6th–7th century
A Thessalonian ascetic who struggled in Alexandria.
Our Venerable Father Palladius of Thessalonica
Palladius of Thessalonica was a Byzantine monastic who, according to the synaxarion, was born in Thessalonica and pursued the ascetic life in Alexandria toward the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century. He is numbered among the venerable (monastic) saints and is commemorated on November 27.
Little detailed biography survives. The tradition preserves the essential outline of his life: a native of Thessalonica who left to contend in asceticism in Egypt, where Alexandria and its surrounding desert had long been a center of Christian monastic struggle. The liturgical texts associated with his memory describe a life ordered toward God through prayer and fasting, holding him up as an example of virtuous deeds to the faithful.
The hymnography for the saint is modest in scale: his Service is appointed to be sung at Compline rather than at the principal offices, reflecting the comparatively limited place his commemoration holds in the calendar. The synaxarion is careful to distinguish him from the better-known fourth-century Palladius of Galatia (commemorated January 28), the author of the Lausiac History, the celebrated collection of lives of the Egyptian ascetics.
Pleasing God in monasticism, O God-bearing Father Palladius,
you sought Him through prayer and fasting,
and were the pure abode of the Spirit, shining upon the faithful with the rays of virtues,
which enlighten all who revere you.
Glory to Christ Who glorified you.
Glory to Him Who strengthened you.
Glory to Him Who, through you, grants healing to all.
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
Because several monastic figures bear the name Palladius, the tradition explicitly separates this Thessalonian ascetic from Palladius of Galatia, the fourth-century author of the Lausiac History. The two are distinct persons separated by roughly two centuries and by different regions of origin; the conflation is guarded against in the saint's own commemoration.
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