John Cassian

Venerable John Cassian the Roman was a monk and spiritual writer, born most probably in Scythia Minor (today's Dobruja), a disciple of the Egyptian desert fathers and founder of monasteries at Marseille, in the south of Gaul. Through his Institutes and Conferences he brought the monastic teaching of the East to the West. He is honoured in East and West. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 29 February (28 February in years without a leap day), and the West on 23 July.

Early life

He was born around 360, probably in Scythia Minor, into a wealthy family, and received a fine education in Latin and Greek; his writings show that he knew Cicero and Persius. Some scholars think him of Gallic birth, but the strongest tradition places him in Dobruja. The synaxarion says that he entered a monastery in the diocese of Tomis, where Saint Germanus, his friend and relative, struggled as an ascetic. Around 380 he set out for the Holy Land with his sister and Germanus, and the two monks settled in a monastery at Bethlehem. His sister is mentioned in the Institutes, and he corresponded with her after he became a monk.

In the Egyptian desert

After some years at Bethlehem, Cassian and Germanus asked to go to Egypt to learn from the desert fathers. They travelled through the Thebaid, Scetis and Nitria, listening to the sayings of the elders and observing their ascetic labours. The strongest influence on him was Evagrius Ponticus. What he heard he later preserved in the Conferences. Around 399, when Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria turned against the Origenist monks, the two fled with other monks to Constantinople.

Saint John Chrysostom

At Constantinople Saint John Chrysostom ordained him deacon and received him among his clergy. When the patriarch was sent into exile in 404, Cassian was sent to Rome to plead his cause before Pope Innocent I. What he did afterwards is not certain; it is said he may have served for a time as a priest in Antioch.

At Marseille

Around 415 Cassian settled at Marseille, where he built two monasteries, Saint Victor for men and another for women. At the request of Bishop Castor of Apt he wrote the Institutes, in twelve books, between 417 and 420. Books one to four deal with the clothing of monks, the order of prayer and the reception of beginners, and the other eight with the eight evil thoughts (gluttony, lust, love of money, anger, sadness, acedia, vainglory and pride). Soon afterwards he wrote the Conferences, twenty-⁠four dialogues with the desert fathers on the inner life, prayer, purity and perfection. The first series recounts conversations with the fathers of Scetis. In 431 he wrote On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius, in seven books.

In the Conferences he strongly recommends the short prayer from Psalm 69:1: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me."

Veneration

He died around 435 at Marseille. Saint Benedict of Nursia ordered that the Conferences be read in the monastery in the evening, and Saint John of the Ladder praises him as "great Cassian." Texts of his are found in the Philokalia. His relics lie in the underground chapel of the abbey of Saint Victor at Marseille, with his head and right hand in the main church. In the fifth century some Western theologians accused him of semi-⁠Pelagianism because of the dispute over grace and freedom, and scholars today still debate the charge.