CASSIAN, Giovanni. — G. C., by nationality a Scythian (Gennadius), according to an opinion now fairly common, was born in Dobruja to wealthy parents around 360. Having received a good classical education, he became a monk at Bethlehem while still young; then from about 385 for seven years he stayed in Egypt to learn about the monastic life, which was flourishing there. After another, much briefer stay in the monastery of Bethlehem, he returned to Egypt for several years among the monks. Around 399 he went to Constantinople, perhaps because of the Origenist disturbances; there he was ordained deacon by St. John Chrysostom, for whose cause he is found active in Rome in 405. From 415 he retired to Marseilles, as a priest, founder and head of the male monastery of St. Victor, and also founder of a monastery for nuns in the same region. He died around 435.
G. C.’s literary output is extensive:
1) *De institutis coenobiorum et de octo principalium vitiorum remediis libri XII*, written around 420. Book I deals with monastic habit, Books II and III with the canonical hours of prayer in the monastery, Book IV with novitiate and profession; the remaining Books V to XII treat the principal passions (eight in number) and the opposing virtues. The work shows Cassian’s conception of cenobitic life, whose duties are presented in a profound manner especially in Book IV; the ideas of this book dominate the entire work.
2) *Collationes XXIV*, in three installments: Books I–X published around 420, Books XI–XVII before 426, Books XVIII–XXIV before 429. The work is essentially devoted to the ideals of the eremitical life.
3) *De incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium libri VII*. Written before the summer of 430 at the request of the Roman archdeacon who later became Pope Leo I. The work is much inferior to Cassian’s monastic writings. He is entirely a monk: only from this standpoint are his two principal works to be considered. His monastic doctrine rests on these fundamental ideas: the goal of monastic life is contemplation; the condition for contemplation is the life of action. From these principles, applied to life, two consequences follow for Cassian: 1) contemplative life understood as continual relative contemplation is possible only in the eremitical life; 2) the life of action constitutes the essential task of the cenobium, which is thus regarded as a preparatory school for the eremitical life (Coll. XVII and XIX: *De tribus generibus monachorum*; *De fine coenobiotae et heremitae*).
Collation I contains the fundamental lines of the entire doctrine of our author, so that understanding it gives us the key to understanding Cassian. The life of action consists in “correctio morum et consummatio vitae perfectae” (*De inst.*, prooemium). These cannot be achieved without struggle, a struggle that is taught in the second part of *De inst.* from Book V to XII, in Coll. IV–V, VIII and in other passages of both works (cf. e.g., the symbolism of the monastic habit in *De inst.*, II. II–IV).
Profession, abrenuntiatio, described in *De inst.*, Book IV, obliges the cenobite to total renunciation in the complete poverty of Christ, in the humility of Christ, in his obedience and patience and in the other virtues (on this see also Coll. III: *De tribus abrenuntiationibus* and Coll. XXIV: *De mortificatione*). All these virtues are the fruit of conformity to the life and passion of Christ and to his cross, in which, for Cassian (as already for Pachomius), the entire life of the cenobite is concentrated. And this conformation leads also to life in Christ (*De inst.*, Book IV).
The principal means by which the cenobite may attain his goal are: fasting, vigils, poverty, labor, frequent reading and meditation on Scripture, constant chanting of the psalms, assiduous prayer. Asceticism is not an end in itself but provides only the instruments. The highest fruit of the life of action is purity of heart (Cassian avoids the term apatheia, which had become suspect in the Pelagian controversy): “cor intactum a cunctis perturbationibus custodire” (Coll. I and VI, 3). Purity of heart is itself perfect charity, apostolic charity, “quae foras mittit”
Fear (on which cf. especially Coll. XI; De perfectione) constitutes the proper aim of the cenobitic life, and the monk who has attained it finds himself at the open door of the contemplative life.
For the realization of the active life (vita actualis) and the contemplative life (vita contemplativa or theoretica), discretion is of capital importance, to distinguish what favors the good from what is contrary to it, what comes from God from what comes from man or from the devil (this is treated especially in Coll. II). Man cannot attain complete impeccability (Coll. XXIII: De amantato). To do good, the incessant grace of God is necessary: C. insists on this point with the greatest energy. Yet he thinks, in opposition to Augustine, that to safeguard the freedom of the will one must admit in free will a minimum of initiative entirely independent. Thus C. became the representative of Semipelagianism: without this error he might have been called a “doctor gratiae.”
Common and private prayer constitutes the most noble task of the cenobite. Contemplation also has its place in the cenobium; only it cannot be easily exercised, or at least cannot be continuous (iugis), because it is interrupted in many ways by the duties of common life. On the other hand, the cenobite reaps the first merit of obedience. In the cenobium the contemplative element is the most effective means for virtue (much as for St. Thomas, Summa Theol. 1:2, q. 182, art. 4: movet et docet).
Of the essence of the eremitic life, continuous contemplation (contemplatio iugis), C. treats at length especially in Coll. IX: pure prayer, the forms of prayer, the meaning of the Pater noster, fiery prayer (oratio ignea), perhaps for C. the highest degree of prayer, compunction and the gift of tears, the signs by which we know we are heard, prayer in a closed chamber (oratio in cubiculo clauso), and brief prayer. Coll. X is entirely devoted to perpetual contemplation. Here, as in other points, C. reveals himself as a follower of Alexandrian spirituality. Coll. XIV: De spirituali scientia treats of the contemplative life from the viewpoint of gnosis, such as this spiritual knowledge (scientia spiritualis) is, again in the sense of the Alexandrians. Fundamentally it is a deeper, “spiritual” understanding of Holy Scripture, with application also to moral life. The condition of this spiritual understanding, whose principal forms are typology and allegory, is again the active life.
Despite the free forms, especially in the Collations, the doctrine of C. shows great completeness and unity: to realize this, after studying the De Inst. and the Collations, one should return to Coll. I.
This completeness and wealth of thought, expressed with the greatest warmth and in good language, though sometimes a bit too prolix, have procured for the two principal works that success which still endures.
Sources. — Among the sources of C.’s doctrine, after Holy Scripture, which he cites about 1800 times, using it mostly according to Alexandrian exegesis, are to be noted Basil, Jerome, Palladius, Rufinus, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and above all Evagrius Ponticus. Much, moreover, C. undoubtedly owes to his personal experiences.
All these factors aided him when, for the sake of his Western friends, he decided to refresh and commit to writing the memories of the conversations he had had with Eastern monks. He himself notes that this was not easy after so long a time. This memory, preserved and made operative in his life as a monk, master, and guide to his own, and his own thought, built upon what he had heard and learned, have become so intimately intertwined. And the historicity of the picture he draws of the conditions of monasticism, after the most recent confirmations, can no longer be called into question.