Anastasius, St., surnamed Astiuc, the apostle of Hungary, born in 954, died Sept. 10, 1044. He en- tered the Benedictine order at Rouen, France. Sub- sequently he went to Bohemia with Adalbert, bishop of Prague, by whom he was made abbot of Brau- nau. When Adalbert had to flee from Bohemia, Astric left with him. He found an asylum at the court of Duke Stephen of Hungary, who, in the year 1000, put him at the head of the Benedictine abbey of St. Mar- tin. Stephen having divided his duchy into ten bish- oprics, that of Colocza was accorded to Astric, who henceforth assumed the name Anastasius. The duke then sent him to Rome to obtain from the pope, Syl- vester II, the sanction of the ecclesiastical organiza- tion of Hungary, and for him (Stephen) the title of king. Anastasius was successful in this mission ; he brought back for Stephen, with the royal crown and the double cross, the right to regulate the affairs of the Hungarian Church. Being proclaimed king by the nation, Stephen was consecrated and crowned bv Anastasius. The latter was, during three years, pro- visional metropolitan of Hungary, the archbishop of Strigonia being, by a temporary loss of sight, prevent- ed from discharging the duties of his office. While provisional metropolitan, Anastasius was present at the assembly of P>ankfort, and blessed the marriage of the king with Gisella, sister of the Emperor Hen- ry. When the archbishop of Strigonia recovered his sight, Anastasius retired into his diocese, when he de- voted himself until his death to the propagation of the Christian faith. — Oesterreichisches biographisches Lexi- con (Vienna, 1851) ; Hoefer, Biog. Generate, ii, 480.
Anastasius Sinaita, a monk of Mt. Sinai, born, it is supposed, about GOO, though the date is undecided. He is said to have travelled much in Egypt and Syria, defending the faitli against the Acephalists, Severians, and Theodosians. In his "Odegos," or "Guide to the Right Path," he speaks of John who was the The- odosian patriarch of Alexandria from G77 to 686; he was consequently alive about that period, but when he died is not known. He is honored as a saint in the Greek Church. His principal work, the Odegos just mentioned, has been attributed by some writers to the patriarch Anastasius, who died in 598; but the fact just mentioned, viz., that John of Alexandria, who was patriarch from 677 to 686, is spoken of in it, will prove the impossibility of this. This work was pub- lished by Gretser, at Ingolstadt, in 1606. Some of the MSS. do not, however, contain the Exposition of the Faith, which is contained in Gretser's edition at the beginning, and differ in many other particulars. The complete works of Anastasius Sinaita have been published bv Migne, in Patrologia Grceci, torn, lxxxix (Paris, I860).
Anastasius, a Persian martyr who was baptized at Jerusalem. After his baptism he retired into the ' monaster}' of Anastasius, and thence imbibing the superstitious desire of martyrdom, he journeyed to Caesarea. When there, he was brought before the governor Barzabanes, who endeavored, first by bribes, and afterward by tortures, to induce him to forsake the faith ; failing in his attempts, he sent him into Persia, where he was first strangled, and then behead- ed by order of Chosroes, January 22, 628, the day on
which he is commemorated as a saint both in the East and West. — Baillet, Vies des Saints, Jan. 22 ; Landon, Eccl. Diet. s. v.
Anastasius (Bibliothecnrius), librarian of the Vat- ican, and abbot of St. Maria Trans-Tiberim at Rome, a celebrated and learned writer of the ninth century. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was on terms of intimacy with the learned men of his age, especially with Photius and Hincmar. He was present in 869 at the eighth council of Constantinople, where Photius was condemned. He translated the Acts of the Council from Greek into Latin. He wrote a Historia Ecclesiaslica (Paris, ed. by Fabrotti, 1649, fol.) ; but the most important of his writings is a His- tory of the Popes, under the title De Vitis Romanorum pontificum, a Petro Apostolo ad Nicolaum T, adjeetis vitis Hadiiani II et Stephani IV (Roma?, 1718-1735, 4 vols, fol., and several other editions). — Cave, Hist. Lit. aim. 870 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, ii, 479.
A'liath (Heb. Anath', P5S, an ansiver, i. e. to prayer; Sept. 'Ava3f),the father of Shamgar, one of the judges of Israel (Judg. iii, 31 ; v, 0). B.C. ante 1429. Anath'ema (avdOijia), literally any thing laid tip or suspended (from avariQrifii, to lay up), and hence any thing laid up in a temple set apart as sacred (2 Mace, ix, 16). In this general sense the form em- ployed is avaQrjua, a word of not unfrequent occur- rence in Greek classic authors, and found once in the N. T., Luke xxi, 5. The form dvdOipa, as well as its meaning, appears to be peculiar to the Hellenistic dialect (Valckenaer, Schol. i, 593). The distinction has probably arisen from the special use made of the word by the Greek Jews. In the Sept. avdOsfia is the ordinary rendering of the Hebrew word Cltt, eke' rem (although in some instances it varies between the two forms, as in Lev. xxvii, 28, 29), and in order to ascertain its meaning it will be necessary to inquire into the signification of this word. The Alexandrine writers preferred the short penultimate in this and other kindred words (e. g. iiriQifia, ovv9i/ja); but occasionally both forms occur in the MSS., as in Judg. xvi, 19; 2 Mace, xiii, 15; Luke xxi, 5: no distinc- tion therefore existed originally in the meanings of the words, as had been supposed by many early writers. The Hebrew Q*?n, cherem, is derived from a verb signifying primarily to shut up, and hence to (1) consecrate or devote, and (2) exterminate. Any ob- ject so devoted to the Lord was irredeemable : if an inanimate object, it was to be given to the priests (Num. xviii, 14) ; if a living creature, or even a man, J it was to be slain (Lev. xxvii, 28, 29) ; hence the idea j of extermination as connected with d< voting. Gener- i ally speaking, a vow of this description was taken only with respect to the idolatrous nations who were mark- i ed out for destruction by the special decree of Jehovah, j as in Num. xxi, 2; Josh, vi, 17; but occasionally the vow was made indefinitely, and involved the death of j the innocent, as is illustrated in the case of Jephthah's daughter (Judg. xi, 31), according to many, and cer- I tainly in that of Jonathan (1 Sam. xiv, 24), who was I only saved by the interposition of the people. The breach of such a vow on the part of any one direct- I ly or indirectly participating in it was punished with ! death (Josh, vii, 25). In addition to these cases of ; spontaneous devotion on the part of individuals, the verb C^n, ckaram', is frequently applied to the ex- termination of idolatrous nations: in such cases the idea of a vow appears to be dropped, and the word assumes a purely secondary sense (Sept. i£,o\oQp£vw) ; or, if the original meaning is still to lie retained, it may be in the sense of Jehovah (Isa. xxxiv, 2) shut- thig up. i. e. placing under a ban, and so necessitating the destruction of them, in order to prevent all contact. The extermination being the result of a positive com- mand (Exod. xxii, 20), the idea of a vow is excluded,