Saint of the Day – 28 March – Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem (Died c450) Priest

Saint of the Day – 28 March – Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem (Died c450) Priest, Exegete, Scholar, Monk, Hermit, Writer. He is not to be confused with Bishop, St Hesychius of Jerusalem, who lived a little time after our Saint today and was a contemporary of St Gregory the Great (540-604).

Hesychius, according to a 9th Century calendar of Saints, was born and educated in Jerusalem, became a Monk and Hermit and was later Ordained a Priest by the Bishop of Jerusalem.

St Cyril of Scythopolis was a 5th Century Greek Monk and Hagiographer who wrote of seven Palestinian Abbots. Although these are remarkable for their richness of detail, there is little distinction between history and tradition. In his Vita of Saint Euthymius, he says that Hesychius was one of the group who came from Jerusalem in 429 to be present at the Consecration of the Monastery Church in Laura which was built by St Euthymius. Hesychius is described as a learned Priest and Teacher in the Church in Jerusalem. He was, therefore, well known to his contemporaries and it was natural for them to see him in the bishop’s company.

Hesychius lived under three Bishops, John, Praylius and Juvenal and he would have met and known Saints Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria, Melania the Younger and Peter the Iberian. Unlike them, however, there is very little trace of the polemical in his own writings. Bishop John of Jerusalem, who seems to have been a righteous person, was reluctant to condemn a heretic until he had heard what he had to say in his defence. He seems to have invited Pelagius to Jerusalem, but there is nothing about it in Hesychius’ writings – nor anything about the Arian controversies which tore the Church apart between the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).

Like Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Hesychius concentrated his interest in Scripture but within the framework of the Liturgy which allowed him to develop its themes and equipped him with its vocabulary. He avoids exegetical trivia or personal digressions. He explains – “Scripture is perfect wisdom, starting point and point of arrival, to which our whole existence should be adapted.”

His Easter sermons were probably delivered in the Martyrium, the open room in Constantine’s Basilica believed to be the site of the Crucifixion. They fittingly hailed the Cross, the instrument of victory for the Resurrected Christ, whose Resurrection is a guarantee of our own. He makes interesting references to the Easter cCndle, to Christ as the Light which was placed on the lamppost of the Cross. Christ is also the herald of the Resurrection, where he is revealed as both God and Man.

Hesychius has been described as an “almost anonymous testimony to the Christian tradition,” such was his modesty and lack of self-aggrandisement. Furthermore, due to the accidents and coincidences of history, only a fraction of his works have been preserved. Saint Basil tells us that Hesychius wrote a commentary on the entire Scriptures but only the commentaries on Leviticus and the Psalms have been preserved. In addition to these, he has left meditations on Job, a few sermons on the Presentation of the Lord, some fragments on the Prophets and some sermons on the Virgin Mary, whose eternal virginity and perfect purity he praises: “You have guarded the integrity of the temple [of your body]; you have kept your tabernacle free from all sin, so that the Father becomes your guest, the Holy Ghost overshadows you and the Only-begotten Son Incarnate is born of you.” These works open up for us a unified view of Scripture which goes in the direction of and finds its culmination in the person of Christ: “The Mystery of the Incarnation goes from the beginning into the perspective of the first creation.”

His Eucharistic teaching is, like Cyril of Alexandria, strongly realistic: “A person can, through ignorance, perceive the Mystery and yet not be aware of how powerful and awe-inspiring it is and, without realising that it is, in truth ,[Christ’s] Body and Blood.” The Eucharist is a sacrifice, identical to that on the Cross: “He was sacrificed beforehand by His own Hands in the Mystical meal where He took the Bread and broke it and then, on the Cross, when He was nailed to the tree, ” nevertheless, “if it had not been hung on the Cross, we would never have understood the Mystical Body of Christ.” Not only do we eat the Body of Christ but, we eat the same “memory of His suffering ” that encourages us to identify ourselves with that suffering. Christ is present to transform us through our inner absorption of His whole Being, Divine Word and Sacrificial Lamb. The whole Christian life is, in reality, nothing but God’s grace which triggers our personal fidelity: “Keep yourselves free from sin so that you may daily partake of the mystical meal; in doing so, our bodies become the Body of Christ!”

Saint Hesychius may have lived long enough to experience the Council of Chalcedon in 451 but he probably died around the year 450 (other sources say about 433). His memorial day is today, 28 March.