Primary source · Koine Greek

The Religious History (Historia Religiosa)

Name: The Religious History (Historia Religiosa)
Author: Theodoret of Cyrus

Theodoret of Cyrus · c. AD 440

Patrologia Graeca, vol. 82 (Migne) — manuscript witness to The Religious History (Historia Religiosa) — Patrologia Graeca, vol. 82 (Migne) — 1859Eastern Orthodox St. Fathers and other notable Christian writers · Public domain · Commons

What this text is

Thirty lives of the Syrian ascetics Theodoret knew from childhood — James of Nisibis at the head, stylites and cave-dwellers — the desert tradition in its Syrian dress.

Profile of Theodoret of Cyrus →

Public-domain translations

Literal gloss of the Greek (ch. 1)

James, that great luminary, adorned the see of Nisibis; and being present at the great council of Nicaea, he stood with the champions of the truth. When war encircled his city, his prayer was its wall.

Manuscript witnesses

Byzantine hagiographic tradition

10th c. onward

The Historia Religiosa — Theodoret's eyewitness gallery, from Julian Saba to Symeon on his pillar.

PRINCIPAL WITNESSES

Patrologia Graeca, vol. 82 (Migne)

1859

Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.

PRINTED PROXY

Provenance

Cyrrhus, c. AD 440 — thirty lives of the Syrian ascetics, many known to the author

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Théodoret de Cyr: Histoire des moines de Syrie (SC 234, 257)
Pierre Canivet & Alice Leroy-Molinghen, 1977–1979
The critical edition with French translation.
A History of the Monks of Syria
R. M. Price, 1985
The standard English translation (Cistercian Studies 88) — catalogued here, not quoted; the archive's excerpts are independent working translations from the Greek.