Introduction

The ascetic movement originated in the late third century in the East, especially in Egypt, and its emergence is attributed to such figures as Antony the Hermit – hero of the first Christian biography (Vita Antonii by Athanasius of Alexandria) – and Pachomius, the founder of a number of large monasteries in Upper Egypt. Tales of Eastern ascetics reached Western parts of the Mediterranean where Eastern models of asceticism were soon adopted, a fact which has attracted much attention from scholars. Indeed, there is a sizeable array of sources that permit one to observe the transmission of ideas across the Roman empire which, at that time, was struggling to keep its waning political unity and was also suffering from ever deepening cultural divides. The Christian monastic movement and the related traffic of ideas, however, constituted a crucial link between the diverging worlds of the Latin West and the Greek East.

The present paper will focus on a particular example of cultural transmission (or, rather, of using foreign cultural models for domestic agendas) that can be seen in the writings of Sulpicius Severus. We will be primarily examining the Dialogues – although with some recourse to the Chronicle and Vita Martini – for comparisons of East and West, in order to learn how the author viewed the bishops and clergy of Gaul against the background of Eastern ascetic saints.