6) With the development of the spiritual life, one ascends to the “embrace” of the Word, to “divine inebriation,” and to ecstasy (which does not imply a state of alienation from sense, but a transport of spiritual joy and wonder). But it does imply subjection to the power of the Holy Spirit.
7) The summit: union, “mingling of the soul with the Word.”
In summary, whatever may be said for or against Origen, he is the most powerful influence on all subsequent mysticism, East and West, particularly West. We find Origen in Cassian, in St. Bernard, St. John of the Cross, the Rhenish mystics, etc. He is practically the source (after the New Testament itself) of Christian mystical thought.
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1 Merton found these quotes from Clement in Anne Fremantle, ed., A Treasury of Early Christianity (New York: Viking Press, 1953), 49, 50.
LECTURE 4
St. Anthony of the Desert
Egyptian and Palestinian monasticism arose in the desert, when the ascetes (and even some of the virgins) decided that it was necessary for them to withdraw still further from the world. What prompted this movement to the deserts?
It grew in force when the Church became worldly, but began before that. [The year] 313—the Edict of Milan—is an important date in early Church history. Constantine, “converted” (but not baptized) in 312, recognized Christianity and gave it freedom and a place in society. From then on the emperors themselves were to be at least exteriorly Christians. As St. Jerome said, summing up the idea common to Christians of his time and to later tradition: “When the Church came to the princes of the world, she grew in power and wealth but diminished in virtue.” Conversions became more numerous but less fervent. The level of Christian life sank and there was more of a tendency for the Christian to become hardly different from his pagan neighbor.
Those seeking the perfect Christian life of renunciation were thus placed in difficulties. First, stricter rules and a more systematic way of asceticism were enjoined upon the ascetes. For instance, virgins were formally bound to stay at home, unless real necessity called them outside (beginnings of enclosure). The hours of the office, Tierce, Sext and None, became customary everywhere, with of course the night office (anastasis). Year-round fasting was prescribed. Ascetics began to live in communities—in towns or near them, just outside. However, this was not enough. Visitors disturbed them; the town was near. There were many distractions and temptations. Yet we must not think that they went into the desert expecting to avoid temptation.
The desert was a place of deeper and more spiritual temptation, not just a refuge from the world. What led them to the desert? The examples of St. John Baptist, Elias, and above all of Christ Himself. The ideal was one of silence, solitude, dependence on God. Direct dependence on God is the vocation of the solitary. Perfect abandonment is proper to the monastic state, because it is a literal and exact fulfillment of the Gospel.
Enter St. Anthony
St. Anthony of the Desert was the classic example of a monastic conversion, and the life of Anthony, written by St. Athanasius for some Western monks between 356 and 357, is the most important monument of tradition on the monastic origins. It should be read by all monks. In the Life of St. Anthony we find all the essential elements of the early monastic ideal.
The idea that vocations to the desert came with the Edict of Constantine is not quite accurate. There were already many hermits in the desert before that. St. Anthony embraced the hermit life about 270, and went into the desert at Pispir about 285. He had gathered many disciples around him before 313.
He was born at Coma, Middle Egypt, about 251. At the very first, Anthony had ascetic inclinations. He wanted like Jacob “to dwell a plain man in his house” (Gen. 25:27)—avoided the company of other children. He was simple and obedient, loved church services, and listened carefully to the Word of God when it was read—this is important, because here he got his vocation.
[In] 270, [after] meditating on the vocation of the Apostles who left all to follow Christ, and on the renunciation of the first Christians, entering church, he hears read the classical passage from Matthew 19, that of the vocation offered the rich young man: “If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.” (Mt. 19:21) Anthony took this as addressed to himself, and immediately went out, sold all he had, gave to the poor and to his sister. Later, hearing another precept of Christ in the Gospel, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34), he takes a further step, places his sister (of whom he had care) in a convent; he becomes an ascete outside his home village.
In the first stages of his ascetic life, he works with his hands, seeks out models of virtue in the other ascetes, prays constantly, pays close attention to the reading of Sacred Scripture. He did not know how to read himself, but remembered long passages of Scripture by heart, “his memory serving him instead of books.”
[Then came his] first temptations. The Enemy is soon on the scene, and strives to break Anthony’s resolution with temptations. Their order is significant. First: anxiety about property, his sister, food; worry about weakness of body and his ability to persevere. Second: violent temptations of the flesh. Anthony replies by meditation—on what? “He extinguished the illusion by meditating on Christ and reflecting on the nobility that is ours through Christ, and on the spiritual nature of the soul.” Note the positive and optimistic basis of monastic asceticism—the Incarnation has raised us to the level of sons of God, highest nobility. Our aim should be to live up to this. Third: pride. The devil flatters him, tries to make him take pride in the fact that he is a “great ascetic” and “not like other men.” Anthony condemns him. The Savior triumphs in Anthony.
Anthony consolidated his gains by discretion, studying the manifold wiles of the enemy, and by self-discipline. Showing great fervor and zeal, he is able to practice extraordinary mortifications, passing nights without sleep and eating only bread and water. He goes out to the tombs, near the town and lives as a recluse in a tomb. Here is a new phase of struggle. The devils beat him and leave him for dead. He is taken back for burial to his village church, but gets up at midnight and returns to the tombs. The temptations are renewed; the devil tries to terrify him. The Lord appears, and declares that He had waited to see Anthony’s struggle.
Anthony, after this “novitiate,” starts out for the desert. He lives as a recluse in an ancient fort—struggling with the demons. He spent twenty years in this fort and becomes a perfect ascetic and monk (megaloschemos). He has reached apatheia: “The temper of his soul, too, was faultless, for it was neither straitened as if from grief, nor dissipated by pleasure, nor was it strained by laughter or melancholy. He was not disturbed when he saw the crowd, nor elated at being welcomed by such numbers; he was perfectly calm, as befits a man who is guided by reason and who has remained in his natural state.” Anthony has recovered the state in which man was created in Paradise, for which he was intended by God.
As a proof of his apatheia, he is unharmed by ferocious animals; for instance, he crosses a canal infested with crocodiles, unharmed, with the aid of prayer. Also, at this point numerous disciples join themselves to him. We mention these points not as biographical data alone, but because of their importance in theological tradition. See also the life of St. Benedict by St. Gregory. When Benedict reaches ascetic perfection and becomes a contemplative, souls are also brought to him to be formed.
The Doctrine of Anthony
Chapter 16 [of Athanasius’s Life of St. Anthony] begins a sequence of chapters containing Anthony’s doctrine. It is presented as a discourse somewhat like the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of His public ministry. Here is the essence of his teaching:
1) Scripture and tradition. The scriptures are in themselves sufficient but also there is their relationship with their elder (Anthony) in which they tell him their difficulties and he relates to them what he knows on the point from his own experience and from the accumulated exp
erience of the ages.
2) Zeal and energy—determination to grow in ascetic perfection in this life in order to reign with God in eternity—the triviality of trial in time, compared with the eternal reward. Corollary to this are poverty: renounce possessions in this life; seek rather to gain virtues (treasure in heaven); constancy: sustained efforts, not giving up—avoid neglect; need of watchfulness; “synergy”: the Lord works with those who give themselves generously to ascetic effort (the Pelagian controversy in the West would lead to clarifications in this matter); charity and daily thought of death, so that we forgive others at all times; the thought of hell: its power in dispelling carnal temptation. “Perfection is within our reach.”
3) The goodness of the soul in its natural state. Here we come to an important argument, the foundation stone on which his asceticism is built. God created the soul beautiful and upright in His own image. This beauty is its natural state. To be perfect, we have only to be as God created us, that is to say we have only to “live according to our (true) nature.” This sounds exactly the opposite to what we read in ascetic treatises today: that sin consists in following nature, and virtue in going against nature. Modern writers consider nature in its fallen condition; Anthony and the Fathers (up to Augustine, who is pessimistic) consider nature in its original integrity. “If . . . perfection were a thing to be acquired from without, it would indeed be difficult; but, since it is within us, let us guard against our evil thoughts and let us constantly keep our soul for the Lord, as a trust reserved from Him . . . so that He may recognize His work as being the same as when He made it.”
4) Demonology [through] special vices. Two great groups, “anger” (irascible passions) and concupiscence (desires for gratification). These passions are incited within us by demons, and they are various “spirits” against which we must guard with constant watchfulness. (This reappears as the essence of Cassian, as we shall see.) These demons are not absolutely evil in themselves; they were created by God and all creatures of God are good. But they envy men and try to prevent them from rising to heaven whence the demons fell. We need the gift of discernment of spirits to detect their wiles. The tactics of the demons are evil thoughts; phantasms; false visions and prophecies; terrifying visions. They use extraordinary and spectacular means, but they also use subtle and less obvious means—for instance: urging to indiscreet fasts and prayers (breaking our sleep); trying to cause despair at our past sins; causing acedia and disgust; quoting the scriptures vainly. He warns especially against the prophecies and specious visions they bring to ascetics. This should all be regarded as a temptation; we should serve God not for extraordinary powers, but for love of Him. This doctrine is that of St. John of the Cross (Ascent of Mount Carmel, especially book two).
The Later Life of Anthony
He seeks martyrdom in Alexandria, but in vain. His reputation for miracles brings crowds to him. So he retires to Pispir. There follows a further exposition of his doctrine at Pispir. The later teaching of St. Anthony is more mild—with an emphasis on controlling anger, and on what resembles examination of conscience:
Let us note and write down our deeds and the movements of our soul as if we were to tell them to each other. . . . [I]f we write our thoughts as if to tell them to one another, we shall guard ourselves the better from foul thoughts through shame of having them known.
Hence there is some justification for keeping a journal if even St. Anthony recommended the practice! But it must be objective.
His virtues and his miracles are emphasized, his orthodoxy especially. He makes a wise apologia against paganism (these chapters probably reflect the doctrine of St. Athanasius as much as that of Anthony). His prediction of Arianism and his death bring the work to a close. This Life is a great document of monastic tradition, perhaps the very greatest, second to no other, even to the Rule of St. Benedict. It is one of the great sources of Eastern and Western monasticism, and shows the monk as a soldier of Christ, a man of God, and a man of the Church.
LECTURE 5
St. Pachomius and the Cenobites
With St. Anthony we have seen the beginning of monasticism in its purest and most primitive form: that of the anchorites. These had a species of community life, in the sense that there were groups of hermits living in certain regions and coming together at times for Mass. Of these some lived altogether by themselves, some lived two or three in a cell. But their life was not organized, and was not meant to be organized.
Cenobites vs. Hermits
With Pachomius, we find organized community life. And here begins an old debate: between cenobites and hermits. It was to last a long time, and the thread of argument runs all through the Desert Fathers’ literature. Some are for the free, unorganized life of the hermit living alone with God. Others are for the safer, more consistent, organized life of communities. The argument sometimes gets quite heated, and in the end the cenobites, for all practical purposes, won out. The eremitical ideal remains still the highest ideal of monasticism, especially in the Orient. But in practice cenobitism is what is advocated. Rarely, from time to time, in monastic tradition, the hermit life reappears. It is something that is always there and must always be there but it will remain a special vocation. The life of the cenobite is the “ordinary” and “normal” monastic way.
St. Basil visited Egypt and returned with a strong bias in favor of the cenobites and against the hermits. Reasons: the cenobite is sanctified more easily and more surely by obedience and charity, Gospel virtues. The hermit life is more subject to dangerous illusions. St. Basil manifests real bias on these points. He does not give the hermits a fair hearing. Perhaps he had witnessed too many abuses in Egypt. The Verba Seniorum on the other hand bear witness to the beauty and simplicity of the eremitical way. St. Benedict followed St. Basil in preferring the cenobitic life for monks as a whole. He does not exclude hermits, but they are the exception, and need long preparation in the cenobium. St. Theodore Studite in the East, strongly emphasized cenobitism at the monastery of Studion, Constantinople. Cîteaux and Cluny were both strongly cenobitical, yet note that both allowed exceptional vocations to live in solitude. This however was rare. Note: St. Romuald, St. Bruno (Camaldolese and Carthusians) bring a renewal of emphasis on hermit life in the west (11th century). There were always and everywhere men living as hermits in the middle ages—also recluses.
St. Pachomius’s Life Briefly
In 292, Pachomius was born of pagan parents in Upper Egypt. [In] 313–314, in the army of Constantine, edified by [the] charity of Christians to prisoners, after discharge he becomes a Christian. A vision shows him the way to the cenobitic life, a life of “sweetness” filling the whole earth. [In] 317, however, Pachomius first begins to lead a traditional hermit life, under the guidance of Abbot Palemon. He spends four years as a hermit and receives a second vision like the first: the cenobitic life represented as honey covering the earth. [By] 324, after his third and fourth visions, he establishes the cenobium at Tabenna. [In] 346, [we see the] death of St. Pachomius.
The Rule of Pachomius
A Latin digest of the Rule of St. Pachomius has come down to us from the hand of St. Jerome. It is especially interesting because in it we recognize not only the broad general outline of the cenobitic life as we know it, but also many familiar details of monastic regularity. Here we come face-to-face with the familiar structure of monasticism as an institution.
The monastery is a large community subdivided into smaller groups. Pachomian monasticism was built on a military plan. The various groups are under the command of subordinate officers, responsible to superior officers. Each group is responsible for a certain share in the monastic work, or liturgy. They take turns in furnishing certain goods or services. The monastery is surrounded by an enclosure from which women are excluded. Monks cannot go out without permission. The head of the whole monastery is the higumenos. Under him are the houses presided over by chiefs, forty in a house. The houses are divided into squads of twenty under a lieutenant. There
are about thirty or forty houses in a monastery (i.e., about 1,500 monks). The houses are charged with certain jobs, or trades. Hence the members of each house generally do the same work and carry on the same trade. They also take turns weekly in fulfilling community services—providing cooks, etc. Seniority in fulfilling communal offices is determined by the time of entrance into the monastery, as in St. Benedict.
The material side of the life [is] work and poverty. Strict common life was prescribed for the Egyptian cenobites. Articles of clothing were issued from the common store; each was allowed a mat to sleep on, clothes, and nothing more. No one was allowed to keep food in his cell or to bring food there with him when he returned from infirmary. No one could cook on his own or build a fire on his own. All such things were in common. No wine was allowed except to the sick. Food was cooked and distributed from a common kitchen and, except on great occasions, was picked up there and eaten in the domus. No one could pick fruits or vegetables from [the] garden on his own. Cooks were not to prepare anything for themselves that was beyond the common rations. No closed cells were allowed, but apparently each had his own cell. It was even decreed that tweezers for taking thorns out of bare feet could not be had except in common, and were to hang in the window where the books were kept.
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