The Historia monachorum Syriae, written by Theodoret of Cyrrhus in 444 AD, contains a large quantity of sports metaphors in which the ascetic was presented as the "athlete of God". The origin of this metaphor goes back to the epistles of Paul of Tarsus. Afterwards, there were many Christian writers who included it in their writings, although Theodoret undoubtedly exploited it in a much more intense way than other authors. His abundant use of this metaphor was due to the great popularity enjoyed by athletic contests in the eastern Mediterranean well into the fifth century. Moreover, the partially profane education of Theodoret allowed him to give a specific terminology to his sports metaphors hardly documentable in other writers of Christian antiquity.