Saint Symeon the New Theologian
Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) was a Byzantine monk and mystic who became one of the most important saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He one of three saints of the Eastern Orthodox, together with St. John the Apostle and St. Gregory Nazianzen) to have been given the title of theologian. The title "new" doe not refer to his theology, but his status as the later of other saints named Symeon. Moreover, the title theologian is related to knowledge of God through prayer, more than his intellectual endeavors.
Born in Galatia to a wealthy family and educated at Constantinople, Symeon became abbot of the monastery of St. Mamas. He was a poet who embodied the mystical tradition. He wrote that humans could and should experience God directly. His works influenced the hesychastic controversy of the fourteenth century. His feast day in the Orthodox tradition is celebrated on March 12 .
Biography
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Symeon the New Theologian was orn at Paphlagonia in Asia Minor in 949 C.E. to parents or the Byzantine nobility: Basal and Theophana. He received the basics of a classical education. At the age of 14, he became a disciple of St. Symeon the Studite and determined to devote himself to a life of Christian asceticism and prayer. He desired to enter the monastery known as the Studion immediate, but the elder Symoen instructed him to wait, gradually preparing his young pupil for monastic life while still living in "the world." Symeon managed the household of a local patrician and seems to have entered imperial service as well. In the evenings he engaged in ascetic practices and read the spiritual works such men as the ascetic writer Mark the Hermit and Diadochus of Photike, author of the One Hundred Chapters on Spiritual Perfection.
Symeon became the abbot of the monastery of St. Mamas around 980. However, his ascetic policy was considered too extreme, and he was was forced to resign in 1009 by the patriarch of Constantinople. However, his writings continued to appeal to mystically oriented monks throughout the centuries.
Symeon's attitude was one of mystical contemplation, more typical of the eastern Orthodox tradition than the Western Catholic version of Christianity. His writings and descriptions of his personal experiences laid the foundation for eastern tradition of Hesychasm, which became an important movement the Eastern Church in the fourteenth century. This movement centered on the so-called "cardiac prayer" and meditation, designed to bring the practitioner into union with God, while retaining a sense of humility as a sinner. Symeon's emphasis on the essence of Christian experience as one of the "heart" became particularly influential. "Our holy fathers have renounced all other spiritual work and concentrated wholly on this one doing, that is, on guarding the heart," he stated, "convinced that, through this practice, they would easily attain every other virtue, whereas without it not a single virtue can be firmly established."
Symeon held that a personal mystical relationship with God is essential to a proper understandin of scripture and theology in general. He taught that through constant prayer, meditation, and ascetic discipline, one could attain a direct union with God, conceived as the Divine Unknown. He called this divinizing process the a “vision of light.”
However, he also emphasized that mystical experiences only come on the foundation of moral and spiritual disciple: "The grace of God is preserved by the practice of the commandments," he said, "and the observance of these commandments is laid down like foundations through the gift of God. The grace of the Spirit cannot remain with us without the practice of the commandments, but the practice of the commandments is of no help or advantage to us without the grace of God."
His works consist of transcribed sermons given to his monks, doctrinal writings, and moral instructions an monastic rules, and his most famous Hymns of the Divine Loves. The latter are descriptions of his mystical experiences through prayer and meditation.
Quotes
"When a man walks in the fear of God he knows no fear, even if he were to be surrounded by wicked men. He has the fear of God within him and wears the invincible armor of faith. This makes him strong and able to take on anything, even things which seem difficult or impossible to most people. Such a man is like a giant surrounded by monkeys, or a roaring lion among dogs and foxes. He goes forward trusting in the Lord and the constancy of his will to strike and paralyze his foes. He wields the blazing club of the Word in wisdom." — The Practical and Theological Chapters
"For those who believe in Him, Christ will become all this and even more, beyond enumeration, not only in the age to come but first in this life, and then in the world to come. Thou in an obscure way here below and in a perfect manner in the Kingdom, those who believe see clearly nonetheless and receive as of now the first-fruits of everything they will have in the future life. Indeed, if they do not receive on earth everything that was promised to them, they do not have any part of foretaste of the blessings to come, their higher hope being set on the hereafter. However, it is through death and the resurrection that God in His foresight has given us the Kingdom, incorruptibility, the totality of life eternal. Given these conditions, we unquestionably become partakers of the good things to come, that is, incorruptible, immortal, sons of God, sons of the light and of the day, inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, since we carry the Kingdom within."
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Hilarion Alfeyev, St Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox Tradition, 2000, Oxford U. Press, ISBN 0-19-827009-7
See also
- Christian mysticism
- Saint Seraphim of Sarov
External links
- Symeon the New Theologian texts in English and Greek, Select Resources
- biography at Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia (accessed September 30 2005)
- The writings of Symeon in Greek, download
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