By: Walt Garlington
Monasticism tends to have a bad reputation here in the South. Marriage of man and woman, children, and ancestors have always been the focus and ideal of the Southern people. A peek into the literature of Dixie confirms this. In her novel The Great Meadow, Elizabeth Madox Roberts has the youthful brothers and one of their sisters exchange these lines:
‘Where will my land be, for my house?’ Diony asked. It came to her now, as a sudden disaster, that Five Oaks would not be her place. Other land higher up toward the Ledge would belong to Sam. ‘Where mought be my place?’
‘You’d have to marry to get a place,’ Reuben answered her.
‘But suppose I ought not,’ she said.
‘Then God help you! Iffen a woman isn’t married she has a poor make-out of a life,’ Sam said. He was bending over the rope, his hands making a knot, his face earnest in what he said.
‘But God’s sake! I never knew a woman that wasn’t married,’ Reuben said, as if his saying were final, half muttering, as if it were no matter. ‘Come to think, I never knew one.’
‘Crazy Abbie, over at the court-house,’ Sam spoke after a moment of careful search. ‘She carries out slops in the ordinary, the tavern place. I never heard it said she ever had anybody marry with her’ (Hesperus Press Ltd., London, England, 2012, p. 11).
The typical Southern view of the abnormality of the single, unmarried state is flawlessly expressed. Another Southern novelist, Margaret Junkin Preston, wrote in a similar vein. In Silverwood: A Book of Memories, young Edith expresses a desire for retirement from the world and wooded solitude:
“Doesn’t the taste of wood-life we are enjoying to-day, suggest how delightful it would be to have a rustic cottage—a permanent home, somewhere hereabouts, away from the world and all its vexations, where we could do as we please, unrestrained by the trammels of society, –happy in God, and nature, and one another?”
A very monastic sort of vision, which is summarily rejected by Edith’s mother precisely because of that feature:
“But to be serious,” said Mrs. Irvine— “you have need to be put into the heart of society, Edith, to eradicate your anchorite notions. Silverwood, I’m afraid, is not the place for you. God made us social beings, and we must not try to unmake ourselves. The old convent life you profess sometimes to have a hankering after, apart, of course, I understand you,” as Edith was about to interrupt her with an explanation, “apart from its superstitious religion—this convent life tended to uproot all human affections from the heart of woman. And it’s the idlest fancy, too, to suppose that those sisterhoods didn’t have constant jarrings and bickerings. I dare say even at the period of their greatest purity, they were the hot-beds of such strifes as private households know nothing of. So get rid of all these ideas, my daughter: I don’t like to hear you advocate them even in sport” (Forgotten Books, London, England, 2015, pgs. 77-78, 80).
Hrmpf! Case closed, right? The single, unmarried state shall forever be reserved for the eccentrics and the unfortunates here in Dixie.
Well, perhaps not. For the Orthodox Church has a few things to say in defense of monasticism, which, as we shall see, is actually another form of marriage and not a lonesome single state (though it may appear to be the latter to some). But more on that anon.
The recently reposed Metropolitan Bishop Isaiah of Denver provides a much-needed counterpoint to the rigidly anti-monastic view of the largely Protestant South in his essay ‘Orthodox Monasticism: A Brief Study for the Layman’. He begins by noting the dismal view towards monasticism that exists today in many places (like Dixie):
We are living at a time in which the monastic life is not only considered abnormal, but is even ridiculed and condemned. Even they who profess to teach the word of God, especially within Protestant Christianity, cynically condemn the monastic life as useless, isolationist, abnormal, and not in conformity with the teachings of Christ. They teach that they who enter monasteries and convents certainly are not the ideal Christians.
He then begins to trace the origins of monasticism, beginning with St. John the Baptist:
Yet, history witnesses to us that the ascetic life, the life of monasticism has existed within the Church from the very beginning. Even before the Church had been established on earth, a voice came crying out of the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. That voice belonged to Saint John the Forerunner and Baptist. It is not incorrect to see him also as the forerunner of monasticism within the life of the Church. For Saint John prepared the way for a King whose Kingdom is not of this world. Monasteries and convents more than anything else are vivid witnesses of that coming Kingdom.
Saint John had left his home and his people early in life and went to live in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 4:5). He went to live the life of an ascetic. He had been there for several years, living the life of a hermit (heremitis). During that period he prayed incessantly, having dedicated his whole being to God. When the time came for him to fulfill his greatest mission, he returned to society to prepare the way for the King. He began by calling people to repentance and proclaiming that the Kingdom was close at hand. After he baptized Jesus in the Jordan, his mission was completed and from that point Jesus took up the message: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself overturns the idea expressed by Mrs. Preston in Silverwood that monasticism is contrary to human nature:
Our Lord Jesus speaks of persons who deny themselves everything in life, including the community of marriage in order to acquire the Kingdom of Heaven. In Saint Matthew’s Gospel where our Lord’s disciples state that one should not marry, if by marrying he would lose the Kingdom of God, the Lord answers, “Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:10-12).
In this discussion with our Lord pertaining to eunuchs, we can readily see that He is talking about three kinds of individuals: those who are born to be celibate, those who are made to be celibate, and those who choose to live as celibates. We are interested here in two types: the ones who are born to be celibate and the ones who choose to be celibate. In pondering these words of our Lord in our minds, we must conclude that the attitude that many people have that everyone must be married or live with a member of the opposite sex because it is natural, is an unnatural statement.
The Holy Apostle Paul would later write in favor of remaining unmarried:
Saint Paul, as we know, was not married. As a matter of fact, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9:5) he says, “Do we not have a right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” However, in the same letter he says, “It is well for a man not to touch a woman … I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another … To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do” (1 Cor. 7:1-40).
And early Christians understood the blessing of the monastic state:
On the basis of these words from the New Testament, there should be no question that the celibate and consequently the monastic life is ordained and blessed by God. The first Christians knew this and looked upon those who lived the ascetic life in the wilderness as heavenly men or earthly angels. Saint Anthony of Egypt was such a man. In the Orthodox Church he is recognized as the father of monasticism. He was born in the year 251 A.D. and fell asleep in the Lord 105 years later. During his lifetime he influenced many people to follow Christ through the ascetic life. Since his day there has been an unbroken continuation of Orthodox monasticism to this day.
The earthly marriage and family so beloved by Southrons is in no way belittled by the Orthodox Church, being a way of salvation just as monasticism is. Fr. Athanasius Mitilianaios explains this in one of his celebrated homilies on the Apocalypse of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian (14:3-5):
The 144,000 follow and move in the direction of the Lamb because they love. Marriage is an offering, an offering of love and sacrifice. The “I” becomes crushed within marriage. If the ego of the man or the woman is not crushed, they will make each other’s life unbearable or they will get divorced. Thus, egoism is crushed within marriage. This could begin at least from one partner and the other will follow suit. If the latter does not follow, then at least the former can preserve the institution of marriage. For this reason marriage is an offering of love and an arena to crush egoism. This love is offered to the other human being – to the spouse, the children and so on.
And yet, monasticism, spiritual marriage with God, expands and deepens the love that is found in earthly marriage:
The offering of love takes on greater dimensions in the life of virginity where the neighbor is not the spouse and the children. The neighbor includes the entire world and even irrational creation. That is why we saw great elders of asceticism and monasticism loving not only people, but also animals, plants, and all creation. Saint Seraphim of Sarov for example, who certainly loved people, especially children, also particularly loved and was loved by the bears of the forest.
Is the monastic life not a wonderful fulfillment of the Southerner’s love for the creation?
Metropolitan Isaiah explains further about the transition from earthly to spiritual marriage:
From this outline of the evolution of marriage in its physical and its spiritual sense, it is obvious that the institution of marriage is not in any way demeaned. God uses it to bring man back to his original state of grace and more. God Himself blessed the institution of marriage and our Lord Himself with the coming of the fullness of His Kingdom calls Himself the Bridegroom and the people, the Church, He calls the Bride. The whole idea of the evolution of marriage according to the teachings of the Church is to indicate the greater and greater control one should have for his physical passions (this is why man has no mating season, as other creatures do). Chastity, therefore, means abstinence from the flesh, abstinence on the part of the passions until they lose total control and influence on the human person. It is obvious that for one to become more and more spiritual, his physical desires and appetite must become more and more diminished. If one has the desire to rise to the realm of the spirit and to experience spiritual things, he must separate himself from that which is mundane and carnal and reminiscent of this world. He must become dead to the flesh in order to become alive in the spirit. When this is accomplished, then he can enter the highest spiritual experience of pure prayer.
Pure prayer, theosis, union with God – this is the consummation of the spiritual/mystical marriage of the monastic with Christ, the ultimate goal of the monks and nuns:
Through the practice of pure prayer the monk brings his human will into union with the Divine Will. If God is Spirit, as our Lord teaches, and they who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), then the monk must have developed a purity of mind which is unattainable without the expected discipline. The monk knows that he is made in God’s image, but that he must work to become in God’s likeness, as every Christian should. The monk knows that in order for him to experience true freedom, he must come into union with God. This union takes place when there is total agreement between the two wills, the human and the divine. When this takes place the monk enters into the sphere of the Divine and can thus participate in the divine life. This ultimate state of spiritual development is called theosis or deification. In this ultimate state of spiritual development, man becomes God-like. Our Lord speaks of this highest stage of man’s development and progress when He quotes the 82nd Psalm in Saint John’s Gospel and says, “It is written in your law, ‘I said you are gods’?” (John 10:34).
Deification is likewise the goal of all other men and women, though it is much more difficult for people living in the world to achieve than for monastics. Here, then, is one more important reason for the South to cultivate Orthodox monasticism amongst her people: Monastics help reinforce the reality of the Christian teachings about the spiritual life, keeping the people living their lives outside the walls of monasteries from falling away into the devil’s trap of worldly-mindedness:
If the monastic life is blessed by God, it must have a definite purpose and objective both for the monastic and for the world. In regard to the monk and the nun, we can use as the basic premise or foundation the words of our Lord when He says, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:19).” In regard to the world, we are reminded by the Lord in both the twelfth and the sixteenth chapters of Saint John’s Gospel that the prince of this world is Satan. Therefore, monks, nuns, and monasteries remind us that the people of God are not of this world and that the world is under the influence, if not the control, of Satan. We are reminded that we cannot love both God and mammon. We cannot have two masters at the same time. The monastic life is a strong reminder that our purpose in this life must be interrelated with the life that is to come, the future, the unending life that Christ promises.
The men and women who enter into the monastic life are God’s reminders to us that we cannot be concerned only with this life and the things that have to do with this life. How many times have we heard elderly Orthodox men who were most successful in the business world and who rarely ever made time for anything else in their lives say, “I really don’t know if there is a life after this one.” Their remaining time in this world is very short. Yet, they don’t have even a hint of an afterlife. No doubt, many of us, once in a while might place certain members of parish councils in the same category as the successful businessman who made no provisions in his life for the development of his faith. For we see these council members so caught up with paying off the parish mortgages or increasing the monies in the treasury or even attempting to invest church monies, all this and more for material security and stability, that they never seem to find time to attend even one Divine Liturgy from beginning to end. It almost makes one feel that the church is more of an earthly corporation than the Ark of salvation placed on earth by God. Monastics and monasteries, hopefully, are reminders of the purpose of the Church on earth.
And if any Dixian still doubts the blessedness of monasticism, let him ponder this conversation between St. Paisius the Great (+417), an extraordinary monk of Egypt, and St. Constantine the Great (+337), the married Emperor of the Romans, who visited St. Paisius after he had reposed. St. Constantine, as a Christian, Roman, husband, father, statesman, and soldier, is close to the ideal man of the traditional South (lacking only the title of ‘farmer,’ perhaps); thus, his revelations are all the more noteworthy for Southrons:
“He whom you heard speaking with me, my perfect friend, was Constantine the Great, the first King of the Christians, who descended from heaven, being sent by God, and told me: ‘Blessed are you who have been made worthy of the monastic life, for truly unique is the godly blessing of the Savior towards you.’
“I asked him: And who are you, my Lord, who are saying these things, and magnifying us Monks? He replied: ‘I am Constantine the Great, and I descended from the heavens, that I might reveal to you the glory which Monks receive in the heavens, and the closeness and boldness which they have towards Christ. And I magnify you, O Paisios, for you guide them in this holy path of asceticism. I therefore blame and condemn myself, for not being granted this greatest rank of the Monastics, and I cannot bear the loss which I experienced.’
“And again I said: ‘Why, O wondrous one, do you judge yourself? Have you not received that eternal glory, and divine illumination?’ He replied to me: ‘Yes, I have received them, but I do not have that boldness of the Monks, neither glory equal to theirs . . . . I am amazed by you Monks, and I bless you, and I condemn myself for not being made worthy of boldness life this. For I wish that I could have left my passing kingdom, and the royal robe and crown, and to become poor, and to wear sackcloth, and to accept all those things that the monastic life seeks.’
May there be no such regrets in the heart of any Southern man or woman, in this life or in the next.
Walt Garlington is a chemical engineer turned writer and editor of the website Confiteri: A Southern Perspective. This longtime Southern Baptist, then Anglican, was united to the Orthodox Church in 2012 and makes his home in Louisiana where he attends a GOA parish.
