ESICHIO di GERUSALEMME. — Monk and priest, who devoted the first half of the fifth century to his activity as preacher and writer; the dates of his birth and death are uncertain, though it is known that he survived the Council of Chalcedon (451). His deeds and writings have not yet all emerged from the crucible of criticism.
The following works by him have come down to us: 1) complete, but only in an ancient Latin translation, a lengthy Commentary on Leviticus (PG 93, 787–1180), of ascetic-moral inspiration, though not lacking philological observations; 2) incomplete and only in an Armenian version (published by the Mechitarists, Venice 1913), a similar Commentary on Job (chs. 1–20) in 24 homilies; 3) in the Greek text, brief Glosses on the Minor Prophets and on Iunii, for the most part still unpublished; 4) on the Psalms he seems to have written at least two works: a substantial commentary, which has come down to us incomplete and has been published only in part (PG 93, 1179–1340 and 55, 712–84), and brief glosses, similar to those on the prophets, published earlier under the name of s. Atanasio (thus ibid., 27, 649–1344), subsequently claimed simultaneously (1901) for E. by M. Faulhaber and G. Mercati (later cardinals), and now called into question by Card. Mercati himself in favor of an Ephraim (Sull'autore del De titulis psalmorum, in Orientalia christiana periodica, 10 [1944], pp. 1–22); the question of the author should be taken up again from the beginning on the basis of the manuscripts; that a third commentary, of intermediate length between the two preceding ones, is by E., as some maintain (R. Devreese, Chaines exégétiques grecques, in DBs, I, col. 1135), does not seem probable. In addition to these, E. commented on other books of the Bible (he himself refers to an exposition of Ezekiel: PG 93, 998); but only the faintest traces of them remain. The statement of a Greek menologion (ibid., 117, 373) that E. interpreted and expounded all of Holy Scripture cannot be taken literally unless it is understood as referring to oral exposition from the pulpit. A fluent and esteemed orator, E. also composed many sermons, only a small portion of which has come down to us; in addition, a four-book ecclesiastical history of his own time, of which only a brief fragment remains.
As an expositor of the Bible, E. is a convinced allegorist, predominantly practical in orientation, but with not infrequent theological observations. In dogma he is a resolute champion of Catholic truth against the Arians and Apollinarians; in other respects too, his Christology does not depart from pure orthodoxy. By two opposing parties, a Monophysite (Giovanni di Maiuma) and a Catholic (Pelagio diacono, later pope), E. is described as a friend of Eutyches and hostile to the Council of Chalcedon. If the facts are accurately reported, this must have involved some misstep or passing error subsequently corrected; otherwise it cannot be explained how E. came to be 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).