MOSCO, GIOVANNI. - Monk and hagiographer, also called ὁ εὐκρατὰς (= the abstinent), b. probably at Damascus around the middle of the 6th century, d. at Rome in 619.
He lived as a monk in the monastery of St. Theodosius at Jerusalem; then among the hermits of the Jordan valley; then in the new "laura" of St. Sabas, near Bethlehem. Around 570 he went to Egypt with the monk Sophronius (the future patriarch of Jerusalem); having returned, he remained ten years on Mount Sinai (583-93), from there he passed again into Egypt, until in 614 he set out for Rome, where he wrote his work and died. He had the opportunity, during these many journeys, to visit the numerous monasteries and eremitic colonies of Egypt and Palestine and to listen to the most famous ascetics. Sophronius carried his body to Jerusalem, to the monastery of St. Theodore.
M.'s work, entitled Λειμώνα or Λειμωνάριον (= spiritual meadow) and often called Παράδεισος or Νέος Παράδεισος (= garden, new garden), formed the most widespread ascetic and edifying reading of the Middle Ages. In it M. narrates, in a simple manner and in popular language, a series of episodes concerning the life of the monks, either seen directly or heard told by the ascetics he had met; and although ecstasies and miracles abound in it and an exact criterion of selection is lacking, nevertheless the work remains very important for the information on worship and liturgical ceremonies in the monasteries and on the various heresies then threatening the unity of the Church. M. also wrote, in cooperation with Sophronius, a life of St. John the Almsgiver, of which a portion remains in the first chapter of the Vita s. Johannis Eleemosynarii by Leontius of Naples, under the name of Simeon Metaphrastes.
Bibliography
2851-3112; Latin version by Ambrogio Traversari (Venice 1475; Vicenza 1479; PL 74, 121-240); French version M. J. Rouet de Journel, Jean Moschus. Le pré spirituel (Sources chrétiennes, 12). Paris 1946, with an introduction on the life and doctrine. - Studies: S. Vailhé, Jean Moschus, in Echos d'Orient, 5 (1901), pp. 107-16; id., Saphron le sophiste et Saphron le patriarche, in Rev. de l'Orient chrétien, 7 (1902), pp. 360-83; 8 (1903), pp. 32-69; H. Usener, Der hl. Tycheon, Leipzig 1907, pp. 64-99; N. H. Baynes, The « Pratum spirituale », in Orient. Christ. Periodica, 13 (1937), pp. 404-414; E. Mini, Il « Prato spirituale », ibid., 17 (1951), pp. 61-94.