St. John Cassian
Feast day: July 23
“It is impossible for the mind to remain undisturbed by thoughts, but anyone serious about the matter can certainly permit them entry or drive them away, and although their origin does not lie entirely under our control we can choose to approve of them and to adopt them.”
This is an example of the simple wisdom espoused by St. John Cassian, an Eastern monk and theological writer whose works have helped many grow in holiness. He is credited with first introducing Eastern monasticism into the West. Cassian was born to wealthy parents who provided him with a good education, probably near present-day Romania around 360. When he was approximately 20 years old, he and a companion named Germanus traveled to Palestine. In Bethlehem, they started living the monastic life and eventually settled in Egypt, where Cassian learned from the desert fathers and collected the materials for his writings. He visited abbots and monks at monasteries and hermits living in caves to understand what it means to be a Christian.
In approximately 399, St. John Cassian went to Constantinople, where he was ordained a deacon by the patriarch, St. John Chrysostom. He defended Chrysostom in Rome by pleading his cause with the pope when Chrysostom was illegally deposed. While in Rome, Cassian was ordained a priest in 405.
St. John Cassian never returned to the East. In 415, he founded two monasteries: one for women in Marseille and an abbey of St. Victor for men of which he remained abbot until his death. To instruct his nuns and monks, he wrote two significant books: “The Institutes of the Monastic Life” and “The Conferences on the Egyptian Monks.” Both of these works were instrumental in shaping monasticism in the West.
The Institutes detail the pattern of monastic life in the East and describe the virtues requisite of monks, while the Conferences outline the wisdom of the Desert Fathers in the form of discourses by famous abbots. In the Institutes, Cassian discusses the prayer rule, clothing, eating and fasting, and the rules governing the monastic life in Egypt with examples from his own perceptions in Egypt and Palestine. The remaining books of the Institutes are on the eight primary obstacles to perfection for monks: gluttony, impurity, covetousness, anger, dejection, sloth, vainglory and pride.
The Conferences are a record of the conversations that he and Germanus had with unspecified Egyptian hermits about the interior life. Cassian’s focus here is how to train the inner man and produce perfection of the heart. Cassian wrote both works not as a means of recording monastic history in Egypt but to inspire a reform of Gallic monasticism by detailing how the Desert Fathers lived.
Both works were much praised by St. Benedict at the time that he was forming his Rule, particularly the Institutes. St. Benedict ordered that sections of the Conferences be read daily in his monasteries and he advised that monks read St. John Cassian second only to the Bible. St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great also recommended the works of Cassian. While traveling, St. Dominic was known to always carry three works: the Gospel of St. Matthew, the epistles of St. Paul and the Conferences of St. John Cassian. St. Thomas Aquinas used the writings of Cassian for his analysis on vice. Later figures such as St. Philip Neri and St. John Henry Newman also valued his works. Such examples emphasize the groundwork Cassian established for Western religious.
At the request of Pope Leo I, St. John Cassian also authored “On the Incarnation of the Lord” to inform the Western Church of the details of the teachings of the heretic Nestorius. Cassian was always working as a bridge between the Eastern Church and the West. St. John Cassian died in Marseille in approximately 433.
Reflection
Dear Lord, help me to use my expertise and experiences in building up your Church. May I shine your light of encouragement to help many others as they go forth and spread your Gospel of peace and love.
Prayer
O God, who in your kindness called your servant St. John Cassian to the following of Christ, grant, we pray, through his intercession, that, denying ourselves, we may hold fast to you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
