Palladius of Helenopolis

Saint Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, was a devoted disciple of Saint John Chrysostom and the author of the Lausiac History, the best known collection of lives of the monks of ancient Egypt. He was born in Galatia in 363 or 364 and fell asleep in the Lord in the second decade of the fifth century, or, according to some sources, between 420 and 430. The Church honors him as a hierarch and as the chronicler of the desert fathers.

Youth and travels

Palladius gave himself to monastic life in 386 or soon after, living at first on the Mount of Olives. Wishing to know the struggles of the Fathers of the desert at first hand, he went to Egypt and reached Alexandria in 388. Around 390 he passed on to Nitria and visited the famous monk Or, and a year later he went southwest to Kellia, a great monastic community spread over many kilometers of the Nitrian desert, some forty miles south of Alexandria. He learned from those ascetics and came to know their lives.

Bishop and trials

After these journeys his health failed and he went to Palestine in search of a milder climate. In the year 400 he was ordained bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, and soon became caught up in the controversies around Saint John Chrysostom. In 405 he travelled again to Rome to testify that Chrysostom was not a heretic. For this, Emperor Arcadius exiled him for six years to Syene in Egypt, where he wrote his life of Saint John Chrysostom, in the form of a dialogue. In 412 or 413 he was restored to the episcopate, now as bishop of Aspuna in Galatia.

Writings

His main work, the Lausiac History, was written in 419-420 for Lausus, a chamberlain at the court of Emperor Theodosius II; it is also titled The Lives of the Friends of God. It describes monastic life in Egypt and the Middle East and is a precious source for the beginnings of monasticism. He is also credited with the Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom.

Veneration

Palladius ended his life at Aspuna, in his own diocese. The Church commemorates him on the day of the veneration of all the saints of Egypt, and the Coptic Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox Churches call him "the Solitary" and keep his feast on 29 November.