EPIPHANIUS

EPIPHANIUS, bishop, ascetic (ca. 315–403). Bishop of Salamis (modern Famagusta) in Cyprus from 365 to 403, Epiphanius was an ascetic, born in Palestine, where he established a monastery in Judaea (ca. 335), though he was brought up in Egypt. His compendium of heresies (q.v.), the Panarion, has provided scholars with useful, if highly partisan and not seldom inaccurate, descriptions of the different personalities and movements troubling the peace of the Church in the late 4th c. His theological sympathies, consistently allied with Rome and Alexandria (qq.v.), reveal his Egyptian training. His treatise “Ancoratus” contains the earliest known text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (q.v.). He is reckoned a saint of the Orthodox Church, as much-if not more-because of his sincere efforts to pastor his flock as for his zeal in combatting heretics.