By CAROLE BRESLIN
Frequently, the lives of the saints demonstrate that God calls us to go in directions that we would never consider unless it became clear that it is God’s will. St. Francis Xavier went to the Far East, St. Damien died in Hawaii on the opposite side of the world from his native Belgium, and St. John Cassian made a circuitous route from his birthplace in Eastern Europe to his final resting place in France.
John Cassian, born about 360, came into the world in Scythia Minor, a region now shared by Romania and Bulgaria. A passage in one of his writings indicates that he had a sister, who joined one of his monasteries in France. Born of wealthy parents, he received a respectable education since he understood both Latin and Greek.
As a young man Cassian and an older friend, Germanus, made a pilgrimage to Palestine and then when they arrived in Bethlehem, they decided to stay and adopted the monastic way of life. The more they learned about such living, the more they yearned to follow the example of St. Anthony the Great, who lived a life of seclusion in the deserts of Egypt.
After three years, they sought permission to leave for Egypt seeking the ultimate isolation of the mountains near the Nile River. John and Germanus carefully studied the science and ways of sanctity coming to the conclusion — as did many others — that the most perfect and surest way to achieve holiness was to retire to the desert.
The two friends notified their superiors that they were going to the desert, explaining that they would return “as soon as possible.” They began their journey by visiting different hermits throughout Egypt who were well known for their holiness.
Although they were to return to Bethlehem, they received permission to stay a little longer and then stayed for seven years. John carefully gathered information on various eremitical ways of life that would become the basis for his introduction of monastic life into the Western world.
In 399 a controversy forced Cassian and Germanus into exile. Theophilus, the archbishop of Alexandria, engaged in an Anthropomorphic controversy in a letter he wrote, criticizing those who taught that God was corporeal or had a human form.
The monks in the lower deserts of Egypt vehemently protested this declaration and refused to let it be read in the four churches in Scete. They accused the archbishop of heresy for opposing the teaching of Sacred Scripture.
Cassian and Germanus went to Alexandria to discuss the letter, but, having failed in their mission, the two monks left with 300 Origenist monks to appeal to St. John Chrysostom, the archbishop of Constantinople. It appears that while they were in Constantinople, John and Germanus parted ways.
John stayed with St. John Chrysostom, who ordained Cassian a deacon. Chrysostom appointed him as keeper of the treasures of the cathedral in Constantinople, indicating that the two had a great trust in each other.
Since Chrysostom had conflicts with the royal family over Church teaching, he was eventually exiled around 404, necessitating John Cassian’s exit. Because Cassian knew Latin and wanted to see the Pope, he traveled to Rome to petition the Holy Father regarding the Anthropomorphic controversy.
During his sojourn in Rome he was ordained a priest. Evidently, after Ordination he spent some time in Antioch ministering to the members of the community. Then he received an invitation to found a monastery in Marseilles, France. They were seeking a holy man such as Fr. Cassian who would be able to establish a monastery according to the Egyptian style.
Thus, St. John’s journey that began in Scythia Minor and took him to the Holy Land and then to Egypt before he left for Constantinople, Rome, and Antioch, now took him to southern France. He arrived in France in 415.
Fr. Cassian founded the first monastery that had houses for both men and women. The campus of buildings was named the Monastery of St. Victor. These buildings were destroyed by the Saracens in the eighth or ninth century. Beginning in 977, reconstruction began and continued for several centuries under the auspices of the Benedictines.
This complex of monasteries begun by Fr. Cassian in 415 soon became the model for the establishment of like residences for monks in the expansion of Western monasticism. The Benedictine, Cistercian, and the Trappist monks modeled their monasteries after the rules of the Monastery of St. Victor.
Around 420, Fr. Cassian acceded to the request of Bishop Castor of Aptia Julia in Gallia Norbonensis and wrote his perennial classics, Institutes of the Coenobia and Conferences of the Desert Fathers. These writings describe what St. John Cassian learned from the desert fathers in Egypt.
Because of these great works which detailed the Egyptian style of monasticism, and because he founded such a monastery in southern France upon which so many orders based their rules, Fr. Cassian is credited with introducing authentic monastic life to the Western Church.
Volumes of St. John Cassian’s writings are available for the edification of both religious and laity. Many of his reflections are based on the knowledge that all we have, all we think, all we do is by the grace of God.
For example, “It is not our free will but ‘it is the Lord who sets the captive free’ (Psalm 145:7). It is not our own virtue but ‘it is the Lord who lifts up those who were laid low’ (Psalm 145:8). It is not application to reading but ‘it is the Lord who gives light to the blind’ (Psalm 145:8). It is not our cautiousness but ‘it is the Lord who protects the stranger’ (Psalm 145:9). It is not our endurance but ‘it is the Lord who raises or gives support to the fallen’ (Psalm 144:14).”
In 435, St. John Cassian died in Marseilles, France. His relics are now kept in the monastery of St. Victor. In the Roman Catholic Church his feast is celebrated on July 23.
Dear St. John Cassian, so that we may better know, love, and serve Our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for us the special grace to have a completely open mind, heart, and soul to hear God calling us. Enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills for the greater glory of God. Amen.
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(Carole Breslin home-schooled her four daughters and served as treasurer of the Michigan Catholic Home Educators for eight years. For over ten years, she was national coordinator for the Marian Catechists, founded by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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