LEONZIO DI NEAPOLI

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Image from page 709

LEONTIUS of Neapoli. – Bishop of Neapoli in Cyprus, died around 650. He moved under Patriarch John the Almoner (d. 619) from Cyprus to Alexandria. He was a friend of John Moschus and Sophronius, later Patriarch of Jerusalem.

At the Seventh Council (787), some of his homilies were mentioned, and other works are attributed to him in manuscripts. The question of authenticity has not yet been clarified. He wrote several lives of Byzantine saints, the most famous of which is that of John the Almoner. There is also the life of St. Simeon Salos, who lived in Syria at the time of Justinian, while his life of Spyridon of Trimithus (v. P. Heseler, Byzantinisch-neugriechische Jahrbücher, IX, Athens 1933, pp. 113 sq) has not survived. Only the reworking by Simeon Metaphrastes remains. Some fragments survive of his work against the Jews.

Bibl.: Ed.: PG 93, 1559–1748; Leben des hl. Johannes des Barmherzigen, ed. H. Gelzer (Sammlung ausgewählter kirchen- und dogmengesch. Quellenschriften, 5), Freiburg 1893. Studies: A. Ehrhard, in Krumbacher, pp. 190 sq.; H. Gelzer, Ein griechischer Volksschriftsteller des 7. Jahrhunderts, in Historische Zeitschrift, new series, 25 (1889), pp. 1 sq.; G. Graf, Geschichte der christl. arabischen Literatur, I, Vatican City 1944, p. 409.

Erik Peterson