MOSCO, GIOVANNI. — Monk and hagiographer, also called ὁ εὐκρατὰς (= abstinent), born probably in Damascus around the middle of the 6th century, died in Rome in 619.
As a monk, he lived in the monastery of St. Theodore in Jerusalem; then among the hermits of the Jordan Valley; and later in the new “laura” of St. Sabas, near Bethlehem. Around 570 he went to Egypt with the monk Sofronio (the future patriarch of Jerusalem); on his return, he remained for ten years on Mount Sinai (583–93), from there going once more to Egypt, until he departed for Rome in 614, where he wrote his work and died. During these many journeys he had the opportunity to visit the numerous monasteries and hermit colonies of Egypt and Palestine and to listen to the most celebrated ascetics. Sofronio transported his body to Jerusalem, to the monastery of St. Theodore.
M.’s work, entitled Λειμώνα ο Λειμωνάριον (= spiritual meadow) and often called Παράδεισος ο Νέος Παράδεισος (= garden, new garden), became 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 witnessed directly or heard recounted by the ascetics whom he had encountered; and although ecstasies and miracles abound in it, and an exact criterion of selection is lacking, the work nevertheless remains highly important for its information on worship and liturgical ceremonies in the monasteries and on the various heresies that at that time threatened the unity of the Church. M. also wrote, in cooperation with Sofronio, a life of St. Giovanni l’Elemosiniere, a passage from which survives in the first chapter of the Vita s. Johannis Eleemosynarii by Leonzio di Napoli, under the name of Simeone Metafraste.