Grazers (Christianity)
[1][2] They derived their name from their practices, which consisted of nourishing themselves only with raw plants, often on all fours, and living in a wild manner, "among the beasts.
[10] Thus, this psalm was invoked in the epitaph of Paul of Thebes, one of the most famous grazers, who declared:[11]Our days, mortals, are like the grass of the fields," says the prophet David.
[13] Among the theological foundations underlying this lifestyle choice, one also finds the anticipation of the end of the world and the hope for the salvation of humanity, two significant ideas in Christianity.
[2][6] There are numerous attestations of them in Christian literature; for instance, John Moschus dedicated a work called the Spiritual Meadow to Palestinian monks, where he mentioned many grazers, a total of fifteen, indicating that the practice was common in the region.
[16][17] Sozomen described them as follows:[18][19][20][21]When they begin this philosophy, they are called the boskoi [grazers], for they have no houses, eat neither bread nor meat, and do not drink wine, but constantly live in the mountains, continually praising God through prayers and hymns according to the laws of the Church.
This is their form of philosophy.The historian Evagrius Scholasticus, on his part, stated:[22] Others have invented a different way of life, seemingly beyond the strength and endurance of ordinary humans.
They have chosen a desert exposed to the scorching Sun to dwell in, and there are men and women who, having entered it almost naked, endure throughout all seasons, be it the intensity of cold or the excess of heat.
These practices were seen as holy by Byzantine society,[1][2][4] even though ecclesiastical authorities might have viewed this extreme form of eremitism with suspicion in some cases.
[1][2] It is difficult to find archaeological evidence of the grazers, primarily because they led a frugal life without fire, tools, and minimal reliance on architecture.
[20] It is assumed that one of the main sources of sustenance for those practicing this life was consuming plants of Asphodelus aestivus[5][6] and saltbushes;[15] rarely they could also eat bread brought to them by visitors.
Most of them lived alone or in small groups, and they all seemed to move at different times of the year due to not cultivating food, leading to a nomadic lifestyle.
It is possible that grazers served as inspiration for, or gave rise to, certain legends related to the wild man archetype, which later developed in Europe.
