CASSIAN, JOHN

CASSIAN, JOHN, St. (ca. 360-ca. 432). Born in Marseilles, he was a trusted adviser to Pope Leo the Great (q.v.). Though a Latin, it is in the Orthodox Church that Joh n is included in the calendar of saints. Familiar with Egyptian monasticism (q.v.) and especially with Evagrius of Pontus (q.v.) by virtue of a long stay in the monastic center of Scete, locale par excellence of the Desert Fathers (q.v.), Joh n became the vehicle through whom the spirituality and insights of the desert were transferred to the Western Church. He accomplished this both by establishing monasteries, notably his foundation at Lerins in southern Gaul, and through his writings, especially his Institutes and Conferences. His hesitations concerning-or outright rejection of-certain tenets of Augustine of Hippo (q.v.), especially the latter’s doctrines of “original guilt” and predestination, would make him suspect in the eyes of later Western theologians who labeled him “Semi-Pelagian” (which charges Eastern theologians consider false), though no such accusations affected him or his reputation greatly during his own lifetime. His career as a theologian is marked by its influence on Pope Leo, who held him in high esteem, especially for his seven volumes entitled De Incarnatione Domini, and whose opposition to Nestorius (q.v.) bears the marks of Cassian’s thought. The latter owes much both to the Cappadocian Fathers and to Joh n Chrysostom (qq.v.), who had ordained Cassian deacon at the turn of the 5th c. In the Orthodox East, Joh n is remembered as “St. Cassian the Roman,” on 29 February, and Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, while compiling the Philokalia (qq.v.), included a selection from his writings under that heading.