The Monks of the Thebaid

A Thebaid: Monks and Hermits in a Landscapeabout 1505
Lorenzo Costa (Italian, about 1460 - 1535)

The Commondore by Patrick O'Brian. On page 266 we find the doctor sitting down to breakfast:

". . . being no more particular about washing, shaving and brushing than the monks of the Thebaid."

Thebaid? Getty Museum gives us this explanation of the above image, though it doesn't say anything about their personal grooming habits:

Using only pen and ink, Lorenzo Costa portrayed the cradle of Christian monasticism, the Thebaid, a Roman division of the upper Nile River valley. Beginning with Saint Paul of Thebes and Saint Anthony of Egypt in the 200s, Christian monks retreated to this region, to live a solitary life of ascetism and prayer. Over time, these monks, also known as "desert fathers," organized into communities.

Costa's scratchy, energetic draftmanship created a bustling composition filled with monks and a landscape riddled with the grottoes, huts, and caves they used for prayer and shelter. He portrayed an imaginary scene, incorporating a variety of monastic saints and spanning different periods. In the upper left background, Saints Paul and Anthony are shown seated, receiving bread from a raven through which God provided nourishment. Mary Magdalene, who supposedly lived her later years alone in the desert, stands near the river to the right. The landscape itself appears more European than Egyptian, perhaps reflecting Costa's native countryside around Bologna, Italy, rather than the real Thebaid.

A thousand years later there was also a Northern Thebaid in Russia. Now I wonder which one Stephen was referring to. Personal preference says the Egyptian ones as they were in the domain of the known world. Russia was like beyond the pale.

P. S. In the book, Thebaid has two dots over the i, not one, but every reference I saw on the net has just one.

Saint George and the Dragon

Saint George in Tbilisi, Georgia
Could this be where Georgia got its name?

Marcel posts about Saint George, which prompts me to do a little reading, wherein I turn up some interesting tidbits:

Saint George (AD 275–281 to 23 April 303), was a Roman soldier and military officer in the Guard of Emperor Diocletian of the Roman army, who ordered his death for failing to recant his Christian faith. As a Christian martyr, he later became one of the most venerated saints in Christianity.

He failed to recant his faith? How do you do that? Did he mispronounce a couple of words in the official recantation speech? I think it is more likely that he refused to recant his faith. This is something that continues to baffle me: people who let themselves be tortured in a most horrible manner because they refuse to say a few words. Then again, we have the Buddhist monks who set themselves on fire in SE Asia during the Vietnam era because they couldn't stand listening to the government's bullshit anymore. (That's the only explanation I've come across that made any sense.)

Nicomedia is just off the right edge of the map.

Saint George likely was born to a Christian noble family in Lydda, Syria Palaestina, during the late third century between about 275 and 285. He died in Nicomedia in Anatolia.

Nicomedia was the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire between 286 and 324, during the Tetrarchy introduced by Diocletian. 

St. Geoge didn't live very long, but he sure made a name for himself. How he got to be an Englishman escapes me. In case you didn't know, he's famous for killing the dragon and rescuing the girl. Being as this happened 1700 years ago we can't be sure of exactly what happened, but here's a good summary:

In the fully developed Western version, which developed as part of the Golden Legend, a dragon or crocodile makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of "Silene" (perhaps modern Cyrene, Libya or the city of Lydda in Syria Palaestina, depending on the source). Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, and if no sheep can be found, then a virgin maiden is the best substitute for one. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but then Saint George appears on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the cross, slays the dragon, and rescues the princess. The citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity.

Christ almighty, those villagers must have been pretty damn desperate to be sacrificing people to get water. And George just happens to show up on the day that the princess was the chosen victim? What are the odds? One more day and there wouldn't have been any young women to sacrifice. And why would they be sacrificing young women? Wouldn't old folks be a more reasonable choice? I know, I know, it wouldn't make as good a story. Hollywood isn't doing anything new, evidently the monks were Hollywood-izing their stories a thousand years ago.

You know how people talk about how old books are rare and valuable and this is the only in existence? Well, there were best sellers in the good old days too. The Golden Legend is one:

The Golden Legend (Latin: Legenda aurea or Legenda sanctorum) is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that became a late medieval bestseller. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived. It was likely compiled around the year 1260, although the text was added to over the centuries.

Saint George of Lydda by Hans von Kulmbach, circa 1510

This looks like medieval armor, but George lived 1200 years before this. Did they even have armor back then?

Roman body armor

They did. It wasn't as fancy or all encompassing as medieval armor, but yes, they covered the body with metal plates. The plates were made of iron, which must have been gawd awful expensive back then. Just goes to show that exorbitant spending on defense is nothing new.