Mystic · Medieval
St. Symeon the New Theologian
949–1022 · Byzantine mystical theology
Venerated as a saint in the Byzantine calendar (12 March and 12 October), including by Byzantine Catholics; not in the Latin calendar. The third to receive the title “Theologian.”
Abbot of St. Mamas in Constantinople, exiled after a conflict with the patriarchal court over his veneration of his spiritual father. He taught, against a merely sacramental or academic Christianity, that every baptized Christian is called to a conscious experience of grace: to see the uncreated light, to weep with compunction, and to know the Holy Spirit dwelling within, here and now. His Hymns of Divine Love are among the most intense mystical poetry of any age.
Why he matters: He is the bridge between the desert Fathers and the hesychasts, and the great Eastern witness that grace must be felt and lived; Palamas and the Philokalia stand on him, and Latin readers hear in him something of St. Bernard and St. John of the Cross.
Where to be careful
His insistence on conscious experience, pressed by lesser followers, can slide toward Messalianism (grace only where felt) and toward claiming that the unexperienced sacraments avail nothing; he himself remained within the Church's faith.
Reading
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The DiscoursesSt. Symeon the New Theologian · Catecheses to his monks; Classics of Western Spirituality.
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Hymns of Divine LoveSt. Symeon the New Theologian · The poetry of the uncreated light.
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St. Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox TraditionHilarion Alfeyev · Places him in the tradition.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.