CURIOUS SAINTS - part 2:
FOOLS FOR CHRIST, PILLAR DWELLERS, LIARS AND MANY MORE*
Here, I will quickly reflect on some of the more interesting EO saints and their feats. Most of the source material for this comes from the famous “Prolog of Ohrid”, a devotional type work which gives short biographies of many saints. The book is written by the recently sainted Serbian theologian and bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, and can be accessed here.
Following the examples of these saints, however, might end up putting you in a mental ward at best, while following in the footsteps of others might just end up killing you.
In his Prolog, bishop Nikolai provides numerous examples of saints who held to a conviction that they needed to torture their own bodies in order to achieve spiritual merits. We see, for example, the Venerable Mark of Trache, who isolated himself to a mountain, and has not seen “man nor beast” for 95 years. He ate grass and drank seawater. There is also the Venerable Theodore of Sykeon, who tortured his body with severe starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation and any other way he could come up with. At one point in history, monks got competitive, and there was a trend to try to beat any known “ascetic feat”. Macarios of Alexandria was known for this. If most monks did not eat meat during lent, he would go without for seven years; if he'd heard that someone went without sleep for ten days, he'd force himself to stay up twenty, and so on.
We also see a special “class” of saints called the stylites, or the "pillar dwellers". These folks would simply build a towering pillar with a tiny platform (or use an existing one), and literally spend decades never coming down from the pillar, not even for a potty break! They would have their disciples climb and bring them food, and clean their defecation (see Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 4). They spent time praying and battling temptation. They exposed themselves to the hot sun, cold nights, and rain. These include St. Simeon the Stylite, who spent many decades on a pillar to which he tied himself to with a rope. The rope started cutting into his flesh and caused it to rot, so that even maggots appeared. That, however, didn’t deter him from pursuing this feat. He was copied by the Venerable Simeon the Stylite of the Wonderful Mountain, who was known for intentionally keeping himself awake for 30 days at a time, and going without food even longer. There were literally hundred's of these ascetics between the 5th and the 15th centuries.
I’m not sure how any one person could intentionally undergo such torture, and still keep their mental health together. The answer, I believe, is that they can’t.
There were some saints who intentionally pursued torture by enemies, because they desired martyrdom. Among them are the Venerable Martyr Onuphrius, and the Holy Venerable Martyr Roman, who intentionally made fun of Mohammad in front of Muslims, just so they could get tortured and killed. They usually got their wishes fulfilled. What a stark contrast between these and the early Christians who were tortured for evangelizing and confessing their faith, but also escaped persecution when they could. These men sought torture for torture’s sake!
Taking a little break from these grave examples, we see curious examples of women who lied that they were male, so that they can join a male monastery. Most of these had male co-conspirators inside the monastery walls. These include the Venerable Apollinaria, the Venerable Mary, and the Venerable mother Anastasia. It is not clear how a life of deception qualifies one as a saint and an example.
Also worth mentioning are some of the rather strange cases that the Prolog describes, such as the case of the Venerable Athanasius: “This holy man died after a long life of asceticism and was bathed, clothed and prepared for burial by his brethren. Athanasius lay dead for two days and suddenly came to life. When they came to bury him, they found him sitting up and crying. After that, he closed himself in his cell and lived for twelve more years on bread and water, not speaking a word to anyone.” Then, there’s the Venerable John of the Old Caves who constantly meditated on the subject of death, and also the Venerable Nile of Stolbensk who dug himself a grave, and then spent time crying over it daily.
Some of the monk-saints fell into severe sexual temptation, but had rather interesting ways of dealing with them. The Venerable Martinian attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the sea when he felt tempted. St. James the Faster fell into temptation with a mentally ill girl, entrusted to him by her parents to be cured through prayer. After he sinned with her, he killed her and threw her body into a river to cover up for it. Later, they say, he repented and did lots of penance, so God did forgive him. It’s worth noting that the monk community of Mt. Athos forbids any female to be on the peninsula including female animals that could be a source of temptation, such as cows, goats and sheep. Only hens and female cats are permitted.
The last, but by no means the least, are the so called “fools for Christ”. Taking Paul’s statement form 1 Corinthians 3:18-19 completely out of context, these saints thought it to be virtuous to pretend they are foolish in order to hide their true sainthood. The methods they employed to achieve this seem rather amusing. Some thought that pretending to be mentally ill and eating garbage is the way to go. But that’s not where the buck stops. Some “fools for Christ” were also known for faking moral inferiority, not just the mental one. In other words, they intentionally sinned, so as to appear to be fools, but inwardly, they "loved and served God". This unfathomable paradox is described by the Russian Orthodox author, Georgiy Fedotov in his book The Saints of Old Russia. According to this author, some of these saints walked around naked, caused disturbances in churches, ate meat on Good Friday, danced with prostitutes, etc. Many EO writers try to avoid the many inappropriate details when writing these saints’ biographies, and usually cover their behavior with umbrella phrases such as “he behaved shamefully”. However, even they occasionally spell out some unexpected details. In the aforementioned Prolog, we find details about such saints as the Venerable Maximus Kapsokalivitos. This man, in his expression of saintly foolishness, was constantly building huts and then burning them. Kapsokalivitos literally means “the hut burner”. He was “recognized” as a saint (and not a mentally ill person?) when St. Gregory Sinaites arrived to Mount Athos, and “revealed” this “truth” to other monks. We also see the Blessed Nicholas from Pskov, who “ran through the streets of Pskov pretending insanity…”.
This colorful assortment of saints gives us an incredible insight into what EO theology has produced over the centuries.
Following the examples of these saints, however, might end up putting you in a mental ward at best, while following in the footsteps of others might just end up killing you.
In his Prolog, bishop Nikolai provides numerous examples of saints who held to a conviction that they needed to torture their own bodies in order to achieve spiritual merits. We see, for example, the Venerable Mark of Trache, who isolated himself to a mountain, and has not seen “man nor beast” for 95 years. He ate grass and drank seawater. There is also the Venerable Theodore of Sykeon, who tortured his body with severe starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation and any other way he could come up with. At one point in history, monks got competitive, and there was a trend to try to beat any known “ascetic feat”. Macarios of Alexandria was known for this. If most monks did not eat meat during lent, he would go without for seven years; if he'd heard that someone went without sleep for ten days, he'd force himself to stay up twenty, and so on.
We also see a special “class” of saints called the stylites, or the "pillar dwellers". These folks would simply build a towering pillar with a tiny platform (or use an existing one), and literally spend decades never coming down from the pillar, not even for a potty break! They would have their disciples climb and bring them food, and clean their defecation (see Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 4). They spent time praying and battling temptation. They exposed themselves to the hot sun, cold nights, and rain. These include St. Simeon the Stylite, who spent many decades on a pillar to which he tied himself to with a rope. The rope started cutting into his flesh and caused it to rot, so that even maggots appeared. That, however, didn’t deter him from pursuing this feat. He was copied by the Venerable Simeon the Stylite of the Wonderful Mountain, who was known for intentionally keeping himself awake for 30 days at a time, and going without food even longer. There were literally hundred's of these ascetics between the 5th and the 15th centuries.
I’m not sure how any one person could intentionally undergo such torture, and still keep their mental health together. The answer, I believe, is that they can’t.
There were some saints who intentionally pursued torture by enemies, because they desired martyrdom. Among them are the Venerable Martyr Onuphrius, and the Holy Venerable Martyr Roman, who intentionally made fun of Mohammad in front of Muslims, just so they could get tortured and killed. They usually got their wishes fulfilled. What a stark contrast between these and the early Christians who were tortured for evangelizing and confessing their faith, but also escaped persecution when they could. These men sought torture for torture’s sake!
Taking a little break from these grave examples, we see curious examples of women who lied that they were male, so that they can join a male monastery. Most of these had male co-conspirators inside the monastery walls. These include the Venerable Apollinaria, the Venerable Mary, and the Venerable mother Anastasia. It is not clear how a life of deception qualifies one as a saint and an example.
Also worth mentioning are some of the rather strange cases that the Prolog describes, such as the case of the Venerable Athanasius: “This holy man died after a long life of asceticism and was bathed, clothed and prepared for burial by his brethren. Athanasius lay dead for two days and suddenly came to life. When they came to bury him, they found him sitting up and crying. After that, he closed himself in his cell and lived for twelve more years on bread and water, not speaking a word to anyone.” Then, there’s the Venerable John of the Old Caves who constantly meditated on the subject of death, and also the Venerable Nile of Stolbensk who dug himself a grave, and then spent time crying over it daily.
Some of the monk-saints fell into severe sexual temptation, but had rather interesting ways of dealing with them. The Venerable Martinian attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the sea when he felt tempted. St. James the Faster fell into temptation with a mentally ill girl, entrusted to him by her parents to be cured through prayer. After he sinned with her, he killed her and threw her body into a river to cover up for it. Later, they say, he repented and did lots of penance, so God did forgive him. It’s worth noting that the monk community of Mt. Athos forbids any female to be on the peninsula including female animals that could be a source of temptation, such as cows, goats and sheep. Only hens and female cats are permitted.
The last, but by no means the least, are the so called “fools for Christ”. Taking Paul’s statement form 1 Corinthians 3:18-19 completely out of context, these saints thought it to be virtuous to pretend they are foolish in order to hide their true sainthood. The methods they employed to achieve this seem rather amusing. Some thought that pretending to be mentally ill and eating garbage is the way to go. But that’s not where the buck stops. Some “fools for Christ” were also known for faking moral inferiority, not just the mental one. In other words, they intentionally sinned, so as to appear to be fools, but inwardly, they "loved and served God". This unfathomable paradox is described by the Russian Orthodox author, Georgiy Fedotov in his book The Saints of Old Russia. According to this author, some of these saints walked around naked, caused disturbances in churches, ate meat on Good Friday, danced with prostitutes, etc. Many EO writers try to avoid the many inappropriate details when writing these saints’ biographies, and usually cover their behavior with umbrella phrases such as “he behaved shamefully”. However, even they occasionally spell out some unexpected details. In the aforementioned Prolog, we find details about such saints as the Venerable Maximus Kapsokalivitos. This man, in his expression of saintly foolishness, was constantly building huts and then burning them. Kapsokalivitos literally means “the hut burner”. He was “recognized” as a saint (and not a mentally ill person?) when St. Gregory Sinaites arrived to Mount Athos, and “revealed” this “truth” to other monks. We also see the Blessed Nicholas from Pskov, who “ran through the streets of Pskov pretending insanity…”.
This colorful assortment of saints gives us an incredible insight into what EO theology has produced over the centuries.
* This article is here just to give you a foretaste of some of the the "fruit" of EO monasticism, and what kinds of "saints" are given to the believers as examples. These and many other specific examples, alongside with the general doctrine of EO monasticism, have been thoroughly analyzed in the book "Eastern Orthodoxy Illuminated by the Gospel" by Ivica Stamenkovic.
Let's look at another uniquely EO issue - the calendar.
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