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» For the Bulgarian enlightener see Sophronius of Vratsa.
Sophronius (born
560 in
Damascus - died
March 11,
638 in
Jerusalem) was the
Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem from
634 until his death, and is venerated as a
saint in the
Eastern Orthodox Church. Before rising to the primacy of the
see of Jerusalem, he was a
monk and
theologian who was the chief protagonist for
orthodox teaching in the doctrinal controversy on the essential nature of
Jesus and his volitional acts. Bishop Sophronius was of
Arab descent.
A teacher of
rhetoric, Sophronius became an
ascetic in
Egypt about
580 and then entered the
monastery of St. Theodosius near
Bethlehem. Traveling to monastic centres in
Asia Minor, Egypt, and
Rome, he accompanied the
Byzantine chronicler
John Moschus, who dedicated to him his celebrated tract on the religious life,
Leimõn ho Leimõnon (Greek: “The Spiritual Meadow”). On the death of Moschus in Rome in
619, Sophronius accompanied the body back to Jerusalem for monastic burial. He traveled to
Alexandria, Egypt, and to
Constantinople in the year
633 to persuade the respective patriarchs to renounce
Monothelitism, a heterodox teaching that espoused a single, divine will in Christ to the exclusion of a human capacity for choice. Sophronius' extensive writings on this question are all lost.
Although unsuccessful in this mission, Sophronius was elected patriarch of Jerusalem in 634. Soon after his enthronement he forwarded his noted synodical letter to
Pope Honorius I and to the Eastern patriarchs, explaining the orthodox belief in the two natures, human and divine, of Christ, as opposed to Monothelitism, which he viewed as a subtle form of heretical
Monophysitism (which posited a single [divine] nature for Christ). Moreover, he composed a
Florilegium (“Anthology”) of some 600 texts from the Greek Church Fathers in favour of the orthodox tenet of
Dyotheletism (positing both human and divine wills in Christ). This document also is lost.
In his
Christmas sermon of 634, Sophronius was more concerned with keeping the clergy in line with the
Chalcedonian view of god, giving only the most conventional of warnings of the
Muslim-
Arab advance on
Palestine, commenting that the Arabs already controlled Bethlehem. Sophronius, who viewed the Muslim control of Palestine as "unwitting representatives of God's inevitable chastisement of weak and wavering Christians", died soon after the fall of Jerusalem to the
caliph Umar I in
637, but not before he'd negotiated the recognition of civil and religious liberty for Christians in exchange for tribute - an agreement known as
Umari Treaty. The caliph himself came to Jerusalem, and met with the patriarch at the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Sophronius invited Umar to pray there, but Umar declined, fearing to endanger the Church's status as a Christian temple. Reportedly, The reason behind this welcoming reception from Sophronius was that-according to biblical prophecies known to the Christian church in Jerusalem at that time-he learned of a time when a humble-but just and powerful-man will come riding a donkey (this description matched the Umar at the time of his arrival) and will actually prove to be a protector and an ally to the Christians of Jerusalem.
Beside
polemics, Sophronius' writings included an encomium on the Alexandrian martyrs
Cyrus and
John in gratitude for an extraordinary cure of his failing vision. He also wrote 23
Anacreontic (classical metre) poems on such themes as the Arab siege of Jerusalem and on various
liturgical celebrations. His
Anacreontica 19 and 20
seem to be an expression of the longing desire he'd of the Holy City, possibly when he was absent from Jerusalem during one of his many journeys. The order of the two poems has to be inverted to establish a correct sequence of the diverse subjects. Arranged in this way, the two poems describe a complete circuit throughout the most important sanctuaries of Jerusalem at the end of 6th century, described as the golden age of Christianity in the
Holy Land. Themes of Anacreonticon 20 include the gates of Jerusalem (or Solyma), the
Anastasis, the
Rock of the Cross, the
Constantinian Basilica,
Mount Sion, the
Praetorium,
St. Mary at the Probatica, and
Gethsemane. The
Mount of Olives, Bethany, and Bethlehem come next in Anacreonticon 19.
The date and the circumstances of the death of Sophronius remain unclear. A neglected Latin text, the passion of the 60 martyrs of Gaza, suggests that he was executed by the Muslim authorities in Jerusalem in early 640 because of his role in persuading 60 Byzantine soldiers captured at Gaza not to convert to Islam in order to save their lives.
Bibliography
D. Woods, 'The 60 Martyrs of Gaza and the Martyrdom of Bishop Sophronius of Jerusalem’,
ARAM Periodical 15 (2003), 129-50. Reprinted in M. Bonner (ed.),
Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times (Aldershot, 2005), 429-50.
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