| Paper 617-a | Voluntary Poverty in the Family of Macrina and Gregory of Nyssa and Its Relationship to the Issue of Slavery
(Language: English)
Ilaria Ramelli, Dipartimento di Filosofia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano / Dipartimento di Filosofia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano / Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Monasticism, Religious Life |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
The kind of poverty that was elected by Macrina and other members of her very rich family, and is exalted in the writings of her brother Gregory of Nyssa, is certainly a voluntary poverty. This choice, which is related to a broader choice for asceticism in a proto-monastic environment, and which is presented by Nyssen as an emulation of the life of angels and an anticipation of the final apokatastasis, is also closely linked with the repudiation of slavery. Indeed, I argue that the sole delegitimization of the institution of slavery in antiquity came from ascetics, in both Judaism and ancient Christianity, and was connected with voluntary poverty and service to others.
Paper -b:
In letter 2.17, sent in March 592, Pope Gregory the Great castigated the elderly bishop of Salona, Natalis, for his excessive feasting. Despite their earlier friendship, the Pope could not accept the bishop's all too frequent, all too lavish banquets, not because of their expense, but because of their extent, giving the bishop no time to study the bible or to prepare sermons, and encouraging him to show no respect for those placed over him - like the Pope. In the long letter 2.44, sent in July 592, the Pope renewed his attack, answering the bishop's justifications for banquets found by him in the Old Testament, and suggesting that Natalis was quite happy to be called a glutton, his main pleasure during banquets coming from criticizing those absent, attacking them with mockery, and enjoying inane tales of secular affairs, not the words of Holy Scripture.
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