07 Works, Today, March 11th, is Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem's Day, With Footnotes - #69

Artist Unknown 

Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem

St Sophronios, patriarch of Jerusalem (b. 638) was born in Damascus to an eminent family, and was well educated in his youth. Discontented with the wisdom of the world, he entered monastic life in the monastery of St Theodosius, where he became the lifelong friend and disciple of John Moschos. Together they visited the monasteries and hermitages of Egypt; they later wrote down their discoveries among the holy monks in the classic Spiritual Meadow. 

John Moschos

After the death of his teacher, St Sophronius traveled to Jerusalem, which had just been liberated from the Persians. He was there to see the Precious Cross returned from Persia by the Emperor Heraclius, who carried it into Jerusalem on his back. 

Palma il Giovane

Emperor Heraclius carries the Holy Cross on his shoulders, c. 1589

Fresco

42.9 cm × 17.8 cm

Chancel Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence

Jacopo Palma, also called Palma Vecchio or Palma il Vecchio, original name Jacopo Negretti, (born c. 1480, Serina, Bergamo, Republic of Venice—died July 30, 1528, Venice), Venetian painter of the High Renaissance, noted for the craftsmanship of his religious and mythological works. He may have studied under Giovanni Bellini, the originator of the Venetian High Renaissance style.

Palma specialized in the type of contemplative religious picture known as the sacra conversazione. To his late 15th-century subject matter he applied the idyllic vision of Giorgione in colour and fused soft-focus effects. Palma’s particular refinement of the Giorgionesque technique was his use of transparent glazes. Monumental figures, loose technique, and blond tonality characterize his finest work. Palma also developed an ideally feminine, blonde, pretty type. That work, along with many of his later paintings, shows the influence of Lorenzo Lotto. Sixty-two of Palma’s works remained unfinished at his death and were finished by his pupils. Presumably, this accounts for the variable quality of his work. More on Palma il Giovane

A few years later, in 634, St Sophronius was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem, where he served his flock wisely for three years and three months. He was zealous in the defense of Orthodoxy against the Monothelite heresy: He convoked a Council in Jerusalem which condemned it before it was condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council. The holy Patriarch even traveled to Constantinople to rebuke the Patriarch Sergius and Emperor Heraclius, who had embraced the Monothelite error.

Giovanni Battista Salvi

The Madonna in Sorrow,

Mary, Blessed are You Among Women!

Oil on copper

152 x 102 mm (6 x 4 in)

Speke Hall, Merseyside 

St. Sophronius preached this sermon on the Blessed Virgin Mary on the occasion of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord around the year 635 AD, the year that the Holy City fell to the Muslim armies advancing from Arabia.

"Truly, you are blessed among women. For you have changed Eve’s curse into a blessing; and Adam, who hitherto lay under a curse, has been blessed because of you."

Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Il Sassoferrato (1609-1685). Giovanni Battista Salvi was born in Sassoferrato and went to Rome at an early age to study the paintings of Raphael. Later he sojourned in Naples to study the works of Annibale Carracci and his circle, especially Guido Reni. For most of his life he worked in Rome. His favorite subjects were Madonnas which he often depicted praying and along with the sleeping child. Paintings by Sassoferrato are in many churches and galleries in Italy. More on Giovanni Battista Salvi

The years of peace were few for the Holy Land; for just as the Persian Empire was decisively defeated by Heraclius, the followers of Islam erupted out of Arabia, conquering most of North Africa and the Middle East in a few years. The Saint was so grieved by the capture of Jerusalem in 637 by the Caliph Omar that begged God to take him, so that he might not live to see the desecration of the holy places. His prayer was granted, and he reposed in peace less than a year later.

Artist Unknown 

The entrance of Caliph Umar (581?-644) into Jerusalem, 638

Colored engraving, 19th century.

Artist Unknown 

Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab

Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab came to Jerusalem in 637 after the conquest of Jerusalem and toured the city with Sophronius. During the tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the time for prayer came, and despite Sophronius's offer to Umar to pray inside the Church, Umar chose to pray outside. The caliph's reason for declining to pray there was because in the future Muslims might say that Umar prayed here and use it as an excuse to build a mosque there. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to build a mosque there. So appreciating the caliph's intelligence he gave the keys of the church to him. Unable to refuse it the caliph gave it to a family of Muslims from Medina and asked them to open the church and close it; the keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre still remain with the Muslim family.

Artist Unknown 

The Life of Saint Mary of Egypt by Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem

St Sophronios is the author of the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt, appointed to be read in the churches during every Great Lent. He also wrote the service of the Great Blessing of the Waters. Some have attributed the Vesperal hymn "Gladsome Light" to him, but we know that it dates from before the time of St Basil the Great, who mentions it in his writings. It seems though, that St Sophronios supplemented the hymn, and that its present form is due to him. More on St Sophronios

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