Palladius of Antioch
Our Venerable Father Palladius the Hermit, of Antioch
Venerable · Wonderworker · d. end of the 4th century, near Antioch in Syria
Commemorated 28 January
Palladius the Hermit (†end of the 4th century) was an ascetic who lived in a mountain cave near Antioch in Syria, where he received from God a gift of wonderworking. The tradition remembers him above all for a single striking miracle: when a murdered merchant was left at the door of his cell and the hermit was accused of the crime, Palladius prayed over the dead man, who rose and named his true killers, so that the saint was cleared and the murderers convicted. He left behind several edifying writings and reposed in peace. He is commemorated on January 28, and belongs to the great company of the Syrian desert-fathers of the Antiochene hinterland.
Palladius is one of the many solitaries of the mountains around Antioch on the Orontes — the same Syrian ascetic milieu that produced the hermits chronicled by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in his History of the Monks of Syria. He dwelt as an anchorite in a cave in the hills near the city, giving himself to prayer, fasting, and stillness, and through his ascetic labours the Lord granted him a gift of wonderworking. The record of his life is thin — a synaxarion notice rather than a full biography — but it preserves one memorable episode by which the tradition has always known him.
The murdered merchant
A merchant travelling near the hermit's cave was set upon by robbers and killed, and his body was left — whether by the murderers to divert suspicion, or by circumstance — at the very door of Palladius's cell. When the corpse was found there, the people of the district accused the hermit himself of the murder, and he was in danger of being condemned for a crime he had not committed. Rather than defend himself with words, Palladius turned to prayer: standing over the dead man, he called upon God, and the murdered merchant was raised to life long enough to declare that the hermit was innocent and to name the men who had killed him. The true murderers were thus exposed, the saint vindicated, and God glorified in his servant. The story — of an accused ascetic cleared by the resurrection and testimony of the victim — is told of Palladius as a signal proof of the wonderworking grace he had received.
Writings and repose
The tradition adds that Palladius left behind several edifying (soul-profiting) writings, though none is now identifiable with certainty among the ascetic literature that has come down under similar names. He reposed in peace toward the end of the fourth century. (He is to be distinguished from the two better-known bearers of the name in the same period — Palladius, the bishop and author of the Lausiac History, and Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis and biographer of John Chrysostom, often taken to be one and the same man; the hermit of Antioch is a separate figure of the Syrian desert.)
Feast and commemoration
Palladius is kept on January 28 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 10), together with Ephrem the Syrian and Isaac the Syrian — so that the Antiochene hermit stands on the same day as the two great doctors of the Syriac ascetic tradition to which he belongs. The Greek and Slavic calendars keep him; his commemoration is that of a venerable wonderworker of the Antiochene desert.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to God's image; for taking up the cross, thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Palladius, thy spirit rejoiceth with the Angels.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Palladius is depicted as an aged hermit-monk in the desert habit, with a long beard, often holding a scroll — the settled type of the anchorite wonderworker. No securely identified pre-modern icon proper to Palladius of Antioch has been located for storage; the entry is left without a stored image, wanting a verified public-domain depiction of this saint (as distinct from the other Palladii of the calendar).