Saint Symeon The New Theologian

‎For those of you who believe that the Apostolic Tradition of the Orthodox Catholic Church is hopelessly locked into a stodgy clericalism, ruled by little potentates devoid of the Holy Spirit, read the words of Saint Symeon The New Theologian. The True Church hangs together upon another power and process completely. 

Saint Symeon is one of only three men the Orthodox Church as allowed the name "theologian." (John the Theologian, Gregory the Theologian and Symeon the New Theologian) The Church has countless saints and Holy Fathers who have written tomes amounting to many thousands of books, and she has many Sacred and Secular historians and theologians, teachers, archeologists, anthropologists and the rest - truly tens of thousands of wonderful teachers and writers, but only THREE men are crowned with the title "Theologian." 

For Protestants, Catholics and many Orthodox Christians the words of Saint Symeon the Theologian have to be "shocking."  Don't confuse Saint Symeon's words with the heresy of Donatism, which claims that for the sacraments of the Church to be empowered the priest has to be without sin.  This is not what Saint Symeon is saying, but he is talking about the extreme spiritual power of those ALIVE in Christ, imbued with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  He is speaking of THAT Holy Spirit present in those alive who are the true power and authority, and ministry of the Church.

"Bishops had in the early church been given the authority to bind and loose which they received as successors to the Apostles, but when time had passed, the Bishops became useless and the authority was passed on to priests of blameless life and worthy of Divine Grace.

When they became polluted also, …it was transferred to monks. It was not that it was taken away from the Priests and Bishops, but rather that they had made themselves strangers to it (by means of their lives)…Someone is NOT Orthodox (Christian) just because he does not slip some new dogma into the Church of God, but rather by whether he possesses a life which is in harmony with true doctrine…

However, the devil remained busy with his goal and when the monks had multiplied, he brought false brethren among them also and monks also were rendered useless…

“Therefore, it is neither in the habit of monks, nor to those ordained and enrolled in ranks of priesthood, not even to those who are honored with dignity of episcopate_I mean Patriarchs, Metropolitans and Bishops_ that God has given the Grace of forgiving sins merely by virtue of their having been ordained.

PERISH THE THOUGHT!

For these are allowed ONLY to celebrate the sacraments, although I think even this is not to be done by many of those who are burning up entirely by their service when they are themselves but straw.

Rather this GRACE is given ONLY to those as many are there are among the priests, Bishops and monks, who have been numbered with Christ’s disciples ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR PURITY OF LIFE! “

"Shocking" words by The Theologian Saint Symeon in letter that denounced the hierarchical thought process that had entered the Orthodox Church in his day and continues in so many places even today. This message among many built up the reason why so many monks, Patriarchs and Priests were so angry with his call to holy life and persecuted him while he was alive.

Vol 3, p.186-203, “Letter on confession” by St. Symeon the New Theologian, SVS Press. Translated by Alexander Golitzin.

http://www.amazon.com/On-Mystical-Life-Ethical-Discourses/dp/0881411442

Book Description

St Symeon the New Theologian was abbot of the monastery of St Mamas in Constantinople at the turn of the eleventh century. He was also perhaps the most remarkable and certainly the most forceful advocate of the mystical experience of God in the history of the Byzantine Church. Though they were on occasion suppressed by ecclesiastical authorities wary of his fierce enthusiasm, as well as his claims to charismatic authority, St Symeon's writings survived in the Orthodox Church and continued to play a vital role in the several renewals of spiritual life and prayer which has sustained the Church in its often difficult history over the past millennium.

This is the third of a three-volume series. The first two volumes translated St Symeon's Ethical Discourses, while this book seeks to place the teaching of the discourses in their proper context, both among Symeon's other writings and with regard to his sources in the Tradition. Included thus is a sketch of Symeon's life and times, together with an extensive discussion of his thought, particularly against the background in the ascetical, mystical, and theological literature of the Christian East prior to the tenth century. Just as he always insisted he was, the New Theologian emerges as a thoroughly traditional representative of central themes in Greek patristic thought, in particular of the doctrine of deification (theosis) as summing up the Christian hope. Even his claims to charismatic authority emerge as fully within monastic tradition dating back at least to the fourth century. These claims appear most clearly in his Letter on Confession which is appended to the present work.
Fr Alexander Golitzin is Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University. He is author of Et introibo ad altare Dei: The Mystagogy of Dionysius Areopagita, The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain, and co-author of The Historical Dictionary of the Orthodox Church.

On the Mystical Life is part of the POPULAR PATRISTIC SERIES.