Thalassius of Syria

Venerable Thalassius of Syria was a hermit in Syria in the fourth and fifth centuries. The news about him is given by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in the twenty-⁠second chapter of his Religious History, and it is very scanty. The Serbian Church commemorates him on 22 February by the old calendar, which is 7 March by the new, together with his disciple Limnaeus.

Thalassius chose as the place of his ascetic labour a hill of medium size, near a village called Tillima, which in earlier times had been a place where the teaching of Marcion was preached. In the time of Thalassius and Theodoret the village was already enlightened by Christian teaching. On the hill he made himself a cell, in which he lived. Theodoret speaks of him with great honour: he calls him a wonderful man, adorned with many good qualities, who surpassed his contemporaries in simplicity of manner, gentleness and humility of mind. Theodoret visited him many times and enjoyed sweet conversations with him. One of his special ascetic labours was silence.

Among the disciples of Thalassius, Theodoret names Limnaeus, who lived long with Thalassius and later went over to Maron. According to the Serbian source, Thalassius died in the year 440, and Limnaeus then struggled on the top of the mountain of Saint Maron, under the open sky.

The commemoration of Thalassius is on the same day as that of Limnaeus. Until the eighteenth century, in the Slavonic Prologues the lives of Thalassius and Limnaeus were placed in a single chapter and were a retelling of the twenty-⁠second chapter of Theodoret's book, in two parts, one for each. The same was done in the Acta Sanctorum. Demetrius of Rostov, in his Reading Menaion, left out the name of Limnaeus and put all the events of the lives of both as events in the life of Thalassius, thus composing a mixed life.