St. Anastasius Sinaita

St. Anastasius Sinaita

A Greek ecclesiastical writer, b. at Alexandria in the first half of the seventh century; d. after 700. He was abbot of the monastery of Mt. Sinai, and so active an opponent of the Monophysites, Monothelites, and Jews that he was known as "the new Moses ". His principal work is the "Hodegos" ( Hodegos), or "Guide", written in defence of the Catholic Faith against the attacks of the aforementioned heretics. It was a popular manual of controversy among the medieval Greeks. The (154) "Questions and Answers on Various Theological matters" attributed to him are in part spurious. He also wrote a "Devout Introduction to the Hexaemeron" in twelve books, the first eleven of which have reached us only in a Latin translation. These and other minor writings are found in Migne (P.G. LXXXIX). Le Quien attributed to him, without sufficient reason, the "Antiquorum Patrum Doctrina de Verbi Dei Incarnatione".

BARDENHEWER, Patrologie (1902), 512, 48; KUMPFMÜLLER, De Anastasio Sinaitâ (Würzburg, 1805); KRUMBACHER, Gesch. d. byz. Lit. (2d ed.), p. 64.

THOMAS J. SHAHAN