XENITEIA. — A Greek term (ξενιτεία, “sojourn in a foreign land,” hence “exile”) denoting separation from one’s land of origin, and subsequently the ascetic renunciation of one who transforms his life into a “pilgrimage.”
Following the example of Abraham (Gen. 21:23; 23:4), Moses (Ex. 2:22; Act. 7:29), and Israel, whom God delivered from the pagan world (Sup. 18:3; Hab. 3:16: παρενία is synonymous with x.), every Christian is and must feel himself to be a “stranger” (ξένος) and an “alien” (παρενός): 1 Pt. 1:1; 2:11; Hebr. 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., continually wandering from place to place. It was a burdensome penance, all the more so because in the ancient world the stranger was generally regarded as an enemy, deprived of rights, “in misery” (egens = ex-gens, according to Festus; cf. Plato, Leg., V, 729 e). St. John Climacus (Scala Par.: PG 88, 664) explains that x., the deprivation of all the 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 to touch the world one has abandoned. Ambrose Autpert (d. 781) responds to those who assert, citing Mt. 13:57, that no one can sanctify himself in his own homeland (Conf. cit. et virt., 28: PL 40, 1104–1106); he thus documents 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, when he was dying, wished this to be remembered on his tomb (Vita s. Nili jun.: PG 120, 130 and 161).