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  • The Man of God of Edessa, Bishop Rabbula, and the Urban Poor: Church and Society in the Fifth Century
  • Han J. W. Drijvers (bio)

The history of the Man of God from the city of Rome who was victorious and crowned by works of poverty in the city of Edessa in the days of the illustrious and holy priest Mar Rabbula, bishop of this city of Edessa, 1 as the heading of the Syriac text reads, is the earliest version of the well-known medieval legend of Saint Alexius. 2 The saint, offspring of a very wealthy Roman family, hated riches and choose a life of complete renunciation of worldly goods and of fasting. He ought to be called an angel, the hagiographer tells us, because he despised all the pleasures of this world. 3 [End Page 235]

His parents possessed all the wealth and fame of this world, but their marriage was childless. Through many prayers, tears, and vows they at last got a son, who would become our saint. When this boy had reached the appropriate age, he was sent to school but did not pay any attention to mundane knowledge and instead devoted himself very seriously to the study of more lasting divine things. His father and mother were rather worried about this strange behaviour and, believing him to be simple-minded, tried to cheer him up by sending him beautiful slave girls which he, however, with lowered eyes sent away. His parents, however, did not give up their hope—most parents never do—found him a wife and arranged a pompous wedding to which the entire city was invited. The first day of the wedding feast, when the bride was to arrive and make her appearance, the bridegroom asked one of his best men to accompany him to the harbor. There the bridegroom took a walk all alone and prayed to God for the fulfilment of his true desire, a chaste life. God sent a ship at his prayer; he boarded it, and it brought him to Seleucia, the harbour of Antioch in Syria. 4 He traveled eastwards and at last arrived in Edessa, the city of the Parthians, where he spent the rest of his life begging. During the daytime he stayed in the church. Although a beggar he accepted nothing from anybody and spent the day fasting. At the beginning of the evening he took a standing-place at the door of the church and begged for alms from the devout. When he, however, had received enough for a simple daily meal, he closed his hand. When eventually he had got more than he needed, he gave the surplus to the poor, who abided in the church yard and among whom he lived. At night, when all the other poor were asleep, he stood up and passed the night praying, standing against a wall or a column with outstretched arms in the form of a cross. 5 Before dawn he entered the church to attend the first service, the officium nocturnum, and stayed there during the rest of the day. He told nobody about his former status and grandeur and did not even reveal his name, so that no one could discover his former glory. The saint’s parents naturally were overwhelmed by grief about their prodigal son and despatched their slaves to search for him in all harbours and in all countries. A Christian slave, one of the [End Page 236] saint’s former servants, arrived at Edessa in his search and informed Rabbula, the glorious Edessene bishop, about the Man of God and his high descent. But Rabbula obviously could not find him and did not even believe this strange story. Needless to say, the servants did not recognize their former master in the humble beggar in rags who stood at the entrance of the church. One night, however, the paramonarius, the doorkeeper of the church saw the humble saint standing and praying with outstretched arms like the crucified among the sleeping poor. Once his attention was drawn to it, he observed the same scene every night, so that he at last approached the saint and asked him from where he was...

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