Saint Patermuthius

Overview

Saint Patermuthius was a desert father, also known as Dermatawus and Termoute, whose feast day is 7 Kiyahk. The dedicated entry in The Coptic Encyclopedia identifies him as a native of Oxyrhynchus and a teacher with a group of disciples; its shorter listing likewise identifies Patermuthius, or Termoute, as a desert father commemorated on that date.¹²³

History and origins

Patermuthius came from Oxyrhynchus, for which the account also gives the names Pemdje and al-Bahnasa. His place of origin must be distinguished from his monastic residence: the encyclopedia explicitly states that it is not known where he lived as a monk.²

The account nevertheless preserves an important feature of his monastic life: he had a group of disciples whom he exhorted in the spiritual life. It therefore presents him not simply as an individual ascetic, but as a teacher whose instruction addressed the conduct of others.³

Theology and meaning

The teaching attributed to Patermuthius comprises four closely related concerns: purity, fear of God, abstention from jealousy, and love of one another. These are presented as the subjects of his exhortations to his disciples, rather than as a separately titled written work.³

His instruction joins personal spiritual discipline with responsibility toward others. Purity and fear of God stand alongside the rejection of jealousy and the positive obligation of mutual love; the preserved summary thus gives interpersonal conduct a place within his ascetic teaching, rather than describing asceticism only in terms of individual restraint.³

Liturgical and practical use

Feast day

Both the dedicated article and the shorter notice in The Coptic Encyclopedia assign Patermuthius the feast day of 7 Kiyahk. The shorter notice uses the alternative name Termoute, while the dedicated article opens with Dermatawus, but the date and identification as a desert father agree.¹²

Monastic commemoration

Patermuthius was celebrated at Dayr Anba Shinudah, the White Monastery. The evidence cited for his celebration there consists of several typika, including material in the Institut français d’Archéologie orientale, identified as “Coptic, n.p.,” and Paris, National Library, Copt. 12920, folios 166r and 171v.⁵⁶

His commemoration was also observed by the monks of Dayr Apa Apollo at Bawit, at Saqqara, and in the hermitages of Isna. These notices establish that his remembrance extended across several monastic settings; they should not be treated as evidence that he personally resided at those places, since the same account leaves his monastic residence unknown.²⁷

Texts and terminology

Patermuthius, Dermatawus, and Termoute

The dedicated encyclopedia article supplies Dermatawus as an alternative name and explains the form Termoute through the transmission of the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion. In its Upper Egyptian recension, the saint’s name was abridged because its first syllable resembled the title Apa.²⁴

This explanation makes Termoute a shortened form of the same saint’s name within a particular textual tradition. The encyclopedia’s index reinforces that identification by directing readers from “Termoute” to “Patermuthius, Saint.”⁴⁸

Documentary and bibliographical record

Patermuthius appears under his own name in the encyclopedia’s introductory list and its list of articles. The dedicated entry, written by René-Georges Coquin, brings together his origin, disciples, teaching, name variants, feast day, and evidence of monastic commemoration.²³⁴⁵⁷⁹

Its bibliography identifies two further publications: volume 4 of S. Sauneron’s The Christian Hermitages of the Desert of Esna, in Fouilles de l’Institut français d’Archéologie orientale 29/4, and H. Thompson’s “The Coptic Inscriptions,” included in J. E. Quibell’s edited Excavations at Saqqara (1908–1909), published in Cairo in 1912.¹⁰

Variations and regional traditions

The evidence preserves two distinct regional dimensions of Patermuthius’s remembrance: a shortened name in the Upper Egyptian Synaxarion tradition and commemoration at several monastic sites. Together, these show how his identity was transmitted through both a regional textual form and local observance, while the uncertainty about his own monastic residence remains unresolved.²⁴⁵⁷