The Monastic School of Gaza
Creators: name: Alexopoulos, Lampros
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2022

description: The Monastic School of Gaza was a monastic intellectual community flourished in the region of Gaza toward the end of the fourth century and in the first half of the fifth. It produced a wealth of literary works, such as monastic instructions, historical and hagiographic treatises, letters etc., and exhibited some of the most prominent figures of Eastern Christian monasticism. This monastic community is depicted as a “school” due to the fact that the central figures of Gazan monasticism displayed an intense interest in pedagogy, mainly in the ethical formation of the monks. The spiritual exercises, the moral progress and didactic methods reflect sustained at the monasteries reflect a pedagogic practice that bear close resemblance to training in the philosophical schools of Greco-Roman antiquity. There were several significant historical events in Egypt that led to the establishment and the intellectual blossoming of monasticism at Gaza, which soon became the stronghold of anti-Chalcedonian resistance in Palestine. More specifically, at the end of the fourth century, the Origenist controversy caused turbulence to Egyptian desert monasticism. Monks that were suspected as adherents of Origenistic views and beliefs were persecuted. Several of the monks that fled the area known as Scetis (the region of Wadi El Natrun, Arabic for “Natron Valley”, a valley located in Beheira Governorate, Egypt) found refuge in the Gaza area. In addition, during the first half of the fifth century, the invasion of the Mazices, tribes of Berbers of North Africa, reduced the numbers of the monks at the monastic center at Scetis. Many of these monks wandered beyond the Egyptian border and ended up in the Gaza area. Two are the claimants to the title of the founder of Palestinian monasticism: Chariton and Hilarion. Chariton, originating from Iconium in Asia Minor, came to the Judean Desert at the beginning of the fourth century and died in the laura at Faran, near Jerusalem, in the middle of the same century. According to St. Jerome, however, who traveled in the area at the end of the fourth century, it was Hilarion the one who introduced monasticism to Palestine. Hilarion was born around 291/2 in the village of Thabatha, south of Gaza, and died in Cyprus in 371. Another prominent figure of the Monastic School of Gaza was Abba Isaiah, an Egyptian monk who began his monastic life in a coenobium and later secluded himself in the desert. He drew many admirers, and in order to avoid them he decided to emigrate to Palestine. He finally withdrew to the Gaza region, in the second half of the fifth century, most probably near Beth Dallatha, in an effort to escape the hordes of admirers who congregated at his door seeking assistance and spiritual direction. Abba Isaiah introduced a significant shift in Gaza monasticism, revolutionizing its patterns of leadership and affecting every aspects of its life. In the years after the Council of Chalcedon (451) he established a coenobium that incorporated forms of lauritic monasticism and forged a pattern of spiritual leadership that continued in the first half of the sixth century among the monastic circle of Gaza under Barsanuphius and John. Abba Isaiah became one of the leaders of the anti-Chalcedonian opposition in Palestine. He died in his monastery in 491. During the same time, Peter the Iberian, an Iberian prince and former political hostage at the royal court of Constantinople, founded his monastery at Bethlehem (430). Consecrated as bishop of Maiuma in 452, he escaped to Egypt due to a decree of a local ruler that banished all the anti-Chalcedonian bishops. In the early 470s, Peter moved to Palestine where he continued ascetic activities, acquiring great fame as a holy Father. The appointment of Peter’s disciple, Severus, as Patriarch of Antioch, marked the end of the anti- Chalcedonian monastic center of Gaza. Until that time, a fairly extensive network of anti-Chalcedonian monasteries existed in the area, extending northward toward Caesarea from the region to the south and east of Gaza, including the enclave of the Eleutheropolis area, which apparently constituted the geographic base for the anti-Chalcedonian resistance in Palestine. Anti-Chalcedonian monasteries also existed in Maiuma, Caphar She'artha, Migdal Thabatha, Kanopis, Beth Dallatha, Gerar and Peleia near Ascalon. But the rise of the Chalcedonian emperor Justin (518) and his nephew Justinian and the changing politico-ecclesiastical climate led to the expulsion of anti-Chalcedonian bishops and monks from the region. Hence, the stage of the next generation of Gaza monasticism became Thabatha. There, at the first half of the sixth century, Barsanuphius and John, their disciple Dorotheus of Gaza and Abba Seridus, had their monastery. This community accepted the Council of Chalcedon, at least externally, and apparently preferred to withdraw into monastic piety. With the Islamic conquest, the historical sources fell silent and the monastic community of Gaza sank into oblivion.