'In Her Was All Manner of Philosophy'—St Catherine of Alexandria

Today, 24 November on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria. I posted on St Catherine for her feastday last year (here), so I’ll just add one or two things to what I offered there. First, here is the account of her life in the Prologue (St Nicholas [Velimirović], The Prologue from Ochrid, Vol. 4, trans. Mother Maria [Birmingham: Lazarica, 1986], p. 235):

The daughter of King Constus, she lived with her mother in Alexandria after her father’s death. Her mother was secretly a Christian and, through her spiritual father, brought Katharine to the Christian faith. In a vision, St Katharine received a ring from the Lord Jesus Himself as a sign of her betrothal to Him. This ring remains on her finger to this day. Katharine was greatly gifted by God, exceptionally well-educated in Greek philosophy, medicine, rhetoric and logic, and added great physical beauty to this. When the wicked Emperor Maxentius offered sacrifice to idols and ordered everyone to do the same, St Katharine came with daring before him and denounced his idolatrous errors. The Emperor, seeing that she surpassed him in wisdom and learning, summoned fifty of the wisest men, to dispute with her about faith and put her to shame, but Katharine was wiser than they, and put them to shame. The furious Emperor commanded that all fifty wise men be burned. These wise men, at St Katharine’s prayers, all confessed the name of Christ at the moment of death, and proclaimed themselves Christians. When the martyr was in prison, she brought Porphyrius the general, with two hundred of his soldiers, to the Faith, and also the Empress, Augusta-Vasilissa. They all suffered for Christ. At St Katharine’s martyrdom, an angel of God appeared to her, stopping and breaking the wheel on which she was being tortured, and after that the Lord Christ Himself appeared to her, strengthening her. After many tortures, Katharine was beheaded with the sword at the age of eighteen, on November 24th, 310. Milk flowed from her body in place of blood. Her wonderworking relics are preserved on Sinai.

This article, by one Paul Carus in a 1907 issue of The Open Court, points out that the earliest reference to St Catherine is in a 9th-c. document called the Menologium Basilianum, and reads as follows:

The martyr Aikaterina was the daughter of a rich and noble prince of Alexandria. She was very beautiful, and being at the same time highly talented, she devoted herself to Greek literature as well as to the study of the languages of all nations, and so she became wise and learned. And it happened that the Greeks held a festival in honor of their idols; and seeing the slaughter of animals, she was so greatly moved that she went to the King Maximinus and expostulated with him in these words: ‘Why hast thou left the living God to worship lifeless idols?’ But the Emperor caused her to be thrown into prison, and to be punished severely. He then ordered fifty orators to be brought, and bade them to reason with Aikaterina, and confute her, threatening to burn them all if they should fail to overpower her. The orators, however, when they saw themselves vanquished, received baptism, and were burnt forthwith, while she was beheaded.

Holy Transfiguration Monastery’s Great Horologion (Boston: HTM, 1997), p. 322, clarifies a potential point of confusion over the date:

According to the ancient usage, Saints Catherine and Mercurius were celebrated on the 24th of this month, whereas the holyh Hieromartyrs Clement of Rome and Peter of Alexandria were celebrated on the 25th. The dates of the feasts of these Saints were interchanged at the request of the Church and Monastery of Mount Sinai, so that the festival of Saint Catherine, their patron, might be celebrated more festively together with the Apodosis of the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos. The Slavic Churches, however, commemorate these Saints on their original dates.

In regards to my earlier post, I’d like to repeat the interesting point that this woman, who has left no written works behind her, has nevertheless traditionally been considered the patron Saint of scholars and philosophers (she is, for instance, the patron of Balliol College, Oxford). Here is a passage from the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (William Caxton's translation) discussing her philosophical virtues:

First she appeared marvellous in wisdom, in her was all manner of philosophy. Philosophy is divided in three, in theory, in practice, and in logic. Theory is divided in three, that is intellectual, natural, and mathematical. The blessed Katherine had science intellectual in knowledge of things divine, of which she used against the masters, to whom she proved to be but one very God only, and convanquished all the false gods. Secondly, she had science natural of which she used in disputing against the emperor. Thirdly, she had science mathematical, that is a science that be holdeth the forms and the manner of things, and this science had she in despising the earthly things, for she withdrew her heart from all earthly matter. She showed to have this science when she answered to the emperor, when he demanded who she was, and said: I am Katherine, daughter of king Costus, and how she had been nourished in purple. And hereof used she when she enharded the queen to despise the world and herself, and to desire the reign perdurable. The practice is divided in three manners, in ethic, economic, and politic. The first teacheth to inform manners and adorn him with virtues, and that appertaineth to all men. The second teacheth to rule and govern well his meiny, and that appertaineth to them that have men to govern. The third appertaineth to the governors of cities, for she teacheth to govern the peoples, the cities, and the commons. And these three sciences had the blessed Katherine. First, she had in herself all honesty of manners; secondly, she ruled her meiny laudably, which was left to her, thirdly, she informed wisely the emperor. Logic is divided in three, in demonstrative, in probable, and in sophistical. The first pertaineth to philosophers, the second to rhetors and logicians, and the third to sophisters, and these three sciences had Katherine in her, for she disputed with the emperor.

Finally, I shall now, as promised, offer something from the beautiful blog, Under the Oak. The resident blogger there, an Irish Orthodox lady fittingly named Brigit, has discovered an Old Irish poem in praise of St Catherine (here is Brigit’s post, which also features the Irish text; here is her source):

Réalta an chruinne Caitir Fhíona
(Star of the world, Catherine)
Author unknown
Meter: snéadbhairdne

Star of the world, Catherine,
the helper of the Greeks,
Helping the chosen children, saving each,
there at their dying.

Catherine, honored daughter,
branch of virtue,
a face like fresh appleblossom,
green brow.

A green brow on the Greek king's daughter
not captured by a suitor—
in the shade of her cheeks is brightness
and a berry's color.

Berry's color and sun's garland
in crimson cheeks—
many a knee bending from the source
in tufted locks.

In the shape of her curved eyes, Catherine
is not surpassed by Greek women.
Curved eyes do not look at a young man—
bright-toothed dark mouth.

Face like an apple, breast like a swan,
a virgin not violated.
Down is not brighter than her shining white hand—
green eyes, bright cheeks.

The virgin with her cheeks will not be found
without my suit;
stretch your cloak over my madness,
son of Mary.

Brigid of Ireland and Scotland,
the virgin of the islands—
she is the misty-bright flower of the young women,
coral-collared.

Athrachta, helper of Limerick—
speedy enough
is the white-soled young woman of the Boyle,
wax candle.

Gentle white Ciaran, Columcille—
gentle the company—
Patrick, Martin, Mongan, Manann,
Coman, Coireall.

The Trinity, great Mary and Michael—
sunny band—
eleven thousand noble virgins of the Boyle,
flower of pure virgins.

'On the Outside Struggle, on the Inside Serenity'—St Alexander Nevsky

Today, 23 November on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of St Alexander Nevsky (1263)—in schema Alexis—grand prince of Vladimir. Helene Iswolsky speaks of his ‘heroic valor, exemplary life, and devotion to his faith’ (Christ in Russia: The History, Tradition, & Life of the Russian Church [Milwaukee: The Bruce, 1960], p. 50). Noting that St Alexander was an exception to the general weakness of the princes of 13th-c. Vladimir, John Fennell writes, ‘Not only was he canonized, but he was also regarded throughout Russian history as the great Russian warrior, indeed by some as the saviour of Russia . . .’ (A History of the Russian Church to 1448 [London: Longman, 1995], p. 122). In the Tale of the Life & Courage of the Pious & Great Prince Alexander in the Second Pskovian Chronicle, a Westerner who visited St Alexander is said to have returned to his people telling them, ‘I went through many countries and saw many people, but I have never met such a king among kings, nor such a prince among princes’ (Serge A. Zenkovsky, ed. & trans., Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles, & Tales, rev. & enlarged ed. [NY: Meridian, 1974], p. 227). Here is the account of his life in the Prologue (St Nicholas [Velimirović], The Prologue from Ochrid, Vol. 4, trans. Mother Maria [Birmingham: Lazarica, 1986], p. 232):

The son of Prince Yaroslav, his heart was drawn to God from his youth. He overcame the Swedes on the river Neva on July 15th, 1240, whence he took the name ‘of the Neva’ [Nevsky]. On that occasion, Ss Boris and Gleb appeared to one of Alexander’s generals and promised their aid to the great prince, their kinsman. Among the Golden Horde of the Tartars, he refused to sacrifice to idols or pass through fire. The Tartar Khan valued him for his wisdom, and his physical strength and beauty. He built many churches, and performed innumerable works of mercy. He entered into rest at the age of forty-three [having been clothed in the great schema], on November 14th, 1263 . . .

According to the Tale, St Alexander—

was taller than others and his voice reached the people as a trumpet, and his face was like the face of Joseph, whom the Egyptian Pharaoh placed as the next king after him in Egypt [Gen. 41ff]. His power was a part of the power of Samson and God gave him the wisdom of Solomon and his courage was like that of the Roman King Vespasian, who conquered the entire land of Judea. (Zenkovsky, p. 226)

Christopher Dawson has suggested, and lamented, that in the historical transition from pagan to Christian kingship in northern Europe, ‘the heroic ethos’ associated with the king was lost. Thus, he writes, ‘The royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England were, for the most part, men who were defeated in battle by the pagans, like St Oswald and St Edwin, or men who resigned their crowns to become monks, like St Sebi, of whom it was said that he ought to have been a bishop rather than king’ (p. 73). Dawson considers St Olaf of Norway a rare ‘authentic representative of the Northern heroic tradition’ (Religion & the Rise of Western Culture [Garden City, NY: Image, 1958], p. 96). It strikes me that if Ss Boris and Gleb could be compared to the English Saints Dawson mentions, St Alexander, like St Olaf, is more in line with the heroic ethos, reminding one of the legendary connections of the early Russian rulers to Scandinavia.


He is certainly a champion of Orthodox Russia against the encroachments of Catholicism. Concerning St Alexander’s battle with the ‘pseudo missionary’ Teutonic Knights, there is reproach even in the estimation of the Roman Catholic writer Helene Iswolsky:

Though not supported by the Holy See, they had been called to the Baltic by Bishop Albert and claimed to bring Christianity to the pagans by ‘sword and fire’. After completing the conquest of the seashore, they marched on the land of Russ ignoring the fact that its people had been Christian for more than one hundred fifty years, and regarding them as merely ‘schismatics’. (pp. 48-9)

Of course Iswolsky is quick to claim that in the 13th c. ‘it was not so much dogmatic conflicts, as the differences of rite and liturgical customs which the Russians and the Germans held against each other’ (p. 50). But it is a claim contradicted by an interesting story related in the Tale, a text Zenkovsky notes (p. 225) received its final form already within 20 years of the Saint’s repose:

Once there came to him the envoys of the Pope from Great Rome saying: ‘Our Pope spaketh the following: I have heard that thou art worthy and glorious and that thy land is great. Therefore I send to thee Golda and Gemond, two most wise out of my twelve cardinals, to give you the opportunity of hearing their teaching about Divine Law.’

But Prince Alexander, after consulting with his wise men, answered him, saying:

‘From Adam to the Flood;
from the Flood to the confounding of the languages;
from the confounding of the languages to the birth of Abraham;
from Abraham to the crossing of the Red Sea by the children of Israel;
from the Exodus of the sons of Israel to the death of King David;
from the beginning of the reign of Solomon to the time of Augustus, the Emperor;
from the beginning of the time of Augustus to the birth of Christ;
from the birth of Christ to the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord;
from his Resurrection to his Ascension into heaven;
from his Ascension into heaven to the reign of Constantine;
from the beginning of the reign of Constantine to the First Council;
from the First Council to the Seventh Council,
all the happenings we know well, all of this [sacred history],
and we do not accept your teaching.’

And they returned home empty-handed. (Zenkovsky, pp. 233-4)

St Alexander must be one of the few Saints to have been the subject of a film featuring a respected director as well as a respected composer—Sergei Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky (1938), with a score by Sergei Prokofiev. I highly recommend this movie—though he seems not wholly to approve, Fr Anthony Ugolnik points out that despite being a ‘product of “socialist realism”’, in Eisenstein’s film ‘the hero is . . . invested with religious symbolism’ (The Illuminating Icon [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989], p. 254)—but even I must admit that there is some truth to Iswolsky’s characterization of its portrayal of the Catholics as ‘crude’ (p. 49)! Of course there is also a very recent film about St Alexander (HT Andrew Cusack)—Alexander: Battle of the Neva (2008). Judging by the trailer, it looks very exciting indeed!

Here is the apostichon in Tone 2 at Glory from Great Vespers for the Feast of the Translation of St Alexander’s relics (Vigils of the Saints Vladimir & Alexander Nevsky [Bussy-en-Othe, France: Orthodox Monastery of the Veil of Our Lady, n.d.], p. 26):

Come all ye Russian ranks and praise ye the good chief captain; ye powers praise the wise administrator; ye soldiers the bravest of warriors; ye lovers of Orthodoxy a firm confessor ready to be a martyr. Obey your leader and submit, and having seen his end, imitate his faith.

The Troparion of the Feast in Tone 4 offers an interesting extension of the Tale’s comparison of the Holy Prince to the Righteous Joseph the All-Comely:

O Prince Alexander, thou Russian Joseph, reigning not in Egypt but in Heaven, recognize thy brethren and also receive their supplications, increasing, by thy gift for making thy land bear fruit, the corn of its people, fencing thy princely city with prayers and fighting against the adversary for thy heirs, the people who are faithful to God. (p. 26)

Furthermore, it is interesting to note the emphasis in the stichera at Lauds (in Tone 8) on St Alexander’s greater esteem for the heavenly kingdom than for the earthly:

O most glorious wonder! He who is master of the world leaves the world. He who bears the Russian scepter lays it aside; he takes off his purple and covers himself with a burial pall; his head is crowned with a royal diadem that he puts off himself, and he leaves the temporal kingdom on this earth assured of the eternal Kingdom in Heaven where he is crowned with a royal crown. (p. 33)

I conclude with St Nicholas’s ‘Hymn of Praise’ for St Alexander from the Prologue, where we see the implications of the Saint’s piety—as displayed particularly in his tonsure—elabourated in an interesting way:

A knight of Christ, St. Alexander,
A prince of the people and servant of the Lord—
Ruler on earth and slave of the Almighty—
This was the life of Nevsky.
On the outside opulence, on the inside weeping;
On the outside struggle, on the inside serenity;
On the outside illusion, on the inside truth.
Christ was the prize of this hero,
Both in war and deceptive peace.
In torment, Christ was his joy,
In suffering, Christ was his assurance,
In victory, Christ was the victor,
And in death, Christ was his Resurrector!
To him, in both worlds, all was Christ!
He was the end; He was the living goal.
The pious prince was an exemplar to his people,
Of how one should serve the Lord.
O holy Prince, help us also,
By your brilliant power, by your holy prayers!

New Book by Fr Justin (Popovich)

In partial payment for a little proof-reading job I did, Bishop Maxim of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church has just sent me a copy of their newest publication, Archimandrite Justin (Popovich), Man & the God-Man (Alhambra, CA: Sebastian, 2009), which the Publisher’s website refers to as an ‘anthology of neopatristic syntheses’ (here). Like their previous work (which I mention here), it is a lovely volume—somewhat slim, softbound, with a beautiful mosaic of the face of Christ on the cover. With, as far as I can tell, one exception—‘Sentenced to Immortality: A Homily on the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ’ (pp. 39-43)—, it is all material that has appeared in English before. A number of the pieces, however, are only available in the somewhat rare The Struggle for Faith: A Treasury of Serbian Orthodox Spirituality, vol. 4, trans. Rev. Todor Mika & Rev. Stevan Scott (Grayslake, IL: New Gracanica, 1999). Here is a complete list of the contents:

Preface by Bishop Athanasius (Jevtić)

Perfect God & Perfect Man: Christ is Born!—Hristos se Rodi! (A Nativity Epistle)

The God-man: The Foundation of the Truth of Orthodoxy

The Supreme Value & Infallible Criterion

Sentenced to Immortality: A Homily on the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Humanistic & Theanthropic Culture

Humanistic & Theanthropic Education

The Theory of Knowledge of St Isaac the Syrian

A Deer in a Lost Paradise: A Confession

List of Sources

Bibliography of Fr Justin Popovich’s Works

The real surprise is all of the photographs that I’ve never seen published before, plus a large number of icons of Fr Justin, nearly all from Serbia, printed in full colour. This section of the book will be a special treat for all who revere the memory of the great Serbian ‘Abba’ and theologian of the twentieth century, of whom Bishop Athanasius writes in his Preface:

Fr Justin (Popovich) was a deep, multifaceted, Christ-like person—a man of Pauline, biblical, and patristic stature and breadth. He would say of both the Apostle Paul and Dostoevsky that they reached from the bottom of hell to the peak of the third heaven, perhaps because he himself possessed such breadth and dimension. In him was manifested a well-rounded—or, better to say, fully rounded—man, a thinker and philosopher, a wise man and theologian, a struggler and ascetic seer of inexhaustible energy, an evangelical penitent and apocalyptic Christologian (as he was recently called by the monks of Hilandar), a spiritually inspired writer and priestly liturgizer of the Most-High God. Above all else he was an unwavering witness—a true martys (=lifelong confessor=martyr) of Christ the God-man, the All-Wise Creator, God the Son and Logos, the God-sent Messiah and Savior Who came voluntarily into the world and became incarnate as a human being, the historical Jesus Christ, the Divine and Man-loving Restorer, the One worshipped both by man and by the world, by all things created and existing in all realms belonging to God as well as in our very own, however many there may be—the One worshipped as both Savior and salvation, as both the Venerated and the veneration of His Church, that very Church which is a Theanthropic Community, the Body of the God-man, the unity and oneness of all creation with the Living and True God, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, in eternal communion with the Being and Life and Love of the Holy Trinity. (p. 7)

Quo Vadis, Logismoi?

I am pleased to announce, dear readers, that today marks the one-year anniversary of Logismoi (see my inaugural post here). I bring this up, not to toot my own horn, but primarily because it raises a slight problem that has concerned me from time to time over the course of the year. Because so many of my posts concern Saints and Feasts celebrated on a given day, and because so many of those are determined not only by importance but also by my access to resources interesting enough to my mind to warrant a post, I am somewhat at a loss as to how to proceed as those days begin to occur again.

Tomorrow, for instance, is the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple as well as of St Columbanus. Ordinarily I would post about one or both of these, but unfortunately I have already done so (see here and here)! So do I simply repost the original posts, go to the trouble of finding new material (even though I have often used up all of my best stuff the first time round) and maybe include a link to the original post, post on another Saint on that day (often a difficult prospect—I don’t wish simply to copy and paste the Prologue or, worse, the OCA ‘Saint’s Life’ for the day!), or post on something else, ignoring what is often in fact a very important commemoration for the day? If I take the last option, I may find myself posting a good deal less often since I may be hard-pressed to come up with suitable non-hagiographical material every day. If I take the first, it seems like long-time readers are getting cheated.

Well, I welcome, nay, plead for, suggestions. Your two cents may well determine much of the future direction of Logismoi!

In the meantime, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge a blog that I will likely be making much greater use of in the future, and really, that I should not have neglected to make use of before now: the lovely ‘Under the Oak’, a blog ‘dedicated to the saints of Ireland, especially to our national patroness, Saint Brigid of Kildare’ (also the patroness of my lovely wife!). If I’m not careful, I may wind up simply reposting Brigit’s wonderful material as a solution to my anniversary problem mentioned above. Only the forgetfulness arising during a thirteen-day calendar difference can account for my forgetting to link to her material on St Martin of Tours, here, here, and here (Brigit appears to be on the Old Calendar, but for some reason is posting about the Saints on their New Calendar days—perhaps anticipating a largely RC audience?). I have no such excuse for neglecting—in my own Advent post—her posts here and here on the Advent Fast in the Irish Church.

As a sampling of her delightful wares, here is the third of Brigit’s posts on St Martin:

Professor Michael Lapidge has published the text of a hymn to Saint Martin, which although it has been preserved in a collection of materials called the pseudo-Bede Collectaneum published in Basle in 1543, is felt by Lapidge to be of Irish provenance. The prayer to Saint Martin is one of a group of six which have identifiable links with early insular prayerbooks, but scholars have long felt that many of the prayers in Anglo-Saxon prayerbooks derive from Irish sources. Lapidge argues that this prayer to St Martin has obviously originated outside France since it calls for protection against shipwreck for visiting pilgrims, and since early England does not have a literary tradition of veneration of Saint Martin, Ireland is the most likely point of origin. The author goes on to argue for a seventh-century date, based on linguistic analysis and comparisons with other Irish hymns of that period. Lapidge's paper gives only the Latin text, but below is a translation by David Howlett, with some accompanying notes.

Deus Domine Meus 'A New Hiberno-Latin Hymn on Saint Martin'

1. God, my Lord, I am the one responsible for Your death: be patient now with me, who are strong and powerful.
2. I adjure the true God, always one and triune, that I may have power now to go to Saint Martin.
3. I ask now the King of Kings, Who is divine light, that I may be able now, just to visit Saint Martin.
4. Christ, God of gods, Whose majesty is wondrous, make me to lament, healed, before Saint Martin.
5. Direct the way clearly, O Nazarene Jesu, so that I may be able excellently to bewail sins there.
6. For me an aid through shipwreck will be the support of Christ's soldier Martin.
7. I wish to visit you; make me come to you, who are of such great virtue, O my Saint Martin.
8. O my Saint Martin, intercede now, I beg, for me, grieving ill, burdened by the disgrace of sins.
9. O my Saint Martin, for me now intercede, lest the wisps of flame of perennial punishment touch me.
10. O my Saint Martin, beloved of the throng of the heavens, lest I be a sharer of punishment help me.
11. O my Saint Martin, help me that I may enjoy at the end the perennial bread of life.
12. Glory to You, Father, Who are Brother and Mother.

Notes

The first 5 stanzas are addressed to God. The central sixth stanza describes the aid of Saint Martin against shipwreck on the journey from the poet's home, presumably in Ireland, and the shrine of Saint Martin, presumably at Tours. The last 5 stanzas are addressed to Saint Martin. The doxology is addressed to God. The most appropriate occasions for recitation of this hymn might be the two principal feasts of Saint Martin, 4 July and 11 November.

David Howlett, The Celtic Latin Tradition of Biblical Style, (Dublin, 1995), 183-186.

8th-Century Abbasid Caliphate Martyrdoms

I have sad news to report. Well, if by ‘news’, I can refer to something that happened 1300 years ago. Last January I wrote a post on Martyr Abo the Perfumer of Baghdad, wherein I made the following remarks:

On a personal note, I became interested in doing this post on St Abo when I saw him described as ‘the Perfumer of Baghdad’ on the Holy Trinity calendar (I discovered that most other sources seem to refer to him as ‘Martyr Abo of Tiflis [Tbilisi]’). I have had a sort of fascination with old Baghdad ever since high school, when I read Neil Gaiman’s story ‘Ramadan’ in the Sandman collection, Fables and Reflections (NY: DC Comics, 1993), pp. 226-58. The story concerns the legendary Caliph, Harun al-Rashid (هارون الرشيد, ‘Aaron the Just’), the ‘Golden Age’ figure who plays so prominent a rôle in many of the stories in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. It occurred to me, I know so little about the history of the Islamic world, that I had no idea when Harun’s reign was, or whether it was anywhere close in time to the martyrdom of St Abo. It turns out St Abo was martyred in January of 786, under Harun’s brother, nine months before Harun took over the Caliphate in September of that year. It’s nice to know that the second most famous ‘Aaron’ didn’t martyr St Abo.

Well, while ‘the second most famous’ Aaron is innocent of that martyrdom, it turns out that there is at least one to his credit. A Google search for [St] ‘Gregory Decapolites’ (whose feastday we celebrate today on the Church’s calendar) led me to this, by way of Monachos.net. At the top of St Gregory’s ‘speech’ the editor refers to ‘the life of the genuine convert and martyr St Anthony Ruwah who was martyred under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809) on Christmas Day 799’. Say it ain’t so, Harun!

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. What are the chances that any given Muslim ruler didn't martyr at least one Christian at some point? But still, I had hoped for better from a fellow Aaron.

Incidentally, Frederick Artz has inadvertently confirmed Gaiman’s portrait of mediæval Baghdad, ‘the Heavenly City, the jewel of Arabia’ (p. 228), in his magisterial study, The Mind of the Middle Ages: An Historical Survey, AD 200-1500, 3rd rev. ed. (Chicago: U of Chicago, 1980), p. 149:

Bagdad came to be even larger than Damascus; in the tenth century it had at least 800,000 inhabitants and was, after Constantinople, the largest city in the world. The Tigris River and a system of canals gave the city access to the sea, and its trade and manufacture brought an enormous accumulation of wealth. Its palaces, mosques, schools, and public buildings were the wonder of the world.

'Always Keep Ithaca in Your Mind'

A wonderful old Greek lady in our parish fell asleep in the Lord on Friday. I had known Vasiliki Mitrovgenis since I first became Orthodox, when she and her son attended the Greek parish in town, and we joined the local ROCOR parish at the same time. When we were talking about her passing, my daughter said, ‘I’m gonna miss that old lady who used to sit in the back of the church and smile at me.’

At the funeral today, I discovered the following poem—with which I was not previously familiar—printed on the back of the program:

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road may be long,
full of adventures, full of knowledge.
Læstrygonians and Cycopes,
angry Poseidon—do not fear them,
for such things you will never encounter on your way
if your thought remains lofty, if a noble
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Læstrygonians and Cyclopes,
fierce Poseidon you will not encounter,
if you do not harbor them within your soul,
if your soul does not raise them up before you.

Pray that the road may be long.
May the summer mornings be many
when with intense pleasure and joy
you will enter harbors seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician market place,
and buy good merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and pleasurable perfumes of every kind
abundant pleasurable perfumes, as many as you can;
travel to Egyptian cities
to learn endlessly from the learned.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
Arriving there is your ultimate purpose.
But do not hurry the journey in the least.
Better that it last for many years,
and that finally you anchor at your island old,
blessed with all that you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to give you riches.

Ithaca gave you the splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must have understood already what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)
Trans. Theofanis G. Stavrou

After the funeral, when I asked Mrs Mitrovgenis’s son, Reader Demetrios, whether he had chosen this poem, he said, ‘No, mom picked that herself. In fact, she arranged almost everything herself. After she passed away, I wrote an obituary, but it turned out she’d already written one.’

Αιωνία η μνήμη!

'He Renewed the Beauty of the Monastic Order'—St Odo of Cluny

Today, 18 November on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of St Odo (879-942), Abbot of Cluny. St Odo seems to be little known among Orthodox, even for a Western Saint. He is the author of the Life of St Gregory of Tours (printed in Vita Patrum: The Life of the Fathers, by St Gregory of Tours, trans. Hieromonk Seraphim [Rose] & Paul Bartlett [Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1988], pp. 35-63), and Fr Seraphim notes that while much of the Life is composed of paraphrases and summaries of St Gregory’s own statements about himself, ‘the Abbot’s own comments show him to be a man of spiritual perception himself’ (p. 32). Here is the account of St Odo's life from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Second Abbot of Cluny, born 878 or 879, probably near Le Mans; died 18 November, 942. He spent several years at the court of William, Duke of Martin at Tours. About 909, he became a monk, priest, and superior of the abbey school in Baume, whose Abbot, Bl Berno, was transferred to Cluny in 910. Authorized by a privilege of John XI in 931, he reformed the monasteries in Aquitaine, northern France, and Italy. The privilege empowered him to unite several abbeys under his supervision and to receive at Cluny monks from abbeys not yet reformed; the greater number of the reformed monasteries, however, remained independent, and several became centres of reform. Between 936 and 942 he visited Italy several times, founding in Rome the monastery of Our Lady on the Aventine and reforming several convents, e.g. Subiaco and Monte Cassino. He was sometimes entrusted with important political missions, e.g., when peace was arranged between King Hugo of Italy and Alberic of Rome. Among his writings are: a biography of St Gerald of Aurillac, three books of Collationes (moral essays, severe and forceful) a few sermons, an epic poem on the Redemption (Occupatio) in several books (ed. Swoboda, 1900), and twelve choral antiphons in honour of St Martin.

Benedict XVI recently spoke about St Odo in an audience at the Vatican (see Vultus Christi for the full text), where he observed, among other things:

Underlining Odo’s ‘virtue of patience’, his biographer gives a long list of his other virtues, such as contempt for the world, zeal for souls, commitment to peace for the Churches. Abbot Odo greatly aspired to concord between the king and princes, the observance of the Commandments, care of the poor, correction of youth, and respect for the elderly (cf. Vita Sancti Odonis, I,17: PL 133, 49). He loved the cell where he resided, ‘far from the eyes of everyone, concerned with pleasing God alone’ (ibid., I,14: PL 133, 49).

. . .

A characteristic of the holy abbot appears here that at first glance is almost hidden under the rigor of his austerity as reformer: the profound goodness of his soul. He was austere, but above all he was good, a man of great goodness, a goodness that comes from contact with divine goodness. Odo, his contemporaries say, spread all around the joy with which he was filled. His biographer attests to never having heard from the mouth of man ‘such sweetness of word’ (ibid., I,17: PL 133, 31). His biographer recalls that he used to invite children whom he met on the road to sing and then give them a small gift, and he adds: ‘His words were full of exultation ... his mirth infused in our heart a profound joy’ (ibidem, II, 5: PL 133, 63).

Leonard von Matt and Dom Stephan Hilpisch, OSB, helpfully summarise the reforms initiated by St Odo (Saint Benedict, trans. Dom Ernest Graf, OSB [Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1961], p. 169):

The first point of Cluny’s programme was a faithful observance of the Rule of St Benedict and the solemn celebration of the liturgy, this being a monk’s primary task. On the other hand, Cluny insisted on the independence of the monastery: there was to be no interference by the secular authority. The monasteries were to form a confederation with central government and were to be at the service of the Church.

Distinguished abbots, men like Odo, Majolus, Odilo and Hugh, executed this programme with prudence and vigour so that, within a short time, Cluny exercised a mighty power of attraction, not only in France but likewise in England, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Referring to the reformers of Benedictine monasticism in the 10th century, Christopher Dawson writes (Religion & the Rise of Western Culture [Garden City, NY: Image, 1958], pp. 122-3):

These men were not mere self-centred ascetics, but prophets of righteousness who defended the weak and the oppressed and spoke boldly against evil in high places. We see this, above all, in the writings of St Odo, the second Abbot of Cluny (927-942), who was one of the greatest of the early leaders in the reforming movement.

In his article, ‘The Contribution of the Orders’, in The Flowering of the Middle Ages, ed. Joan Evans (NY: Barnes & Noble, 1998), George Zarnecki tells us that when St Odo arrived at Monte Cassino to institute his reforms there and enforce the rule, ‘he was met by armed monks ready to resist the unwanted interference’ (p. 49). He goes on to write: ‘It is a measure of Odo’s courage and saintliness that in an age when only brute force was understood, he gained entry, as testified by his contemporary and biographer, John of Salerno, with the disarming words: “I come peacefully—to hurt no one, injure no one, but that I may correct those who are not living according to rule”’ (p. 49). Thus it was that when St Nilus of Calabria visited the great monastery in 981 (see this post), he was met by a disciple of St Odo, Abbot Aligern, and it was the Cluniac form of Benedictinism that he saw there.

Frederick Artz refers to one of St Odo’s achievements that seems to be rarely mentioned: his important role in the history of Western music. Artz points out that the Abbot’s Dialogue on Music ‘contains the first systematic use of seven letters for pitches and the first clear discussion and illustration of organum. The whole book is much more specific than any earlier work on music, and it shows that musical theory is moving away from philosophy and that it is beginning to consider, in a more first-hand way, actual musical production’ (The Mind of the Middle Ages: An Historical Survey, AD 200-1500, 3rd rev. ed. [Chicago: U of Chicago, 1980], p. 220).

Finally, I’d like to make a brief comment about one of the more famous aspects of the Cluniac observance of St Benedict’s Rule. In his Introduction to Colm Luibheid’s translation of selections of St John Cassian’s Conferences (NY: Paulist, 1985), Owen Chadwick speaks of ‘the long and elaborate services designed by Cluny, apparently with the mistaken object of achieving the maximum amount of prayerfulness in the day by that method’ (p. 17). Chadwick rightly contrasts such an object (which he admits is ‘a noble ideal’) with St Cassian’s ideal of unceasing prayer as taught in Conf. X.8-10 (Luibheid, pp. 130-6), which echoes precisely the teaching of ‘eastern’ hesychasm. But it seems to me that we must be careful of making too much of this tendency in the Cluny of St Odo and his immediate disciples, if for no other reason than the indubitably ‘eastern’ St Nilus of Calabria found nothing objectionable to it when he was at Monte Cassino a mere forty years after St Odo’s repose, and, according to the Vita S. Nili 73, ‘marvelled at their discipline and their well-ordered pattern of existence and expressed greater admiration for their way of life than for ours’ (qtd. in Herbert Bloch, Monte Cassino in the Middle Ages, Vol. I, Parts I-II [Cambridge, MA: Harvard U, 1986], p. 11). While one must allow for a little courteous hyperbole, particularly in the last remark, I see no reason to doubt that St Nilus believed the ‘Cluniac’ monks of late 10th-c. Monte Cassino were adequately striving to attain unceasing prayer in their own way.

As for St Odo’s writings, I shall offer two passages. First, Dawson quotes from his Collationes some of St Odo’s ‘prophetic’ remarks about ‘robber nobles’ and ‘worldly prelates’:

How then are these robbers Christians, or what do they deserve who slay their brothers for whom they are commanded to lay down their lives?

You have only to study the books of antiquity to see that the most powerful are always the worst. Worldly nobility is due not to nature but to pride and ambition. If we judged by realities we should give honour not to the rich for the fine clothes they wear but to the poor who are the makers of such things—nam sudoribus pauperum praeparatur unde potentiores saginantur (for the banquets of the powerful are cooked in the sweat of the poor). (Dawson, p. 123)

Second, here is part of Fr Seraphim’s translation of the Preface to the Life of St Gregory of Tours:

It is right to venerate the memory of all the saints; but the faithful honor in the first place those who, whether by their doctrine or by their example have shone with great splendor than the others. Now, that the blessed Gregory, archbishop of the metropolitan see of Tours, was one of these, and that he is resplendent with this double merit, is proved by documents which are by no means of negligible authority. It is therefore surely necessary to describe, even though incompletely, his actions, so that the renown of such a man may not be eclipsed one day by a cloud of uncertainty. Without doubt it suffices for his glory that he has, high in the heavens, the testimony of Christ, Whom he wished to please; but among us would it not, nonetheless, be something culpable to keep silent the praises of the man who exerted himself to publish those of so many saints? (p. 35)

I conclude with the Roman antiphon for St Odo from the feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny (from this post at Vultus Christi):

Odo arose full of the Holy Spirit,
and renewed the beauty of the monastic Order
throughout the world, alleluia.