St. Hesychius was a priest who wrote about the Bible in the liturgy. He viewed Scripture as “perfect wisdom, the point of departure and the point of arrival to which the whole of our existence should be conformed.” Hesychius preached on Easter at the place of the crucifixion, exalting the cross and Christ’s victory. Like St. Cyril of Jerusalem, he taught a realistic doctrine of the Eucharist, which he regarded as a sacrifice identical with that of the cross. Hesychius taught that Christ was present to transform us through our inner absorption of his whole being. “Keep yourselves free from sin so that every day you may share in the mystic meal; by doing so our bodies become the body of Christ.”
Serving as a priest in the church in Jerusalem around the year 412, Hesychius gained a reputation as a theologian and catechist, so that by 429 he was recognized by chroniclers as the pre-eminent biblical interpreter and teacher of the church in Jerusalem and Palestine. Most of Hesychius’ writings have been lost, although scholarship in the second half of the 20th century continues to identify more of his works hidden among Greek manuscripts and Latin translations. His biblical commentaries include interpretations of the Old Testament books of Leviticus, Job, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. A celebrated moralistic annotation on the Psalms that had long been attributed to the 4th-century spokesman for orthodoxy, Athanasius of Alexandria, is now acknowledged as Hesychius’s work.
Hesychius’ preoccupation with symbolism led him to deny that a literal meaning could be found for every sentence in the Scriptures. In order to avoid heretical interpretations of Scripture, he rejected such philosophical terms as person, essence, or substance to express doctrine on the nature of Christ. On this point he allowed only the term logos sarkotheis (“the word made flesh”), a biblical concept. Credited with the earliest known liturgical addresses on the Virgin Mary, Hesychius also wrote a church history after 428 that controverted Nestorianism and other heretical beliefs. This text was incorporated into the proceedings of the second Council of Constantinople in 553. His feast day is March 28th.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Hesychius Of Jerusalem: Eastern Orthodox monk.” Brittanica. 13 March 2024. www.britannica.com/biography/Hesychius-of-Jerusalem
OSV News. “10 Saints who can bring us close to the Eucharist.” Catholic Review. 25 June 2023. catholicreview.org/10-saints-who-can-bring-us-close-to-the-eucharist
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