Powerlessness turns into power at the margins
------->Essenes/DSS, John the Baptizer, Jesus
The "Holy Man"
Peter Brown's articles (see bibliography)
-------exemplar?
-------mediator?
-------dead saint in training to become relics?
Egypt-Palestine-Syria
proximity of the desert to the City
practice of the Psalter
Anthony as hermit --> origins of cenobitism
*****the way their stories get told back in the city (Athanasius'
life of Anthony)
*****Sulpicius Severus' life of Martin: competition from the
west
Western developments:
Cassian/Lérins v. western tradition of leisured
retirement
Benedict of Nursia and the history of Monte Cassino
Medieval afterlives of this style: when powerlessness becomes real power