Early Life and Monastic Formation
Epiphanius was born of Jewish descent near Eleutheropolis in the Holy Land, probably around the year 310, and received a fine education in his youth. According to the tradition recorded in the synaxarion, he was drawn to the Christian faith after seeing a monk strip off his own clothing to cover a poor man, and he was baptized soon after.
He took up the ascetic life under the guidance of Saint Hilarion the Great, advancing in monastic discipline while occupying himself with the copying of Greek books. The accounts relate that he withdrew into the desert, where he was held captive by robbers for some months and converted one of them, who took the name John and became his disciple. Returning to the wilderness of Palestine about the year 333, he established a monastery at Ad near Eleutheropolis and served as its superior for roughly thirty years. He became fluent in Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin, a learning for which Saint Jerome later called him 'five-tongued.'
Bishop of Salamis
In 367 Epiphanius was chosen as Bishop of Salamis on Cyprus, the metropolitan see of the island, an office he held until the end of his life. The synaxarion relates that he was already an old man when he was raised to the episcopate and that he governed the Church for many years; it remembers him for his zealous defense of the Orthodox faith, his great charity toward the poor, and the simplicity of his character.
His episcopate carried him beyond Cyprus into the doctrinal struggles of the age. He took part in the Synod of Antioch in 376 concerning Trinitarian doctrine, and in the Council of Rome in 382. On a visit to Palestine in 394–395 he came into conflict with Bishop John II of Jerusalem over the teachings of Origen, a dispute that drew in Saint Jerome and Rufinus.
Writings Against Heresy
Epiphanius is best known as one of the great heresiologists of the early Church. His most celebrated work, the Panarion or 'medicine chest,' written between 374 and 377, catalogues and refutes some eighty heresies, presenting itself as a remedy against their errors. He also composed the Ancoratus, the 'well-anchored' man, directed against Arianism and the teachings of Origen, together with other works defending the faith and preserving the traditions of the Church.
His learning and his standing as a defender of Orthodoxy were such that the Seventh Ecumenical Council numbered him among the Fathers and Teachers of the Church.
Final Journey and Repose
Late in his life, nearly eighty years old, Epiphanius was summoned to Constantinople in connection with the controversy over Origen, in a council convened against Saint John Chrysostom, the archbishop of Constantinople. The synaxarion attributes the summons to the intrigues of those opposed to Chrysostom. When Epiphanius understood that he was being used as an instrument against Chrysostom and that the proceedings were unlawful, he left the city rather than share in the condemnation.
Sailing home toward Cyprus, he sensed the approach of his death and gave final instructions to his disciples, and he reposed at sea. He was buried at Salamis, by tradition in a church he himself had built. He is commemorated on May 12, the date the accounts assign to his repose in the year 403.
