SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS

   "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:38-39, Bible 

   

   SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS - Confessor, abbot, born Syria   (525; died on Mount Sinai, 605)… . The name Climacus was given to him from the title of his book "The Ladder (Climax) of Paradise," but he is also known as Scholasticus, or the Sinaita. He lived for many years as a solitary at the foot of Mount Sinai, and in 600 acceded to the request of the monks on Sinai to rule them as abbot, resigning this charge after four years. Emblem: a ladder. Feast, 30 March… 

     

 Although his education and learning fitted him to live in an intellectual environment, he chose, while still young, to abandon the world for a life of solitude. The region of Mount Sanai was then celebrated for the holiness of the monks who inhabited it; he betook himself thither and trained himself to the practice of the Christian virtues under the direction of a monk named Martyrius. After the death of Martyrius John, wishing to practise greater mortifications, withdrew to a hermitage at the foot of the mountain. In this isolation he lived for some twenty years, constantly studying the lives of the saints and thus becoming one of the most learned doctors of the Church…

In 600, when he was about seventy-five years of age, the monks of Sinai persuaded him to put himself at their head. He acquitted himself of his functions as abbot with the greatest wisdom, and his reputation spread so far that Pope Saint Gregory the Great wrote to recommend himself to his prayers, and sent him a sum of money for the hospital of Sinai, in which the pilgrims were wont to lodge. Four years later he resigned his charge and returned to his hermitage to prepare for death….

     The Desert Fathers: Monks and Monasteries of the Egyptian Desert...

  

  The Ladder of Divine Ascent Monastery of St Catherine Sinai ...

 

Of John's literary output we know only  Ladder of Divine Ascent, composed at the request of John, Abbot of Raithu, a monastery situated on the shores of the Red Sea, and a shorter work To the Pastor...

  SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS accumulated spiritual and ascetic traditions of Egyptian monasteries. He is the author of "The Ladder" (options - Ladder of Paradise, Tablet of the spiritual). The book is written in the middle of the VI century, at the request of John, abbot of the monastery : "We teach the ignorant that you saw in bogovidenii, like the ancient Moses, and on the same hill, and laid it in the book, as bogopisannyh tables, for the edification new Israel "... Here's a guide to moral self-improvement. The image of the "Ladder" is borrowed from the Bible, which describes the vision of Jacob's ladder on which angels ascend (Genesis 28: 12). .. The writing belongs to the category of ascetic literature...

  John also wrote the book "To the shepherd," the responsibilities of pastors…

    Landscape with the Dream of Jacob

  "He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven ; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it... And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac ; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants..."Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south ; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed... "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land ; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it"..." Genesis 28:12-16, Bible  

    The Holy Fathers and the saints have had a lot to say about vainglory.  St. John Climacus, Orthodox monk, ascetic and abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, wrote a book that to this day remains one of the most widely read works on the spiritual life and the taming of the passions.  The Ladder of Divine Ascent was originally written for monastics, but has become hugely popular with the laity – those in the world who are trying to live a fully realized, God-pleasing faith.   St. John uses the image of climbing the rungs or steps of a ladder as an upward – heavenward- movement in one’s spiritual life…

 

     Šv. Jonas Climacus

    "Aš juk esu tikras, kad nei mirtis, nei gyvenimas, nei angelai, nei kunigaikštystės, nei galybės, nei dabartis, nei ateitis, nei aukštumos, nei gelmės, nei jokie kiti kūriniai negalės mūsų atskirti nuo Dievo meilės, kuri yra mūsų Viešpatyje Kristuje Jėzuje."  Romiečiams 8,38-39, Biblija

Šv. Jonas Climacus - nuodėmklausys, abatas, gimęs Sirijoje (525 - 605)…  Vardas Climacus jam buvo duotas pagal jo knygos pavadinimą "Rojaus Kopėčias (Kulminacijos momentas)" bet jis yra taip pat žinomas kaip Scholasticus, ar Sinaita… Šventojo emblema -  kopėčios, šventė -  kovo 30-ąją.

Nors jo išsimokslinimas ir studijos  leido jam gyventi intelektualioje aplinkoje, - tačiau jis išsirinko, tuo metu, kai buvo dar jaunas, vienatvės gyvenimą- vienuolio gyvenimą... Vienatvės gyvenimą jis  gyveno apytiksliai dvidešimt metų, pastoviai studijuodamas gyvenimus šventųjų, -  ir tokiu būdu tapo  vienu iš geriausių bažnyčios dvasinių gydytojų ...

    "Jis sapnavo kopėčias, pastatytas ant žemės, kurių viršus siekė dangų, o Dievo angelai jomis laipiojo aukštyn ir žemyn. ..Kopėčių viršuje stovėjo Viešpats ir tarė: 'Aš esu Viešpats, tavo tėvo Abraomo ir Izaoko Dievas. Tą žemę, ant kurios guli, atiduosiu tau ir tavo palikuonims...O tavo palikuonių bus kaip žemės dulkių; tu išsiplėsi į vakarus ir į rytus, į šiaurę ir į pietus; tavyje ir tavo palikuonyse bus palaimintos visos žemės giminės! Aš būsiu su tavimi ir tave saugosiu, ir lydėsiu visur, ir vėl tave parvesiu į šitą žemę; nepaliksiu tavęs, kol įvykdysiu tai, ką esu pažadėjęs'. ..Jokūbas, pabudęs iš miego, tarė: 'Tikrai Viešpats yra šitoje vietoje, o aš to nežinojau!'" Pradžios 28,12-16, Biblija