Theandros - Online Journal of Orthodox Christian Theology and Philosophy

Volume 5, no. 3, Spring/Summer 2008



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ISSN 1555-936X
Christian Mysticism During The Early And Middle Byzantine Periods:
Part II; St. Symeon the New Theologian


John K. Kotsonis, PhD (Physics) (PhD candidate, Patristics)
St. Elias School of Orthodox Theology


See Part I in the Winter 2007/2008 Issue

Abstract: This paper examines the development of Christian mysticism in Byzantium during the first millennium. First, the roles of two important Fathers of the Church, St Macarios and St Maximos the Confessor are discussed, each of them representing a somewhat different school of thought of our mystical tradition. Afterwards, the bulk of this paper is devoted to the role and contribution of St Symeon the New Theologian, as he integrated these two styles in his voluminous writings. It is widely accepted that St Symeon’s work was instrumental in reinvigorating and expanding Orthodox mysticism during his time, and in this way playing a pivotal role in the development of the important Orthodox Hesychast movement of the 12th through the 15th centuries.


St Symeon the New Theologian

After the great Ecumenical Councils, the spiritual atmosphere in the Byzantine world seemed to be somewhat declining as the leaders of the Church seemed focused on regurgitating the issues that the Councils had addressed and on negotiating with Rome the application of the canons that those councils had produced. At that pivotal time a new spiritual leader emerged, someone who, being deeply rooted in Orthodox Tradition himself, spoke with an authentic, forceful voice and made the faithful refocus on the central tenets of our theology. The important issues he brought to the fore include the definition of a good Christian, our direct relationship with God, and the process of Theosis. Although not the first Father to address mystical practices, St Symeon brought about a strong reexamination and reinvigoration of Christian mysticism. In this context, he is widely credited for powering up (with the guidance of his spiritual father, St Symeon the Studite or Eulabes) a strong wave of spiritual understanding, practice, and expression. As many Fathers have stressed, the true mystic acts within our true tradition (all the way back to Christ and the Apostles,) not redefining it but supporting it, interpreting and enlivening it, as was certainly the case here. His main belief and message was that the foundation of our Christian Orthodox Tradition is not what we do, read, write and say, but our experience of an immediate, unobstructed relationship with God. St Symeon’s writings and active championing of Christian mysticism shook the Byzantine world and had vast repercussions throughout the next several centuries, laying the foundations of Hesychasm as his ground-breaking work was adopted and amplified by others, e.g., St Gregory of Sinai and St Gregory Palamas, even if they didn’t always admit it because of the controversy surrounding St Symeon’s conflict with the authorities.

According to his principal biographer, St Niketas Stethatos[1], St Symeon was born in Galata, just across the bay from Constantinople, about 949 AD. His parents were relatively wealthy members of the aristocracy of that province, Paphlagonia, religious and well educated. Young George (St Symeon’s baptismal name) was sent to the Capital to complete his education and eventually enter into the service of the Court under the protection of his paternal uncle. George did well in his studies, but never really got too deeply involved in secular knowledge. Instead, he felt more and more drawn to religious pursuits, especially after he met his spiritual father St Symeon Eulabes. The latter guided George through the lives of Saints and the inspired writings of such luminaries as St John Climacos, St Diadochus of Photike and St Mark the Poor. Although in the imperial court George did very well, even rising to the rank of Spathocubiculary and, eventually, Senator, he felt increasingly out of place partially due to the waning political power of his family. Even more important, his focus on spiritual matters gradually intensified and displaced any remnant of secular ambition he may have had. Therefore, after some vacillations, he finally joined the Monastery of Studion and received the name Symeon. About a year later, as a result of fellow monks feeling jealous about his close relationship with his much respected mentor, he transferred to the Monastery of St Mamas which was situated nearby, also in Constantinople. There he became quickly known for his knowledge and piety and his deep concern for the welfare of everyone around him. Within 3 years he was ordained priest and the following year he was elected to succeed Abbott Anthony as the leader of this old, and, by then, almost dilapidated monastery (which St Symeon later helped rebuild with his family’s money), an office that he kept for almost 30 years. Due to the great respect that many clerics and lay people had for him, jealousy around St Symeon developed again and culminated to his conflict with some monks at St Mamas. The then Patriarch Sisinios evaluated the situation and justified St Symeon, sending the rebel monks into exile. However, a few years later, seeing an opportunity to impress the authorities who mistrusted some of St Symeon’s relatives, Stephen, former Archbishop of Nicomedia and chief theological advisor to the Patriarch, challenged St Symeon’s theological competence. After several exchanges over the following few years, he was badly and publicly defeated by St Symeon. Still, the enraged Stephen managed to convince Patriarch Sergios to send St Symeon into exile in 1009, mainly using the fact that St Symeon was venerating his spiritual father, St Symeon Eulabes as a saint, despite the Patriarchate’s reluctance to allow it without going through a formal canonization procedure. And yet, shortly afterwards, Sergios reneged and called him back, even offering him an elevation to Bishop with the approval of the imperial authorities. St Symeon refused and spent his last few years across the Bosporus, rebuilding the old church of Saint Marina and adjacent monastery on a tract of land that one of his spiritual children donated, leading a new flock of monks and guiding many lay followers and clerics who reported several miracles attributed to his intercession with God. There he fell asleep in the Lord on March 12, 1022, and his holy relics were very respectfully brought back in Constantinople in 1052. In addition to the miracles mentioned above, St Niketas documented St Symeon’s considerable writings, homilies, treatises and poems, as well as the extreme respect, love and admiration that so many people had for him. On the basis of that legacy, as was mentioned before, the Orthodox Church elevated him to Sainthood and bestowed perhaps her greatest recognition by calling him “Theologian” which until then had been reserved for only St Gregory of Nazianzos and St John the Beloved.

St Symeon wrote several treatises and homilies; but when his inspiration was too intense and everyday modes of communication were falling short of the task, he composed poetry that helped others feel what was happening to him at the time. Therefore, his strongest and most creative writings in both style and content are his 58 poems (Hymns) followed by his Catecheses which are also quite fluid in terms of expression. He also authored several other excellent works, e.g., Theological & Ethical Discourses, as well as Theological, Gnostic & Practical Chapters, which are more traditional, like those of other Orthodox Fathers. However, readers of his works cannot miss the point that St Symeon was always an assertive and truly authentic reformer who never stopped fighting for what he thought was right and true. His real motivation in preaching, guiding others and writing was that he believed that the Holy Spirit wanted him to do this, something, of course that most authorities would be very concerned about. What St Symeon essentially taught us is that, on the basis of his own experiences, if we believe in God and carry out His commandments within the Church and with sufficient ascesis and prayer, we will become increasingly more and more aware of the work that the Holy Spirit is doing inside us as He deifies us little by little.

Let us now review St Symeon’s message in more detail and hear some of it from his own mouth. As a young man he had an extraordinary vision: light filled the room, causing his sense of space and time to disappear. He found himself in the presence of another, even more powerful and bright radiance, which, he felt, was his spiritual father, St Symeon Eulabes, interceding for him in front of Christ. This is how the concept of spiritual mediation, in which our spiritual Elders help us open up to the presence of God, became one of the central tenets of his teaching. In this way his understanding of the Church became like a bright, golden chain, with each link being a saint, all helping us stay connected with God through the Holy Spirit. Many other such events were documented by him in his homilies and hymns, described in his characteristic mental and emotional poetic style, all sharing the same characteristics of space and time transcendence, bright light both around and within himself, and a pervasive feeling of total peace in the presence of God[2]:

“How shall I describe, Master, the vision of Your countenance?
How should I speak of the unspeakable contemplation of your beauty?
How can the sound of any word contain Him whom the world cannot hold?
How can anyone express Your love for mankind?
For I was seated in the light of a lamp that was shining on me.
And it was illuminating the darkness and the shadows of night.
It seemed indeed to me that in the light I was occupied in reading,
But as if I were scrutinizing the words and examining the propositions.
Then as I was meditating, Master, on these things,
Suddenly You appeared from above, much greater than the sun
And You shone brilliantly from the heavens down into my heart.
But all the rest, I was seeing as a deep shadow.
However in the middle there was a column of light,
Cutting through the air completely
And it passed from the heavens down to me, miserable one.
At once I forgot the light of the lamp.
I did not remember any longer that I was inside the house.
I was seated in what seemed to me to be a shadowy atmosphere.
Moreover, I forgot completely my body even.
I said to You and now I say it from the bottom of my heart:
Have mercy on me Master, have mercy on me, Unique One!
On me who have never really served You at all, O Savior,
But who from my youth served only to anger You.”

Being an “enthusiastic zealot,” as he called himself, he strove to share his experiences with others through his frequent sermons, private discussions with his spiritual children and writings. Actually, St Symeon is acknowledged as not only being one of Byzantium’s greatest mystical Fathers, but also one of its most compelling preachers and inspiring poets. His writings are excellent theological and moral guides full of light and love, always bringing out God’s compassion and mercy for us all. However, as mentioned above, his rise into prominence in monastic life caused some individuals in the religious establishment to oppose him, partially for political reasons related to his family, but also because he was vocal and authoritative in key religious matters without having been formally trained in Theology. Even in the face of such powerful opposition, he staunchly continued preaching the deepest truths of Orthodox Theology, especially that everyone should seek direct spiritual communion with God, clerics and lay persons alike. This, of course, was in sharp contrast to that era’s focus on external worship, organizational structure and formal education. In addition, he proclaimed the right and responsibility of those who are filled with the Holy Spirit to speak with authority and strongly suggested that those who had not had the same familiarity with God to remain silent, regardless of their ecclesiastical rank. Understandably, these positions were very unpopular with the Church’s leadership and were the central cause of his eventual troubles with them.

As mentioned before, two great currents were operating in the religious tradition at the time. The Greek line, including St Gregory the Theologian, St Diadochos of Photike, St Maximos the Confessor, et al, was more intellectual in nature and stressed God’s transcendent nature and the Divine Light as perceived by our spiritual mind, our “nouV,” in transcendence. On the other hand, the Syrian line, including St Macarios, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Isaac of Nineveh, et al, came across as more emotional and focused on God’s immanence, the continuous presence and action of the Holy Spirit inside us, and the heart’s loving sensibility or “aisqhsiV”. One of St Symeon’s remarkable contributions was that he was able to integrate these two currents, as his characteristic style of expression was both intellectual and emotional, dealing with both the mind and the heart at the same time. Over the next few pages we will review several examples of this significant contribution as St Symeon writes about his experiences overall, his teachings on Christian living, or his interpretation of the Divine Light and radiance of the sacred vision. Clearly, these three areas have significant overlaps in his work, and one can see his integrative style in all of his writings.

To start off, here is an example of St Symeon’s hymns, in which we can clearly see how he integrates the elements discussed above: the Greek intellectual focus on our spiritual mind, the “nouV,” and the Syrian emphasis on our spiritual center, the heart and its emotional content. In the following beautiful excerpts, he expresses one of his favorite teachings by asserting that those who have not yet been illumined “by the rays of the noetic sun of justice” as he said, are spiritually dead, and should refrain from theologizing[3]:

“If you seek to find Him in a sensible manner,
where will you find Him? Nowhere, you will simply say.
But if you have the strength to look at Him spiritually,
It is rather He Who will enlighten your mind
And will open the pupils of your heart;
Then you will no longer deny that He is everywhere
And by Him you will be taught everything,
Even if you consider yourself to be ignorant and unrefined.
But if you have not discerned that the eye Of your mind has been opened and that it has seen the light
If you have not perceived the sweetness of the Divinity,
If you have not been enlightened by the Divine Spirit,
If you have not shed tears without feeling any pain,
If you have not contemplated that your soul has been cleansed,
If you have not known that your heart has been purified,
And that it has shone with its luminous reflections,
If you have not found the Christ within yourself, contrary to all expectation,
If you have not been struck with stupor on seeing the Divine beauty
And have not forgotten human nature
On seeing yourself completely transformed
How do you not tremble, tell me, to speak of God?”

Also[4]:

“Do not go astray then, do not believe to have found before having acquired the eyes of the soul
and that the ears of your heart have been purified,
cleansed from the filth with your tears,
before beginning to see and to hear spiritually
and to be changed in all your senses.
Yes, you will contemplate many ineffable things
And will hear further more about them, in the most sudden way
That you will not be able to express with your tongue.
It is therefore a formidable marvel, to hear with the mind
And to see in this way, it is the marvel of marvels.
No sensual thoughts, never, for a man of this kind,
But he treads the earth as if he walked in the air,
He sees everything, even to the bottom of the abysses
And he understands all creatures,
He recognizes God, he remains stupefied with fright
And he adores Him and glorifies Him as Creator.”

For many students of his life and work, and, I imagine, for even more of those who dealt with St Symeon back then, it was as much what he said as how he said it. His creative, assertive, authentic, innocent and very intimate way of describing many of his own spiritual experiences in a deeply emotional, almost erotic, fashion, had the result of raising many an eyebrow in that extremely conservative, somewhat paranoid milieu. For example, here is an extraordinary passage, again with a mixture of intellectual and emotional elements, in which he integrates his favorite three spiritual themes: the divine light, total detachment from passions, and loving images of spiritual union in a nuptial context[5]:

“There was complete health, there purity,
There the extinction of all my passions and vain thoughts,
There impassibility produced in me a face all illumined,
And it has always stayed with me, spiritual speaking,
Understand me properly, I beg you, read these words,
Not interpreting what I say in any stupid, impure image,
But it brought me an ineffable pleasure of union
And an unlimited desire for nuptial union with God.
Receiving this, I also became impassible,
Enflamed with pleasure, burning with desire for it
And I participated in the light,
Yes, I became light, above every passion, beyond every evil,
For passion does not flower in the light of impassibility
Any more than shadow or darkness of night flowers in the sun.”

Having won the battle of controlling his body and thought process, he developed extremely powerful and deep sensitivity inwards. Out of his pious sense of human inadequacy (as compared with his far-reaching spiritual ideals) and his unstoppable spiritual struggle towards the Divine, emerged a burning mystical love for God which he found impossible to express logically. As a result, from this strong and tender connection, sprang the powerful and moving poems for Christ and His love for Symeon. It is nearly impossible to understand and analyze his creative process systematically, but we can feel the deeply moving experience of union with the Beloved. Again, here we can see his skill in integrating the various elements we spoke of above[6]:
“I weep, I am pierced with sorrow, when the light shines on me,
That I see my poverty and that I realize where I am,
What would I live in, what mortal world, mortal myself;
And I am filled with joy, with bliss, when I understand
What conditions God has bestowed upon me, what glory,
And I consider myself like an angel of the Lord
Completely adorned with the immaterial garment.
Thus joy kindles my love for the Giver
And the One Who transforms me, God – and love causes streams of tears
To gush forth and makes me still more brilliant.”

These words show how strong was his spiritual focus and how real was his experience of uniting with God. Gradually, this state allowed him to develop a tender familiarity with the object of his spiritual love, to the point where he felt that Christ, his Beloved, lived in him as his closest friend, while his soul felt full of peace and joy, freedom and creativity with no trace of effort, pain or suffering. As before, St Symeon shows us his great ability to combine intellectual and emotional themes, love and wonder, the struggle of heart and mind, in a seamless whole of his experience of enlightenment[7]:
“Oh, what is the reality hidden to all created essence!
What is this intelligible light, which no one sees
And what is this abundant wealth, which no one in the world
Has ever been able to discover or possess totally?
As a matter of fact, it is imperceptible to all, the world cannot contain it.
It is most longed for, more that the entire world;
It is desirable also, as much as this God surpasses
Visible things created by Him.
It is in that that I am wounded by His love,
Insofar as I do not see it, I dry up in my spirit,
My intelligence and my heart are warmed and groan.
I wander and I am on fire, searching here and there,
And nowhere do I find the Lover of my soul.
I frequently cast glances all around to see my Beloved
And He, the invisible one, never shows Himself to me.
But when I begin to weep, as desperate, then
He shows Himself and He looks at me,
He Who contemplates all creatures.”

Although the prospect of uniting with God may sound too improbable to many, St Symeon insisted that it is quite feasible to reach this ultimate goal if we follow the Fathers’ example and instructions and get spiritual help in the process. Most of them tell us that we are not isolated from our Creator, destined to live a limited life of futility in sin, but that we can accomplish this task and enjoy the most fervently desired result, theosis. For this great challenge God gifted us with the power to love, so that we could bridge the gap between teacher and student, which is an invaluable connection along this difficult road. So, our eager nature can find its way closer to our Creator. At first love for God is awakened by our awareness of our shortcomings and our resulting repentance. Gradually, love becomes spiritual light and fire, defeating the devils and uprooting the fear out of our hearts. What remains is pure spiritual love and desire for God and His presence in us. In this way, our mind becomes integrated with our heart, both imbued in Divine Light as we merge with our Beloved. In what follows, we can see once more how beautifully St Symeon talks about this sacred process, continuously integrating emotional and mental elements[8]:
“I am seated in my cell
Either by night or by day:
Love is invisibly with me
And without my knowing it.
As it is exterior to all creatures,
It is also with them all;
It is fire, it is also ray,
It becomes a cloud of light,
It perfects itself like the sun.
Hence because it is fire, it warms the soul again
And burns my heart
And excites it towards desire
And love, love of the Creator.
And when I have been sufficiently inflamed
And set aflame in my soul,
Like a ray carrier of light
It flies around and surrounds me entirely
Casting its sparkling rays
Into my soul,
Illuminating my mind,
And it makes it capable
Of the heights of contemplation
Endowing it with a new outlook…
Love then came, as it desired,
And as under the appearance of a cloud
Luminously it swooped down on me;
Completely on my head
I saw it settle;
And it made me cry out,
For I was in terror.
Nevertheless, after having then flown away,
Love left me alone,
And while I arduously searched for it
Then suddenly, completely
It was in me in a conscious manner,
In the center of my heart;
Like a truly heavenly body,
I saw it like the solar disc.
When it was thus revealed,
When it had shown itself in a conscious manner,
Love put the battalion of devils to flight,
It expelled cowardice,
It aroused bravery.
From the perception of the world
It stripped my mind
And it put on me again the robe
Of intellectual perception,
It separated me from the visible
And attached me to the invisible
And granted me the grace to see
The uncreated, and to rejoice
To have been separated from all
The created and the visible
And what soon perishes
And to have been united to the Uncreated,
To the incorruptible, to the eternal,
To what is invisible to all;
For that’s what love is.”

St Symeon maintained that one depends on the help and guidance of a good spiritual director to be able to find the way to true repentance and eventual salvation. Of course free will is a most fundamental gift from God, and the highest expression of our free will is the desire and dedication to have our mind always turned in His direction. This is where a good spiritual director can help the most. Along these lines, St Symeon worked to define and explain the role and limits of our free will. He believed that our human will in general is broader than our (spiritual) free will, because it extends even in subjects where we are not free to act or not, e.g., our hunger, thirst, need to breathe, etc, that are “imposed” on us. These are the passions of our human nature. However, even in the passions of the soul, e.g., our desire and anger, we are not totally free. This is because, although we can choose not to abandon ourselves in them, we cannot choose not to have them at all (as was the case before the fall of Adam and Eve.) There is, however, hope for us in our desire to free ourselves from their dominion. Upon that desire we humans base our efforts and supplications of God to become liberated from sin and unite with Him. In this way, we discover our spiritual illness and take appropriate action – and only then we can be rightly called Christians who are meant to participate in “both, life and light” as St Symeon put it. Theosis, our conscious union with God, is given to us as a divine response to that deep desire, and opens the door to the purpose of His Incarnation[9]:

“Listen and understand, Fathers, the divine words
And you will know the union that is effected in knowledge
And in a sensible awareness absolutely both experientially and visibly.
God is invisible; we are completely visible.
If then He is united willingly with visible beings,
This is then a union of both in knowledge.
If you would say, not having this experience,
That this is effected without any consciousness,
It would be indeed a union of the dead and not of Life with the living.
God is the Creator of all creatures; we are likewise creatures.
If then God Who has created them has descended so completely
And united Himself with His creation
So that the creature becomes like the Creator,
Then the creature should really be able to perceive this true happening
That the creature in an unspeakable way is united with the Creator.
But if we do not admit this, our faith is finished
And our hope for the future blessings has completely vanished.
There is no resurrection and no general judgment.”

He also believed that the Holy Scriptures contain a lot more than historical and teaching information, existential theories and moral instructions; they contain the essential, immortal reality of true being. The Prophets and Saints who wrote the Bible and the key books of our Holy Tradition were guided in a mystical sense through direct connection with the Holy Spirit. In this way, the Divine Light imparts to the authors the knowledge that is recorded in these inspired writings. This holy fire only comes, however, to those who are already burning with the desire to have God in their lives all the time. So, he stated repeatedly, while it is necessary to be baptized, we should not rest on our laurels, so to speak, but must also take all necessary action to partake of the mystical connection with the Divine Light. This is the only way that we can become good enough for God to manifest in us and share with us His truth in unspeakable words through a direct teaching connection which is available, not just to a few chosen ones, but to all those (clerics and lay people alike) who are willing to work at cleansing themselves and open up to the Divine Presence. If this connection were meant for only a few people, or for only some special, rare circumstances, its value would be minimal because it would not have come from God, our Creator Who loves us all equally. Therefore, those who teach that there are no more Saints, or that salvation is meant for the select few, are blaspheming and promulgating a terrible heresy, declaring God as limited in resources and, therefore, finite. In St Symeon’s words, everyone is invited to see the same spiritual view that the Saints saw, and follow the same path to God that they took. He was adamant that the primary goal for every human being is the direct spiritual connection with God, the “qewria” that so many Fathers spoke of. This gift of the Holy Grace is our ultimate award in this life, a precursor of the eternal “qewria” of God that we will all share in the age to come. And when we get some of it now, we can’t help exploding in praise for our Creator Who obviously wants us back with Him[10]. In the wonderful segment that follows, we can again admire his subtly integrative style of expression:

“Yes, as this star shows itself to whomever contemplates it,
and then, especially, all see it completely so to say,
Similarly, You also show Yourself hidden within me,
Yes, seen, You know it - gradually increasing,
Redoubling with light, redoubling with brilliancy;
And another time, You show Yourself to me absolutely inaccessible.<


That is why I magnify Your incomprehensibility
And, proclaiming Your kindness, I cry to You:
“Glory to the one Who has so glorified our essence,
Glory, O my Savior, to Your incommensurable condescension,
Glory to Your mercy, glory to Your power,
Glory to You! Because, remaining immutable and without change,
You are completely immovable and always completely in movement
Completely outside creation and completely in every creature,
You fill everything completely, You who are completely
Outside everything, above everything, O Master, above all beginning,
Above all essence, above the nature of nature,
Above all ages, above all light, O Savior,
Above intellectual Essences – for they too are Your work
Or rather the work of Your mind…
Assemble children, come women,
Hasten, fathers, before then end comes,
And, with me, all weep and lament,
Since after having received God in Baptism as infants,
Or rather, having become sons of God as little children,
Soon, sinners, we have been expelled
From the House of David and that happened to us
Without our realizing it! Let us hasten by penance
Since it is by it that all the expelled return
And that there is no other way, do not be mistaken by it,
To enter into the interior
Nor to see the mysteries which were accomplished there
And are still accomplished there till the end of time…”

This perspective is not only extremely positive (in that God is open to a direct connection with each person) but it also attests to the pivotal role of our freedom of will. At the end, we are free to choose our own fate and are not subject to anyone else but God Himself. When we speak of God, St Symeon taught, we should not repeat and regurgitate mechanically words and theories given to us by a class of “seers”, but recount our own direct experience, provided we have had a real one. According to him, the true Saint tells us of his or her own view of the divine reality and does not just repeat theories and explanations derived from books and lectures. Christianity is a religion based not only on historically verified facts, but also on a set of correlated beliefs that are being confirmed each moment by the direct experience of everyone who works at getting to the source of reality, God Himself. When this happens, our faith blossoms and grows unshakeable and our words become inspired by the Holy Spirit. How can we approach God through reason alone, St Symeon argued, which is such a small tool at our disposal? God is far greater than anything that can be grasped by the mind in a logical sense. No, the only way that is open to us is to experience God directly by uniting with Him, even for a few moments, and listen to our mind and heart later to understand and absorb our experience. Even then, however, we often fail to comprehend because the experience is just too drastic and so far outside our daily sphere of activity; the tools we have to handle the physical world are grossly inadequate for us to transcend these limitations. To that end, we need help to handle the proximity with the Divine without losing our mind[11]:

“What is this tremendous mystery which is being fulfilled in me?
Neither the spoken word nor my poor written word can praise and glorify the One
Who transcends all praise, Who transcends all speech...
Here, I am speechless and my intellect knows
What is being fulfilled but cannot explain it;
It contemplates, it desires to express it but does not find any words;
What it sees is invisible, completely destitute of form
Without any composition, simple, infinite in greatness.”

As can be seen from this discussion, St Symeon was different from the norm of a monk or theologian of that era, in that he was always willing and able to explore new religious vistas with his writings and sermons, defying and surpassing expectations, always walking to his own spiritual drumbeat as he defined Christian living through word and deed. Clear, open communication was for him an extremely important requirement for a Christian teacher, and in that sense, he felt free to break with custom and speak about what was happening inside of him on a very subjective basis (as was shown above,) relating his experiences so well in his mystical poetry and homilies. This directness multiplied his impact on other religious seekers and teachers, and the authenticity of his writings, coupled with the innocent and captivating way he used to introduce his beliefs, made him truly unique. Here are two more examples of deep theological wisdom presented in a style that is vibrant, emotional, intelligent, intimate and extremely pious at the same time – in many ways reminiscent of the Song of Solomon[12]:

“Come, O true light! Come, O eternal life! Come, O hidden mystery! Come, O indescribable treasure! Come, O ineffable thing! Come, O inconceivable person! Come, O endless delight! Come, O unsetting light!… I give you thanks that for me you have become unsetting light and non-declining sun; for you who fill the universe with your glory have nowhere to hide yourself….Your light, O my God, is You.”
Also[13]:

“What is your boundless mercy, my Savior?
How have you deigned to make me a member of your body?
Me, the impure, the prodigal, the prostitute?
How have you clothed me with the brilliant garment,
Vivid with the splendor of immortality,
Which changes all my members into light?”

This lively and direct mode of communication made his writings powerful and kept them brilliantly fresh for later generations of readers to appreciate what he wanted to say and what he was experiencing at the time – somewhat like Jesus’ parables. In this way his contributions to our Tradition are deemed to have been invaluable. Here we have someone who was living our Holy Tradition and faith and writing about his views from the “front,” the point of direct contact with the Divine. In a period of time characterized by an almost dull and formulaic approach to religion, this was big news and not very well received by the powers that be. Witness the accusations that were continuously leveled against him, the persecution that almost resulted in his excommunication from the Church, his unfair exile at an advanced age, and his eventual death in relative anonymity despite his many followers and admirers.

One of the cornerstones of St Symeon’s teachings was the need for those who seek God to feel responsible for the state of the whole world and shed heartfelt tears of repentance for their, and everyone else’s, mistakes. For him, as the spiritually mournful feelings grow, so does the anticipation of opening up to the Holy Spirit asserting Himself in our “nouV”. This tender integration of emotions and intellect, in the Divine Light, is where St Symeon’s most passionate hymns of divine love emanate from[14]:

“You are the king of the things above and the things below
And I, I alone, without trembling, argue with You.
Grant me, grant to this needy, grant to the wretch
The grace to reject all perversity from my soul
Which my puffed-up and fruitless pride crush and pulverize at once, alas!
Give me humility, give me a helping hand,
Purify the impurity of my soul
And grant me tears of repentance, tears of regret, tears of salvation,
Tears which will dispel the darkness from my intellect
And which will make me shine with heavenly brightness.
I desire to see You, light of the world,
Light of my eyes, for me, a wretch
Whose heart is full of the evils of this life...”

St Symeon gave us strong testimony that, in humility, we need to turn our attention towards God and keep it there as we transcend our human thoughts in our love for Him and become deified[15]:

“Thus, the recognition of His lordship
Produced also growth in their love
Because they saw better and more clearly
The vivid brilliancy of the Trinity
And that in return the latter expelled far from them
All other thought and made unchangeable
Those who originally had received a changeable nature
And who now live in the divine heights.”

Do not think, he said, that by imagining heavenly situations and pondering divine meanings you are advancing towards your goal to be closer to God. The devil knows this path and is lurking there too, ready to lead us astray with pseudo-celestial visions, sweet but false sounds and smells, and happy but egotistical feelings. We need to always keep focused on our prayer, remember our many shortcomings with humility, and continue our struggle against the weakness of our body and mind, day and night. That’s where the help of a capable spiritual guide is invaluable, to help us avoid losing ourselves in this ocean of false strokes and messages that our ego receives from the devil all the time. Little by little, our humble, innocent, but correctly offered prayer becomes a true connection and communication with God, marked by brilliance and glory[16]:

“The monk is the one who is innocent of the world
And converses continually with God alone;
He sees Him and is seen by Him,
Loves Him and is loved by Him,
And becomes light, because enlightened in an ineffable manner;
Glorified, he sees himself ever poorer: Intimate, he is like a stranger
O totally strange and inexpressible marvel!”

His words tell us how we can be so close to God, while at the same time being perfectly aware of the immense difference that still separates us from our Creator. He shows the faithful how to overcome this great gap and get closer, a little closer every time they connect with Him in prayer. Full of faith, those who want to be in the presence of God must keep Him in their mind and heart all the time, and then their life becomes an endless prayer to Him, they become “entirely all Christ” as St Symeon put it. When one reaches that state, our own way of thinking, secular knowledge, formal studies, human “wisdom” and mechanical methods of worship are all useless, because we get His direct help to open up to the all-knowing Holy Spirit, here and now, in humility, love and obedience[17]:

“Brothers, if the full knowledge of the true wisdom and the knowledge of God were going to be given to us through letters and formal study, what need would there be then for faith, or for divine Baptism, or even communion in the mysteries? Obviously, none whatever. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.[18]” This is what the herald of the Church says, the man who leads her to her Bridegroom, Christ…
Who then among men on earth, wise men, or rhetoricians, or mathematicians, or others, save those who have cleansed their intellect by the supreme philosophy and asceticism, who thus bring to the task a soul whose perceptions have been thoroughly stripped, could ever know the hidden mysteries of God from merely human wisdom and without the revelation which comes through the Lord from on high? These are mysteries which are unveiled through an intelligible contemplation enacted by the operation of the Holy Spirit in those to whom it has been given – and is ever given – to know them by virtue of the grace from on high. Knowledge of these things is for them whose intellect is illumined daily by the Holy spirit on account of their purity of soul, whose eyes have been clearly opened by the rays of the Sun of righteousness, whose word of knowledge and word of wisdom is through the Spirit alone, whose understanding and fear of God, through love and peace, are preserved firmly in faith by the sanctity and goodness of their way of life.”

Of course, people who have reached this level of intimacy with God have nothing egotistical left in them, and do not hesitate to sacrifice themselves for their fellow human beings, the same way that Christ did. And this was, St Symeon taught, the goal of the Incarnation: that all humans see Christ and be encouraged to unite with Him, to the extent that they can. If someone denies this possibility, then they are denying both the Old and the New Testament. At the same time, he insisted that our desired union with God entails the totality of our being – body, soul and spirit – which are all clean and sacred[19]:

“The deification of the whole man is a necessary consequence for Symeon of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The New Theologian appears to be completely free of the old Platonist fear and distrust of the body which had afflicted such earlier Greek Christian writers as Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, or for that matter, Augustine of Hippo whose strictures on the body’s capacity for God continued to influence Western Christianity on the subject of the beatific vision throughout the Middle Ages and beyond.”

St Symeon was clear that faith alone (in a thinking sense) cannot save us, if we do not also advance enough to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Otherwise, we cannot make sense of our spiritual experiences because God is beyond anything else in this world and we just cannot understand Him[20]:
“Who will be able, O Master, to speak of You?
Those who ignore you fail, for they know nothing at all
And those who in their faith acknowledge Your divinity
Are seized in great fear and remain stunned with fright
And they know not what to say because You are beyond our mind.
Entirely incomprehensible, entirely imperceptible
Are Your works, both Your glory and the knowledge that we have of You.”

Because of the limitations of our bodies and minds, as long as we are in this life, what we see even in the highest peaks of such divine experiences is a mere reflection of God’s reality in which we will find ourselves after the Second Coming, in Heaven. We can be certain that God’s Grace will guide us to Him if we persevere long and hard enough in our petition. However, we are not really sure of the meaning of our spiritual experiences, and of how they operate in us[21]:

“Whenever someone perseveres unswervingly toward that vision, not knowing what it is, it is opened to him. And what is opened? Heaven? I do not know. The eye of the heart? Again, I do not know whether to say the one or the other.”

This is not to minimize the significance of such inspired moments, but to remind us that God’s true glory is far superior to anything we can think of and understand in this life, by whatever means. And yet, those of us, St Symeon often said, who have such experiences, e.g., see Christ in His Divine Light even once, will not die in a spiritual sense if the rest of their life is consistent with such a fantastic gift. Or, stated in the opposite way, those who have never seen Christ in their soul’s eyes while alive here on Earth, do not have a chance of going to Heaven. This was a strong position, he realized, and he would occasionally soften it in accepting that, since some of these God-connected moments are so fleeting for the human mind, the last statement is true primarily for those who never wanted or tried to connect directly with Him. Not that God does not want us to see Him, because He always wants everyone to get as close to Him as possible and blesses even our faintest attempts to do so. However, if we never even tried to connect with Him, let alone succeed at it, it is a statement that deep down we do not really want to, despite what our (socially influenced) mind might be telling us. Therefore, as our freedom of will takes precedence, He would not force us to accept something we had access to but freely chose to reject. God does not push us, but He certainly welcomes our efforts to approach Him[22]:

“Blessed are they who hourly taste the ineffable light with the mouth of their intellect, for they shall walk ‘becomingly as in the day[23]’…Blessed are they who have the eye of their intellect ever open and with prayer see the light and converse with it mouth to mouth, for they… have and shall become higher than the angels, for the latter sing praises while the former intercede.”

Another way St Symeon spoke of mystical knowledge was to compare it to the precious content of a safe within the house of our lives. According to the instructions of Christ Himself, our only hope of opening the valuable safe and reaching the treasure of His Grace within, is to love Him, keep His commandments, and ask for His help as often as possible. In return He manifests His divine presence for us and blesses our spiritual eyes to see Him. This safe cannot be opened through any means related to human knowledge or intelligence, but only through love for Him and corresponding action. If we follow the opposite way, basing our hopes and actions on secular knowledge, then we miss the opportunity to be visited by the Holy Spirit and we never get the Light that is His gift of Grace to us. The result, of course, is that we miss out on the Kingdom of Heaven and sink deeper and deeper in wrong beliefs and the devil’s net of deception. St Symeon’s work does not indicate any abstract attraction to knowledge, but proves his extreme desire to reach theosis and unite with God. His fuel was pure love for his Creator which he used in conjunction with his great intelligence and clarity of expression. His objective was never to argue about Christian dogma in the narrow sense, but to experience the essence of our spirituality through his own devotion, which he then made available to all of us. His teachings are both theoretical and practical in the sense that they give clear examples of a successful Christian spiritual life that is pleasing to God. In St Symeon’s framework, dealing with information is secondary to facing our Creator with humility, repentance and the trusting openness of a small child who just wants to be held and cared for. The Divine Light that St Symeon spoke of so frequently is the signature event of the transformation that was taking place inside him, as a result of which he would set aside all human knowledge in favor of the true wisdom that God was sharing with him at the time[24]:

“Indeed,as much as the most pure bread surpasses dung
in value and in fragrance,
so heavenly realities incomparably surpass
earthly realities, for those whose taste is wholesome.
Blush wisdom of the wise, deprived of true knowledge!
Indeed it is the simplicity of our words
Which as a matter of fact possesses true wisdom,
By drawing near to God and adoring Him.
This God Who gives all life-giving wisdom,
By which I am recreated, or even divinized,
Contemplating God forever and ever, Amen.”

As is evident from the preceding passages, St Symeon believed that the Divine Light he experienced directly is “personal”, i.e., not simply some form of created luminous radiance, but the Person of God Himself[25]. He wrote that he actually received clear confirmation on this, a direct answer to his question as to the Divine Light’s nature: “It is me, God, Who became man for you; and behold that I have made you, as you see, and shall make you god.” He sometimes called the Light the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Trinity. He also wrote that the Divine Light is God’s Energies, His Divine Grace. However, most of the time, St Symeon maintained that the Light is the Son, as Christ Himself had stated[26]:“I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” It makes sense to conclude that, in his very frequent experiences of ecstasy, St Symeon interacted with various aspects of God, all manifesting within the Divine Light, which, he insisted, is transcendent: “It [the Light] suddenly shows itself completely within me, a spherical light, gentle and divine, with form, with shape, in a formless form…” Here we see apophatic theology in action, as the author appears incapable of defining his experiences of the Divine in terms that conform to the superficially exacting standards of the created world. Instead, he has to admit that what he experiences, the supra-sensory nature of the Divine, is simply and clearly beyond human description[27]. Clearly, St Symeon’s relationship with, and experience of, the Divine Light was evolving, dynamic, and not static with time. He maintained that initially God helps us achieve contemplation, then we begin to see the Light as a vision from afar, and, as our purification continues, the experience becomes more and more immanent and clear, until we see it emanating from inside our heart and we bathe in its magnificence all the time. This is a gradual, gentle process, given to us as a gift of Grace: “God, as Light, wants to be seen.” Little by little, he said, the Light grows inside our heart, our spiritual center, and we see it not as external but as growing from within, until the transfigured person truly knows God. And, in his characteristically direct style, he didn’t mince words in talking about the significance of this process: “In effect, there is no other way to know God, than by the vision of the Light which comes from Him.” Clearly, St Symeon’s writings on his personal encounter with the Divine and the possibility (or, more correctly, the need) for all Christians to do the same, must have been excellent grist for the mill, input and encouragement for the likes of St Gregory of Sinai and St Gregory Palamas in their efforts to define, defend and spread Orthodox Hesychasm throughout the Orthodox East.

St Symeon was clear that a life lived close to God is exactly as that sounds, in continuous direct communion with Him, and certainly does not mean limiting ourselves to reading the Scriptures and mouthing God’s commandments mechanically. What we need to do, he insisted, is sacrifice our will to His, together with our mind that is its carrier, not only through good works, but primarily through faith and continuous prayer. Our openness and His blessing will sanctify our lives and free our soul - which will then sanctify our body as well. Having reached that spiritual state, humans will be truly able to act as He intended us to act, in full control of faculties such as desire and anger that were meant to serve as tools in our life on Earth. These tools need a strong and skillful master, our enlightened and God-oriented “nouV”, which turns them in the right direction (to desire God and resist temptation with fervor.) Then, our freedom of will can find its highest expression as our spiritual compass, helping us realize the true plan behind these gifts to His creatures. At the same time, the devil is working to get all humans under his control by confusing and baiting us with ephemeral enticements such as lust, and, through them, leading us to sin and from there to hopelessness. Once that happens a few times, our mind’s eyes become blind and we cannot see how to escape and get out of his control. So, we sin again and again, deepening both our dependence on him and our despair. In his usual integrative style, St Symeon taught that we first need to seek a healthier mind, a sacred perch from where Christ can act through His Light to help us get our actions, thoughts and feelings under control and grant us spiritual knowledge that helps us handle this powerful experience. Then, with faith and love, we should accept His presence and see that the Divine Light is nothing else but Christ, our God[28]:

“It is He Himself Who appears to whomsoever contemplates Him, “light of light,”
And those who contemplate Him, it is still in light that they see Him.
For it is in the light of the Spirit that those who contemplate Him see Him
And those who see in this light, it is the Son Whom they contemplate,
But ‘the one who has been judged worthy to see the Son, sees the Fatther’
And whoever contemplates the Father, assuredly sees Him with the Son.
That is what, I repeat, is now taking place in me:
What the mind cannot understand, I have acquired some knowledge of
And now I contemplate the invisible beauties from afar
The light is inaccessible, the glory unbearable,
And I am all agitated by it; I am filled with fear.
Moreover, it is a simple drop of the abyss that I contemplate;
But as a drop of water is sufficient to make known the totality of water
With its quality and its appearance,
As the whole texture is known by the tip of the fringe
Or, as the proverb says, ‘the lion is known by its paw,’
So, in the same way in one particle I embrace and I consider the whole
And I adore Him in person, my Christ and my God.”

When speaking of the experience of the Divine Light, St Symeon understood it as a sacred process in which the first few surprising ecstatic moments gradually give way to an inner and much longer-lasting state of closeness with God. This closeness manifests itself through pure feelings, benign thoughts, vivid spiritual knowledge, and God-inspired actions – and is the source of a strong faith inside us that brings a joyful certainty to the forefront of everything we do, feel or think. This sacred process not only intensifies our spiritual cleansing, but also opens our spiritual eyes little by little and allows us to live in a different place, where God is visibly present and openly active. St Symeon arrived at this realization through love for God which complemented his great faith and desire for theosis. His philosophy of Christian enlightenment as a slow but delightfully liberating experience, open to all, can be neatly summarized in the following allegory, filled with emotion and somewhat reminiscent of Plato - but is definitely speaking of Christian mysticism, loud and clear[29]:

“Think of someone who is born and raised in a dark and gloomy prison cell. In some momentary gleam from a lamp he just begins to make out, barely, a little something of his room, but remains ignorant that outside the sun is shining, not to mention everything else – I mean just this visible world and all the innumerable works and creations of God. It is exactly thus for the person who lives in the dark prison of this world’s perceptions. When he is illumined by even the briefest knowledge and begins haltingly to pick out some small, dim awareness of the mysteries of our faith, he still remains ignorant in every respect of God’s eternal good things, the inheritance of the saints.
Now, suppose it should happen for the man, sitting for so many years in this lightless prison, that an opening is made in the roof of his cell and that he is enabled to see the blue sky. Suppose that little by little the hole is enlarged so that now he sees a great light such as he has never seen, not even imagined could exist. Immediately, he is seized with amazement, and becomes like someone transported, keeping his eyes raised toward the light and wondering at what has suddenly happened to him. It is precisely the same for the person who has arrived suddenly at the vision of the spiritual light. Just now liberated from the bonds of the passions and of sensual perceptions, he is astonished and, for those who do not also perceive the light, seems like someone who has gone out of his mind. He withdraws the whole intellect into himself in wonder at the vision, at the radiance of Him Who is thus revealed to him…”

In summary, St Symeon’s influence on the Orthodox Tradition has been very deep and long lasting. He presented us with a heartwarming and compelling example of a great Father with an intense focus on the role of the Holy Spirit in our salvation. He left us many truly enlightening writings, spoke of his religious experiences openly and expressed his loving feelings for God in exquisite poetic language. Many miracles have been attributed to his intercession with God, attesting to his purity of heart and indisputable saintliness. In everything he did, said and wrote, he kept drawing directly from Christ’s words[30]: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God… Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” St Symeon’s clear message to us across the centuries is that all Christians should return to the spirit of the first years of the Church to live a full life united with Christ in the Divine Light[31]:

“Do not say that it is impossible to receive the Spirit of God.
Do not say that it is possible to be made whole without Him.
Do not say that one can possess Him without knowing it.
Do not say that God does not manifest Himself to man.
Do not say that men cannot perceive the divine light, or that it is impossible in this age!
Never is it found to be impossible, my friends.
On the contrary, it is entirely possible when one desires it”.

References and Bibliography


1. Pseudo Macarius, by Fr George A Maloney, Paulist Press 1992
2. The Macarian Legacy, by Marcus Plested, Oxford University Press 2004
3. Two Rediscovered Works Of Ancient Christian Literature: Gregory Of Nyssa And Macarius, by W. Jaeger, Leiden 1954
4. Byzantine Philosophy, by Basil Tatakis, Hacket 2003
5. The Philokalia, Volume 2, translated by GFH Palmer, P Sherrard, K Ware, Faber & Faber 1981
6. The Mystical Theology Of The Eastern Church, by Vladimir Lossky, SVS Press 1976
7. Patrologia Graeca, J.P. Migne
8. Hymns Of Divine Love, by Fr George A Maloney, Dimension Books, 1975
9. On The Mystical Life, Volumes 1, 2, 3, by Fr Alexander Golitzin, SVS Press1995
10. Origen Of Alexandria And St Maximus The Confessor, by E Moore, PhD, Dissertation.com 2004
11. Maximus The Confessor, by Andrew Louth, Routledge 1996
12. St Symeon the New Theologian, by Archbishop Basil Krivocheine, SVS Press 1986
13. Pilgrimage Of The Heart, by Fr George A Maloney, Harper & Row 1983
14. The Mystic Of Fire And Light, by Fr George A Maloney, Dimension Books 1975
15. Symeon the New Theologian, translated by Paul McGuckin , Cistercian Publications 1982
16. St Symeon the New Theologian And Orthodox Tradition, by Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, Oxford University Press 2000
17. The Book Of Mystical Chapters, by Fr John A McGuckin, Shambala2002
18. Byzantium, by Cyril Mango, Phoenix Press 1980
19. Two Outstanding Cases In Byzantine Spirituality, by A. Hatzopoulos, 1991
20. St Symeon the New Theologian (in Greek), by Metropolitan Symeon Koutsas, Akritas 1994
21. Life of Symeon the New Theologian (in French and Greek), by St Niketas Stethatos, translated by Fr I Hauscherr, Orientalia Christiana Vol XII, #45
22. Working The Earth Of The Heart, by Columba Stewart, OSB, Calendon Press 1991
23. Church And Learning In The Byzantine Empire, by JM Hussey, Oxford University Press 1937
24. The Byzantine World, by JM Hussey, Greenwood Press 1961
25. Greek Orthodox Patrology, by PK Chrestou, Orthodox Research Institute 2005
26. Man And The Environment, by AG Keselopoulos, SVS Press 2001
27. The First Created Man, by Fr Seraphim Rose, St Herman Of Alaska Brotherhood 2001
28. The Orthodox Church In The Byzantine Empire, by JM Hussey, Oxford University Press 1986
29. Symeon the New Theologian – The Discourses, by CJ Catanzaro, Paulist Press 1980
30. Patristic Theology, by Fr JA McGuckin, Westminster John Knox Press 2004
31. Light From Light, by L Dupres & JA Wiseman, Paulist Press 2001
32. Not Of This World, by JS Cutsinger, World Wisdom 2003
33. Byzantine Theology, by Fr John Meyendorff, Fordham University Press 1974


[1] Ref(21)

[2] Ref(8) Hymn 25

[3] Ref(8) Hymn 21

[4] Ref(8) Hymn 4

[5] Ref(8) Hymn 46,

[6] Ref(8) Hymn 13

[7] Ref(8) Hymn 16

[8] Ref(8) Hymn 17

[9] Ref(8) Hymn 34

[10] Ref(8) Hymn 15

[11] Ref(8) Hymn 1

[12] Ref(9) Invocation To The Holy Spirit, pp 9

[13] Ref(8) Hymn 2

[14] Ref(8) Hymn 4

[15] Ref(8) Hymn 2

[16] Ref(8) Hymn 3

[17] Ref(9) Ninth Ethical Discourse, pp112

[18] I Cor 1:21

[19] Ref(9) Volume 3, pp90

[20] Ref(8) Hymn 18

[21] Ref(9) Volume 1, pp77

[22] Ref(9) Volume 1, Tenth Ethical Discourse, pp166-167

[23] Rom 3:13

[24] Ref(8) Hymn 9

[25] Cf footnote #79

[26] Jn 8.12

[27] This point, especially as it regards God’s Energies, was amplified and clarified by St Gregory Palamas, about three centuries later.

[28] Ref(8) Hymn 11

[29] Ref(9) Volume 1, First Ethical Discourse, pp 74

[30] Jn 3:3-5

[31] Ref(1) Hymn 27




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