St. John Cassian (c. 360- c. 435) was a monk who, through his writings, spread the principles and practices of ancient Christian monasticism. While a young man, he travelled with his friend Germanus to Palestine. Besides becoming monks, the two also visited the monasteries situated in the desert of Scete in Egypt. During the second Origenist controversy, they travelled to Constantinople to seek the protection of its patriarch, St. John Chrysostom. From there, he was sent to Rome to represent Chrysostom before Innocent I. At Rome, Cassian accepted the invitation to found a monastery in Southern Gaul. There he recorded and codified the principles and practices of Eastern monasticism in his Institutes of the Coenobia (De institutis coenobiorum) and Conferences of the Desert Fathers (Collationes patrum in scythica eremo). These books exerted an immense influence in the subsequent development of both Western and Eastern monasticism.

In this interview, Dr. Thomas Humphries discusses St. John Cassian and his writings.

Dr. Thomas Humphries is Professor in the College of Arts and Science at Saint Leo University, Florida. A native of Arkansas and a life-long Roman Catholic, he holds a mandatum from the diocese of St. Petersburg and enjoys giving regular theological reflections outside of the classroom with student faith communities, parishes, and monasteries. He also volunteers with the local fire department as Chaplain and holds the rank of District Chief. He is a licensed Florida EMT and NREMT. He is the author of Ascetic Pneumatology from John Cassian to Gregory the Great (Oxford University Press) and Who is Chosen? (Wipf and Stock). 

1. The Institutes
   by St. John Cassian
2. The Conferences
   by St. John Cassian
3. On the Incarnation of Christ: Against the Heretic Nestorius (online)
   by St. John Cassian
4. Cassian the Monk
   by Columba Stewart
5. John Cassian
   by Owen Chadwick

Who was St. John Cassian?
We know very little about him. Most of what we know about him is really as he shows up later in the tradition. Essentially, he is the the monk of monks. He systematizes the previous monastic tradition. This systematization is very useful for the subsequent monastic tradition. In that regard, he is the perfect instrument of Tradition, handing on what has been handed down to him.

It is fairly certain that he was born in or around what is currently Romania. He belonged to a well-off family, had a sister, and was educated.

Relatively young, he moved to Bethlehem to profess monastic life there. He travelled from Bethlehem to Egypt, where the great Desert Fathers lived, and spent about a decade there. He may have made two trips between Bethlehem and Egypt.

Subsequently, he ended up in Constantinople, Rome, and maybe even Antioch.

Eventually, he settled in Marseilles. There, he founded two monasteries: one for men and one for women. Sometime in the 420s, when he was probably in his sixties, he began his career as a writer. He did so at the request of several important bishops, including the future St. Leo the Great. Hence, he must have been a very impressive person. Wherever he went, he became well-connected. Nevertheless, he says remarkably little about his own life.

You mentioned that he moved to Constantinople. Historians believe that he did so along with other Egyptian monks on account of the Origenist crisis. Why had Origen's teachings stirred up so much controversy at the time?
There are several reasons, some good, others not so much. At the time, there were various movements or waves of Anti-Origenism. It was a volatile and ever-changing issue.  

Origen had been dead for several generations when these concerns about some of his teachings popped up. One of the principal concerns was over the philosophical language that he uses in many of his exegetical and theological arguments. Philosophical language can be interpreted in different ways or take on new technical meanings. The Arians were among those who used the same philosophical language as Origen. Anti-Arians, therefore, were wary of using that language to talk about the Trinity.

Another issue was Origen’s speculation on the depths of God's mercy. In particular, he wonders whether anyone can be beyond the mercy of God, who is infinite and all good. This is a deep question.

Consider Psalm 139:7-8. “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!” Origen wonders if this applies to humans in hell and maybe even to demons. Those after Origen found that highly problematic. You cannot assert that Satan will be redeemed.

In Cassian's time, people found two issues particularly difficult to unravel.

One regarded the appropriateness of forming a picture of the immaterial God in our mind? This is often called the Anthropomorphite controversy.

Genesis 1 teaches that we are made in the image of God. We should not make it the other way round. We often depict God the Father as an old man with a white beard. Envisioning him in this way is problematic. It suggests something about God the Father that is not true. Of course, since the Word became incarnate, it is appropriate to make images of the Incarnate Christ.

Origen discussed this difficult theological issue. He had argued that, as all Catholics believe, God is immaterial. Hence, we need to think immaterially of God in speaking of him with philosophical language. Cassian and other monks agreed with Origen’s dense theological position. However, other monks did not.

We still find this problem today. Many have a certain picture of God. Do we pray to the picture we have of God, or do we let God reveal himself to us?

The second question regarded the attainability of moral perfection this life. What constitutes moral perfection? Never committing a mistake? Never sinning mortally? Never sinning venially? Under these questions fall many others. For example, is it a sin to get angry, even if you do not act upon your anger? This leads writers to distinguish between having an impulse, entertaining thoughts, and then acting upon them. We can choose to think about acting upon an impulse and we can choose to act upon it.

Many believed the Origenist monks were teaching that you could attain perfection in this life. The Catholic response is that we can only attain full perfection with the resurrection. On that score, Cassian does not side with the Origenist monks. He teaches clearly that we cannot attain complete perfection in this life.

This dense set of conversations revolved mainly around these two issues: moral perfection and the nature of God.

Amid the controversy, the Patriarchal Archbishop of Alexandria, Theophilus,  issued some letters. He changed his mind back and forth. It was not clear whether he was in support of the Origenism of the Alexandrian monks. Hence, Cassian left Alexandria definitively. He may have moved back to Palestine or gone directly to Constantinople. By the second wave of the Origenist crisis, he had moved to Constantinople.

St. John Chrysostom, the bishop of Constantinople, was sympathetic to this theology, much of which was later unquestionably determined to be orthodox. Cassian befriended Chrysostom and may have been ordained a deacon by him.

When John Chrysostom fell out of favour with the court at Constantinople, attempts were made to exile him and even proclaim him a heretic. Cassian was among the clergy sent to plead his case before Pope Innocent in Rome. In his day, Chrysostom seemed to be on the out and outs. History has proved him to be a saint and wonderful teacher of the Church. Similarly, Cassian seems to have been pushed out of Constantinople by political forces but, in the end, his theology was proven to be correct.

" Cassian clearly read Origen for himself. Hence, it is difficult to know what Cassian, the son, learnt directly from Evagrius, the father, or Origen, the grandfather."

Origen was one influence. Was Cassian also influenced by Evagrius Ponticus?
Yes. It is very difficult to separate the two because Evagrius was more of a classical fourth-century Origenist monk than Cassian ever was. On certain points of doctrine, Evagrius sides with Origenistic speculation whereas Cassian argues against it or refuses to engage in it.

Nevertheless, most scholars believe that Evagrius was Cassian's primary theological mentor. It was probably Evagrius who taught Cassian and encouraged him to read Origen. Still, Cassian clearly read Origen for himself. Hence, it is difficult to know what Cassian, the son, learnt directly from Evagrius, the father, or Origen, the grandfather.

At many points, Cassian subtly uses those parts of Evagrius which are unquestionably true and helpful, but not the problematic technical terms that would have raised a red flag or which he deemed unfitting.

For example, Cassian firmly teaches that there is a hell, where the wicked receive an everlasting punishment. That is a big difference between his reading of Origen and that of certain monks who were taking Origen’s speculations even further.

However, Cassian never declares himself to be opposed to Origen or Evagrius. Instead, he wraps his disagreements up in a neat package, mentions them, and moves on.

One term over which there had been a great debate was apatheia: the state of being without either suffering or passion. It is difficult to determine whether every passion is good, or whether some are good and others bad. Take anger. Some believe that there is a justifiable anger and that we should be angry at the sins that surround us. Others object that Christ told us not be angry and that anger is akin to murder. Which is it?

As the term ‘apatheia’ was under scrutiny, Cassian never uses it. However, he does retain the content of Evagrius’s teaching on it. Cassian insists that we should be focussed on God so single-mindedly that nothing other than God should ever affect us. We should not be moved by the superficial things around us. Cassian calls this purity of heart. Purity of heart consists in giving yourself fully and completely to God through the life of virtue. It involves something akin to apatheia. It consists in being unmoved by that which is not God.

Evagrius was a key mentor for Cassian. They probably knew each other as they were in Palestine and Alexandria at the same time. Evagrius probably died before the migrations of the Origenist monks. If he were still alive at the time, he would have been one of the monks forced to move.

"Every saint who has left important teachings on the spiritual life has read Cassian in one way or another."

You have written on Cassian in your study on ascetic pneumatology. What is ascetic pneumatology and what is Cassian’s take on it?
I invented the phrase for my dissertation. Pneumatology belongs to Trinitarian theology and has been widely studied. It considers the Holy Spirit and his relation to the Father and the Son.

By the fourth century, the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople had determined that the Holy Spirit was in no way less than the Father or the Son.

But what about the fifth century theologians? Did they simply restate more adamantly or in new ways what the fourth-century theologians had said? They did not. Rather, they applied Nicene pneumatology by pondering what it meant for Christian life. They argued that Christian asceticism consists in training of our body and our soul to be perfectly permeable to the Holy Spirit.

This is an ascetic pneumatology. It was developed in the fifth century by authors such as Cassian, who were interested in what the full divinity of the Holy Spirit means for my life and my ascetic discipline. However, Cassian’s pneumatology went unnoticed. No one had stopped to inquire into what he said about the Holy Spirit in the life of the monk.

He argues that the Spirit is the monk’s partner and co-worker. He uses the Latin term index. We still use this word. We speak of our index finger. For Cassian, therefore, the Holy Spirit is the divine person who always points to the deeper truth of God's existence and how we should live in conformity with him. The Holy Spirit provides the grace—what Cassian calls the protection and the motivation—to follow that path rather than others.

With this picture in hand, it becomes easier for the historical theologian to consider whether other writers of the period were addressing the same questions and developing an ascetic pneumatology. I argue that there were several who did so. They were interested not only in the doctrinal controversies of the Councils of Nicaea and Connstantinople, but also in those about grace, free will, and full commitment to the ascetic life.

For example, what does embarking on Lent mean for me today? Is God involved in the discipline that I choose for Lent? Yes, he is. The Holy Spirit in particular accompanies, strengthens, and protects me.

"More than any other Church Father, he masters the dialogue."

Cassian systematized the principles and practices of ancient monasticism. How extensive was his influence on the subsequent development of monasticism?
So great that we cannot really measure it. I have been studying Cassian for quite a while. I am constantly surprised at how many saints drew on him. Dominic used him. So did Thomas Aquinas and Phillip Neri used him. Every saint who has left important teachings on the spiritual life has read Cassian in one way or another.

At the end of his Rule, St. Benedict lists three works which monks ought to read for a more advanced spirituality. He lists Basil’s Rule for monks and then Cassian’s Institutes and Conferences. So, Cassian wrote two of the books that Benedict believes all monks should read.

Moreover, the monks took Benedict’s Rule seriously and have been reading Cassian ever since. The Rule of the Master (Regula magistri), which is closely related to Benedict's Rule, also uses Cassian. There were other rules for a monastic foundation that were written shortly before them. Virtually every one of them engaged the same theology that Cassian provided.

Prior to Cassian’s systematization, most of the literature on the monastic life is a set of hero stories. That literature is very helpful but also has its limits. Take St. Athanasius’s Life of Anthony. It contains a tonne of stories. Anthony hears the Gospel preached at Mass, sells everything straightaway, and goes into the desert to lead an ascetic life. Fully committed, he visits every other monk that he can find and learns how to practice virtue from each one. He lives in tombs. He goes further into the desert. He does battle with demons.

The question, though, is how can I do all that? Do I have to wander out into the desert? Should the monk’s formation be as extraordinary as Anthony’s?

Alternatively, take the other kind of monastic literature that was formalized around the same time as Cassian: The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. They are wonderful, but sometimes they sound like zen sayings. You do not know how to take them or when the piece of advice applies.

For example, fasting is always good and something we should always do. However, I also need to be hospitable toward my neighbour. What if someone shows up on my doorstep on a day of fasting? Do I stop fasting and feast with this person who needs to eat, or do I prepare her a meal and let her eat alone? Do I tell her that today we fast but tomorrow we can eat? Cassian wraps his mind around delicate questions of this kind.

He argues that all these ascetic practices are tools that are meant to be used for an end. Moreover, he applies an architecture—the distinction between our proximate and our final goal—to monasticism and Chrisitianity. This is one of his gifts to the tradition.

Our final goal is to reach heaven, but that will not necessarily happen tomorrow. We do not know when we shall die or how our resurrection will go. In the meantime, we need to pursue purity of heart and virtue. That is the sure path to heaven.

Hence, there are three levels in his system. Like every other Christian, I want to get to heaven. I can do so only through purity of heart: by relying on grace and exerting myself in the life of virtue. But how do I attain purity of heart? This is where all the stories and examples that Cassian gives come in. They show me which tools I should use. Moreover, embedded within them are the rules for determining which tool is appropriate.

Fasting is always necessary, as is attending to my neighbour. Whenever the two are in conflict, I do not ask which is the greater. I consider which one leads me to purity of heart given the circumstance. For sure, discernment is needed in these cases. However, Cassian provides a certain system for working out what I should do right now to attain purity of heart. If purity of heart requires that I set aside my fast and eat with someone else, then I should do so without any worries. In the end, fasting is only a tool for attaining purity of heart.

St. Phillip Neri would read Cassian to the laity to whom he ministered. To what extent are his teachings relevant to the laity if Cassian was addressing monks, a very different audience?
Many saints have endorsed Cassian and recommended that we read him with passion and think his teachings through.

Cassian is not just important but also accessible. More than any other Church Father, he masters the dialogue. Think of Plato’s dialogues. They exemplify a great intellectual tradition for which the real way to do intellectual work was not just to set out the argument for some thesis, but to go through the back and forth of a conversation.

Each of Cassian's twenty-four conferences is a dialogue between Cassian and his friend Germanus, on the one side, and, on the other, a virtuous senior monk, an Abba. Often, Germanus asks a question and the Abba answers it. Germanus follows up by saying, “Wait a minute!. Do you mean this, or have I misunderstood you?” That is an incredible way to learn.

Moreover, Cassian’s dialogues often cover the very questions we have. Not only does he pose them, but he also receives deep answers to them that appeal to the fulness of Scripture and Tradition.

He seldom enters into long, dense theological controversies, but whenever he does, he engages in them intelligently. He does not bog the reader down with technical terms or a lot of history. He gives the layman a helpful introduction to many of these controversies. 

1.

First up is Cassian’s Institutes.  This work describes the rules of monastic garb and canonical prayer, along with and the remedies for eight principal vices. What should the reader look out for in this work?