John Cassian
John Cassian (also: John of Massilia; * 360, Province of Scythia Minor ( Dobruja ); † around 435 in Massilia / Marseille? ) Was a Christian priest, monk ( " Desert Father" ), abbot and writer. His feast day by the Roman Catholic order is 23 July and the Orthodox order of 28-29 February.
The fact that he was born south of the mouth of the Danube, in the Roman province of Scythia Minor, today's Dobrogea, lies, is not proven. He enjoyed a classical education and a pilgrimage to Palestine as a young man, where he came in a monastery in Bethlehem with the Christian monasticism in contact. From there he moved to Egypt for more than ten years to get to know the Koinobitentum with the monks in the Egyptian desert. Around 400 he left because of theological disputes Egypt and became a pupil of Bishop John Chrysostom in Constantinople Opel. To 405 John Cassian went with a delegation, who was also of Palladio Helenopolis to Rome to defend in court and religious intrigue with Eudoxia, the wife of the Emperor Arcadius, intricate John Chrysostom to Pope Innocent I.. In 415, he founded at Marseilles the monastery of Saint Victor and the Monastery of San Salvador. After a long stay in southern Gaul, which was marked by writing activities, he died there, venerated as a saint to 435
Work and impact
To 420 John Cassian De institutis coenibiorum et de octo principalibus vitiis wrote ( "On the principles of Koinobiten and the eight capital vices " ), in which he reported on the Egyptian monastic life and its there geared to the teaching of Evagrius Ponticus eight vices teaching spread. He postulated eight capital vices: intemperance, unchastity, avarice, anger, sadness, disgust, vainglory, pride, later to be found as the capital sins. To 426-428 wrote John Cassian the Collationes ( Conlationes ) patrum that. " Interviews with the fathers ," in which he portrayed his experiences with the monks in the Egyptian desert in the form of discussions With the Collationes he made the life and faith wisdom of the Egyptian monks (see, for example, Anthony the Great and Pachomius ) in the west of the Roman Empire known.
At the request of the later Pope Leo I ( term 440-461 ), he wrote about 430 De incarnatione Christ contra Nestorium ( "On the Incarnation of Christ, against Nestorius " ) and made himself so Augustine ( 354-430 ) to the enemy, of him the Semipelagianism accused. The Bishop of Rome could be theologically fed upgraded by John Cassian, turn with his Tome Leonis in the Christological disputes. Cassian was after Martin of Tours ( 316/317-397 ) and Honoratus of Arles ( 2nd half of the 4th century - 430) one of the first founders of monasteries in the west of the Roman Empire.
By John Cassian was the serenity prayer, an early Christian form of meditation that has been practiced extensively by the desert fathers, known in the Western Church and spread mainly by the Benedictine Order in the Latin Church. Benedict of Nursia relied in his Rule several times on John Cassian, because as a spiritual teacher him in high esteem.