrational burning [desires] of our loins with the thought of temperance.[111]

 

16. When we shall achieve this, even if we are made known to all and admired by all for our virtue, let us plunge ourselves into the pit of humility! Following the example of that great [saint], let us shun this vain and useless trifle of glory, “for all who humble themselves will be exalted,” as Holy Writ says.[112] The saint was not lifted to the heights of his column before having plunged himself into the dry pit, an exploit which brought upon him enough scorn [from the others]. We shall also not be raised to the heights of virtue unless we [first] embrace humility. And even if we hide ourselves through humility and do not succeed in remaining hidden (for this is true about virtue that the more it tries to hide itself, the more it is revealed[113]), and they will drag us out from the pit, I mean to say that the admirers of virtue will make us known [to the world], let us embrace an even harsher way of life! Let us mount the column of virtue with small steps, first reaching to a height of six cubits; this obviously means that we should make the fundament of our further ascent those six commandments through which the just will inherit the heavenly kingdom. For the King Who sits on the throne of glory will grant the kingdom of heaven to those sitting at His right hand as a reward for having kept the six commandments.[114]

 

17. Therefore, when we shall feed in the flesh, through his poor, the Lord, Who is hungry, and we shall give Him to drink when He is thirsty, and we shall offer Him shelter as to a stranger, and clothe Him, and care for Him when He is suffering in sickness or in prison, then we shall have risen to the six-cubit column!

 

And if we multiply our virtues like a mina or a talent, increasing them through our effort, then the cycle of our virtues will be complete, the hexad of the commandments being multiplied by itself so that the six may become thirty-six. For there, I think, if the column of the great Symeon was raised to this height (as the story goes), it is because this number is a circle, and a triangle, and a square, and it signifies the perfection of his virtue,[115] how he was unshaken in his reverence for the Trinity and how he was crowned with a rounded wreath of virtues.

 

18. Now, if by an ascent of this kind we should also reach such heights, we shall chase away demons, the enemies of our salvation, we shall tame the passions which attack us like barbarians,[116] we shall become our own saviours as well as [those] of many others, and we shall thus enjoy the incorruptible and eternal goods. May it be that all of us attain this through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, to Whom is due all glory, honour, and majesty together with His Father, Who has no beginning, and with the most Holy and Life-giving Ghost, for all time. Amen!