Enciclopedia Cattolica

GERMANO

Germanus

Volume VI · p. 127 · 1951

English translation · Testo originale italiano

GERMANO. - Amico di Cassiano, di cui questi parla nelle sue opere. Fu suo compagno fin dall'adolescenza e con lui in giovanissima età entrò nel monastero di Betlemme verso il 377-78.
GERMANO. - Amico di Cassiano, di cui questi parla nelle sue opere. Fu suo compagno fin dall'adolescenza e con lui in giovanissima età entrò nel monastero di Betlemme verso il 377-78.
Image from page 127
Image from page 127

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

He remained there until 385, and from that time onward he accompanied Cassian on his travels. Cassian calls him “the holy abbot G.” and frequently introduces him as an interlocutor in his ascetical and spiritual conferences with the great Fathers of the desert, praising his spirit of prayer and mortification. Cassian repeatedly emphasizes the great friendship and intimacy that had bound them for many years. Germanus probably died toward the beginning of the year 400, since after that date—after his meeting with St. John Chrysostom in Constantinople—Cassian no longer mentions him.

BIBL.: Works of Cassian, passim (PL 49–50; CSEL, 13, 15); Palladius, *Historia Lausiaca*, ed. C. Butler, 2 vols., Cambridge 1808–1904; L. Cristiani, *Cassien*, 2 vols., Paris 1946.