Hesychius of Sinai

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Hesychius of Sinai was a monk-priest at Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai and an ascetic writer from the Byzantine period. Very little is known about his life or exact times, but tradition places him in the 7th century. Only fragments of his writings survive, and they have yet to be fully gathered and studied. In manuscripts he is often called “Our Holy Father,” a title used to distinguish him from Hesychius of Jerusalem. He is named in the Greek Orthodox Synaxarion, which assigns him a feast on March 29, and the Roman Catholic Church celebrates him on October 3. His writings show a strong reliance on the Codex Sinaiticus for Bible quotations. A key question for scholars is how much of the material in the Migne edition under the name “Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem” actually belongs to Hesychius of Sinai, especially a collection of about 200 ascetic maxims. The maxims include a pun that identifies the author as Hesychius and a Basilian monk, with some manuscripts dedicating them to Theodulus, which has led to confusion about authorship. It is likely that other ascetic and biblical-ascetic fragments labeled “Our Holy Father Hesychius” also belong to Hesychius of Sinai.