Palladius

c.363-425. Bishop and historian. Evidently a native of Galatia, he entered monastic life in Jerusalem at the age of twenty-three, and later went to Egypt to follow the ascetic life, first in Alexandria, then in the Nitrian Desert.* Returning to Palestine in 399 through illness, he was consecrated bishop of Helenopolis (400) by his friend John Chrysostom.* He appeared with the latter at the Synod of the Oak* (403) and in trying to defend Chrysostom's banishment was himself exiled to Egypt (406), where at Syene he almost certainly wrote the important Dialogus de vita Sancti Joannis Chrysostomi. He returned to his diocese when all opposition ceased (412), and five years later was transferred to the diocese of Aspuna, where he wrote Historia Lausiaca (419-20), a significant treatment of early monasticism. Epistola de Indicis gentibus et de Bragmannibus, which cannot, however, be confirmed as his, suggests a trip to India, and deals with the ascetical ideal.