John Climacus

John Climacus (Greek Ἰωάννης Κλίμακος, * before 579; † about 649 ) was a saint, monk and ascetic Greek writer.

• 6.1 Works by Johannes Climacus

Life

Little has been handed down over the life of John Climacus. He entered the age of sixteen in the Sinai monastery and became a monk. According to legend, he spent four years as a novice, to have to prove himself and instruct. Then he retreated to the nearby town of Tola, where he lived ascetically decades. At the same time he taught some students in asceticism. Despite its strict lifestyle he was called, according to tradition of some monks as talkative and childish man, whereupon John for a year imposed strict silence. Then he was elected after 40 years as a hermit as abbot of the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.

Writings

John made ​​many ascetic writings in which he prefiguring a way to Christian perfection. His main work is Klimax tu paradeísu (, stairs to paradise '). This work, which John owes its nickname, was named after Jacob's dream of the sky ladder (Gen. 28, 10-19 ). John describes this as the way of the monk to perfection in 30 degrees ( ladder rungs ). About the phases of the " break with the world," learning the basic virtues, the subsequent "Cleaning the viewfinder God " and the " Coronation of the, path of practice ' " the monk will come to the " union with God ".

The observation of Wilhelm Bousset, that the Old Church is not the old religions of the Mediterranean (see also Hellenistic, Byzantine) continues, but the philosophy of the Greeks, is confirmed by John completely:

" Παρὰ ἀνθρώποις οὐκ ἔστι, φησὶν, οὐκ ἔστι τὴν ἐνστῶσαν ἡμέραν εὐσεβῶς διεξιέναι, εἰ μὴ αὐτὴν ἐσχάτην παντὸς τοῦ βὶου λογισώμεθα. Καὶ θαῦμα ὄντως πῶς καὶ Ἕλληνές τι τοιοῦτον ἐφθέγξαντο, ἐπεὶ καὶ φιλοσοφίαν τοῦτο εἶναι ὁρίζονται, μελέτην θανάτου. "-" Fieri non potest, inquit nonnemo, non potest fieri inter- mortem, ut präsentem diem satis pie religioseque transigamus, nisi ipsum illum diem totius vitae supremum ultimumque existimemus. Et sane permirum est, quomodo et pagani Scriptores aliquid id genus pronuntiarint, qui study sapientae nihil aliud esse dixerunt quam meditationem mortis. "-" It is not possible, someone said to spend righteously the present day, unless you considered him the last of our lives. And it is remarkable that the Greeks claimed something like that. Philosophy as they defined Contemplating death. "

Afterlife

Pieces of text from the stairway to paradise were printed in the Little Philokalia, a popular devotional book of the Russian Orthodox Church.

" The ladder, which was drawn up on urgent request of the abbot of the nearby monastery of Raithu at Sinai, is a complete treatise on the spiritual life, in which John describes the monastic way of renunciation of the world to the perfection of charity. It is a route that passes by the Book thirty steps, each of which is connected with the following. "

The feast day of St. John Climacus is March 30. He is depicted in art as an ascetic and old man with a long beard, often with the ladder to heaven. In the Orthodox Church the fourth Sunday of the Great Lent is dedicated to the memory of John Climacus. In the Orthodox monasteries will be read during this Lent from the ladder to heaven. The monk from the nearby monastery Raithu Daniel wrote the Life of St. John Climacus.

Soren Kierkegaard published his Philosophical Fragments (1844 ) under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus.