DISHYPATOS, DAVID. - Byzantine polemicist of the 14th century. The particulars of his life are unknown; it is certain, however, that he was a native of Thessalonica and that he probably embraced the monastic life in the monastery of St. Athanasius on Mount Athos. Du Cange makes him a member of the noble Dishypatos family (cf. Historia Byzantina, I, Familiae Augustae Byzantinae, Venice 1729, p. 207). In the struggles over Hesychasm, to whose doctrines he had wholly devoted himself, he had frequent dealings with the most prominent figures of the Byzantine court and with the emperors themselves.

It was precisely in order to explain to the empress Anna Palaiologina (Joan of Savoy) the impassioned controversies between Palamas and Akindynos, his contemporaries, that, at her request, he wrote a brief and objective account of the historical and doctrinal beginnings of that dispute. Knowledge of this work, published first by Uspensky and then critically by Candal, is of importance for the ideological history of Palamism. D. also wrote two other Palamite treatises, one of them in iambic meter, against Akindynos and the Calabrian Barlaam.

Bibliography

BIBL.: E. Candal, Origen ideológico del palamismo en un documento de D. D., in Miscelánea Comillas, I (1943), pp. 487-525.

Emanuele Candal

@incollection{ec4_davide_dishypatos, author = {Candal, Emanuele}, title = {Davide Dishypatos}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1247}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/davide-dishypatos} }

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Dishypatos, David

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