Silvanus of Gaza
{{Short description|5th century Palestinian hermit}}
{{For|the 4th century bishop, saint and martyr|Silvanus of Gaza (hieromartyr)}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix=Abba
| name = Silvanus
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| birth_place = Palestine
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| residence = Scetes
| death_date = before 414 AD
| death_place = Gaza
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| canonized_date = Pre-Congregation
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| influenced = Zeno the Prophet
| tradition = Fathers of the desert
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Abba Silvanus (died before 414) was a Palestinian Christian monk who lived during the 4th and 5th centuries. He was one of the Desert Fathers.{{cite book|last=Ward|first=Benedicta|title=The sayings of the Desert Fathers: the alphabetical collection|publisher=Cistercian Publications|publication-place=Kalamazoo, MI|year=1984|isbn=0-87907-959-2}}
Biography
=Scetis and Sinai=
Silvanus was born in Palestine. He led a community of 12 disciples in Scetis, Egypt, among them Zacharias, Mark the Calligrapher, Netras (later bishop of Paran) and Zeno.{{cite book |last1=Chryssavgis |first1=John |title=In the Heart of the Desert The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers : with a Translation of Abba Zosimas' Reflections |date=2008 |publisher=World Wisdom, Incorporated |isbn=9781933316567 |pages=112–115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=goeFHFiL2h0C |access-date=12 November 2023}} According to his hagiography, he was blessed with the gift of prophecy, guessing the questions of his disciples and knowing their sins before they confessed them.{{cite book |last1=Bitton-Ashkelony |first1=Brouria |last2=Kofsky |first2=Aryeh |title=The Monastic School of Gaza |date=February 2006 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789047408444 |pages=17–18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hOx5DwAAQBAJ |access-date=12 November 2023}}
Following the incursion of barbarian tribes into Egypt in 380, the group moved from Scetis to Sinai where they stayed for around a decade or at least enough for Silvanus to become famous and have people visit him from Egypt.{{cite book |last1=Chryssavgis |first1=John |title=John Climacus From the Egyptian Desert to the Sinaite Mountain |date=March 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781351925211 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amhBDgAAQBAJ |access-date=12 November 2023}} The group seems to have enjoyed to host visitors and tended to a garden.
=Life in Gaza=
Later (around 390) Silvanus and his disciples moved to Gaza where they settled along the Gerar river.{{cite book |last1=Kofsky |first1=Arieh |last2=Bitton-Ashkelony |first2=Bruria |title=Christian Gaza in Late Antiquity |date=2004 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004138681 |pages=70–72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lA9VwVwoyiAC |access-date=12 November 2023}} Here, they followed the model of the eremitic monasteries of Scetis and build several hermit cells along the watercourse with a church and domestic building that served the needs of the community, similar to the lauras of the Judean Desert. During the week they occupied themselves with prayer and various forms of manual labour while on Saturdays and Sundays they gathered for communal prayers and meals and Silvanus would visit the other monks.
Silvanus died sometime before 414 A.D. and was succeeded by Zacharias, one of his disciples.{{cite book|last=Harmless|first=William|title=Desert Christians: an introduction to the literature of early monasticism|publisher=Oxford University Press|publication-place=Oxford New York|year=2004|isbn=0-19-516222-6}} Zeno, one of Silvanus' disciples and later teacher of Peter the Iberian, founded another monastery two kilometres south-east of Silvanus' monastery in ca. 440.
References
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