Athlete’s of God, the elements of early Syrian Christian asceticism Part 1

1. Virginity

Virginity was a vital aspect, and perhaps one of the most important, in becoming a monk in the early Syrian monastery. To this day the pure and chaste are revered in the church, and even in purely philosophical terms outside of religion, virginity is associated with certain aspects of incorruptibility.

Overall the life of a monk was austere, and the goal of the monastery was to live severely, and the concept of sex had to be left out of the spiritual battle of the monks. Many monasteries forbade the entrance of women, and many nunneries forbade the entrance of men. Many monks took vows to never speak to women, including their own mother’s. Those monks that had to deal with women on a daily basis would never look directly at them, and if they did not have to would not answer to them. The same went for the nun’s, and there were many young woman who found great inspiration in the nun that didn’t see or speak with a man for over 18 years.

In some parts of Syria and in certain monasteries it was perfectly normal to castrate themselves. And there are several referances in chronicles and histories of these “eunuchs” of god.

2. Poverty

Over time poverty too had become a fundamental aspect of Christian monasticism. The general life of the early monks was extremely austere. Generally their cells, which in Syriac literally translated into “prison cells,” had perhaps only a bed and a bowl for food. Most monks even refused to take alms, and most monasteries forbade the monks from possessing any property; some rules indicated that even monasteries themselves could not possess any property.

More to come in a few days . . .

Video of Saint Simeon’s Church

I found this amazing video posted recently on Youtube of the church built around the pillar of Saint Simeon.

Ascetic Diet and Holy Anorexia

I am currently in the process of writing a book on ascetic practice.  Along the path of research I come across some interesting information,  which I share with all of you.  Among the topics that interest me today are ascetic diets, or the foodstuffs of the soul.   In so many ways ascetic diet is such an ironic term, as the body and the flesh are such worldly elements in the realm of a meditative soul, however the soul is still intact with the body, and therefore is to some degree attached to it.

Among the interesting diets that I have come across in my research is how many of monks who tried desperately to practice asceticism came into the conflict of desire and will.  Very often monks who had tackled the physical aspect of ascetic life, found that supressing appetite to be one of the most horrible experiences.   Some monks developed severe eating disorders by trying to starve themselves.   For example, the very famous cases of Theresa of Avila, who used to an olive twig to induce vomiting, or Saint Catherine, who both suffered of what is now known as “holy anorexia.”

Henry Darger, American artist and urban ascetic

In all these writings of mine on the philosophies of asceticism, hermeticism, and the path towards earthly renunciation, I have always been somehow attracted to those men and women who embody in their lives such ascetic virtues.  Henry Darger seems to be among them.  I have followed his interesting story for some years now, and he is an enigma to me as well as countless others who are intrigued by his outsider art, and by his austere lifestyle.

Darger was a devout Catholic, who attended mass daily, lived simply, and wrote prolifically.   An upublished work several thousands of pages in lenght with hundreds of drawings, titled In The Realms of the Unreal.

If you are ever in a city or town that has his artwork on display please check it out.  Also, check out as much info as you can on him.  His wikipedia article has good and reliable sources.

Also, there is a wonderful documentary that is available about him for free to watch on Youtube:

Notes on Stillness and Asceticism

All ascetics either strive for or experience stillness.  Stillness is both a term to explain what to strive for, but it is also a physical state and space, which the mastered ascetic enters, and which the student ascetic strives to attain.   But whatever the scholar can deduce of stillness, it presents many problems — does stillness exist on its own, or does it appear alongside its fellow virtues such as humility, silence, prayer, meditation, and fasting?

To most “stillness” may represent the virtue of silence, or peace.   To others stillness may represent non-existence, or a complete “loss” of and an “enduring space of holiness.”

Whatever arguments one might offer the definition of stillness, it is often understood by everyone that in order to achieve some sort of stillness, there most be some form of renunciation.  This renunciation may be the physical world, or the emotional baggage that many carry in daily life.

We see the quest and the existence of stillness in some of the greatest ascetics known to man, within Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Zen, Sufi, and Islam – all the ascetics seek and experience the mystical sensation of stillness.

Benedicta Ward writes of the Desert Fathers:

Their work was to live in stillness and know themselves thoroughly, so that the redemption of Christ might come upon their whole lives from beginning to end; they would live therefore at the limits of nature, and of human endurance, because of the glory ahead of them; and it is in this positive perspective that their asceticism is best understood.

Simeon Stylites in Images

Several collections of images in relation to Simeon Stylites the Elder.

Saint Simeon Stylites, shown twice. On the left he is about to step down from his column after being told to do so to show his allegiance to the church.

Bas-relief of St. Simeon Stylites
Basalt
AD 500

St. Simeon Stylites was one of the monks whose numbers grew considerably with the triumph of Christianity in Syria after it was integrated into the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire, in 395. Some of these monks wished to live as Christ had and sought to isolate themselves so that they could pray and meditate; these monks became hermits. St. Simeon found an original way of doing this: he lived on top of a pillar. His epithet, Stylites, comes from the Greek word stylos, meaning “column.” However, his originality brought him many visitors. He is shown here with only his head sticking out above the structure built on the pillar. A bird, representing Christ, is crowning him with a wreath, a symbol of the saints in Christian iconography. A person on the ladder holds a censer

Hama region
66 x 78 x 16 cm
Hama Museum 1088
Syrien 49

The Hermit Saint by Bosch

This is one of my favorite paintings by one of my most favorite painters.

Simeon Stylites on the Pillar, Image

I am not sure who created this image, but it is interesting and it is always good to see such figures.

Excess and Lust

I came to Ohio this week to do a few days of work. It’s a strange and bizarre business that I am in, working long 14 hour days. Weird rains and warm winds have invaded this part of the country, and for a while it felt as though I was not in the Midwest but perhaps in some tropical locale, where the constant rains and warm temperatures gave a dream-like ambiance to an entire existence.

I would awake early in the mornings and enter this odd world, where the rain fell not in tiny droplets but big puddles, and it splattered everywhere, getting on everyone. Everything was soaking it seemed, and the world had become something of a watery life, as if a unique film that was created under extreme conditions. Working under such conditions, in terribly bad lighting and ventilation, gave way to odd thoughts and conversations with fellow workmen, with little breaks for sitting, I would steal away ten or five minutes out of every two hours to run to the tent that was set up to read through the Religious History, and jot down a few notes on thoughts pertaining to excess and lust.

The few moments that life afforded me throughout the workday to break into solitude and quite observance of things aloft and much more higher then the worldly, gave me both strength and anxiousness; at times thinking of how despairing we creatures of the Earth are, in order to feed our daily bodies, and yet how low we bring ourselves to meaningless chores in order to provide for our own survival.  There was something both terrible and beautiful about it; the suffering of it all.

Talking with several men and women about our lives I came to see the suffering of it all much closer then I ever thought.  The terrible state of our nations economy has forced many who once lived a life of lust and excess to come much closer to reality, and at times shown the horrendous consequences, and sometimes allowed others to realize the tradgedy of forgetting those in need.

Under this economy some who once held high posts have fallen.  Those who flew to close to the sun, their wings have melted.  Others, who silently sighed and prayed and worked, and still remain on the bottom, can only see the new-found exhaustion on their faces, and bare with them the daily struggle.   And again society is begining to understand the value of decent work, and that charity and compassion are needed in this society, perhaps more then ever.

When people are out of hope, those who were not charitable and compassionate are begining to ask, “who would care for me when I lose my job? Who would feed me when I cannot find food?  Who would help me when I cannot find shelter?”

It is in such times when we can look back at the Desert Fathers and understand a few things much more clearly.  These men and women did not chose to wear the same cloaks for their entire lives to punish themselves.  They wore what they had and only what they needed because they understood that if they had anything else but the clothes they needed, those clothes could be worn by those who do not have them.   They chose to eat small doses of food because the extra food that they did not eat could be used to feed the poor.  They chose to ubstain from lust and excess because those energies and those bounties were all things that did not naturally belong to them, and to take use of excess meant to take away from others, and to take use of lust mean to betray ones own moral sense of compassion.

These are lessons we must take with us.

Finally though, these long days of work are over.  I am looking forward to finally begin publishing more of my essays on asceticism, which should be coming this whole week.

Hunger

The thirst for knowledge and enlightenment
should be reflected in the body.