Ethos & Dogma In St Gregory Palamas

I’ve been meaning to post a passage from the Prologue to the book, Passions and Virtues According to St Gregory Palamas (South Canaan, PA: St Tikhon’s Seminary, 2004), by my advisor, Anestis Keselopoulos, and trans. and ed. by Hieromonk Alexis (Trader) and Harry Michael Boosalis. Kevin Edgecomb made a comment on the last post that finally forced my hand. From p. x:

Orthodox theologians have grown more aware that St Gregory Palamas is not only a ‘dogmatic theologian’ (1), but also a guide who can initiate others into the life in Christ. If Palamas composed so many writings affirming the uncreated character of deifying grace, he did so because he regarded divine grace as man’s only hope for transcending the unnatural life of the Fall, for redemption from slavery to the passions, and for a life of personal communion and participation in God. For this very reason, his teaching is an excellent model for the harmonious blending of dogmatic theology and personal life.

(1) Especially when such a characterization implies an artificial and destructive separation of dogma from ethics.

Fr Andrew Louth has made a similar comment about the Philokalia as a whole—‘[M]uch of the historical importance of the Philokalia lies in the way it has revealed the essential unity of what have come to be called in the West “theology” and “spirituality”, a unity that Orthodoxy, at its best, has preserved’ (‘The Theology of the Philokalia’, Abba: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West (Festschrift for Bishop Kallistos [Ware] of Diokleia), ed. Fr John Behr, et al. [Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary, 2003], p. 357).

One can order Keselopoulos’s book at the St Tikhon’s Press site, here.

And just for Christopher Orr, here is my attempt at a literal translation of that first sentence, with the footnote from the brackets properly replaced within the sentence: 'It has become more conscious in Orthodox theology that St Gregory Palamas is not only a "dogmatic theologian", when specifically within this characterisation is understood the destructive any longer for theology separation of dogma and ethos, but also the mystic of the in Christ life' (trans. from Anestis Keselopoulos, Πάθη και Αρετές στη Διδασκαλία του Αγίου Γρηγορίου του Παλαμά [Athens: Domos, 1990], p. 12).

Synaxis of the Family of St Gregory Palamas

As a father and a non-monastic, one thing that has always fascinated me about St Gregory Palamas is his family. I shall give an excerpt from the beginning of the Life of St Gregory by his disciple, St Philotheos Kokkinos, that refers to them. This is taken from the website of the St Gregory Palamas Monastery in Ohio, with a few minor corrections by myself:

Gregory was the offspring of noble and pious parents. So virtuous was his father that the emperor Adronikos Palaiologos the B’ made him one of his counselors. And not only the earthly king, but also God, the heavenly King honored and glorified him even while he was still alive with miracles. Foreknowing his death, Constantine—that was his name—took the angelic Habit, that is, he became a monk, and was named Constantios.

After his father’s death, Gregory gave himself up to the study of ancient philosophy. . . .

Seeing Gregory’s achievements and progress in governing issues of the empire, the king was very happy and was arranging high positions and honors for him. However, young Gregory had his mind in higher things: the Heavenly King, and His Kingdom was his only concern.

. . .

At the age of 20, after turning down all the honors and promises of the emperor he decided to flee the City and go to Mount Athos. Having convinced all the members of his family to follow in his example, he came to the Lavra of Vatopaidi—one of the biggest monasteries, even today—and gave himself up to the venerable elder Nikodemos. He received the angelic schema from this elder and in a very short time—under the guidance of his elder—he climbed the ladder of practice [praxis] and reached the great heights of vision [theoria].

First of all, the fact that even while living in the world, St Gregory’s father, Constantine, was such a holy man that he was able to work miracles and foreknow the day of his death is astonishing to me. Second, I am fascinated by the fact that St Gregory was able to convince ‘all the members of his family to follow in his example’ and be tonsured, an event portrayed in the icon above (a fresco from the St Gregory Palamas Monastery in Etna, CA—one can order prints here), where we see St Gregory surrounded by his parents, Constantine and Kalloni, his brothers Macarius and Theodosius, and two sisters whose names I can’t find. (Incidentally, in the Roman Catholic Church one finds a similar story concerning the famous Cistercian, Bernard of Clairvaux—see the account in the Vita Prima by William of St Thierry of how Bernard came to present himself at the gate of Cîteaux ‘along with most of the male members of his family and a group of friends’, traditionally numbering thirty altogether, in Pauline Matarasso, trans. and ed., The Cistercian World: Monastic Writings of the Twelfth Century [London: Penguin, 1993], pp. 21-5; this quote is from Matarasso, p. xiii).

Metropolitan Hierotheos has commented on both of these points, showing that they are linked together. In St Gregory Palamas As a Hagiorite, trans. Esther Williams (Levadia, Greece: Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1997), p. 32, he writes:

. . . [I]t is well known from the patristic tradition that when the nous is detached from reasoning [dianoia] and is illuminated, a person is able to live in the world with its various troubles and still have unceasing prayer.

Married people as well are able to live that life, as we see here in St Gregory Palamas’s father. . . .

Before leaving this world his father was tonsured a monk, ‘a way of life and conduct into which he was not uninitiated’. This is quite characteristic because it shows that Constantine, although married and the father of many children, was not different from the monks; his way of life was purely monastic. He had the same tradition, which was and is in reality the life of the Gospel.

Thus we are reminded of what St Gregory himself has taught, namely, ‘Married people can also strive for this purity, but only with the greatest difficulty’ (‘To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia’ 20, The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Vol. IV, comp. St Nikodimos and St Makarios, trans. G.E.H. Palmer, et al. [London: Faber, 1998], p. 300).

'The Herald of Grace & Light'—St Gregory Palamas

On this day, the second Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate the memory of our Father among the Saints, Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki and Wonder-worker. I am breaking with my usual ‘Menaion, not Triodion’ policy today because have a very close connection to this Saint, having lived in his city for two years, visited at least two of the places he lived on the Holy Mountain, visited the temple where he was enthroned as archbishop as well as the one dedicated to him, venerated his relics many times, and even crawled into and prayed in the cave where he lived for a time. For starters, here is the brief Life of this holy Hierarch whom the great Palamite scholar Panagiotes Chrestou, in the title of his biography, has called ‘the Herald of Grace and Light’ (Ο Κήρυξ της Χάριτος και του Φωτός: Ο άγιος Γρηγόριος ο Παλαμάς, Αρχιεπίσκοπος Θεσσαλονίκης, 2nd ed. [Kouphalia, Greece: Holy Monastery of St Gregory Palamas, 1986]), from the Prologue:

Gregory's father was an eminent official at the court of Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus. The gifted Gregory, completing his secular studies, did not want to enter the service of the imperial court, but withdrew to the Holy Mountain and was tonsured a monk. He lived a life of asceticism in the Monastery of Vatopedi and the Great Lavra. He led the struggle against the heretic Barlaam and finally defeated him. He was consecrated as Metropolitan of Thessalonica in the year 1347. He is glorified as an ascetic, a theologian, a hierarch and a miracle-worker. The Most-holy Theotokos, St John the Theologian, St. Demetrius, St Anthony the Great, St John Chrysostom and angels of God appeared to him at different times. He governed the Church in Thessalonica for thirteen years, of which he spent one year in slavery under the Saracens in Asia. He entered peacefully into rest in the year 1360, and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Christ. His relics repose in Thessalonica, where a beautiful church is dedicated to him.

His complete writings are many, and a great deal has been written about the man as well as his work. Last year on the Sunday of St Gregory Palamas, Felix Culpa compiled a helpful list of links—including two of his own previous posts, although he has mislinked to the second one, as well as most of the text of Metropolitan Hierotheos’s book—on St Gregory. I also highly recommend this paper by the 'other' Fr Alexander. Fr Stephen Freeman has already posted a typically eloquent appreciation of Palamite theology on his blog. There is also a good list of excerpts, mostly from the Dialogue Between an Orthodox and a Barlaamite, here at Nicene Truth. I am just going to excerpt a few things of my own here now, and hopefully more will follow tomorrow afternoon (I have already posted part of St Gregory's homily for today here): 1) a brief quote from ‘The Declaration of the Holy Mountain In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts’, written by St Gregory, 2) the decision of the hesychastic Synod of 1347, one of several councils that upheld the teaching of St Gregory as expressing the Orthodox Faith, 3) and the Exapostilarion of St Gregory, which was sung for him during the All-Night Vigil earlier this evening (or will be in Matins tomorrow for those from the Greek and Arab churches).

First, the excerpt from St Gregory’s ‘Defense’ (The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Vol. IV, trans. G.E.H. Palmer, et al. [London: Faber, 1995], p. 418):

The mysteries of the Mosaic law, once foreseen in the Spirit by the prophets alone, have now become doctrines known to all alike and openly proclaimed. Similarly the way of life according to the Gospel has its own mysteries; and these are the blessings of the age to come which are promised to the saints, and which are now disclosed prophetically to those whom the Spirit accounts worthy, but only to a limited extent and as a pledge and a foretaste.

Now the Synodal Tome of 1347 (qtd. in Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, St Gregory Palamas as a Hagiorite, trans. Esther Williams [Levadia, Greece: Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1997], pp. 390-1):

But also if anyone else at all is ever caught either thinking or saying or writing against the said most worthy priest-monk Gregory Palamas and the monks with him, or rather against the holy theologians and this Church, we both vote against him for these things and put him under this condemnation, whether he be of the hiearchy or the laity. We have many times proclaimed most worthy this respected priestmonk Gregory Palamas and the monks agreeing with him. They neither write nor think anything that differs from the divine words, having examined them and understood them exactly. And they champion the divine words, or rather our common devotion and tradition in all ways, as is proper, defending them as in every respect higher than what not only they but also the Church of God and the former synodal volume regard as sophistries. And we also declare them to be very safe defenders of the Church and its faith, and its champions and helpers.

And here is the Exapostilarion (from The Lenten Triodion, trans. Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos [Ware] [South Canaan, PA: St Tikhon’s Seminary, 1994], p. 329):

Hail, glory of the fathers, voice of the theologians, tabernacle of inward stillness, dwelling-place of wisdom, greatest of teachers, deep ocean of the Word. Hail, thou who hast practiced the virtues of the active life and ascended to the height of contemplation; hail, healer of man's sickness. Hail, shrine of the Spirit; hail, father who though dead art still alive.

'A Glimpse of the Ultimate Kingdom'—In Honour of the Patron of Wales

Today, 1 March on the Church’s calendar, we commemorate ‘Dewi Sant’, i.e. St David of Wales (c. 500-589), the patron Saint of Wales. I do not intend to try to cover his life. [In the original version of this post, I instead recommended the various posts on this Saint by Owen White, most of which quoted extensively from a translation of Rhygyfarch’s Life of St David and commented on aspects of the traditional celebration of St David’s feast. Unfortunately, his venerable if controversial blog, the Ochlophobist, is no more, and I now remove the links to it.] One can also read about St David at the old Catholic Encyclopedia (a sceptical account, one should note) and at the relevant page at David Nash Ford’s Early British Kingdoms.

As I mentioned in a comment on Owen’s blog, in honour of their great Patron I intend to offer a piece by a Welsh poet. In a previous post, I have quoted from some mediæval poets of Wales, but this time I have chosen a more recent one. Some years ago I came across a poem by A.G. Prys-Jones with which I fell in love. Unfortunately, I’ve never found much information about him, but a quick search did lead me here. We are told, ‘Arthur Glyn Prys-Jones (1888-1987) was an Anglo-Welsh poet, writer and educationalist’, and there is then a brief biography. Here is the poem:

October Evening (in the Vale of Glamorgan)

by A. G. Prys-Jones

The purple tapestries of dusk

Hung glittering and glowing in the high

Broad marches of the vivid evening sky:

And all the Vale like soft, blue velvet lay

In folded distances. Deep inland from the sea

To the bare uplands where the brown hills ride

Above the mists of autumn like tall ships,

Each field, each hedge, each gracious tree

Stood etched, it seemed for ever, in that air

Of stilled, ecstatic eventide . . .

As if some wandering angel, unaware,

Had left a glimpse of the ultimate Kingdom there

In final, tranquil beauty, and set free

To pierce the dimness of our mortal sight,

A vision of our immortality:

A facet of infinity to light

The blest perfection which the mystics know,

Holy as silence of new-fallen snow,

Serene and flawless as a precious gem.

And through the glowing dusk, an early star

Gave token of that realm where all things move

In ageless wisdom and immortal love:

Where death and sorrow and the year's decay

Throw no chill shadows on eternal day,

Where men grown cold in wintry journeying

Walk in the warm, green solace of the Spring.

(The icon above is by the hand of Aidan Hart.)

St Cassian on the Summum Bonum

I thought it worthwhile to provide more from St Cassian’s writings, and rather than go looking through the entire Conferences or even the Institutes I decided to look for something suitable in the neat little book Selected Writings of St John Cassian the Roman (Stafford, AZ: St Paisius Orthodox Women’s Monastery, 2000). Here is a wonderful selection on fasting, and thus quite apropos to the current liturgical season (pp. 118-9):

Of Why Fasting Is Good

Mercy, patience, love, and the dictates of other virtues wherein the chief element is absolute good, should not be practiced for fasting’s sake, but rather we should fast for their sakes. Our endeavor must be, by means of fasting to attain to those virtues which are good essentially, and not that the exercise of these virtues shsould issue in so much fasting. This, then, is the reason why castigation of the flesh is to our good; for this cause we must apply the remedy of sparingness in food; in order that thereby we may be able to attain to love, wherein is found steadfast and unalterable good, untouched by time. For medicine, or the craft of the goldsmith, or other arts and disciplines which exist in this world, are not practiced for the sake of the instruments which severally appertain to them,—which are, indeed, rather tools prepared for the exercise of these arts. Just as they are of use to the skilled workman, so they are void of value to those ignorant of the methods of the particular art. They are of the highest value to those who employ them to perfect their several tasks, but they cannot be of the very slightest avail to those ignorant of the purposes for which they were made, who are content to have them simply in their possession; for such persons place their value in the mere having them, and not in doing work by their aid. That then, is absolutely best, on account of which the other things exist as a means to an end. And the highest good is to be practiced, not because of any extraneous cause, but just because of its own inherent goodness. — Conference XXI, 15 (Abbot Theonas)

Incidentally, this volume also contains a Life of St Cassian by Ivan Kontzevitch (pp. 9-16). While Prof. Kontzevitch unfortunately operates under the idea that St Cassian came from Gaul (p. 9), it is quite a useful account of his life and contains a wonderful appreciation of his writings and significance. Kontzevitch makes the statement—which seems incredible but may in fact be true, and therefore, telling—that ‘The whole of subsequent Western monasticism lived on the heritage of St John Cassian, and the West was never able subsequently to produce anything equal to his works in the sphere of asceticism’ (p. 15). He also points out the appreciation of his writings in the East, quoting St Photius the Great as saying that St Cassian’s books are ‘something divine in nature’ (p. 16).

St Cassian in the Tradition of the Church

Having already posted an account of St Cassian's life, I wanted to add a bit on his teachings and his place in the Tradition of the Church. So this is St John Cassian, part 2.

St Cassian forms a solid link between East and West, first and foremost because of his bilingualism (see William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism [Oxford: Oxford U, 2004], p. 375). But he is also a faithful representative of the spirituality of the Christian East (on this, see Fr Deacon Matthew Steenberg’s short paper here). He is, to my knowledge, the only Latin to be featured in either the Gerontikon (see Benedicta Ward, trans., The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, rev. ed. [Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 1984], pp. 112-5) or the Philokalia (see St Nikodimos and St Makarios, comp., The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Vol. I, trans. G.E.H. Palmer, et al. [London: Faber, 1983], pp. 72-108). Columba Stewart, in his extremely important study, Cassian the Monk (Oxford: Oxford U, 1999), tell us, ‘Cassian’s perspective was very much that of the eastern Christian and monastic traditions that formed him’ (p. 78).

But while he was at home in Greek, St Cassian himself wrote in Latin, which ‘seems to have been his native language’ (Harmless, p. 374). More importantly, his primary contribution as a teacher of monasticism and the spiritual life was made in and to the West. It is ‘in the West, in Gaul’ that he founded his own monastery (St John Cassian, The Institutes, trans. Boniface Ramsey [NY: Newman, 2000], p. 14), and more importantly, it is there that his particular influence on subsequent monasticism has been deemed ‘incalculable’ (Stewart, p. 24). As Fr Seraphim (Rose) has put it, faced with the need for Latin writings on the monastic life, ‘As with one voice, the monastic fathers of Gaul turned for this account to St John Cassian . . .’ (‘Introduction to Orthodox Gaul’, Vita Patrum: The Life of the Fathers, by St Gregory of Tours, trans. Hieromonk Seraphim [Rose] [Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1988], p. 95). Later, his continued influence in the West was assured by St Benedict’s Rule, since it both distilled and reflected St Cassian’s teachings (see for instance, the entry for St Cassian in the index to either of the commentaries on the Rule by Adalbert de Vogüé), and explicitly enjoined the reading of his books (see RB 73:5). As Owen Chadwick has written (‘Introduction’, Conferences, by St John Cassian, trans. Colm Luibheid [NY: Paulist, 1985], p. 29):

It was Cassian’s fortune to be taken up by the greatest of the makers of rules; more than his fortune, because he deserved the fate. . . . He became the guide of Western monasteries partly because his guidance was of a wisdom and stature that enabled him to sustain the role, and partly because through St Benedict he became one main part of the spiritual reading of monks.

Of course, St Cassian’s influence in the West has not been without controversy, chiefly because of his faithfulness to the Orthodox teaching on grace and free will in Conference XIII (see St John Cassian, The Conferences, trans. Boniface Ramsey [NY: Newman, 1997], pp. 467-91; this Conference is conspicuously absent from the Paulist edition, the Introduction to which I have cited above) in the face of the growing hyper-Augustinianism of the West. For this, he was criticised by St Augustine himself in two books containing the latter's exaggerated teachings on the subject, and even more directly by St Augustine’s overly zealous disciple, Prosper of Aquitaine. The almost hegemonic authority of the great Bishop of Hippo in the West led to the silly convention of referring to St Cassian’s presentation of the Orthodox doctrine of the cooperation between Divine grace and human freedom as ‘Semi-Pelagianism’ (see the old Catholic Encyclopedia article for a typical expression of this view), despite St Cassian’s clear rejection of the Pelagian heresy. Of course, in the East it has always been obvious that, as Fr Seraphim has said, the ‘true teaching of St Cassian’ is nothing other than ‘the teaching of the Orthodox Church’ (The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church [Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996], p. 38).

Fortunately, such Augustinians as Prosper (who, according to the CE, ‘alludes to him with great respect as a man of more than ordinary virtues’) and St Fulgentius of Ruspe (who, according to Stewart, ‘was aflame with desire to visit Egypt after reading [the unnamed] Cassian’s Institutes and Conferences’ [p. 24]) were at least respectful towards the great Father. Unfortunately, their example has not been followed, in particular, by many of the disciples of John Calvin. Modern scholars at least seem to be rethinking this whole approach of reading St Cassian through the criticisms of Prosper and his ilk. Boniface Ramsey, in his translation of the Conferences, suggests that St Cassian’s teachings are ‘probably more correctly’ characterised as ‘Semi-augustinianism’ (p. 459), and in his review of Stewart’s book, he calls his spirited defence of St Cassian’s position on pp. 77-81 characteristic of ‘a growing number of students of the “Semi-Pelagian” controversy’. Interestingly, Stewart calls Prosper’s account of St Cassian’s teaching ‘a virtual parody’ (p. 77), and ends up affirming what Fr Seraphim had already told us (Bl Augustine, pp. 41-2):

To Christian experience, and in particular to the monastic experience from which St Cassian speaks, there is no ‘contradiction’ [contra Prosper] at all in the cooperation of freedom and grace; it is only human logic that finds the ‘contradiction’ when it tries to understand this question much too abstractly and divorced from life. The very way in which Bl Augustine, as opposed to St Cassian, expresses the difficulty of this question, is a revelation of the difference in the depth of their answers. Augustine merely acknowledges that this is ‘a question which is very difficult and intelligible to few’ (Letter 214, to Abbot Valentinus of Hadrumetum), hereby indicating that for him it is a puzzling intellectual question; whereas for St Cassian it is a profound mystery whose truth is known in experience. At the end of his thirteenth Conference St Cassian indicates that in his doctrine he follows ‘all the Catholic Fathers who have taught perfection of heart not by empty disputes of words, but in deed and act’ (such references to ‘empty disputes’ are the closest he allows himself to come to actual criticism of the eminent Bishop of Hippo); and he concludes this whole Conference on the ‘synergy’ of grace and freedom with these words: ‘If any more subtle inference of man’s argumentation and reasoning seems opposed to this interpretation, it should be avoided rather than brought forward to the destruction of the faith; for how God works all things in us and yet everything can be ascribed to free will cannot be fully grasped by the mind and reason of man’ (Conferences, XIII.xviii.4 [this is found in Ramsey on p. 490]).

Stewart notes that St Cassian ‘has the Bible on his side’ (p. 80), and it is interesting to consider his relationship to the Scriptures. Harmless observes that St Cassian ‘certainly knew the Bible in Greek’ (p. 375), and Stewart confirms this (p. 35):

He compares Old Latin versions to Jerome’s Vulgate or remarks on textual variants in Latin manuscripts. He quotes the Septuagint or the Greek New Testament for nuances unparalleled in the Latin. Some of his interpretations depend on the Greek or on a comparison between the Greek and Latin versions.

Editors of Cassian’s works since Ciaconnius in 1588 have noticed that his biblical quotations frequently seem to be his own Latin translation of the Septuagint, portions of which he had probably memorized as a young monk in Palestine and Egypt. When he cites Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, two books particularly beloved by monks, nearly all his quotations are based on the Septuagint. On the other hand, he almost always cites the Psalms in the so-called Gallican Latin version of Jerome, reflecting his liturgical experience of that translation at the monastery in Marseilles. Other texts from the Wisdom literature, however, used for his private meditatio, retained their Greek character.

That St Cassian was a careful student of the Scriptures thus seems to me to be quite clear. But, like his teaching on grace and free will in particular, it is important to recognise that he is not merely interpreting the Scriptures as some kind of scholastic exercise. For, as he writes in Conference X.xi.5, 6 (Ramsey, pp. 384-5):

5. For divine Scripture is clearer and its inmost organs, so to speak, are revealed to us when our experience not only perceives but even anticipates its thought, and the meanings of the words are disclosed to us not by exegesis but by proof. . . . 6. . . . Having been instructed in this way, with our dispositions as our teachers, we shall grasp this as something seen rather than heard, and from the inner disposition of the heart we sshall bring forth not what has been committed to memory but what is inborn in the very nature of things. Thus we shall penetrate its inner meaning not through the written text but with experience leading the way. So it is that our mind will arrive at that incorruptible prayer to which, in the previous discussion, as far as the Lord deigned to grant it, the conference was ordered and directed.

Thus, we arrive at what is perhaps the most important and profound part of St Cassian’s teaching, that on unceasing prayer. Unfortunately, I have run out of time and space to deal with that weighty subject today. I have touched on it somewhat in this post, and the infallible Adalbert de Vogüé has discussed it here among other places, but I’m afraid that will have to suffice for now.

I will also just mention that today is a sort of feastday of mine, as St Cassian is my patron Saint as an oblate of St Benedict.

One Who 'Noetically Breatheth Forth Divine Cassia'—St John Cassian the Roman

Although today is technically 28 February on the Church’s calendar, I have decided to post about St John Cassian—whose feastday is actually the 29th—anyway. It is customary on non-leap years to transfer the commemorations from that day to the 28th.

I have a tremendous devotion to St John Cassian (often called ‘St Cassian the Roman’ in Eastern sources), and consequently, I’m afraid that everything I want to cover can’t be confined to just one post. For this first one, I shall simply reproduce the Life of St Cassian by Archimandrite Ioanichie Bălan in his Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. I (Third-Eighteenth Centuries) (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996), pp. 51-7. It is an unusually full, well-written hagiographic account. Even St Nicodemus’s ‘Brief Biography’ of St Cassian prefacing his writings in the Philokalia contains scarcely any biographical detail whatsoever, focusing instead on his writings and teachings (Φιλοκαλία των Ιερών Νηπτικών, Τόμος Α' [Athens: Astir, 1982], p. 60). For a brief account, however, see the Prologue, Bulgakov’s Handbook, and this account from HTM. The title of the post is paraphrased from the following verses translated on the latter site (which I found in Greek, with some additional lines, here):

Being noetically translated to the divine noetic beings,
Cassian noetically breatheth forth divine cassia.

Before I begin Fr Ioanichie’s account, I’d like to offer a brief note about the identification of St Cassian as a ‘Daco-Roman’. This is based on what seems to be the earliest testimony concerning St Cassian’s origin—the De Viris Illustribus (c. 495) of Gennadius of Marseille. Gennadius calls St Cassian a ‘Scythian by race’, which, as William Harmless points out, ‘would mean that he grew up in the Dobrudja, in modern Romania’ (Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism [Oxford: Oxford U, 2004], p. 374). Harmless, however, also notes that some modern scholars have discounted Gennadius’s testimony, arguing that he came from somewhere in southern France (on p. 403, n. 5, Harmless cites one argument, for instance, that ‘it is unlikely Cassian’s sister, who lived in Marseilles with him, would have made the long voyage from Scythia’). But aside from the intrinsically flimsy nature of the particular argument Harmless mentions, it seems to me that we are always on surer ground in trusting our Fathers in the Faith and, indeed, the ancients in general, than those whose careers depend on coming up with new and exciting things to say about matters thought long settled. So Gennadius was writing some 60 years after St Cassian’s repose. That seems pretty good to me, especially considering that he was a priest in the city where St Cassian’s monastery and relics were, and where traditions about him would have been most faithfully preserved.

So, here is Fr Ioanichie’s Life of St Cassian:

This great ascetic, theologian, organizer of monasteries, teacher, apologist, and renowned ecclesiastical writer of the Church of Christ was a native Daco-Roman. He was born in 360 in Dacia Pontica, in the diocese of Tomis, forty kilometers northwest of the town of Constanţa, in ‘the borders of Cassian and [the district] of the Caves’. His parents, pious and wealthy Christians, gave their son John Cassian (i.e., ‘from the parts of Cassian’) an excellent Christian education, training him from childhood in the reading of Holy Scripture and in an exalted spiritual life of prayer, asceticism, virginity, and zeal for divine things. Being thirsty for learning, he was given over from his childhood to one of the schools that functioned at that time at Tomis, Histria, and Axiopolis, or to one of the nearby monasteries. Here he studied the works of the great classical authors and philosophers, both Greek and Latin, and later also the patristic writings of the second to the fourth centuries which circulated in the northeast of the Roman Empire.

In one of his Conferences, St John Cassian evokes with fondness his parental home, the monasteries, and the beauty of his native land in Dacia Pontica. Here is what he tells us [the English translation of Fr Ioanichie’s Patericon gives a lengthy quote from Conferences XXIV.i.2-3 in the NPNF translation; here I shall give only a portion of XXIV.i.3, and that from Boniface Ramsey, trans., The Conferences, by St John Cassian (NY: Newman, 1999), p. 825]:

. . . In addition, there was painted before our eyes the setting of the ancestral property of our forebears and the pleasant and delightful nature of that region, and how graciously and aggreeably it stretched out to the reaches of the wilderness, so that the recesses of the forests might not only gladden a monk but also provide sufficient supplies of food.

According to his own testimony, St John Cassian ‘even from childhood lived among monks, whose exhortations he heard and who example he saw’. In the age-old forests in central and northern fourth-century Dobrogea, there existed a strong monastic movement with many monasteries and dozens—or perhaps hundreds—of ‘Scythian’ monks and Christ-loving hermits ‘in whose breast blossomed the monastic rule, the habitation of the life of virginity and a particularly severe asceticism . . . whose manner of life is completely worthy of admonition’, as St Epiphanius of Cyprus (340-403) states in his book Against the Eight Heresies, referring to the Audian monks of Dacia Pontica.

Seeing the holiness, zeal for God, and ascetic labors of the ‘Scythian monks’ in his homeland, St John Cassian decided from his tender youth to take up the good yoke of Christ, becoming a monk in one of the monasteries of the diocese of Tomis where St Germanus, his relative and life-long friend, was already laboring in asceticism. His good name, chosen life, and zeal for God—as well as the vast education he ahd acquired—made the young Monk John Cassian the friend of the great Bishops of Tomis, Ss Vetranion (second half of the 4th c.) and Theotimus I ‘the Scythian’ (c. 392-403).

Desiring to worship at the Holy Places and especially at the Life-giving Sepulchre of Christ, St John Cassian left for Jerusalem in 380, when he was only twenty years old, together with his sister, and his relative and friend St Germanus. Here the two monks settled at a monastery in Bethlehem, near the cave where Christ was born.

After more than five years of asceticism and spiritual labors in Bethlehem, St John Cassian was inspired by the grace of the Holy Spirit to visit the monasteries and hermitages of Egypt, the fatherland of Christian monasticism, together with his friend Germanus.

For more than seven years, the two Daco-Roman monks from the Mouths of the Danube sought out the holy monks, abbots, anchorites, and teachers of the Egyptian desert, learning from them the art of spiritual labor, and perfecting themselves in holiness, prayer, and humility. St John Cassian began here to write his celebrated literary work in twenty-four books called the Conferences with the Fathers, asking for and receiving the counsel and words of instruction from the great anchorites that labored in the Nile Valley, Scetis, Tabenna, Mt Nitria, Raithu, and Mt Sinai. The good soldiers of Christ went like bees from place to place, from one hesychast to another, collecting from each the nectar of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

After a short return trip to Bethlehem, the two Daco-Roman hesychasts went back to Egypt and stayed there until 399. Then, because of the disturbances of the monasteries of the Nile Valley which had been provoked by Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria, St John Cassian and his friend Germanus went to St John Chrysostom in Constantinople, whom they had heard about and greatly loved. Seeing the holiness of St John Cassian’s life and his deep theological education, the great Patriarch and Teacher of the whole world ordained him a deacon and accepted him as his disciple. St John Cassian lived in proximity to St John Chrysostom for five years, learning from him many profitable teachings.

The exiling of the great Patriarch John from his throne in 404 forced St John Cassian to leave for Rome together with his inseparable friend Germanus, to take up the defense of St John Chrysostom before Pope Innocent I. Then, hearing of the death of their good father and pastor in exile in Cucusus, Armenia in 407, and being disgusted by this great injustice performed by the Emperor Arcadius, St John Cassian never again returned to the East or to his fatherland at the Mouths of the Danube. He settled permanently at Marseilles in southern Gaul, where he founded two monasteries, one for monks dedicated to St Victor and another for nuns, according to the model of Ss Pachomius and Basil the Great. Thus he organized the first monasticism in the West according to the rules of the monastic life as practiced in the East.

Ordained a priest and made the Abbot of the two monasteries, St John Cassian gathered numerous disciples around him. He appointed spiritual fathers for them and arranged an order of asceticism and monastic life as in the East. He devoted his years of old age primarily to writing. His opera—which are still read today—comprise three works:

1. On the Institutions of the Monasteries of the Common Life and On the Healing of the Eight Principle Sins (De institutis coenobiorum), a work written in 420 in 12 books, at the request of Bishop Castor of Apta Julia in southern Gaul. In the first 4 books, St John Cassian speaks about the clothing of the monks in Palestine and Egypt, of the nightly prayers and psalms, the daily services, and the conditions of reception into the monastery of new novices. In the next 8 books, St John Cassian speaks about the 8 deadly sins, which he calls ‘thoughts of evil’, namely: gluttony of the stomach, incontinence, love of money, anger, despondency, sloth (accidie), vainglory, and pride.

2. Conferences with the Fathers (Collationes Patrum), in 24 books or conversations. This is the most important surviving literary work of St John Cassian. It is divided into 3 parts. The 1st part, in 10 books, comprises the first 10 conferences with the Fathers of the desert of Scetis which St John collected during his second trip through Egypt (393-399). It is dedicated to Bishop Leontius, a brother of Bishop Castor. The second part comprises 7 books, conferences 11-17, with Fathers from the region of Panephysis. The third part, the last 7 books, comprises conferences 18-24, with Fathers from the region of Diolkos. This work was written between 420 and 429.

3. On the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius (De incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium), in 7 books, written also in southern Gaul, in 429-430. This last work of St John Cassian has a profound dogmatic and apologetic character, and combats the heresy of Nestorius, who would not call the Virgin Mary the Birthgiver of God (Theotokos) but only the Birthgiver of Christ (Christotokos).

In the first two works, St John Cassian presented the rules of the monastic life as practiced in the East to Western Christianity for the firs time, thus making a stable connecting bridge between the Christian countries of the Orient and the Occident. And in his third work, the Daco-Roman theologian deals with the first heretical, unorthodox doctrine known to the West, Nestorianism. Thus St John Cassian became the first organizer and founder of monasticism in western Europe, where he made patristic and mystical thought, as well as the spiritual experience of the great Fathers of Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine, known for the first time. St John Cassian is also considered a great apologist of the apostolic faith, one who was profoundly knowledgeable in Orthodox dogmas, and who fought with all his strength against Nestorianism, Pelagianism, and the teaching of the absolute supremacy of grace over free will.

After more than sixty years of constant ascetic labor in the monastic life, St Cassian ended his life in peace at his monastery in Marseilles in 435, giving his soul into the hands of Christ and leaving behind some hundreds of disciples. His holy relics lie in a subterranean chapel in the Monastery of St Victor, and his head and right hand lie exposed in the church for veneration. He was considered a Saint even during his life. He is commemorated on February 29.