Johan Leemans: From Isidore to Strategius: an Example of a Correspondance between Monks in Fifth Century Egypt

After an extensive education in his native city and in Alexandria and a secular career as sophistès (a tutor for advanced students), Isidore (° ca. 360 in Pelusium, eastern Nile delta), became a priest in Pelusium. Following a quarrel with bishop Eusebius, he became a monk in the Nitrian desert, not too far from Pelusium. A corpus of ca. 2000 (mostly rather short) letters is his sole legacy. These letters document, inter alia, his dealings with bishops, priests, civil administrators and other monks. In scholarship on Isidore the following aspects have been highlighted: Isidore as a biblical exegete and theologian; his interventions in the affairs of the local church of Pelusium and in the christological controversy of the first half of the fifth century; his appropriation of paideia and his contacts with members of the Pelusiote society. In my paper, I will focus on Isidore's role in the monastic life in his region. The 11 letters of Isidore to the monk Strategius will provide the starting point for our contribution. Drawing on these documents and contextualizing them within the overall letter corpus of their author, I hope to add to our knowledge of Egyptian monasticism in the Nitrian desert. Moreover, my presentation will highlight the importance of a dynamic letter-exchange between monks as a factor that lent coherence to the monastic world of Egypt. Finally, it will put an understudied source in the spotlight and provide, I hope, impetus for further research.