Living on Hope While Living in Babylon

“Living on Hope While Living in Babylon: The Christian Anarchists of the 20th Century” by Tripp York [Wipf and Stock, 2009]

“Fred “Tripp” York is a professor of religion and a prolific Mennonite writer (B.A., Trevecca Nazarene University; M.T.S., Duke University; Ph.D., Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary). His writings span a wide range of genres and subjects including: animals, martyrdom, politics, violence, religious satire and comics. His most popular work is his satirical search for Satan in “The Devil Wears Nada”. He is the co-creator and co-editor of The Peaceable Kingdom Series. York belongs to the Mennonite tradition that has a 500 year history of Christian pacifism. He has written extensively on the North American Christians’ complicity with power and suggests a return to a more diasporic understanding of Christian practice. He emphasizes the witness of Christian anarchists such as Dorothy Day, and Daniel and Philip Berrigan. He teaches at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, VA. He previously taught at Elon University and Western Kentucky University.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripp_York

“Christian anarchy, the belief that in Jesus’ teachings may be found an inherent opposition to systematic secular rule and an inclination towards war and oppression, is a credence that dates back as far as Christianity itself. York focuses on the movement’s modern manifestations and their potential as models for contemporary Christian life. The author examines a few twentieth century Christians from varying religious traditions who lived such a witness, including the Berrigan brothers, Dorothy Day, and Eberhard Arnold. These witnesses can be viewed as anarchical in the sense that their loyalty to Christ undermines the pseudo-stereological myth employed by the state. While these Christians have been labeled pilgrims, revolutionaries, nomads, subversives, agitators, and now, anarchists, they are more importantly seekers of the peace of the city whose chief desire is for those belonging to the temporal cities to be able to participate in the eternal city, the city of God.”

“The publication of Tripp York’s “Living on Hope While Living in Babylon” marks a significant contribution to the recently re-emerging interest in the connection between Christianity and anarchism and for that reason should be celebrated. Very little scholarship exists regarding these questions, and the less these concerns remain marginal to political theology the better….
Christian anarchists enjoy calling themselves by that name as a distinguishing marker: distinguishing themselves from “politics as usual” as well as from “mainstream” Christianities. But Christian anarchists need to begin to become accountable for their use of the term “anarchism,” not simply appropriating it with no intention of engaging actual anarchism and actual anarchists. I’d like to see Christian theological engagement with anarchism that takes a more “C/catholic” approach rather than the either/or approach that has dominated the discussion so far.
What we need is an anarchist political theology that has learned from anarchism because it has been in real dialogue with it and has even been challenged by it. Thankfully there are some emerging Christian theologians who are doing just that: I am thinking of Alexandre J. M. E. Christoyannopoulos who has published several articles on Christian anarchism and has edited an interreligious collection called “Religious Anarchism”, Lee Griffith (see his “Called to Christian Anarchy?” in “God and Country?: Diverse Perspectives on Christianity and Patriotism”, ed. Michael G. Long and Tracy Wenger Sadd [New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007]) and Andy and Nekeisha Alexis-Baker’s impressive academic work and online Jesus Radicals project/community. The latter is especially rooted in a real personal identification with anarchism and a praxis of dialogue and openness to intellectual and praxial conversion. These scholars represent the kind of engagement with anarchism that is needed for the twenty-first century, an engagement that leaves the triumphalism of the past behind and seeks first the Kingdom wherever it is emerging, both inside the church and outside of it.
http://religionatthemargins.com/2010/11/living-on-hope-review/

see also
http://peacenews.info/node/5174/tripp-york-living-hope-while-living-babylon-christian-anarchists-20th-century

for Jesus Radicals, see http://www.jesusradicals.com/

for M. E. Christoyannopoulos see https://sites.google.com/site/christoyannopoulos/

Hermits as Anarchists

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in spiritual, and specifically Christian, anarchism.

Most writers considering Christian anarchism, after brief reflection on the Gospels and the earliest Christian community, go to figures like Adin Ballou (1803–1890), Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) and Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) some eighteen hundred years later. And yet the earliest Hermits were clearly anarchists. They sought to separate – usually physically – from the institutions of both Church and State. Thomas Merton in his introduction to a translation of the “Sayings of the Desert Fathers” describes the early Hermits as “Truly in a certain sense ‘anarchists,’ and it will do no harm to think of them as such.” [Thomas Merton “Wisdom of the Desert” Abbey of Gethsemane Inc. 1960. p.5]

The Hermits were, originally at least, radical individualists, with little, if any, interest in the bureaucratic rules and structures that came increasingly to characterise the Christian Church. They reflected, in practice if not in formal theology, the view later taken by Nikolai Berdyaev:
“There is absolute truth in anarchism and it is to be seen in its attitude to the sovereignty of the state and to every form of state absolutism. … The religious truth of anarchism consists in this, that power over man is bound up with sin and evil, that a state of perfection is a state where there is no power of man over man, that is to say, anarchy. The Kingdom of God is freedom and the absence of such power… the Kingdom of God is anarchy.” [Nikolai Berdyaev, “Slavery and Freedom” (1939), p. 147]

It was probably inevitable, given the nature of governments, religious and secular, that Hermits came to be increasing pressured out of their anarchistic state and into formal institutions, like monastic communities and orders, where individualism was the exception, if not defined as “sin”. With the resurgence of the (individual) eremitical life in modern times, churches have struggled to find appropriate responses. The incorporation of the eremitical life into current Roman Catholic Canon Law [Code of Canon Law 1983, Section on Consecrated Life, Canon 603] may be seen as long overdue recognition – or an attempt by the “State” to exercise power.

“The original message of the great religious teachers to live a simple life, to share the wealth of the earth, to treat each other with love and respect, to tolerate others and to live in peace invariably gets lost as worldly institutions take over. Religious leaders, like their political counterparts, accrue power to themselves, draw up dogmas, and wage war on dissenters in their own ranks and the followers of other religions. They seek protection from temporal rulers, bestowing on them in return a supernatural legitimacy and magical aura. They weave webs of mystery and mystification around naked power; they join the sword with the cross and the crescent.”
Peter Marshall in Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, ed. “Religious Anarchism: New Perspectives” [Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011] p. xx. “Introduction”

“We Christian anarchists sometimes exude an unhealthy cynicism. As anarchists our cynicism is justified. But as Christians we are also creatures of hope. Living in the creative tension of those two equally legitimate dispositions shapes our political discipleship. Anarchism need not be seen as merely political. As practiced by Christians, anarchism can become an essential spiritual practice that not only directs our engagement with the world, but also powerfully forms and develops our own spiritual maturity. How is this so?

The practice of anarchism calls us to the critique of false absolutes. The first commandment is a fundamental Christian anarchist principle: no other gods. But of course other gods are always arising, always being promoted, always holding forth, always shanghaiing new slaves to injustice. We remain constantly aware that even our own Christian anarchist hearts are prone to the worship of false idols and the false worship of the one true God. Anarchism as spiritual practice keeps reminding us of our own potential for self-deception.

The practice of anarchism, more than any other political philosophy, forces us to take responsibility for our own actions. Moses declared “Choose you this day whom YOU will serve.” There is no getting around that necessity. The existential reality of choice is not reserved for a few twentieth-century French philosophers. “Repent” is a prerequisite for the “kingdom” that the Hebrew prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the early church preached about. It is a recognition, an invitation, and a command to keep turning and moving into the right direction – moving into the freedom of God. Because self-deception is a constant trap repentance is a constant necessity. Indeed, repentance becomes the escape hatch to renewed freedom as we leave the seeming determinism of an ill-chosen present and move into the undetermined, still open, and therefore hope-filled future of God. Anarchism as spiritual practice keeps reminding us that there is always something we can do.

The practice of anarchism is a call into recognizable communities, where alliances and coalitions are formed around shared commitments, in-depth dialogue and conversation, and corporate decision-making that keeps our ambitions and projects small, real, and therefore more effective. Anarchism has no room for personal grandiosity or totalizing metanarratives. It is if anything a politics of finitude, but not therefore a politics without vision or even (dare we say it?) ambition. Because it is the most open-ended perspective on politics it is also the most open to hope. Anarchism as spiritual practice keeps reminding us that wherever two or three are gathered God is there as well. And wherever God is there is no telling what might happen!”
http://www.jesusradicals.com/anarchism-as-spiritual-practice/

For an introduction to Christian anarchism, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism :
“Christian anarchism is a movement in political theology and political philosophy which synthesizes Christianity and anarchism. It is grounded in the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus, and thus rejects the idea that human governments have ultimate authority over human societies. Christian anarchists denounce the state as they claim it is violent, deceitful and, when glorified, idolatrous.”

Probably the best known Orthodox Christian anarchist was Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й) (1828-1910), also known as Leo Tolstoy. See “Tolstoy the peculiar Christian anarchist” at http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/tolstoy/chrisanar.htm

Another eminent Orthodox Christian anarchist was Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев) (1874 –1948). a Russian religious and political philosopher: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Berdyaev Berdyaev’s philosophy has been characterized as Christian existentialist. He was preoccupied with creativity and in particular with freedom from anything that inhibited creativity, whence his opposition to a “collectivized and mechanized society”.
See further http://www.berdyaev.com/

Nicolas Berdyaev (Author), George Reavey (Translator), Boris Jakim (Foreword) “Solitude and Society” [Semantron Press; Enlarged edition , 2009]
“In this work, Berdyaev tells us that man’s “I,” his consciousness, is thrust up against a world of impersonal objects (the “objectified” world) and thus finds itself in a condition of alienation and isolation. In five ontological and epistemological meditations Berdyaev clarifies this condition of “objectification” and suggests ways it can be overcome, based on his “personalistic,” “existential” philosophy. He shows how this philosophy can serve to counteract objectification and human isolation. Emphasis throughout is placed on modes of human communion and solitude in society. The Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948) was one of the greatest religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His philosophy goes beyond mere thinking, mere rational conceptualization, and tries to attain authentic life itself: the profound layers of existence that are in contact with God’s world. Berdyaev directed all of his efforts, philosophical as well as in his personal and public life, at replacing the kingdom of this world with the kingdom of God. According to him, we can all attempt to do this by tapping the divine creative powers which constitute our true nature. Our mission is to be collaborators with God in His continuing creation of the world. This is what Berdyaev said about himself: “Man, personality, freedom, creativeness, the eschatological-messianic resolution of the dualism of two worlds – these are my basic themes.””

Desert Spirituality in an Urban Context

“One of the earliest, and clearest, examples of the attempt to apply the spiritual tropes of desert spirituality to the urban context is in an anonymous hagiographical source, written around the sixth and seventh centuries, titled Life of St. Alexis the Man of God. The origins of the legend are somewhat shrouded in mystery, but it seems it had its origins in Syria, at the height of desert monasticism’s greatest growth in the fifth and sixth centuries, making its way into the west around the tenth century.

The legend has all the stock elements of a traditional hagiography steeped in imitatio Christi: a childless couple of noble lineage (paralleling Christ’s royal lineage) who pray for a child, and their prayers are answered. The child’s father, Euphemian, wants him to inherit his power and wealth, and grooms him for such a moment when he will pass on all his worldly power and goods. He chooses a wife for the young man, but Alexis is more concerned with chastity and prayer than he is with power, wealth and marriage, so he, on the day of his marriage, talks his wife into adopting a life of chastity, after which he takes his leave of his father’s house and sails for Laodicea, and then Edessa, “because of an image he had heard talk of, made by angels at God’s command on behalf of the Virgin who brought salvation.”

It is here that the story takes on an unusual turn, because rather than join a monastery, he goes throughout the streets of Edessa, distributing his wealth to the poor, and once he has divested himself of all his possessions, simply “sits down with the poor.” He spends his time with the poor, collecting enough alms to sustain himself, and gives all else to the poor. Leading his life in such a way, he avoids monastic engagement, and at the same time, he lives out his spiritual commitment to poverty in the city of Edessa, also choosing not to live as a hermit.

Withdrawal, for Alexis, means adopting a life of poverty, a way of life that rejects the privilege, power and wealth of his upbringing. As Euphemian’s servants sail to Edessa to look for Alexis, they find him, but do not recognize him. The story drives home the new reality, where Alexis is no longer identified as a powerful heir to a powerful dynastic family, but as a simple beggar. What Euphemian’s servants find is a man who is now dependent on them. He, who was once “their lord, now is their almsman.” This, we are told, brings him great joy, since his exchange was thorough and complete: wealth and power for complete poverty.

How did Alexis live out his poverty? The anonymous poet tells us that he lived seventeen years in Edessa, living in the steps of a church that contained a miracle-working image of the Virgin Mary, “serving his Master with ready will,” with his enemy (i.e. the devil) unable to deceive him..” Like Anthony in the desert, and for that matter, like Christ in the wilderness, Alexis has his own unspecified conflicts and fights with the devil where he comes out victorious. He “punishes his body in the service of the Lord God,” rejects “the love of man or woman,” and turns down “honors that might have been conferred on him.” His commitment to his chosen life of poverty is unwavering, not wanting to “turn aside from it, as long as he has to live.” He is content to live in the city, laboring in prayer and, presumably, ascetic discipline. The chief temptation is to return to his former life of wealth and privilege, and the sight of powerful, wealthy men he sees every day might contribute to that temptation. Nothing, however, can move him from his choice of life, nor from the city of Edessa, which has become his own arena of spiritual struggle…that is, until a rather strange series of events compel him to return to Rome.

Alexis, purposed never to leave Edessa, is prompted to leave when the image of Christ at the altar instructs the priest to bring him into the church. After bringing him into the church, word got out that the “image spoke for Alexis.” Everyone began to flock to the church to honor him as a living saint. This caused a great deal of distress for Alexis, not wanting “to be burdened again by this honor.” Wishing to stay in the anonymity that he enjoyed, he wanted to maintain this state of affairs which brought much by way of opportunities to engage in ascetic self-denial and identification with the poor of the city. This would all change, as people would want to honor him and venerate him above his fellow poor. At this point, he knows exactly what he needs to do: leave Edessa, head straight for Laodicea, from there to Tarsus, and then to Rome.

Why does Alexis choose to return to the city where he had wealth and honor in his father’s house? The anonymous author answers this by relating that since seventeen years had passed since Alexis had left Rome, he was unrecognizable to his father and kinsmen. This anonymity-lived out in his father’s household-would suit him very well, since, surrounded by his father’s wealth and power, he would have the opportunity to fight the temptation to reveal himself to his father. He requests of his father (who does not recognize him) to give him lodging under the stairs, and this request is granted to him, “for the love of God and for (his) dear son.” So he spends the next seventeen years under his father’s stairs, “in great poverty (living) his noble life…loving God more than all his lineage.” Whatever food came from the house, he would eat enough to sustain his body, and the rest he would give to the poor. He dwells in the church, and does not want to depart from it, taking communion on every feast day. His greatest desire is “to work hard in God’s service; in no way does he want to be distanced from it.”

His greatest feat, however, is his dwelling under his father’s stairs, “delighting in poverty,” and enduring humiliations from the household staff, who throw their slops on his head in order to spite him, everyone considering him to be a fool. Among the many humiliations heaped upon him are water being thrown on him, so that his bedding gets soaked. His response is quite typical of him: “This most holy man does not become angry at all, instead he prays to God, in his mercy, to forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

So far, Alexis exhibits all the traits that mark a traditional desert ascetic: he eats very little food, engages in a kind of ascetic warfare against the passions, endures privations and humiliations, to the point of near martyrdom, and most importantly, exhibits that trait that is common to all martyrs and ascetics-the imitation of Christ’s sufferings. The anonymous author makes this point very clear when he puts Christ’s words on the cross on the lips of Alexis, thus identifying him as an alter Christus. In the end, Alexis has also succeeded in becoming an urban Anthony.

The story of Alexis exemplifies the impulse to live out a life of ascetic poverty in the cities as well, inspiring many imitators who would take up the fight against the passions of greed, avarice and lust in the major urban centers of the eastern empire. One way to do this would be to establish monastic communities within an urban environment, or at least in close proximity to an urban center, thus following closely the Pachomian and Antonian models. This would be the manner in which Basil of Caesarea’s monastic establishment would function, with a standard rule regulating the way his monks would interact with the “world” (i.e. the city) as part and parcel of their ascetic discipline……

The beginning of monastic endeavor in Egypt and Syria in the fourth through the sixth centuries is very instructive because it arose in the presence of a highly urban and commercial culture, giving men and women opportunities to practice spiritual struggle and to practice ascetic withdrawal. How that withdrawal was to take place varied. For Anthony and Pachomius that struggle was to take the shape of eremitic and coenobitic paths of spiritual engagement, which can take place either in remote deserts or in urban areas. For Sts. Alexis and John the Almsgiver, it was to take the shape of an intentional urban asceticism. St. Basil makes room for both kinds of spiritual endeavor, and would be influential in passing these spiritual impulses to the Latin west. For scholars like Heffernan, these works of ascetic hagiography would ride on the heels of the martyrs movements, and bequeath an idiom of sanctity that emphasizes the saint as ascetic hero from which future hagiographers would draw as they craft their arguments for the sanctity of their subjects. All saints must conform to these models of ascetic sanctity. All saints are, to one degree or another, ascetics, and the urbanization of asceticism will cement this reality for every hagiographer making the case for his particular saint.”
http://gregoriusmagnus.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/to-desert-and-back-again-from-st_24.html

See also “The “Desert” and the Latin West: Sulpicius Severus’ Life of St. Martin and St. Gregory the Great’s Dialogues”: http://gregoriusmagnus.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/desert-and-latin-west-sulpicius-severus.html and “To the Desert and Back Again: From St. Anthony’s Desert Flight to St. Basil’s Urban Monasticism, Part I”: http://gregoriusmagnus.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/to-desert-and-back-again-from-st.html

For “The Life of St. Alexis, an Old French Poem of the Eleventh Century” see http://www.courseportfolio.org/peer/potfolioFiles/anonF/shopkow-l-2003-1/alexis.htm and http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/joseppri/oldfrench/alexis-english.html

For Venerable Alexis the Man of God see:
http://oca.org/saints/lives/2014/03/17/100822-venerable-alexis-the-man-of-god
http://www.holy-transfiguration.org/library_en/saints_alexis.html
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Alexios_the_Man_of_God
http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/saints/alexis_manofgod.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01307b.htm

John of Egypt, Hermit

March 27 is the Feast of Saint John of Egypt.

“Saint John of Egypt (? – 394), also known as John the Hermit or John the Anchorite (Latin: Iohannes anchorita), was one of the hermits of the Nitrean desert. He began as a carpenter and left to solitude after receiving a divine call. According to hagiographer Alban Butler, John was noted for performing seemingly absurd acts at the bidding of the Holy Spirit, such as rolling rocks from place to place and cultivating dead trees. He then withdrew to the top of a cliff, where he could avoid all human contact.

He avoided seeing women, in particular, to avoid temptation, but he avoided all people for the last fifty years of his life. Saint Augustine wrote that John was tempted by devils and performed miraculous cures. He cured a woman, according to Augustine, of blindness and then appeared to her in a vision to avoid seeing her in person. He possessed the spiritual gift of prophecy and spoke through a window to people twice a week, often predicting the future and knowing the details of persons he had never met. He predicted future victories to the Emperor Theodosius the Great.
According to Butler, John prayed incessantly, and he spent the last three days of his life without food or drink or any interactions but prayer. He was discovered in his cell, with his body in a position of prayer.
His feast day in the West is March 27.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Egypt

“ST. JOHN was born about the year 305, was of a mean extraction, and brought up to the trade of a carpenter. At twenty-five years of age he forsook the world, and put himself under the guidance and direction of an ancient holy anchoret, with such an extraordinary humility and simplicity as struck the venerable old man with admiration; who inured him to obedience by making him water a dry stick for a whole year, as if it were a live plant, and perform several other things as seemingly ridiculous, all which he executed with the utmost fidelity. To the saint’s humility and ready obedience, Cassian attributes the extraordinary gifts he afterwards received from God. He seems to have lived about twelve years with this old man, till his death, and about four more in different neighbouring monasteries.

Being about forty years of age, he retired alone to the top of a rock of very difficult ascent, near Lycopolis. His cell he walled up, leaving only a little window through which he received all necessaries, and spoke to those who visited him what might be for their spiritual comfort and edification. During five days in the week he conversed only with God: but on Saturdays and Sundays all but women had free access to him for his instructions and spiritual advice. He never eat till after sunset, and then very sparingly; but never any thing that had been dressed by fire, not so much as bread. In this manner did he live from the fortieth or forty-second to the ninetieth year of his age. For the reception of such as came to him from remote parts, he permitted a kind of hospital to be built near his cell or grotto, where some of his disciples took care of them. He was illustrious for miracles, and a wonderful spirit of prophecy, with the power of discovering to those that came to see him, their most secret thoughts and hidden sins. And such was the fame of his predictions, and the lustre of his miracles which he wrought on the sick, by sending them some oil which he had blessed, that they drew the admiration of the whole world upon him.

Theodosius the Elder was then emperor, and was attacked by the tyrant Maximus, become formidable by the success of his arms, having slain the Emperor Gratian in 383, and dethroned Valentinian in 387. The pious emperor, finding his army much inferior to that of his adversary, caused this servant of God to be consulted concerning the success of the war against Maximus. Our saint foretold him, that he should be victorious almost without blood. The emperor, full of confidence in the prediction, marched into the West, defeated the more numerous armies of Maximus twice in Pannonia; crossed the Alps, took the tyrant in Aquileia, and suffered his soldiers to cut off his head. He returned triumphant to Constantinople, and attributed his victories very much to the prayers of St. John, who also foretold him the events of his other wars, the incursions of Barbarians, and all that was to befall his empire. Four years after, in 392, Eugenius, by the assistance ofArbogastes, who had murdered the Emperor Valentinian the Younger, usurped the empire of the West. Theodosius sent Eutropius the Eunuch into Egypt, with instructions to bring St. John with him to Constantinople, if it were possible; but that if he could not prevail with him to undertake the journey, to consult whether it was God’s will that he should march against Eugenius, or wait his arrival in the East. The man of God excused himself as to his journey to court, but assured Eutropius that his prince should be victorious, but not without loss and blood: as also that he would die in Italy, and leave the empire of the West to his son; all which happened accordingly. Theodosius marched against Eugenius, and in the first engagement lost ten thousand men, and was almost defeated: but renewing the battle on the next day, the 6th of September, in 394, he gained an entire victory by the miraculous interposition of heaven, as even Claudian, the heathen poet, acknowledges. Theodosius died in the West, on the 17th of January, in 395, leaving his two sons emperors, Arcadius in the East, and Honorius in the West.

This saint restored sight to a senator’s wife by some of the oil he had blessed for healing the sick. It being his inviolable custom never to admit any woman to speak to him, this gave occasion to a remarkable incident related by Evagrius, Palladius, and St. Austin, in his treatise of Care for the Dead. A certain general officer in the emperor’s service, visiting the saint, conjured him to permit his wife to speak to him; for she was come to Lycopolis, and had gone through many dangers and difficulties to enjoy that happiness. The holy man answered, that during his stricter enclosure for the last forty years since he had shut himself up in that rock, he had imposed on himself an inviolable rule not to see or converse with women; so he desired to be excused the granting her request. The officer returned to Lycopolis very melancholy. His wife, who was a person of great virtue, was not to be satisfied. The husband went back to the blessed man, told him she would die of grief if he refused her request. The saint said to him: “Go to your wife, and tell her that she shall see me to-night, without coming hither, or stirring out of her house.” This answer he carried to her, and both were very earnest to know in what manner the saint would perform his promise. When she was asleep in the night the man of God appeared to her in her dream, and said: “Your great faith, woman, obliged me to come to visit you; but I must admonish you to curb the like desires of seeing God’s servants on earth. Contemplate only their life, and imitate their actions. As for me, why did you desire to see me? Am I a saint, or a prophet like God’s true servants? I am a sinful and weak man. It is therefore, only in virtue of your faith that I have had recourse to our Lord, who grants you the cure of the corporal diseases with which you are afflicted. Live always in the fear of God, and never forget his benefits.” He added several proper instructions for her conduct, and disappeared. The woman awaking, described to her husband the person she had seen in her dream, with all his features, in such a manner as to leave no room to doubt but it was the blessed man that had appeared to her. Whereupon he returned the next day to give him thanks for the satisfaction he had vouchsafed his wife. But the saint on his arrival prevented him, saying: “I have fulfilled your desire, I have seen your wife, and satisfied her in all things she had asked: go in peace.” The officer received his benediction, and continued his journey to Seyne. What the man of God foretold happened to him, as, among other things, that he should receive particular honours from the emperor. Besides, the authors of the saint’s life, St. Austin relates this history which he received from a nobleman of great integrity and credit, who had it from the very persons to whom it happened. St. Austin adds, had he seen St. John, he would have inquired of him, whether he himself really appeared to this woman, or whether it was an angel in his shape, or whether the vision only passed in her imagination.

Saint Symeon the Fool for Christ, Saint John the Hermit and and Parthenios

In the year 394, a little before the saint’s death, he was visited by Palladius, afterwards bishop of Helenopolis, who is one of the authors of his life. Several anchorets of the deserts of Nitria, all strangers, the principal of whom were Evagrius, Albinus, Ammonius, had a great desire to see the saint. Palladius, one of this number, being young, set out first in July, when the flood of the Nile was high. Being arrived at his mountain, he found the door of his porch shut, and that it would not be open till the Saturday following. He waited that time in the lodgings of strangers. On Saturday, at eight o’clock, Palladius entered the porch, and saw the saint sitting before his window, and giving advice to those who applied to him for it. Having saluted Palladius by an interpreter, he asked him of what country he was, and what was his business, and if he was not of the company or monastery of Evagrius? Palladius owned he was. In the mean time arrived Alypius, governor of the province, in great haste. The saint, on the arrival of Alypius, broke off his discourse with Palladius, who withdrew to make room for the governor to discourse with the saint. Their conversation was very long, and Palladius being weary, murmured within himself against the venerable old man, as guilty of exception of persons. He was even just going away, when the saint, knowing his secret thoughts, sent Theodorus, his interpreter, to him, saying: “Go, bid that brother not to be impatient: I am going to dismiss the governor, and then will speak to him.” Palladius, astonished that his thoughts should be known to him, waited with patience. As soon as Alypius was gone, St. John called Palladius, and said to him: “Why were you angry, imputing to me in your mind what I was no way guilty of? To you I can speak at any other time, and you have many fathers and brethren to comfort and direct you in the paths of salvation. But this governor being involved in the hurry of temporal affairs, and being come to receive some wholesome advice during the short time his affairs will allow him to breathe in, how could I give you the preference?” He then told Palladius what passed in his heart, and his secret temptations to quit his solitude; for which end the devil represented to him his father’s regret for his absence, and that he might induce his brother and sister to embrace a solitary life. The holy man bade him despise such suggestions; for they had both already renounced the world, and his father would yet live seven years. He foretold him that he should meet with great persecutions and sufferings, and should be a bishop, but with many afflictions: all which came to pass, though at that time extremely improbable.

The same year, St. Petronius, with six other monks, made a long journey to pay St. John a visit. He asked them if any amongst them were in holy orders? They said: No. One however, the youngest in the company, was a deacon, though this was unknown to the rest. The saint, by divine instinct, knew this circumstance, and that the deacon had concealed his orders out of a false humility, not to seem superior to the others, but their inferior, as he was in age. Therefore, pointing to him, he said: “This man is a deacon.” The other denied it, upon the false persuasion that to lie with a view to one’s own humiliation was no sin. St. John took him by the hand, and kissing it, said to him: “My son, take care never to deny the grace you have received from God, lest humility betray you into a lie. We must never lie, under any pretence of good whatever, because no untruth can be from God.” The deacon received this rebuke with great respect. After their prayer together, one of the company begged of the saint to be cured of a certain ague. He answered: “You desire to be freed from a sickness which is beneficial to you. As nitre cleanses the body, so distempers and other chastisements purify the soul.” However, he blessed some oil and gave it to him: he vomited plentifully after it, and was from that moment perfectly cured. They returned to their lodgings, where by his orders they were treated with all proper civility, and cordial hospitality. When they went to him again, he received them with joyfulness in his countenance, which evidenced the interior spiritual joy of his soul; he bade them sit down, and asked them whence they came? They said from Jerusalem. He then made them a long discourse, in which he first endeavoured to show his own baseness; after which he explained the means by which pride and vanity are to be banished out of the heart, and all virtues to be acquired. He related to them the examples of many monks, who, by suffering their hearts to be secretly corrupted by vanity, at last fell also into scandalous irregularities; as of one, who, after a most holy and austere life, by this means fell into fornication, and then by despair into all manner of disorders; also of another, who, from vanity, fell into a desire of leaving his solitude; but by a sermon he preached to others, in a monastery on his road, was mercifully converted and became an eminent penitent. The blessed John thus entertained Petronius and his company for three days till the hour of None. When they were leaving him, he gave them his blessing, and said: “Go in peace, my children; and know that the news of the victory which the religious prince Theodosius has gained over the tyrant Eugenius is this day come to Alexandria: but this excellent emperor will soon end his life by a natural death.” Some days after their leaving him to return home, they were informed he had departed this life. Having been favoured by a foresight of his death, he would see nobody for the last three days. At end of this term he sweetly expired, being on his knees at prayer, towards the close of the year 394, or the beginning of 395. It might probably be on the 17th of October, on which day the Copths, or Egyptian Christians, keep his festival: the Roman and other Latin Martyrologies mark it on the 27th of March.

The solitude which the Holy Ghost recommends, and which the saints embraced, resembled that of Jesus Christ, being founded on the same motive or principle, having the same exercises and employments, and the same end. Christ was conducted by the Holy Ghost into the desert, and he there spent his time in prayer and fasting. Wo to those whom humour or passion lead into solitude, or who consecrate it not to God by mortification, sighs of penance, and hymns of divine praise. To those who thus sanctify their desert or cell, it will be an anticipated paradise, an abyss of spiritual advantages and comforts, known only to such as have enjoyed them. The Lord will change the desert into a place of delights, and will make the solitude a paradise, and a garden worthy of himself. In it only joy and jubilee shall be seen, nothing shall be heard but thanksgiving and praise. It is the dwelling of a terrestrial seraph, whose sole employment is to labour to know, and correct all secret disorders of his own soul, to forget the world, and all objects of vanity which could distract or entangle him; to subdue his senses, to purify the faculties of his soul, and entertain in his heart a constant fire of devotion, by occupying it assiduously on God, Jesus Christ, and heavenly things, and banishing all superfluous desires and thoughts; lastly, to make daily progress in purity of conscience, humility, mortification, recollection, and prayer, and to find all his joy in the most fervent and assiduous adoration, love, and praise of his sovereign Creator and Redeemer.
Rev. Alban Butler “The Lives of the Saints” (1866) Volume III: March at http://www.bartleby.com/210/3/271.html

“John was born about the year 300 in Egypt. He was trained as a carpenter and sometime between the ages of twenty-five and thirty, he entered monastic life.
Tradition tells us that he placed himself under the direction of a holy hermit and it was with him that John learned the virtues of obedience and self-surrender. He carried out what ever orders were given including the ridiculous command of watering a dead stick as though it were a live plant, everyday for a year.
After the death of the hermit, John apparently spent the next four or five years visiting various monasteries of the Egyptian desert. Finally he retired to a rocky cave on Mt. Lycos, in which he built three small rooms, an oratory, workroom and bedroom. He then walled himself in, leaving only a small window through which to receive the necessities of life.
Five days of the week were spent in silent prayer and manual labor. On Saturdays and Sundays he would speak with those who came for spiritual instruction and guidance. He lived an extremely severe austere life, eating once a day at sunset and only taking water and dried fruits and vegetables. Initially he suffered greatly, but he continued this diet for fifty years.
John’s reputation for humility and holiness spread and soon many disciples came to live in the desert near him. His visitors became so numerous that his disciples had to build a hospice for their reception. He was known to prophesy many events and to read the truth of men’s hearts. Many were converted by his example and witness to the teachings of Christ. He died while kneeling in prayer in 394.
Most of what we know about John’s life comes to us from St. Jerome, Cassian, Paladius and St. Augustine as well as many others. The cave where he spent the last fifty years of his life, was discovered in 1901. Aside from St. Antony, John is probably the best known of the 4th century hermits of Egypt.”
http://www.christdesert.org/cgi-bin/martyrology.dynamic.5.cgi?name=john_of_egypt

“Saint John of Egypt” by Jan Sadeler (1550-1600)
see also https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.religion.christian-teen/a9303-LEEDs

Govan, Hermit of Bosherston

March 26 is the Commemoration of Saint Govan, Hermit of Bosherston.

“Saint Govan (Welsh: Gofan) (died 586) was a hermit who lived in a fissure on the side of coastal cliff near Bosherston, in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Wales. St. Govan’s Chapel was built in the fissure in the 14th century on what is now known as St Govan’s Head.

One story says Govan was an Irish monk who travelled to Wales late in life to seek the friends and family of the abbot who had trained him, variously identified as Saint Davidor Saint Ailbe of Emly. Another story identifies Govan with Gawain, one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table; another that he was originally a thief.

Govan was set upon by pirates, from Ireland or the nearby Lundy Island. The cliff opened up and left a fissure just big enough for him to hide in until the pirates left. In gratitude, he decided to stay on along the cliff, probably to help warn the locals of the impending pirate attack if they were to return.

St Govan lived within a small cave in the fissure of the cliff. This is now reached by a long flight of stone steps, the number of which is said to vary depending on whether one is ascending or descending.

Saint Govan’s Chapel, near Saint Govan’s Head, in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Wales

The present small vaulted chapel of local limestone was built over the cave and dates from the 13th century although the site may have been of monastic importance since the 5th century. St Govan may be identified with Sir Gwaine, one of King Arthur’s knights, who entered into a state of retreat in his later years. Originally St Govan caught fish and took water from two nearby springs. Both are now dry; one was where the medieval chapel now stands, the other, which was lower down the cliff, later became a holy well. A legend says St Govan’s hand prints are imprinted on the floor of his cave and his body is buried under the chapel’s altar. The cave was once a popular place for making wishes.

Another legend regarding St Govan concerns his silver bell. He is supposed to have kept the bell in the tower of the chapel (regardless of the fact it was not built till the 14th century). When the bell pealed its sound was of perfect tone and clarity. But pirates who heard the sound left St Govan desolate when they stole the bell. Angels flew in and took it from the pirates and returned it to the hermit. To stop the pirates returning and taking it again, the angels encased the bell in a huge stone, that is, the Bell Rock which is found at the water’s edge. The legend said that that when St Govan “rang” the stone, its vigour had become a thousand times stronger.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Govan

“St. Govan’s Chapel is a small medieval church clinging to the ragged rock halfway down the cliffs of a secluded headland. It is difficult to imagine a more strikingly situated church in all of Britain.
St. Govan was a sixth century hermit who established a cell for himself on this lonely spot, in the fashion of early Celtic Christian monks, who tended to live in isolated places. Legends sprang up about the saint, and about the curative properties of the natural spring which used to rise just inside the door of the chapel. During the medieval period the holy well and cell became a place of pilgrimage for cripples seeking a cure, and the original cell was rebuilt as a small chapel in the 13th century. The chapel is a very simple rectangular building with a steeply pitched roof and bellcote.

Much of what we know about Govan is a tangled web of myth and half-truths, but it appears that he was born in Ireland, a member of the Hy Cinnselach tribe of County Wexford, and his real name was Gobban, or Gobhan, meaning smith. From this we can deduce that Govan’s father may have been a smith or metalworker. While still a boy Govan joined a monastery founded by St Ailbe at Dairinis, near Wexford. Govan journied to Rome and later stayed at St Senen’s monastery in Inniscathy. When Ailbe died, Govan returned to Dairinis and became Abbot.

Ailbe had been a native of Solva, just along the Pembrokeshire coast from the chapel, and this fact may have influenced Govan to visit the area, or perhaps he was visiting a Welsh abbot. We simply don’t know what brought Govan, by now an elderly man, to Pembrokeshire. The stories tell that pirates from Lundy tried to capture the monk, who sought shelter in a crevice, or fissure, in the cliffs. The fissure opened up to receive him, then closed to hide him from the pirates. Once they had departed the crevice opened once again to release him.

Now we are left to speculate; why did Govan stay and build a small cell by the fissure? Once version says that he was ashamed of his cowardice, another that he thought to convert the pirates, another that he thought his presence could help the local population, who were constantly troubled by the pirates. whatever the reason, the elderly monk built a rudimentary stone cell and there he stayed for the rest of his life, preaching to the locals and traveling around south Pembrokeshire to spread the Celtic Christian gospel. Govan died in 586 and is said to have been buried under the stone altar in the chapel.

A crevice in the chapel has rib-shaped impressions on the sides, said to mark where Govan hid from the pirates. An ancient legend says that if you make a wish, enter the fissure, and are able to turn your body around within it, the wish will be granted. Presumably, the, it is easier for very thin people to get what they wish for!

A further legend states that King Arthur’s knight Sir Gawain lies buried beneath the stone altar of the chapel. Outside the chapel is a large rock called The Bell Rock. The name recalls another story; that Govan was given a silver bell, which was stollen by pirates. When Govan prayed for its return, angels retrieved the bell and placed it inside the rock for safety. when Govan tapped the Bell Rock the bell sounded, one thousand times louder than the original bell.

There used to be a well inside the chapel door, but this has dried up. The small arched wellhead below the chapel covers the site of another well, also dry. This was said to be both a holy well and a wishing well.

St. Govan’s Chapel is contained within the Pembrokeshire National Park, and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Trail runs along the nearby cliffs. The area is far enough off the beaten track that even today it retains an air of secluded beauty.”
http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=645

On the floor just inside the main door of the chapel is a simple, shallow well. The water, which could only be scooped with a small spoon or a limpet shell, was said to cure eye complaints, skin diseases and rheumatism. Located just outside the chapel and covered by the stone arch, is the saint’s holy well. Although it is now dry, it was known for both healing powers and as a wishing well.

“The little chapel solidly built of limestone is said to date from the 13th century – being restored at that time, so I think we can assume that there was an earlier chapel on this site, possibly one founded by the saint himself. Inside the building measures 18 feet by 12 feet and it’s roof is vaulted. At the eastern side an entrance leads to a hermit’s cell in the cleft of a huge limestone boulder. According to the often-told legend: the saint was pursued here by marauding sea pirates; he hid in the cleft of the great boulder which then closed up, hiding him from view, or his hermit’s attire matched the rock thus he became invisible. You can still make out some marks in the boulder that were made by the saint’s fingers when he hid here back in the 6th century AD. If you make a wish while standing in the cleft of the rock, facing the wall, your wish will be granted, hopefully!

At the side of the hermit’s cell is a stone altar beneath which, according to legend, St Govan is buried. A holy water stoup (piscina) is built onto the wall and, beneath this a spring of water runs out of the ground but is never said to run across the chapel floor, though it has been known to happen! The spring is said to have miraculous healing properties. There is a recess in the wall (aumbrey) that may have been used for sacred vessels or perhaps relics, and there are some solid looking stone seats up against the wall. The little bellcote on the roof did once possess a bell but this was long ago lost to the sea; it can apparently still be heard ringing on stormy nights from beneath the turbulent waves off shore, foretelling an impending disaster at sea. Another tale put forward says the bell was stolen by pirates, but later rescued by sea nymphs who placed it inside a rock near the chapel. It was said that if you struck the rock the bell would ring out.

Some steps lead down below the chapel to a rock strewn area and St Govan’s holy well (Ffynnon Govan) covered over by a stone hood. However, this well has been dry for a long time now, but up until the mid 19th century it was the site of many healings with crutches being left by previously crippled pilgrims as a votive offering. Red soil that is found around the chapel site was used in a poltice form to cure sore, itchy eyes, and it is still said to be effective today! Francis Jones in his well-known work ‘The Holy Wells of Wales’ says about this well: “On the cliff side by St. Govan’s Chapel, Bosherston parish : especially famous in the cure of failing eyesight, lameness, and rheumatism.” “Near the well is a deposit of red clay formed by rock decomposition, and great virtue was attached to it : a poultice of this was applied to limbs and eyes, and the patients then lay there for several hours in the sun.”

So who was St Govan? It is strongly believed that he was St Gobhan who founded the monastery of Dairinis-Insula near Wexford, Ireland, about the year 530 AD and was a follower of St Ailbhe, bishop of Emlech (Emily) in County Tipperary. Gobhan (Govan) came to as a missionary to south-west Wales in old age and became a friend of St David. He may have been present when St David died in 589 AD? Gobhan became a hermit in south-west Pembrokeshire and lived out the rest of his life in a cell beside the rocky cliffs, now known as St Govan’s Head. His feast-day is celebrated on 26th March. He died towards the end of the 6th century, and is patron saint of builders. However, some individuals have tried to link the name Govan with Gawain, King Arthur’s knight who supposedly retired to this hermitage after the death of Arthur, or to a St Cofen, daughter of King Brychan. This is unlikely. And St Ailbhe, mentioned earlier, also came to Wales and baptised Wales’ future patron St, David, at Porthclais. He is called Aelbyw or Elvis and was said to have dwelt in the area to the east of Solva at St Elvis farm now named after him.

At Bosherston in the medieval church of St Michael a stained-glass window shows St Govan as bearded old man holding a model of his chapel; another window shows St David, patron St of Wales. The churchyard has a 14th century preaching cross with a tiny carved head near the top, which is thought to represent Christ. It stands on two-tiered steps that enabled it to be used as a sort of stone crucifix. The cross was found in the 16th century having survived the Reformation; the head was placed on top a standing stone that may date back to pre-Christian times or the Dark Ages?”
http://thejournalofantiquities.com/category/st-govans-holy-well-at-st-govans-head-in-pembrokeshire/

Nicander the Hermit of Pskov

March 25 is the commemoration of Venerable Nicander the Hermit of Pskov.

“Saint Nicander of Pskov (in Baptism Nikon) was born on 24 July 1507 into the peasant family of Philip and Anastasia in the village of Videlebo in the Pskov lands.
From childhood he dreamed of continuing the ascetic exploits of his fellow villager, St Euphrosynus of Spasoeleazar, the original Pskov wilderness-dweller. The first in Nikon’s family to accept monasticism was his older brother Arsenius. After the death of his father, the seventeen-year-old Nikon was able to convince his mother to dispose of the property and withdraw into a monastery, where she lived until her own end.

After visiting the monasteries of Pskov, and having venerated at the relics of St Euphrosynus and his disciple St Sava of Krypetsk (August 28), Nikon became firmly convinced of his calling to the solitary life.

In order to have the possibility of reading the Word of God, Nikon was employed as a worker for the Pskov resident Philip, who rewarded his ardor by sending him to study with an experienced teacher. Seeing the zeal of the youth, the Lord Himself directed him to the place of his ascetic effort. Intensely praying in one of the Pskov churches, he heard a voice from the altar commanding him to go to the wilderness place which the Lord would point out through His servant Theodore. The peasant Theodore led him off to the River Demyanka, between Pskov and Porkhov. Afterwards, both Philip and Theodore, who helped St Nicander attain his goal, were themselves to enter upon the path of monasticism, and were tonsured at the Krypetsk monastery with the names Philaret and Theodosius.

After several years of silence and severe ascetic deeds, emaciating his flesh, Nikon went to the monastery founded by St Sava of Krypetsk. The igumen, seeing his weakened body, would not agree to accept him at once, fearing that the difficulties of monastic life would be too much for him. Nikon fell down at the crypt of St Sava, and spoke to him as if to one alive, entreating him to take him into his monastery. The igumen relented and tonsured Nikon with the name Nicander.

St Nicander endured many temptations and woes on the path of asceticism. Blessed Nicholas (February 28) while still at Pskov predicted St Nicander’s “wilderness sufferings.” Through the prayers of all the Pskov Saints and St Alexander of Svir (August 30 and April 17), who twice appeared to him, guiding and strengthening him, and with the help of the grace of God, he overcame all the manifold snares of the Evil One.

Pskov-Caves Monastery or The Pskovo-Pechersky Dormition Monastery or Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery (Russian: Пско́во-Печ́ерский Успе́нский монасты́рь, Estonian: Petseri klooster) is located in Pechory, Pskov Oblast in Russia. The ancient caves are an enormous burial vault for monks, as well as laymen. The caves branch off into seven galleries in which nearly ten thousand bodies are buried: some coffins are on the floor, while others are bricked up in the wall. All 7 branch of caves are approximately 218 meters long.

By the power of prayer the monk conquered the weakness of flesh, human failings and diabolical apparitions. Once, robbers nearly killed him, running off with the hermit’s sole, very precious possessions, his books and icons. Through the prayers of the saint, two of them, taking fright at the sudden death of one of their comrades, repented of their wicked deeds and received forgiveness from the Elder.

St Nicander did not long live at the Krypetsk monastery, and he obtained a blessing to return to his own wilderness. Later, he came to live at the Krypetsk monastery once again, where he fulfilled the obediences of ecclesiarch and cellerer, and then he went into the wilderness again and lived there in fasting and prayer, meditating on the Word the God.

Once a year, during Great Lent, St Nicander came to the Damianov monastery, where he made his confession and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Eight years before his death he received the Great Schema. Many people began to come to the monk “for benefit,” since in the words of St John of the Ladder, “monastic life is a light for all mankind.” Believers turned to St Nicander for prayerful help, since the Lord had bestown on him many gifts of grace.

The wilderness-dweller had regard for all the needs of the visitors and even built lodging for them, “the guest-house at the oak,” for which he provided heat. The monk did not permit himself to show off his spiritual gifts. Going secretly to his cell, people always heard him praying with bitter tears. When he noticed there were people nearby, he immediately began to pray, concealing from them the gift of tears that he had received.

St Nicander to the end of his life remained a wilderness-dweller, but he gave final instructions that after his death the place of his ascetic efforts should not be forsaken, promising his protection to the settlers of a future monastery. The saint gave final directions to the deacon Peter of the Porkhov women’s monastery to build a church at his grave and transfer there the icon of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos from the Tishanka church cemetery.

He foresaw his own death, predicting that he would die when enemies invaded the fatherland, and foretelling this immanent assault. On September 24, 1581, during an invasion by the army of the Polish king Stephen Bathory, a certain peasant found the monk dead. He lay on his cot with his hands crossed on his chest. From Pskov came clergy and people who revered the monk, and among whom was also the deacon Peter, and they performed the rite of Christian burial.

In 1584 at the place of St Nicander’s ascetic deeds, sanctified by almost half a century of prayer, a monastery was built, which they began to call the Nikandrov wilderness-monastery. The builder of this monastery was St Isaiah, who had been healed through prayer to the saint.”
http://oca.org/saints/lives/2014/09/24/102716-venerable-nicander-the-hermit-of-pskov

see also http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nicander,_Hermit_of_Pskov
http://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/calendar/los/June/29-02.htm

Barontius and Desiderius, Hermits of Pistoia

March 25 is the Feast of Barontius and Desiderius, Hermits of Pistoia.

Barontius (Barontus) (French: Baronce, Italian: Baronto, Baronzio) and Desiderius (French: Dizier, Italian: Desiderio) are two 8th century Hermits who are venerated as saints by the Catholic Church. They were Hermits near Pistoia, in Italy.

“Barontius had been a Frankish nobleman of Berry who had, with his son, been a monk at Saint-Pierre de Longoret (Longoreto, Longoretum, Lonrey) (diocese of Bourges), now the monastery of Saint-Cyran-du-Jambot. Barontius was a former member of the court of Theuderic II.

According to the text known as Visio Baronti Monachi Longoretensis, a 4700-word long text dated 25 March 678 or 679 purportedly written by Barontius himself, Barontius received a vision of heaven and hell around 678. Barontius, described by one scholar as “a middle-aged former public servant with three marriages and far too many mistresses on his conscience,” claims that he fell into a coma and had a vision that he was flying through the air above the Bourges region as demons clawed and kicked at him.

Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest heavens; from Gustave Doré’s illustrations to the Divine Comedy.

Accompanied by the archangel Raphael, Barontius journeys through the four levels of heaven, although he continues to be tormented by the demons, who want to pull him down to hell. Barontius meets people he has known, including fellow monks from Longoreto. Raphael asks another angel to bring Saint Peter to them, so that Peter can judge Barontius.
The demons bring their evidence against Barontius, going “over all the sins that [Barontius] had committed from infancy onwards, including those which [he] had totally forgetten.” However, the demons get so annoying that Peter whacks them with his keys, sending them away. Peter then decides to send Barontius back to earth via hell, where Barontius sees all of the souls in torment before returning to earth. When he recovers, he is asked to tell of his vision.

Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180)

This vision led to Barontius’ decision to become a hermit in Italy, and he established himself near Pistoia with Desiderius, also a former monk. They lived an austere life, and were joined by disciples. They died around 725 AD. Their names appear in the Martyrologium Romanum.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barontius_and_Desiderius

Barontius was a former public servant who lived a dissolute life in the Frankish court. In the year 678, he found the pressures of secular life untenable, and he sought to take refuge as a monk, but the nearby monastery of St. Peter was short of the funds that would be needed to support another monk. He took it upon himself to earn his keep by having visions and then publicizing them. The resulting book became a sensational bestseller amongst the Franks, selling 67 copies in the first year and recouping more than enough profit to endow his place at the monastery.’

Barontius wrote:
‘I fell asleep one night under a haywain with a head full of mead, and before long I was roused by a crew of demons, wearing red-and-blue jockey silks and carrying riding crops. They fitted me in a saddle and bade me to fly above Bourges.’

Hell Mouth. Beatus of Liébana, 8th century (Rylands Beatus, 12th century, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester).

Some modern scholars see this as a veiled reference to Barontius’ participation in the nascent horse-racing scene in kingdom of Burgundy. The red-and-blue silks may have represented the colors of the house of Turmeric, a rival of Barontius’ who is said to have racked up at least 200 solidii of credit against him.

‘The demons clawed at me without end, but I was lucky to meet the Archangel Raphael, who accompanied me to heaven, where I would meet several monks of St. Peter’s monastery. They summoned the saint himself to hear evidence against me, and the demons struggled to unfurl the scroll owing to its length.’

The punishment of the wicked in hell. Detail from a painting by Georgios Klontzas depicting the Second Coming (late 16th century)

Barontius naturally paid homage to the monastery that would take him in, and scholars see the archangel’s presence as a nod to his friend and sponsor Rufus (later Saint) Desiderius. There follows a long account of Barontius’ tour of his past iniquities, not least among them his relationships with mistresses. There is no question about these chapters’ grounding in fact, as Turmeric’s footmen would have seen fit to blackmail him by displaying knowledge of his affairs.

Barontius’ elaborate penance proved to be a brilliant strategem: by confessing his misdeeds, he took away much of his accusers’ power and brought himself much sympathy. There did, however, remain the issue of the debt, and the only place that would have been beyond the thugs’ reach was the monastery. The fame and the money from his story was more than enough to bring Barontius to safety, and he lived out the rest of his life in quiet contemplation.

https://www.tumblr.com/somesaints/46250026365/st-barontius

“The Vision of Barontus (Visio Baronti Monachi Longoretensis) is an eighth–century Latin prose vision of heaven and hell approximately 4700 words long. The vision itself is dated 25 March 678 or 679, and the author claims to be the visionary in what is one of the more fascinating and dramatic visions of the otherworld.

Barontus, a monk in the monastery of St. Peter at Longoreto (Saint–Cyran near Bourges), who has repented of his past life and joined a monastery, falls ill. His fellow monks keep watch over him while his soul has left his body. When he finally recovers, he is asked to tell of his vision, which he then proceeds to do, explaining how he was immediately beset by devils who wanted to take him to hell, but he was protected by the angel Raphael who brought him on a journey through heaven where he might be judged before the devils made off with him.

“Saint Raphael the Archangel “ by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682),a Spanish Baroque painter.

Barontus and Raphael visit four levels of heaven, and Barontus repeatedly meets there people he has known, especially monks from his monastery, while the devils keep up a constant tug-of-war for Barontus. Finally Raphael sends another angel to bring St. Peter to them. Peter arrives and asks the devils what charges they have against this soul, and they charge Barontus with having three wives. Barontus admits to the charge, but the devils had by now become so annoying to everyone that Peter whacks them with his keys and sends them scurrying. He then decides to send Barontus back to earth via hell, so that Barontus can consider reforming his life.

Needing a guide, Frannoaldo is chosen on the condition that Barontus take particular care of this soul’s tomb near the door of their church. They leave heaven with Barontus warned to give a certain sum to the poor and to protect himself with the phrase “Gloria a te, O Dio.” In hell he sees sinners of every kind, all joined together suffering. Although the terrain of hell is not carefully described, the souls that Barontus meets who are suffering in hell are mentioned. Finally Barontus returns to his cell where he speaks with his fellow monks.
The vision closes with a statement by the author, allegedly Barontus, attesting to the veracity of this vision.”
http://www.hell-on-line.org/TextsJC.html

see further: Ytizhan Hen “The Structure and Aims of the Visio Baronti” in J Theol Studies (1996) 47 (2): 477-497; John J. Contreni “Building Mansions in Heaven”: The “Visio Baronti”, Archangel Raphael, and a Carolingian King” in Speculum Vol. 78, No. 3 (Jul., 2003), pp. 673-706; and Isabel Moreira “The Vision of the Monk Barontus” in Isabel Moreira “Dreams, Visions, and Spiritual Authority in Merovingian Gaul” [Cornell University Press, 2000].

St. Domangard of Maghera, Hermit of Slieve Donard

March 24 is the Feast of St. Domangard of Maghera

St. Domangard of Maghera, Patron of Maghera, County Down, Ireland, sometimes called Donard. He was a contemporary of St. Patrick and a Hermit. The site of his hermitage, a mountain, now bears the name Slieve Donard.

“March 24 is the feast of Saint Domangard or Donard, who has given his name to the highest mountain of the north of Ireland: Slieve Donard in the Mourne range of County Down. Sources record Saint Donard as one of the earliest converts of Saint Patrick, certainly his memory remained very much alive in the area and he was the subject of many stories and popular traditions. One, recorded by the nineteenth-century scholar John O’Donovan, was that he still celebrates the Sunday liturgy each week at the cairn atop his mountain home. Slieve Donard also appears to have been the site of a penitential pilgrimage in earlier centuries but it is only one of two sites associated with the saint. The other is Rath Murbhuilg or Maghera, a monastic foundation which sits at the foot of the Mournes. It’s an interesting site comprising a modern Anglican parish church with the ruins of a medieval church behind it, plus an old graveyard attached.

The remains of a round tower are set in an enclosure in an adjoining field … For a comprehensive account of Saint Donard and his locality I can recommend Sam Moore’s book, The Archaeology of Slieve Donard: A Cultural Biography of Ulster’s Highest Mountain, published in 2012. Details can be obtained from the Down County Museum. Below, however, is an earlier paper by an Anglican clergyman, Henry William Lett (1836-1920). Canon Lett, himself a County Down man, was a keen naturalist who had explored the Mourne mountains on fieldwork expeditions to collect specimens of mosses and lichens on which he published a paper in 1890. Here, however, he is writing about the site of Slieve Donard and the lore surrounding its saintly guardian. Lett also attempts to sort out some of the confusion introduced into the identification of some of the landmarks by the eighteenth-century writer Walter Harris:

SLIEVE DONARD, IN THE COUNTY OF DOWN. BY CANON H. W. LETT, M.A., M.R.I.A. [Read July 3, 1905.]

The following version of the legend of St. Patrick and St. Donard was collected just seventy years ago by John O’Donovan. It is the history of the conversion of “St. Donard.” I give it precisely as Dr. O’Donovan relates it in a County Down Ordnance Survey letter, dated Downpatrick, 24th April, 1834, for it would he a pity to risk the loss of the characteristic touches embodied in it by attempting to edit it. He mentions that the officer of the Ordnance Survey had stated that” there was no account of St. Donard existing in the traditions of the neighbourhood, and then he says:

” I find, however, that the fact is otherwise. The tradition preserved in the country concerning St. Donart is briefly this. When St. Patrick and his holy family came to Iveagh, and to that level district at the foot of the mountain called Slieve Donart, he sent one of his servants to a neighbouring chieftain named Donnart, to request of him to contribute something towards the support of his clargy (sic). Donart, at this time a fierce and warlike pagan chief, desired the servant to go and drive home yon bull (pointing to him in a certain field) to his master Patrick; but this was out of derision, because the fierce warrior well knew that twenty persons would be unable to drive that bull to any place, in consequence of his fierce and untameable nature.

‘Patrick’s servant, sir, goes to the field, and far from being able to drive home the mad bull, he narrowly escaped being killed by that fierce animal.

” So he returns to Patrick, and tells him the whole transaction. Then Patrick said to his servant “ As Donnart has given you leave to drive home the bull, take this halter with you, and as soon as you go to the place where the bull is, he will put his head into it, and then walk home with you.’ (The power of God, you know, sir, goes beyond anything. ) This was accordingly done, and, mirabile dictu, the animal having laid aside his native ferocity, walked over to the servant, put his head into the halter, and then walked home with him, meek and silent as the lamb when led to the slaughter. So great are the favours bestowed by the Almighty on those He loves! Patrick then got the bull killed and salted.

” Soon after this, as the fierce Donnart was one day walking out from his habitation, the fort of Rath Murbholg, near where the old Church of Maagherawe stood, he missed his bull, and swore by the wind, the sun, and the moon, that he would banish Patrick and his clargy out of his territory; with that, sir, he assembles his chosen troops, and coming to where Patrick, his family, and adherents were, accuses the saint of having sent his servant to steal his bull. Patrick replied that his servant had first obtained his highness’s permission, but Donnart denied that he had granted any. ” ‘Well then,’ said the holy Patrick, ‘ if your very great honour says so, you shall have your bull back again.’

So taking the feet, flesh, and skin, and placing them together, as well as he could, he knelt down, sir, on his hare knees on the ground, and prayed to the Disposer of all things to restore the hull to his former life and ferocity; and, wonderful to he said, all the distorted joints of the animal were replaced in their respective sockets, and all the organs and instruments of motion and life in all the channels and conductors of the animal fluids and spirits of existence were restored to their original functions, and the hull started into life resuming all his original fierceness.

” At the sight Donnart was seized with dismay, and throwing himself at the feet of the saint begged that he would take him under his protection, and make him one of his people by baptizing him.

” From this moment the warlike Donnart became a meek and humble disciple, and having become acquainted with the mild spirit of the Gospel, and seen the strict morality and self-refusal recommended in the Book of Life, he was induced to resign his chieftainship, abandon his fortified residence, give up his savage amusements of hunting the elk and other wild animals of the plain, and to betake himself to fasting and praying on the highest apex of that wild and desolate range of mountains which formed the southern boundary of his kingdom.

” St. Donnart says Mass every Sunday on his altar on the North -Western cairn on the mountain. There is also a cave running from the sea-shore at the South of Newcastle to the summit (if report be true) of Slieve Donard, through which cave some men have been so foolhardy as to venture up to the summit of the mountain, but after they had gone to a certain distance they were met by St. Donnart in his robes, who admonished them of the foolhardiness of their adventure, and, Lord bless you, Donnart was right, for it is difficult to climb up the steep side of that wild mountain in the open air, and under the broad light of day, not to say in a dark, steep cave. He also told them that it was to be his own peculiar residence until the day of Judgment.”

St. Donnart, or Domangard, or Donard, spent the life of a hermit on the mountain which bears his name, and built a cell or oratory on the top of it, somewhere near the end of the fifth century, having died, according to the Calendar, in the year 506, on the 24th of March; but the Patron Day used to be observed on St. James’s Day, the 25th of July, when, according to Harris, “people in this neighbourhood climb up the mountain to do penance, and pay their devotions perhaps to both saints.”

This author states further, that: “On the Summit of this Mountain are two rude Edifices (if they may be so termed) one being a huge heap of Stones piled up in a piramidical Figure, in which are formed several Cavities, wherein the Devotees shelter themselves in bad Weather while they hear Mass; and in the center of this Heap is a Cave formed by broad, flat stones so disposed as to support each other without the help of Cement. The other Edifice is composed of many Stones so disposed in rude Walls and Partitions, called Chappels, and, perhaps, was the Oratory and Cell erected by St. Domangard.”
http://omniumsanctorumhiberniae.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/saint-donard-of-maghera-march-24.html

“St. Domangart of Slieve Donard, or Domangard, also known as St. Donard, was a follower of St. Patrick and is the patron saint of Maghera in County Down, Ireland. His feast day is march 24th; his “church Rath Muirbuilc, now called Maghera, was at the foot of the mountain near the sea, but he had also an oratory on the very summit of the hill.” His death is given as 507 AD.

Domangart was the son of Eochaid, king of Ulster, a pagan king, and Derinilla, the kings wife. Eochaid, a wicked king, had condemned two Christian virgins who had offered their virginity to God, “bound them on the sea-shore under the rising waves,” because they refused to marry or worship his pagan idols. “Patrick begged a boon for them, that they should not be punished, and it was not obtained.” The king’s brother also attempted to intercede with the king, but to no avail. Patrick, in just retaliation, laid a curse on Eochaid, saying “There will never be either kings or crown-princes from thee …” and further predicted that the king’s brother and his sons would rule over all Ulster. The king’s wife Derinilla was hurt by this curse and its affect on her unborn child. “So the king’s wife went and prostrated herself at Patrick’s feet. Patrick gave her a blessing, and blessed the child that was in her womb, and he is Domangart, son of Eochaid. He it is that Patrick left in his own body, on Sliab Slangra, and he will abide there for ever; for he is the seventh person whom Patrick left alive safe-guarding Ireland.” Domangart lived on the mountain now called after him Slieve-Donard/ Sléib Domangaird.

In the book Tripartite which describes St. Patrick’s life there is mention made of the keepers whom Patrick had set on various well known hills in Ireland. They are said to belong to Patrick’s familia, or household; and the writer adds, “they are alive in Ireland still.”
… There is a fifth watcher of Patrick on Slieve Slainge — namely, Domongart, from whom the hill gets its present name of Slieve Donard — in Down. It will not be denied that he, too, has an airy postion and a wide look out, but he has a special duty to perform. It will be his business to upraise Patrick’s relics before the day of doom.

St. Domongart, son of Echaid, was a historical personage who had an oratory on the mountain; but his ceaseless watching is no doubt purely imaginary. The writer adds, however, that “he has a fork and its belongings” — meat, let us hope — “and a pitcher of beer always before him at his church at Rath Muirbuilc on the slope of the mountain, and he gives them to the mass-folk on Easter Tuesday always. It may be said that in a spiritual sense all this is true. From these lone summits God’s Guardian Angels keep watch and ward over all the land of Erin that Patrick loved so well. … Perhaps, too, it might have some foundation in a more literal sense if we take it that Patrick ordered a perpetual watch to be maintained by the religious of the nearest monasteries from those conspicuous peaks. … There certainly was an ancient oratory on Slieve Donard.” “
http://www.kunesh.net/kunesh/stdonard.html

Slieve Donard (Sliabh Domangard or Sliabh Dónairt in Irish) is the highest mountain in Northern Ireland at 849 (2,786 ft). It is situated by the small seaside town of Newcastle on the east coast. Sitting at the edge of the Mourne Mountains only 2 miles (3 km) from the sea, it provides spectacular views of the coast and as far afield as Belfast, 30 miles north. The mountain is an easy climb although the path is very eroded at places. In recent years a stone path has been made on the steepest parts of the mountain. The most prominent feature of this mountain is the Mourne Wall running along its southern and western shoulders. Slieve Donard is named after Saint Domangart, or Domangard, also known as Saint Donard. He was a follower of Saint Patrick and the patron saint of the town of Maghera, also in County Down. His feast day is March 24; his “church Rath Muirbuilc, now called Maghera, was at the foot of the mountain near the sea, but he had also an oratory on the very summit of the hill.”
http://wikimapia.org/2437896/Slieve-Donard-Sliabh-Domangard-Sliabh-D%C3%B3nairt

“Ireland was Christianized from the 5th to 8th centuries. A local Christian missionary, Saint Donard (known in Irish as Domhanghairt or Domhanghart), became associated with the mountain. According to tradition, he was a follower of Saint Patrick and founded a monastery at Maghera, a few miles north of the mountain. Donard seems to have made the Great Cairn into a hermit’s cell and used the Lesser Cairn as an oratory. In doing so, he “appropriated the mountain and the monument for Christianity”. According to the Life of Saint Patrick and the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick, Patrick blessed Donard in the womb, declaring that Donard would not die but abide inside the mountain as a perpetual guardian. According to folklore, a cave runs from the seashore to the cairn on the summit, and it is here that Donard (or Boirche) lives. The writings of Gerald de Barri indicate that in the late 12th century the name Sliabh Slángha was going out of use and being replaced by Sliabh Domhanghairt. Sliabh Dónairt is the modernised spelling.
Up until the 1830s, people made a pilgrimage to the mountaintop in late July each year. It is likely that this was originally a Lughnasadh ritual that became Christianized. The church at Maghera and St Mary’s Church at Ballaghanery Upper may have been starting points for the pilgrimage.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slieve_Donard

http://www.downcountymuseum.com/news_detail.aspx?id=56&area=11&aNAme=&textsize=

It is believed that St Domangard or Donard founded a monastery here in the early christian period c.500 AD. He lived as a hermit on Slieve Donard, a nearby mountain that is named after him. There are no antiquities remaining from the early foundation but excavations in 1965 produced evidence of occupation around the tower during the Early Christian period. The medieval church situated behind the more modern church probably dates to the 12th century. It is much harder to date the round tower as there are no features such as windows or doors that normally help in dating round towers. The tower, which is built from rough uncoursed granite field-stones similar to the tower at Castledermot, is believed to have fallen in the 18th century as a result of storm damage.

http://www.megalithicireland.com/Maghera%20Round%20Tower.html

Saint Benedict of Campania, Benedictine Hermit

March 23 is the Feast of Saint Benedict of Campania.

“He was a Benedictine Hermit, a contemporary of St. Benedict of Nursia and Monte Cassino. Benedict lived in the Campania region of Italy. When captured by Totila the Goth, he was saved miraculously from the flames of an execution fire. He is also called Benedict the Hermit and is mentioned in the Dialogues of St. Gregory.”
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1730

St. Benedict of Nursia and Monte Cassino