HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM. - Monk and priest, who filled the first half of the 5th century with his activity as preacher and writer; the dates of his birth and death are uncertain, but it is known that he survived the Council of Chalcedon (451). His acts and his writings have not all yet emerged from the crucible of criticism.
There have come down to us from him: 1) complete, but only in an ancient Latin translation, a voluminous Commentary on Leviticus (PG 93, 787-1180), of ascetico-moral inspiration, but not without philological insights; 2) incomplete and only in an Armenian version (published by the Mechitarists, Venice 1913) a similar Commentary on Job (chapters 1-20) in 24 homilies; 3) in the Greek text, brief Glosses on the minor prophets and on Junius, for the most part still unpublished; 4) on the Psalms he seems to have written at least two works; a large commentary that has come down incomplete and only partly published (PG 93, 1179-1340 and 55, 712-84) and brief glosses, similar to those on the prophets, published first under the name of St. Athanasius (thus ibid., 27, 649-1344), claimed later, simultaneously (1901), by M. Faulhaber and G. Mercati (future cardinals) for H., and now by the same Card. Mercati placed again in doubt in the name of an Ephraim (Sull'autore del De titulis psalmorum, in Orientalia christiana periodica, 10 [1944], pp. 1-22); the question of the author would need to be taken up again from scratch on the basis of the manuscripts; that a third commentary is by H., of intermediate length between the two preceding ones, as some maintain (R. Devreesse, Chaînes exégétiques grecques, in DBs, I, col. 1135) does not seem probable. Besides these, H. commented on other books of the Bible (he himself refers to an exposition of his on Ezekiel: PG 93, 998); but only very faint traces of it remain. The statement of a Greek menologion (ibid., 117, 373) that H. interpreted and expounded the whole of Sacred Scripture cannot be taken literally unless it is understood as done orally from the pulpit. A fluent and esteemed orator, H. also composed many sermons, only a small part of which have come down to us; furthermore an ecclesiastical history of his time in four books, of which only a brief fragment remains.
As an expositor of the Bible H. is a convinced allegorist, of predominantly practical bent but with not infrequent theological passages. In dogma he is a decided champion of the Catholic truth against the Arians and the Apollinarists; but even in the rest his Christology does not depart from pure orthodoxy. From two opposing sides, a Monophysite (John of Maiuma) and a Catholic (Pelagius the deacon, later pope), H. is described as a friend of Eutyches and opposed to the Council of Chalcedon. If the facts are accurately reported, it must be a question of some misstep or passing fault later amended; otherwise it cannot be explained how H. was honored as a saint by Catholics; the Greek synaxaria commemorate him on 28 March, and the anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza around 570 attests the existence of a church or chapel in his honor at the main gate of Jerusalem (Itinerarium Antonini, ch. 27).
Bibliography7 works
Alberto Vaccari