Diadochus of Photiki

It is well-established that the Jesus prayer basically takes form in early monasticism. Just a few scholars have very briefly suggested a possible connection with late antique philosophy. This article examines the early development of the Jesus prayer in the Collationes by John Cassian, the Gnostic chaptersby Diadochus of Photike andThe Ladder of Divine Ascentby John Climacus, over against two well-known practices in late antique philosophy: meletē or meditation (a repetitive recitation of short sayings) and mnēmē tou theou or dei memoriam (a practice aimed at a constant remembrance of God). From the considerable correspondence in form and purpose, the article argues for a clear impact from late antique philosophy on the gradual development. The main differences are the type of text that is the object of the practice, and the inner attitudes that the practice is aiming at. Homer and Greco-Roman wisdom sayings are replaced by bible verses, and humility and repentance are new monastic inner attitudes not that prevalent in ancient philosophy.

On the basis of liturgical manuscripts the author makes an attempt to clarify the date of liturgical commemoration of Diadochus of Photica, the exact day of which has hitherto remained controversial. The author analyzes the studies of Christou and Chelidze on the commemoration day of Blessed Diadochus; an edition of the text of the Greek hymnographical canon of March 29 is offered, as well as that of the
Old Georgian text of the reading from the “Synaxarion” of George the Athonite, assigned for March 5. These texts attest the existence of three commemoration days of Blessed Diadochus: March 29, March 5 and Saturday of Cheesefare Week

In my communication I examine the significations of the term πεῖρα, which can be encountered 20 times in the One Hundred Gnostic Chapters, being the key-notion in the closing considerations of four chapters (23, 24, 31, 32). The inherent intention is to show that Diadochus invests this word with an original use: it doesn’t have the usual signification of test, trial, temptation, but designates the experience acquired on different stages of climbing onto the spiritual ladder. For Plato (The Republic, Gorgias) and Aristotle (Metaphysics), it was the term ἐμπειρία which designated the experience gained through the bodily senses, leading to a kind of knowledge acquired by practice. For Diadochus, on the contrary, πεῖρα comes to represent the experience acquired through spiritual senses. It leads to knowledge of the truth, involving the ability to discern between the causes of inner sensations, ability actualized by noetic illumination. This experience accompanies the pilgrimage of the human being towards the perfection of the resemblance to God and can become manifest as initial experience of faith (ch. 23), of immaterial sense (ch. 24), of discernment between the divine and the illusionary consolation (ch. 31, 32, 33), experience of the gnostic or of the theologian (ch. 72), experience of two desolations (ch. 87), experience of God’s charity (ch. 91). The scope of my research includes also the analysis of the correlations between experience (πεῖρα) and charity (ἀγάπη), knowledge (γνῶσις) and illumination (φωτισμός).

The article presents the discovery of a new manuscript containing extracts from the Syriac version of the «Hundred Chapters» of St. Diadochus of Photice. The article provides the identification of the chapters along with their incipits as contained in the manuscript. The critical text of the 15th chapter of the Centuria, established on the basis of three existent Syriac manuscripts, aims at showing a correlation between them. The publication in the Syriaс language is accompanied by a Russian translation.

Variazioni sul tema di Origene (185-254): "Il Padre - lasciatemelo dire - non è impassibile... Egli ha pietà, conosce a modo suo la passione dell'amore, ha delle tenerezze che la sua sovrana maestà sembrerebbe dovergli impedire" (dalla Omelia VI su Ezechiele, 6,6).

Variations on the theme of Origen (185-254): "The Father - let me tell you - is not impassive ... He has pity, he knows in his own way the passion of love, he has tenderness that his sovereign majesty would seem to have to prevent him" (from Homily VI on Ezekiel, 6,6).

The article is dedicated to a Syriac, two Arabic and two Old Georgian translations of the Hundred Chapters by St. Diadochus. It surveys their relationship amongst themselves and the Greek original text. Two apendices contain a publication of the Syriac, Arabic and Georgian versions of the Ten Definitions that precede the Hundred Chapters, as well as a Syriac and Arabic text of Chapter 78. A Russian translation accompanies the original texts. The A. studies and publishes the Ancient Eastern translations on the ground of manuscripts.

Trad. din limba greacă de Ierom. Agapie Corbu, Ed. Sf. Nectarie, Arad, 2008.

În contextul de ansamblu al scrierilor filocalice, opera Sfântului Diadoh reprezintă un moment important şi literalmente crucial, deoarece în el se întâlnesc accentele deosebite ale simţirii duhovniceşti, întâlnite în Omiliile Sfântului Macarie, cu elementele valoroase, pozitive şi ortodoxe din scrisul Avvei Evagrie. Sfântul Diadoh duce mai departe învăţătura din Omiliile macariene despre simţirea duhovnicească, adăugând lămuriri teologice care întregesc teologia vieţii duhovniceşti. La el întâlnim expresii ca simţirea minţii, simţire înţelegătoare (mentală – spirituală), în care sunt adunate atât comorile macariene, cât şi filoanele păstrate în scrisul lui Evagrie.
  Părintele Theoclit Dionisiatul (1916-2006), autorul tâlcuirii acestei cărţi, este cunoscut în Grecia ca un profund teolog patristic, un adevărat reper de gândire ortodoxă în „zilele cele din urmă”. În cele peste cincizeci
de cărţi scrise atinge probleme de aghiografie, teologie patristică, comentarii patristice, atitudini teologice faţă de tendinţe eretice contemporane.

This paper is the second of two lectures for AIEP-IAPS's YouTube Channel.  Within the theme of "the care of the soul" these lectures explore memory as a site of illness and therapy in early Christian texts of spiritual direction.  In this lecture I focus on Diadochos of Photiki (fl. c. 455 - 480).  I show that Diadochos' account of spiritual transformation centres on creative practices of forgetting and remembering, through which the divisions that have formed in memory and perception due to  Adam's transgression are healed.  Ultimately, I show that in Diadochos' account, individual practices have social implications, since the divisions in memory and perception are perpetuated by social values that enshrine enmity and division.

This book introduces readers to John Climacus’ Ladder of Divine Ascent, a Seventh-century monastic text of spiritual direction written in the tradition of Chalcedonian Christianity.  Engagement with death provides the Ladder’s organizing principle, shaping the monk’s perception of his own life in context of divine judgment, and offering him a model of progress in imitation of Christ which takes account of failures and repentance.  Because the Ladder is an explicitly traditional work, drawing ideas from a broad range of Greek Christian ascetic literature from the Fourth through Sixth centuries, this book sets Climacus’ presentation of death against the backdrop of a developing tradition within which he writes.  It offers a sustained study of the vocabulary and practices of death which emerge from Biblical literature and Greco-Roman philosophical practices, as these are elaborated in the Life of Antony, the Desert Fathers (including Evagrius), and the Gaza Fathers.  Two kinds of engagement with death are common across the literature under survey:  memory of death, which means considering and imagining one’s physical demise and the divine judgment which follows after death; and practices of death, which index a range of ascetic habits focused on virtues like dispassion, humility, and endurance.  Both memory and, to a greater extent, practices of death vary a great deal in the literature surveyed, as do expectations of what effect such practices have on monastic identity-formation.  The book will argue, therefore, that Climacus’ achievement lies in drawing together these variegated, even conflicting, ideas and making of them a coherent and existential principle of ascetic spirituality as death and resurrection.