Palladius of Thessalonica
Our Venerable Father Palladius of Thessalonica
Venerable · d. early 7th century
Commemorated 27 November
Palladius of Thessalonica was a monastic saint of the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Born at Thessalonica, he pursued the ascetic life in Egypt, in the region of Alexandria, and reposed in peace. Little of his history survives beyond his name, his origin, and the memory of his ascetic labours; his service is appointed to be sung at Compline. He is commemorated on November 27, and is to be distinguished from the fourth-century Palladius of Galatia, the author of the Lausiac History.
The record of Palladius is slight. He was a native of Thessalonica in Macedonia who left his homeland for Egypt and there contended in the ascetic life in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, at the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century, before reposing in peace. Nothing further of his deeds is transmitted; he belongs to the great company of desert and semi-desert monastics of the age whose sanctity the Church remembers though their individual histories have not been preserved. His commemoration is kept without a full festal office, his service being sung at Compline.
Feast and commemoration
November 27 (church date; Old Calendar civil December 10), within the Nativity Fast. The saint has no proper festal office; his service is appointed to be sung at Compline, as is usual for saints of lesser rank whose commemoration does not displace the day's other observances — here the Great Martyr James the Persian and, in Russian usage, the Icon of the Sign.
Iconography
No distinctive iconography of Palladius of Thessalonica is established, and no storable early image identified with him has been found; he would be depicted in the common manner of a venerable monastic — bearded, in the monastic habit, blessing or holding a scroll.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with Palladius of Galatia (also styled Palladius of Helenopolis or of Aspuna), bishop and author of the Lausiac History — the celebrated collection of the lives of the Egyptian ascetics — who is commemorated on January 28. The two are frequently conflated because both bear the name Palladius and both are bound up with the monasticism of Egypt, but they are distinct persons of different centuries.