SOFRONIO DI GERUSALEMME SOFRONIO DI GERUSALEMME, SANTO - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. XI, p. 546

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

SOFRONIO OF JERUSALEM

Sophronius of Jerusalem, Saint — The Saint, shown speaking, with a Gospel in his left hand. Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II (976–1025) — Vatican Library, cod. Vat. gr. 1613, f. 415.

He wrote a Life and Collection of Miracles of the Egyptian Saints Cyrus and John (PG 87, 3, 3377–3676), a rhetorical work of hagiographical refinement. The Life of Mary of Egypt attributed to him (ibid., 3697–3726) is not authentic. Together with John Moschus he composed a biography of the Alexandrian patriarch John the Almoner (d. 619); he also wrote poetry: the Anacreontica (ibid., 3733–3838), which were not intended for liturgical use. Whether he also composed liturgical hymns is debated. Several of his homilies survive, including an important one on the Annunciation to Mary (ibid., 3217–88) and one on the feast of the Nativity (ed. H. Usener, in Rhein. Museum f. Philol., new series, 41 [1886], pp. 500–16; V. on this homily H. Usener, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, I, Bonn 1889, pp. 326 ff. and Phokylides, in Ekklesiastikas Pharos, 1918, pp. 319 ff.).

Bibl.: ed. PG 87, 3, 3147–4014. On Arabic tradition V. Graf, Gesch. der christl.-arabisch. Liter. I. Die Übersetzungen (Studi e testi, 118), Città del Vaticano 1944, pp. 371 ff. On Latin tradition of the work on SS. Cyrus and John V. A. Siegmund, Die Überlieferung der griechisch.-christl. Liter. in der lateinischen Kirchen-München-Pasing 1939, pp. 260 ff. On his doctrine: H. Straubinger, in Der Katholik, 49 (1927), pp. 81 ff., 175 ff., 275 ff.; G. Cosmas, De oeconomia incarnationis secundum s. Sophronium, Roma 1940. On SS. Cyrus and John V. Th. Nissen, in Byzant. Zeitschr., 39 (1939), p. 349 ff.; Anal. Boll., 57 (1939), p. 65 ff.; R. Herzog, in Pisciculi F. J. Doelger dargebracht, Münster 1939, p. 117 ff. On his poetry V. BARDENHEWER, OTTO, V, p. 39 ff.; E. Eustathius, in N. Z. 1934, p. 189 ff. On the text of the homilies V. Th. Nissen, in Byzant. Zeitschr., 39 (1939), p. 89 ff.; V. Th. Nissen, in Byzant. Zeitschr., 4 (1926), pp. 19–68; G. Bardy, Sophrone, in D. Th. XIV, 11, cols. 2370–83; M. Jugie, La mort et l’assomption de la ste Vierge (Studi e testi, 114), Città del Vaticano 1944, pp. 683 ff.; id., L’immaculee conception dans l’Ecriture sainte et dans la tradition orientale, Roma 1952, pp. 99 ff.