In the early history of monasticism, asceticism was a popular practice as a means of being closer to God. Holiness, in the eyes of these Christian monks, was often directly proportional to disconnect from human society and desires. The Grazers took this idea to new levels; they hoped that by being more like animals God would love them.
Bosci, Boskoi or Grazers
In their time the Grazers were known as either Bosci in Latin or Boskoi in Greek, both words sharing the meaning “grass-eaters”. The first Grazer communities developed in 4th century Egypt, but the philosophy quickly spread. By the 6th century they reached their high point of popularity and could, aside from Egypt, be found in Palestine, Mesopotamia and Syria. Like many early ascetic communities, the Grazers welcomed and appealed to both men and women.
Belief & Practices of Grazer Christian Monasticism
The Grazers reasoned that the sins of mankind and expulsion from Eden did not apply to animals. Because animals were closer to God, being like an animal would bring the Grazers back into divine grace. Their suffering, as well, would show their Lord their worth and the strength of their faith.
In order to be more like animals the Grazers went naked in winter and summer alike, or wrapped themselves only in animal skins to hide their genitals. They stopped grooming themselves, and as a result many Grazers could reportedly clothe themselves in their own hair and so resemble an animal physically.
They wandered the land or stayed with flocks of cattle, eating whatever they could find, which often meant picking grass and herbs or clawing at roots. Of course, those Grazers who lived in more humid areas than the Egyptian desert, where the practice began, might have had a ready access of fruits and nuts.
The Grazers had no permanent homes. They slept with the cattle in the field, in caves, or usurped the lairs of wild beasts. Some particularly pious practitioners burdened themselves further with iron collars or heavy chains like the beasts they imitated. Though a Grazer’s entire life was a devotional practice, piety did not end there. Throughout the day, wherever they went, they would pray and sing psalms to further please their Lord.
Though some practitioners seem to have given up and started agricultural communities where they could live as pseudo-Grazers, some Grazers certainly seem to have achieved the desired outcome of an animal state. Ancient commentators testify that some of these monks lost both human feeling and reasoning. Not only did they no longer look like humans, and hunters mistook them for strange beasts, but when approached they fled like deer.
St. Isidora Becomes a Grazer
Several saints have been connected with the Grazer movement. St. Mark of Athens and St. Mary of Egypt both spent parts of their lives as Grazers. St. Ephrem of Syria composed a panegyric to these grass-eating monks. No legend is as detailed, however, as that of St. Isidora.
Isidora lived much of her life at an Egyptian convent, where she was very badly treated by the other nuns. Isidora was a humble woman so when a saint had pronounced her a vessel of God, rather than to bear the honours the nuns bestowed on her, she went into the desert alone. Later legends as far from Egypt as Georgia tell of Isidora’s final days. She became the leader, the story goes, of a community of 400 male Grazers.
Sources
Caner, D.F., Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity, Berkeley 2002.
Franklin, S. & Ivanov, S.A., Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond, New York 2006.
Shulman, D. & Stroumsa, G.G., Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religions, New York 2002.
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