medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
'Dendrite' is not a category of one. See Constantine P. Charalampidis, _The Dendrites in Pre-Christian and Christian Historical-Literary Tradition_ (Roma: L' 'Erma' di Bretschneider, 1995). A 'western' example who may be familiar is St. Anthony of Padua (for details see Charalampidis, _op. cit._, p. 91).
David of Thessaloniki, BTW, is also known as David the Dendrite.
Best again,
John Dillon
On Sunday, June 26, 2011, at 7:44 am, Jim Buslag wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear John,
> I find it fascinating that there is actually a word, dendrite, to
> describe a hermit living in a tree. Does this mean that there is
> something of a "class" of dendrites, or is this one of those words
> that is coined for a unique usage?
> Cheers,
> Jim
>
> On 25/06/2011 4:13 PM, John Dillon wrote:
> >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> >
> >On Thursday, June 23, 2011, at 11:41 pm, Terri Morgan sent:
> >
> >>June 26
> >
> >>David of Thessalonika (d. c540) was from Mesopotamia. He must have
> >>made his way to Thessalonika at a young age, because he was a hermit
> >>outside the city for seventy years – living three of them in a tree.
> >>Pavia has had his relics since 1054.
> >>
> >
> >The earliest source for David of Thessalonika (latinized as
> Thessalonica; now Thessaloniki) is ch. 69 of the _Leimon_ (title
> latinized as _Pratum spirituale_) of John Moschus, who died in the
> earlier seventh century and who was informed about David by an elderly
> abbot of Thessaloniki who told him that as a young man he had been so
> impressed by David that he became a monk. According to John Moschus,
> David was a hermit of Mesopotamian origin who lived for seventy years
> in a hut or cell near but outside Thessaloniki's city wall. Flames
> were seen nightly to emanate from this dwelling but on the following
> day both it and its occupant were always found unharmed. This
> continued until David's passing.
> >
> >David has multiple Bioi, of which the best known (BHG493) presents
> itself as having been written ca. 180 years after the events it
> recounts. Usually thought to be a century or so later than that, its
> understanding of sixth-century matters is noticeably defective and so
> casts doubt upon the accuracy of whatever oral tradition (if any) it
> may have drawn on. David's three years as a dendrite (_terminus
> technicus_ for 'tree dweller') followed by his living in a cell at a
> monastery to which he is said to have belonged seem first to occur here.
> >
> >Relics said to be David's are venerated in a chapel of the
> katholikon of the monastery of St. Theodora of Thessaloniki in Thessaloniki.
> >
> >David of Thessaloniki depicted as a dendrite in the earlier
> fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1315 and 1321) at the entrance to
> the parecclesion of the Chora church in Constantinople:
> >http://tinyurl.com/2co5gff
> >http://tinyurl.com/2g67fvc
> >http://tinyurl.com/4ttmul5
> >http://tinyurl.com/4lstdev
> >
> >David of Thessaloniki depicted as a stylite in the earlier
> fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) 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/4zs3y5h
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