- Antiochus of Palestine
Antiochus of Palestine was a
7th century monk .He is believed to have been born near Ancyra (now Ankara, Turkey). He lived first as a
solitary , then became a monk andAbbot of the famous laura or monastery of St. Saba nearJerusalem . He witnessed the Persian invasion ofPalestine in 614, and the massacre of forty-four of his companions by theBedouin s.In 619, five years after the conquest of the
Holy Land by Chosroes, Ancyra was taken and destroyed by the Persians, which compelled the monks of the neighbouring monastery of Attaline to leave their home, and to move from place to place. As they were, naturally, unable to carry many books with them, the Abbot Eustathius asked his friend Antiochus to compile an abridgment ofHoly Scripture for their use, and also a short account of themartyr dom of the forty-four monks of St. Sabbas.In compliance with this request he wrote a work known as "Pandects of Holy Scripture" (in 130 chapters, mistaken by the Latin translator for as many homilies). It is a collection of moral sentences, drawn from Scripture and from early ecclesiastical writers. He also wrote an "Exomologesis" or prayer, in which he relates the miseries that had befallen Jerusalem since the Persian invasion, and begs the divine mercy to heal the Holy City's many ills. These works seem to have been written in the period between the conquest of Palestine by Chosroes and its reconquest by the Emperor
Heraclius in 628.The introductory chapter of the "Pandects" tells of the martyrdom referred to; its last chapter contains a list of heretics from
Simon Magus to the Monophysite followers ofSeverus of Antioch . The book is of special value for its extracts of works no longer existing; the writer had an interest, then uncommon, in early Christian literature.ource
*Catholic
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01574a.htm Atiochus of Palestine] at Catholic Encyclopedia
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