St. John Cassian (ca. 360-ca. 435)

TARMO TOOM

St. John Cassian was a monastic writer, theo­logian, and renowned churchman. Little is known about his birth and upbringing.

Tradition suggests a Scythian origin and the Romanian Orthodox Church accordingly looks to him as a patron. Around 380, Cassian traveled to Bethlehem and then on to Egypt. In Scetis and Kellia Cassian learned the monastic wisdom from Abba Moses and Evagrios of Pontike (whose name Cassian never mentions for diplomatic reasons). The first Origenist crisis compelled him to move to Constantinople, where he was ordained to the diaconate by St. John Chrysostom. Here he became notable as an ecclesiastical diplo­mat. At Rome he sought help for John Chry­sostom, and there Pope Leo asked him, as a bilingual westerner, to review and refute Nestorius’s teachings (On the Incarnation of the Lord – written beween 429 and 430). Cassian was eventually ordained a priest and energetically promoted Egyptian monastic traditions in Gaul.

Although his conception of radical monastic asceticism was not generally or unqualifiedly accepted, Cassian neverthe­less had a profound influence on western monasticism. St. Benedict recommended Cassian’s Conferences and Institutes for the reading at Compline (Rule of Benedict 73) and Cassiodorus insisted that Cassian should be read “diligently” and “frequently” (Inst. 1.29) by all monks. Cassian is the only western father whose sayings have been included in the Apophthegmata and the collection of the Philokalia (1:72–108).

Gennadius (in De Viris Illustribus 62) gives a list of Cassian’s works, noting that Cassian wrote “from personal experience.” His two chief writings are the Institutes and the Conferences. The first is about the external aspects of monastic life and the eight evil thoughts, and the longer treatise of Conferences is about internal aspects, such as temptation, discernment, and chastity. Conferences 9–10, which include wonderful insights on unceasing and fiery prayer (see Ps. 70.1), were originally intended as

the climax of the treatise. Purity of heart (Mt. 5.8) was Cassian’s perceived goal (scopos) for all monastic striving,

and the reign of God was its end (finis) (Conf. 1.4.1–3).

In the West, Cassian’s admittance that “the slightest glimmer of good will” might be attributed to human effort was widely regarded as unacceptable in the light of the ascendant Augustinianism of the day (Conf. 13.7.1; cf. Prosper of Aquitaine, Con­tra Collatorem; Cassiodorus, Institutiones 1.29; Decretum Gelasianum V.7). Writing on this to the monks of Lerins, Cassian immediately added the qualification that even this good will arising from human effort was “stirred” by God (cf. Inst. 12.18; Conf. 13.9.5, 16.1). But it was enough to damage his later reputation. Cassian’s emphasis on grace, as he speaks about free will, does not really allow one to accuse him of an alleged semi-Pelagianism (Inst. 12.14; Conf. 3.10, 15). He insisted that everyone was “in need of the Lord’s help in whatever pertains to salvation” (Inst. 12.17). For him, sinlessness was an eschatological real­ity (Conf. 23). His liturgical feast day is February 29 (28).

SEE ALSO: Asceticism; Monasticism; Philo- kalia; Pontike, Evagrios (ca. 345–399); Prayer

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Casiday, A. M. (2007) Tradition and Theology in St. John Cassian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chadwick, O. (2008) John Cassian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Driver, S. D. (2003) John Cassian and the Reading of Egyptian Monastic Culture. London: Routledge. Goodrich, R. J. (2007) Contextualizing Cassian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Merton, T. (2005) Cassian and the Fathers, ed. P. F. O’Connell. Kalamazoo: Cistercian

Publications.

Stewart, C. (1998) Cassian the Monk. Oxford: Oxford University Press.