medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
We know about the legendary Egyptian hermit Paul of Thebes (also Paul the Hermit; d. ca. 345, supposedly) through his Vita by St. Jerome (BHL 6596, _Vita Pauli primi eremitae_; several versions in Greek, BHG 1466-1470) and from other sources dependent upon it. Whether Paul is entirely Jerome's invention or else a literary development from now lost oral tradition is unknown and, in the present state of the evidence, unknowable. According to Jerome, during a mid-third-century persecution the sixteen-year-old-Paul, fearing for his life, fled into the Theban desert where he found a cave with a spring and took up residence as an hermit. Almost a century later St. Anthony of Egypt, then twenty-three years of age, received a celestial vision informing him that deep in the desert there dwelt a monk whose monastic way of life was more perfect than his own. Anthony then set out to find this divinely indicated paragon.
After a journey in which Anthony encountered an hippocentaur and a faun or satyr (the former perhaps diabolic, the latter certainly so) he found the one-hundred-and-thirteen-year-old Paul at his cave, wearing a garment stitched together from palm leaves. They conversed, were fed by a raven (cf. 3 Reg 1-7), and on the following day Paul announced that his time on earth was at an end. Anthony saw Paul's soul ascend to heaven; conducting Paul's funeral with hymns and psalms, he buried the saint's body in a hole miraculously dug by two lions. Anthony kept Paul's palm-leaf tunic and always wore it at Easter and at Pentecost. Thus far Jerome, whose Vita of this saint made him a figure of common knowledge, especially in monastic circles.
Herewith some links to period-pertinent images of Paul of Thebes:
a) Paul of Thebes (at left) and St. Anthony of Egypt (second register from bottom) as portrayed on a panel on the north face of the probably eighth-century Ruthwell Cross, Ruthwell Church, Ruthwell (Dumfries and Galloway):
http://tinyurl.com/ou3v88u
b) Paul of Thebes and Anthony of Egypt as portrayed (with crossed staffs) on a panel on the south side of the probably tenth-century Muiredach's High Cross at the former monastery of Monasterboice (county Louth):
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/muiredach/northtop.jpg
c) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right) in a tenth-century fresco from the monastery of St. Sozomenos in Agios Sozomenos, a locality of Potamia (Nicosia prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus, now in the Byzantine Museum in Nicosia:
http://tinyurl.com/n3fvewg
d) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at left in the lower left-hand panel; at right, St. Anthony of Egypt) in a detached portion of a probably mid-tenth-century triptych (painted in Constantinople?) in the Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai, St. Catherine (South Sinai governorate):
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid2/no_dgb/pics/26/large/019133022497_75.jpg
e) Paul of Thebes as depicted (being laid to rest by St. Anthony of Egypt) in the earlier eleventh-century "imperial" menologion for January in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (ms. W. 521, fol. 28r):
http://tinyurl.com/m8g4jan
f) Paul of Thebes and Anthony of Egypt as portrayed (sharing their meal) on an earlier twelfth-century nave capital (ca. 1120-1132) in the basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine at Vézelay:
http://www.medart.pitt.edu/image/france/france-t-to-z/vezelay/capitals-nave/veznave75b.jpg
g) Paul of Thebes as depicted in the earlier twelfth-century frescoes (1140s) of the Transfiguration cathedral of the Mirozh monastery in Pskov:
http://tinyurl.com/nhdvrym
h) Paul of Thebes (highly probably) as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (1164) of the church of St. Panteleimon (Pantaleon) at Gorno Nerezi (Skopje municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/z4ervgn
i) Paul of Thebes as depicted in a late twelfth-century mosaic in the basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova in Monreale (for a better view, click on the image):
http://tinyurl.com/7uc6xjq
j) Paul of Thebes as depicted in a thirteenth-century fresco in the abbey church of Santa Maria delle Cerrate at Squinzano (LE) in southern Apulia:
http://tinyurl.com/728uebs
k) Paul of Thebes as depicted (his meeting with St. Anthony of Egypt; his death; his burial) in the thirteenth-century Legendary of St. Petersburg (Paris, BnF, ms. nouvelle acquisition française, fol. 80r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8446925z/f163.item.zoom
l) Anthony of Egypt and Paul of Thebes as depicted (scenes) in the earlier thirteenth-century Anthony Abbot and Paul the Hermit window (bay 30b; ca. 1205-ca. 1230; cleaned, 1990) in the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres:
http://tinyurl.com/oj5htx8
http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Chartres/w30b.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3513091431/ [photograph by Gordon Plumb]
m) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, St. Arsenius the Great) in the earlier thirteenth-century frescoes (1230s) in the narthex of the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje (Zlatibor dist.) in southern Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/ydyadyv
Detail views (the epitrachelion, signifying priesthood, is an interesting touch):
http://tinyurl.com/y9289va
http://tinyurl.com/ycuhfo3
http://tinyurl.com/y9dfrpc
http://tinyurl.com/y8ghe77
n) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right in the third illumination from the top, being fed by a raven; at left, St. Anthony of Egypt) in an earlier thirteenth-century book of hours of French origin (betw. 1230 and 1239; New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, Morgan MS. M.92, fol. 112v):
http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/55/77348
o) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, St. Euthymius the Great) in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1260 and ca. 1263) in the north choir of the church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/ydtoqnz
p) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at far right, after two unidentified Desert Fathers) in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1263 and 1270 or slightly later) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Trinity in the Sopoćani monastery at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/7zyef67
Detail view (Paul of Thebes):
http://tinyurl.com/894g3j9
q) Paul of Thebes as depicted (his soul received by angels) in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 19v):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000972A.jpg
r) Paul of Thebes as depicted in a thirteenth- or fourteenth-century fresco in the cripta di San Leonardo in Massafra (TA) in southern Apulia:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24271543@N03/5732826152/
s) Paul of Thebes as depicted (with a very thin epitrachelion appropriate to his austere lifestyle) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1311-ca. 1322) in the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki:
http://tinyurl.com/yau4fo6
t) Paul of Thebes as depicted (second from left; with Sts. Ephraem the Syrian, Sabas of Jerusalem, and John Climacus) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1312-1322) of the parecclesion of the Theotokos in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://srpskoblago.org/Archives/Gracanica/exhibits/digital/s1-e1e4/large/s1-e1e4-22.jpg
Detail view (Paul of Thebes):
http://srpskoblago.org/Archives/Gracanica/exhibits/digital/s1-e1e4/large/s1-e1e4-24.jpg
u) Paul of Thebes as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1314-ca. 1320) in the church of St. Nikita at Čučer in today's Čučer-Sandevo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/jjps7y2
Paul's identifying inscription in its present state is from a restoration in 1483-1484.
v) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, St. Arsenius the Great) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George at Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/ox7unpk
w) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, St. Arsenius the Great) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) in the church of the Holy Savior (Sv. Spas; a.k.a. church of the Presentation of the Theotokos) at Kučevište in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/hbqyxgu
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/jtxadty
x) Paul of Thebes (at right; at left, St. Euthymius the Great) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) in the nave of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3mny7
y) Paul of Thebes as depicted (in three scenes from a reworking of his Vita) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1335) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fols. 190v, 191r, 191v):
http://tinyurl.com/pjddsx4
http://tinyurl.com/ncf79x4
http://tinyurl.com/pa4uq25
z) Paul of Thebes as depicted in a mid-fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 37r):
http://tinyurl.com/yl4u3oj
aa) Paul of Thebes as depicted by Lorenzo Veneziano on the central predella panel of his mid-fourteenth-century Lion Polyptych (1357) in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice:
http://tinyurl.com/mkgsj5o
bb) Paul of Thebes as depicted (in scenes from a reworking of his Vita) by the workshop of Bartolo di Fredi in two late fourteenth-century panel paintings from a predella (ca. 1380-ca. 1390) in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mazanto/14799545545/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mazanto/14612885829/
cc) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right, embracing St. Anthony of Egypt) by Agnolo Gaddi in his late fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1383 and 1385) in the Castellani chapel of Florence's basilica di Santa Croce:
http://tinyurl.com/hccd3pj
dd) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, another Desert Father) in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (1389; restored in the early 1970s) in the monastery church of St. Andrew at Matka in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/zpknq5g
ee) Paul of Thebes as depicted by Johannes Aquila in the later fourteenth-century chancel frescoes (1392) in the church of St. Martin in Martjanci (Mura statistical region), Slovenia:
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7011371.JPG
ff) Paul of Thebes (at right, in his meeting with St. Anthony of Egypt) as depicted by Lorenzo Monaco in an early fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1400-1410) in the Pinacoteca Vaticana:
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2483/3538552908_a1271839cd_b.jpg
hh) Paul of Thebes as depicted (lower register, embracing Anthony; above, Anthony's search for Paul) by the Master of the Osservanza in an earlier fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1435-ca. 1440) in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC:
http://www.wga.hu/art/m/master/osservan/anthony3.jpg
ii) Paul of Thebes as depicted (being laid to rest by St. Anthony of Egypt) in an earlier fifteenth-century panel painting by Pascual Ortoneda now in the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña in Barcelona:
http://tinyurl.com/q2cflqw
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/ppet4t8
jj) as depicted (at upper right, perusing a codex; at lower left, St. Anthony of Egypt) in the early fifteenth-century _Belles Heures_ of Jean de France, duc de Berry (ca. 1407; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, ms. 1954 [54.1.1], fol. 191v):
http://tinyurl.com/zcu82s3
kk) Paul of Thebes as portrayed in high relief (at left; at right, St. Anthony of Egypt) on the earlier fifteenth-century north portal (ca. 1442) of the Justinuskirche in Höchst, a _Stadtteil_ of Frankfurt am Main:
http://tinyurl.com/ybvysuw
ll) Paul of Thebes as depicted in a mid-fifteenth-century mosaic (1458) in the basilica cattedrale di San Marco in Venice:
http://www.christianiconography.info/Edited%20in%202013/Italy/paulHermitStMarks.html
mm) Paul of Thebes as depicted twice in a later fifteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1463; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fols. 29r, 29v):
1) Scenes from a reworking of his Vita:
http://tinyurl.com/yambuaz
2) Being laid to rest by St. Anthony of Egypt:
http://tinyurl.com/knw627c
nn) Paul of Thebes as depicted (weaving a basket) by the Master of Ippolita Sforza in a later fifteenth-century copy (1465) of Domenico Cavalca's _Vite de' santi padri_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Italien 1712, fol. 1r):
http://tinyurl.com/q9tee55
oo) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, St. Anthony of Egypt) in a late fifteenth-century book of hours for the Use of Autun (ca. 1480-1490; Autun, Bibliothèque d'Autun, ms. 269, fol. 164r):
http://tinyurl.com/ydameaw
pp) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, St. Anthony of Egypt) by Joseph Koler in a series of late fifteenth-century panel paintings of scenes in the life of St. Anthony (ca. 1480-1490) in the filialkirche St. Blasius in Kaufbeuren:
http://tinyurl.com/hv9jp7p
The panels as a group:
http://www.adolphus.nl/xus/antonius/aland/dldstatu/kaufbeuren00.jpg
qq) Paul of Thebes as depicted (left margin at top) in a hand-colored woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century _Weltchronik_ (_Nuremberg Chronicle_; 1493) at fol. CXXXIr:
https://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/right_page/35%20%28Folio%20CXXXIr%29.pdf
rr) Paul of Thebes as depicted in two panels of the early sixteenth-century altarpiece of St. Anthony of Egypt (ca. 1503-1505) in the church of St. George in Spišská Sobota, a borough of Poprad in northeastern Slovakia:
1) At left, sharing food with St. Anthony of Egypt:
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7012656.JPG
2) Being laid to rest by St. Anthony of Egypt:
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7012653.JPG
ss) Paul of Thebes as depicted (at right; at left, St. Anthony of Egypt) by Matthias Grünewald in a panel painting on a wing of his earlier sixteenth-century Isenheim Altarpiece (ca. 1515):
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/grunewal/2isenhei/3view/3view1l.jpg
Some context:
http://www.joerg-sieger.de/isenheim/menue/frame10.htm
tt) Paul of Thebes as depicted by the Master of Messkirch in an earlier sixteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1535-1540; from a side altar in the St. Martinskirche in Messkirch, Baden-Württemberg) in the Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall:
http://tinyurl.com/jv2fzhv
uu) Paul of Thebes as depicted by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the earlier sixteenth-century frescoes (1545 and 1546) in the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery on Mt. Athos:
http://images.oca.org/icons/lg/January/0115paulofthebes.JPG
Best,
John Dillon
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