International Catholic University
In the previous lectures we have focused on the teaching of the Church Fathers, their thought with regard to Trinitarian beliefs, the saving work of Christ, theological anthropology, the teaching on the sacraments, and on the Church. We concluded by bringing all of these themes together in considering the wonderful work of Saint Augustine, the Magister. I hope that through this course you have grown in familiarity with the teachings of the Church Fathers and have become more conscious of them. From their place in Heaven they continue to be active within the dynamic of the Communion of Saints, within the becoming of the Church. I encourage you to choose one or two of the Church Fathers who have particularly impressed you and to develop a relationship with them through prayer and reflection. To develop a living relationship with these key persons of our Catholic tradition is a unique opportunity.
One of the critical ways of coming into relationship with the Church Fathers is to get to know them as well as possible through their writings. I will offer the primary sources available to us in English. Before listing them, I want to pay special tribute to a giant, in my view. A nineteenth century scholar by the name of Father Migne who died in 1875, left a collection of the Greek and Latin authors, and Greek and Latin Fathers, a truly an amazing lifework. He compiled the greatest and most important collection of ancient writers, which is called in Latin, Patrologia Latine. He has collected almost all of the extant known texts from both the Greek and Latin world, and his Latin Patrology contains 217 thick volumes. These volumes go back to the first extant Latin writings and conclude with Pope Innocent III, who died in 1216. He also has a complementary set of Greek texts. The prodigious amount of work that was done by this French priest is outstanding in the world of scholarship.
In 1979 Eerdmans Publications in Grand Rapids, Michigan published the first and second series of the Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, with each series having fourteen volumes. In 1947 the Catholic University Press in Washington, D.C. published the Fathers of the Church series, which in 95 volumes is a full representation of the writings of the Church Fathers. In 1946 the Catholic University Press published the series Ancient Christian Writers, in 56 volumes. With regard to secondary sources, by far the most helpful source is the four volume set Patrology, brought together by Johannes Quasten. This work is a masterpiece in the classics and is the primary reference for secondary information about the Church Fathers. He gives an extensive summary of the life of each of the Church Fathers, lists all of their extant writings, and gives a short synopsis of what is found in each of the writings. He also treats each of the Church Fathers thematically. Much of the material that we have covered in this course is listed in his works thematically.
The Church Fathers lived in a time of great change and development in the history of the early Church. For example, the Apostolic Fathers, Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Polycarp, Justin, and Irenaeus, and the Fathers of the Third Century in both the Latin West and the Greek East, lived in the time of the Church of the Martyrs. The year 315 was a watershed year in the history of the Church. Before 315, with sporadic persecutions of the Church in the West and East, becoming a Christian meant to be vulnerable to martyrdom, arrest, or to losing one's job and social position. The early Christian churches remained rather small. They were not like the large dioceses or archdioceses we know today. In his letters, Saint Ignatius encouraged the Churches to gather for the Sunday Liturgy at the same time. He often spoke of one altar, one Church, one priest, where the Bishop and the Presbyters would concelebrate at the one community liturgy. So the churches, whether in Philadelphia, Thessalonica, Corinth, were more the size of a small parish today than a diocese or archdiocese. This was the case until after the year 315.
Once the age of the martyrs was ended, and as the Fourth Century progressed, not only was it safer to be a Christian, but there were certain advantages to being a Christian. By the end of the Fourth Century, the Christian religion was equal to the other state religions of Rome. Some of the emperors were Christians, although some of them were Arian Christians. There was a rapidly expanding membership in the 300s.
One of the questions that arose was, since Christians during the age of the persecutions had to be very committed, had to be willing to be exposed to the possibility of arrest, persecution or even death by martyrdom, how would the Christians after the age of persecutions continue to live that same intensity? As the numbers grew, not every Christian wanted to live a focused, intense, completely committed life. Some did. One aspect of the Church in the age of the Fathers was the development and growth of the Monastic Church. This development was a tremendous blessing from the 300s and the 400s, and remains so right up to our present time. Men and women sought to follow Christ radically; and martyrdom was no longer an option. Recall that Saint Ignatius of Antioch wanted to be a martyr and was concerned that the Church at Rome would pull some political strings to get him released. For someone living in the mid 300s and after, the path of martyrdom was denied him or her. What emerged as a substitute for martyrdom was the desire for the hermetical life, not a martyrdom of the body but of the spirit. This path evolved to be the life of a monk or of a nun. One of the great phenomena of the early fourth century was to witness the number of people who fled to the desert, particularly in the East. They chose to live a very basic, primitive, ascetical, dedicated and focused life, based on the teaching of the Gospel, as radical disciples of Jesus Christ.
Saint Athanasius is a prime example. He was the right person at the right time in the right place. His defense of Orthodoxy against the Arian threats resulted in his being exiled seven times. On many of his exile journeys he would go to the deserts of Egypt. He was edified by what he found there, sincere and holy hermits. He befriended one of the greatest of the Desert Fathers, Saint Anthony of the Desert. In capturing the spirit of his life in the biography he wrote of him, Saint Athanasius became the medium through which others who already had some conscious or unconscious desire to so radically follow Jesus Christ responded by the droves. The seeds were sown for what has become the monastic life.
After the initial experiences of so many living in the desert, there came a point when it was realized that some organizational structure would have to be brought to bear to give form and shape to the practices of the desert Fathers, and to keep the practices within the spirit and the mind of the Church. This work can be attributed to Saint Basil the Great. One of the Cappadocian Fathers, he lived in the fourth century. He is often referred to as the Father of Eastern Monasticism. He was contemplative by nature, and longed to live the tranquil and prayerful life of a monk. Yet because of the needs of the Church, he was called into the active apostolate and for only a very short time did he have the privilege of living his beloved monastic life. Saint Basil spent much time with monks, and invited them to assist him in the apostolic work of his churches. He instructed them, and they asked him questions. Scribes were present who recorded his answers. Thus we have both the short rule and the long rule of Saint Basil. These are the primary guidelines for monastic life in the East; later a monastic rule was developed in the West. They are a series of injunctions, encouragements, and exhortations toward specific prayers, specific actions, and a specific way of life. They are not written in the systematic, orderly way the rule of Saint Benedict is, but rather respond to organic questions that were being asked by the monks of Basil's own time. The long and short rules of Saint Basil continue to have a great impact on the monastic life of the Eastern Church.
Different liturgical traditions arose in the churches of both East and West. As Constantinople became the Rome of the East, its liturgical influence was felt in the other Eastern churches as was the influence of the Roman Liturgy felt in the other churches of the West. In the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, which grew from the practice of Constantinople, the monastic influence is great. Monastics by nature are "professional prayers." We in the Western Rite often marvel at the length of the Eastern Divine Liturgy and the numerous prayers. These reflect the fact that the monks, who have been such an integral and invaluable part of the growth of the Church in the East, have placed their stamp on the liturgy. The other strong influence in Constantinople was that it was the seat of the Roman Emperor and people were accustomed to the court ceremonial. The splendor associated with the Eastern Divine Liturgy has beautifully incorporated monastic prayerfulness and court splendor. This is foreign to our Western eyes, but with proper instruction and introduction, can be for us a beautiful and edifying prayer of praise and worship of God the Father.
Whether in the liturgy, in the canons, or in the discipline of life, the monks in the Eastern Church much more than those in the West, have had, and continue to have, a tremendously positive and powerful impact on the life of the Eastern Church. The number of monks that have blessed and graced the Eastern churches has been tremendous and remains tremendous even to this day. The Eastern monks have tended to maintain the more individual way of life that Anthony and the other Desert Fathers lived. Basil encouraged monks to live in community because he feared the very goodness of monasticism, and the very goodness of the drive to live that way of life, may in some cases inhibit the growth of Christian charity, which is the center of our life with Christ. Basil's hope was that the monks would live in community, taking on some aspect of apostolic work. In fact, the life of a hermit has continued to maintain prominence in the East.
In the Western Church, monasticism is also an important element. The great monastic founder in the West is the Saint Benedict. Saint Benedict was born in 480 and died in 547. The genius of Saint Benedict was that in him were a complement great prayerfulness, great holiness, and great intellectual ability with organizational strength, all of which are manifested in his Rule. In the West we refer to it as the Rule, and it continues to guide Benedictine monks and nuns throughout the Western Church today. Saint Benedict put an extremely specific order into the whole daily schedule. He specified seven times during the day and night when the monks would gather in chapel to pray the Psalms. He specified the division of the day into three parts, prayer, work and study. Saint Benedict provided an avenue for Christians in the West who wanted to follow Christ more perfectly, as did so many in the East.
The peace of the Church ushered in a whole new way of life. The way of martyrdom, the way of persecution was replaced by an alternate radical way of following Christ, the way of monasticism. Constantine's being named Emperor was a watershed point for the growth of the Church and ushered in the Golden Age when so many of the developments of which we have spoken took place.
Do not show me unseasonable kindness. Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts which are the means of my making my way to God. God's wheat I am and by the teeth of wild beasts I am to be ground that I may become Christ's pure bread. Then only shall I be a genuine Disciple of Jesus Christ when the world will not even see my body. Once I have suffered I shall become a freed man of Jesus Christ and united with him I shall rise a free man. Just now I learned being in chains to desire nothing.
Saint Ignatius echoes the words of Saint Paul in his Letter to the Galatians, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me." (Galatians 2/20) He echoes Philippians, "Life for me means Christ." (Philippians 1/21) St. Paul said he knew that it is better to be with Christ than to continue life in this body. He talks about the dilemma of wanting to serve those to whom he was called and wanting to be with Christ. We can see that same kind of passion and desire to be one with Christ, to be identified in body with the crucified Christ in the words of Saint Ignatius. Saint Ignatius inspired this great priest, Father Burkhart, and he has inspired countless others in their journey of faith into the Church and through the Church towards the Most Holy Trinity.
Another one of my favorites, a quite remarkable and interesting person is Origen. He is one of early Greek Fathers. He lived in the Third Century during the time of the martyrs. Origen's father was a martyr, and it is said that when his father was arrested Origen, then a young lad, wanted to join him and become a martyr with him. It is reported that he was only saved from martyrdom by the intervention of his mother. She hid his trousers when the soldiers came to arrest his father. Origen's embarrassment overcame his desire for martyrdom and he stayed hidden because he did not have trousers to put on. He went on to a grand and illustrious ministry as a priest and as a writer. According to Quasten, he was one of the most original thinkers the world has ever seen. He became a controversial figure during his lifetime, and much more so after his death. He ran into canonical and ecclesiastical difficulties during his life because, being from Alexandria, he should have received permission from his own Ordinary to be ordained as a deacon and then as a priest. But their relationship was difficult, and his Bishop refused to ordain him to the diaconate and to the priesthood. Origen was ordained by a Bishop in the Diocese in the Holy Land. When word got back to his own Ordinary, he was not pleased and Origen had to leave his beloved Alexandria. He left for Caesarea in Palestine and began a second period of his life during which he started a School of Theology. He wanted to be an orthodox and believing Christian and for this he suffered much. According to Origin, for those who want to imitate Christ and cannot undergo true martyrdom, there remains the spiritual death of mortification and renunciation. Both martyr and ascetic have one and the same idea, the perfection of Christ
Orgin developed the School of Theology at Alexandria. It was begun by Clement of Alexandria. He was the one who formed what we might call the first focused Christian School of Theology. Clement was a philosopher, a man of great learning, and he developed a proper and orthodox understanding of a Christian Gnosis in opposition to all of the heretical ideas of Gnosis. Clement started a theological or catechetical school in Alexandria, but Origen developed it. It became an outstanding institution of Christian learning. When Origen was banished from the diocese, he started a new school in Palestine.
What is incredible about Origen is the prodigious amount of work that he produced. In his Handbook of Patrology, Patrick Hamil says Origen was the most extensive writer of all the early Fathers, about two thousand titles being listed by Eusebius, a Church historian of the Patristic Age. Origen had an incredible capacity for work and for intellectualization. Dr. Hamil goes on to say that Saint Jerome, some years later, noted about eight hundred works by Origen. Unfortunately, only a small remnant of his work remains. Only one-half of what remains is in Greek; the remainder is in Latin, or is translated from Greek by Jerome or others. The loss of Origen's work was due to the fact that he was condemned as a heretic three times after his death. A controversy ensued over his writings and kept flaring up; each time some were determined to paint Origen and his writings in a suspicious light. And every time that happened there was less interest in the recopying of his works. Saint Jerome, the great Biblical exegete of the late fourth and early fifth Centuries, praises Origen for his exegetical work. Just as Saint Augustine stood on the shoulders of Saint Ambrose, Saint Hilary, Saint Athanasius and many of the other Fathers, so Saint Jerome, the great Biblical Scholar, stands on the shoulders of Origen. Origen is not considered a saint, because over the centuries he has been maligned for not being orthodox. However, most of the Church Fathers at some point or other veered off the true path of orthodoxy in some way. These men were trailblazers, founders, and explorers, and at the same time, were absolutely committed to the foundational doctrines of the Church. Nevertheless much of the deposit of faith was still being developed during their time.
Saint Jerome, standing on the shoulders or Origen, made a great contribution to Biblical scholarship, but he did much more. One author states that Saint Jerome is canonized not because of his personality, but in spite of it. He was very much a person who loved a good fight. There was not one controversy, whether it was the Pelagian controversy, the Arian controversy, or the controversy over Origen, in which he was not involved. He was the type of person who without being asked or invited, expressed his opinion on everything. When he first encountered the young Saint Augustine, he was very suspicious of him, so he wanted to fight with him. He was not sure that Augustine was clear on his doctrine of grace. Once he realized with whom he was dealing, they became great allies and worked together. The humanity of the Church Fathers exudes from him.
There are many others about whom we could speak, but I hope that this brief exposure to the individual Church Fathers and to the major themes of their teachings will inspire you to go further in your studies. Read, pray with and meditate over these sources. There are innumerable secondary sources and there is much aid available to put their writings in historical context. But to really understand the Church Fathers, there is no substitute for reading their works.
These review topics are to help you understand the lecture and prepare for the final exam; they are not a written assignment.
Describe the move from martyrdom to the life of the hermit as the path to holiness.
Describe the contributions of Ignatius of Antioch, Origen, Clement and Jerome.
Jurgens, William.