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Chrysippus, Guardian of the Holy Cross

Wace's Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

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Chrysippus, one of four brothers, Cappadocians by birth, of whom two others were named Cosmas and Gabriel, as recorded by Cyril of Scythopolis. They left their native country for Jerusalem, that they might be instructed by the celebrated abbat Euthymius. In 455 Chrysippus was made the superior of the monastery of Laura, and subsequently of the church of the Resurrection, by the patriarch Juvenal. He was raised to the presbyterate, and on the elevation of his brother Cosmas, who had held the office, to the see of Scythopolis, was appointed "guardian of the Holy Cross," which he held till his death. Chrysippus was a copious author, and according to Cyril, who praises him as θαυμαστὸς συγγραφεύς , "left many works worthy of all acceptation," very few of which are extant. A "laudatio Joannis Baptistae," delivered on the occasion of his festival, is printed in a Latin translation by Combefis (Biblioth. Concionat. vii. 108). Fabricius mentions a Homilia in Deiparam, printed in the Auctarium Biblioth. Patr. (Paris, 1624), vol. ii. p. 424, and a Laudatio Theodori Martyris, which appears to be lost. Photius (Cod. 171) records his having read in a writing of Chrysippus a statement relating to the baptism of Gamaliel and Nicodemus by SS. Peter and John, and the martyrdom of the latter, which Chrysippus had derived from a fellow-presbyter, Lucian, to whom it had been revealed in a dream, together with the localities in which their bodies and that of St. Stephen were to be found. This is a very early example of the dreams indicating the position of valuable relics which we meet with so frequently in the middle ages, by which the failing fortunes of a religious house were revived, or the rival attractions of another establishment emulated (Cyrill. Scythop. Vit. S. Euthym.; Cave, Hist. Lit. i. 444; Combefis, Bibl. Conc. i. 8.)

[E.V.]