XENITEIA. — A Greek term (ξενιτεία, “sojourn in a foreign land,” hence “exile”) indicating detachment from one’s native soil, and later the ascetic renunciation of those who make of their life a “pilgrimage.”
Following the example of Abraham (Gen. 21:23; 23:4), of Moses (Ex. 2:22; Acts 7:29), and of Israel delivered by God from the pagan world (Wis. 18:3; Hab. 3:16; παράνοια is a synonym of x.), every Christian is and must feel himself a “stranger” (ξένος) and “sojourner” (παρανοίας): 1 Pt. 1:1; 2:11; Heb. 11:13; 13:14; his homeland is the city of God and of the saints (Eph. 2:19; Phil. 3:20). Many ascetics of antiquity practiced voluntary x., ever wandering. It was a severe penance, all the more so because in the ancient world the stranger was usually regarded as an enemy, devoid of rights, “in want” (egens = ex-gens according to Festus; cf. Plato, Laws, V, 729e). St. John Climacus (Scala Paradisi: PG 88, 664) explains that x., the deprivation of all comforts that make us forget “the homeland,” is the mother of indifference, but exhorts one to “avoid the wandering and voluptuous demon” and never again touch the world one has abandoned. Ambrose Autpert (d. 781) replies to those who, citing Mt. 13:57, affirm that no one can be sanctified in his own homeland (Conf. vit. et virt., 28: PL 40, 1104–1106), thus documenting the tendency of Benedictine monasticism toward “stabilitas loci,” in contrast to Celtic monasticism, which favored emigration to distant lands. St. Nilus of Rossano (d. 1005) described his life as a continual x., and on his deathbed asked that this be inscribed on his tomb (Vita s. Nili jun.: PG 120, 130e and 161).