Divine Eros: Hymns of Saint Symeon the New Theologian

Popular Patristics Series #40

by Symeon the New Theologian (Translator), Daniel K. Griggs

Daniel K. Griggs, Translator

Symeon the New Theologian was a Tenth-Century Greek monk and ascetic writer. Among his writings, his Hymns are inspiring poetry of timeless value. No thoughtful reader
can respond to them with indifference. The Hymns challenge the reader to internalize Christian values, even to embrace the Christ event as an individual experience.

The Hymns are well suited for devotional reading, but they are not mere devotional tracts; they include time-honored Christian doctrine expressed in a manner that is all the
more meaningful for their poetic beauty.

Symeon's Hymns are an expression of
spiritual reading at its best, that is, they
are Symeon's interpretation of his life and his
relationship with God in light of Scripture and
the Fathers. Therein lies a strength of Symeon's
with heartfelt zeal and biblical imagery,
Symeon makes the doctrines of the Fathers
intimately relevant for the individual.

Genres: Theology, Poetry, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality, Christian, Nonfiction

419 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2011

About the author

St Symeon the New Theologian was born in Galatia, Paphlagonia and his father prepared him for education at Constantinople in official life. He was afterwards assigned as a courtier in attendance to the Emperors Basil II and Constantine Porphyrogenitus. He abandoned his life as a courtier to retreat to a monastery at the age of 27 under his Elder, Simeon the Pious at the Monastery of Stoudios. Later he became abbot of the Monastery of St. Mammas in Constantinople.

The strict monastic discipline for which Symeon aimed rankled some in the monastery. One day after the Divine Liturgy some of the monks attacked and nearly killed him. After they were expelled from the monastery Symeon asked that they be treated leniently. From church authorities too, Symeon endured severe opposition, some of whom found his works irksome enough to banish him from Constantinople. So he left and resided in the Monastery of St. Makrina across the Bosphorus. Eventually he became a recluse.

Symeon was not educated in Greek philosophy but was quite familiar with the life of the church. He often spoke from direct personal experience and on occasion attacked certain scholars whom he viewed as pretending to have a knowledge they didn't have.

Some of Symeon's works include his Catechetical discourses, The First Created Man Hymns of Divine Love and the Three Theological Discourses.
(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Scriptor Ignotus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little commentary can be appended to these astonishing hymns on the personal, intimate, experiential mystery of divine-human communion. St. Symeon reminds us that true Christian practice, true orthopraxy, is not accomplished in mere intellectual affirmations, nor by a meticulousness in ritual observances, but only as a direct mutual encounter between the inexpressible personhood of God and the human being, experienced on our end as an ecstatic leaping out of the world and of ourselves: as Divine Eros. The knowledge of God is not factual, but personal; union with God is not comprehension, but spiritual consummation.

Beyond this, it will suffice to let St. Symeon speak in his own words.




[Symeon on the mystery of theosis: how the indivisible, uncircumscribed, incomprehensible divinity reveals itself to be united with creation, emerging within each person without division or diminishment:]

“For my mind perceives no beginning, it sees no end at all,
it knows no center. And how would it tell what it sees?
It seems to me that the totality is seen
not all at once in its essence, but by participation.
For when you ignite something from a fire you take the whole
fire.
And there it remains undivided, it remains as before.
Moreover, what is given is separated from the first fire
and is made into many lamps, for it is material fire.
This is a spiritual, undivided fire,
and utterly indivisible and inseparable,
for in communicating to many it is not divided into parts.
But it remains both undivided and in myself;
it springs up in me from within my wretched
heart like the sun or like the solar disc,
spherical, and showing itself radiant like a flame,
I do not know, as was said, what to say about this,
and I wish to keep silent—if only I could!”

- Hymn 1

[Symeon addressing Christ:]

“You Who now dawn in my darkened heart, (2 Pet 1.19)
You Who have shown to me marvels that my eyes did not see,
You Who come down into me as to the last of all, (1 Cor 15.8)
You Who designated as a son and a disciple of an apostle me
whom the terrible, murderous dragon held previously
as an accomplice who commits every transgression.
You Who are the sun shining in hell before all ages,
and Who enlighten my darkened soul ever more,
and give to me an endless day
—a difficult thing for timid and lazy types like me to believe!”

- Hymn 1

“All humans have been made in the form of God, (Phil 2.6)
and in all of them is formed He Who cannot be contained,
the immutable God, unmoved by nature,
the one Who desires to dwell in all who are worthy,
as each one has within them the whole King,
the Kingdom itself, and the goods of the Kingdom,
and each one shines like my resurrected God has shone,
exceeding the rays of this visible sun, (Mt 17.2)
and thus are those who have stood by God Who glorified
them,
they persevere, astounded by the excess of glory (2 Cor 4.17)
and by the endless addition of divinity’s splendor.
For the end will be eternal progress,
the condition of additional, endless fulfillment,
and shall make an attainment of the Unattainable, and God
of Whom no one can get enough, shall become the source of
Satisfaction for all.
But the full measure of Him and the glory of his light
will be an abyss of progress, and an endless beginning;
and just as those who have Christ transformed within them
stand by Him Who shines unapproachably,
so also the end in them becomes a beginning of glory.
And—in order to make the idea more clear to you—
in the end they shall have a beginning, and in the beginning an end. (Rev 21.6)”

- Hymn 1

“What is your immeasurable compassion, Savior?
How have You deigned that I be made your member,
I the impure one, the profligate, the prostitute?
How have You vested me with a brilliant robe, (Lk 15.22)
flashing forth with the radiance of immortality,
and turning all my members into light?
For your body is immaculate and divine,
flashing forth entirely with the fire of your divinity,
unspeakably mixed and commingled.
And so You have given this to me, my God.
For this dirty and perishable tent
was united to your all-immaculate body,
and my blood mixed with your blood.
I was united, I know, to your divinity also,
and I have become your most pure body,
a resplendent member, a truly holy member,
far-shining, and transparent, and gleaming.
I see the beauty; I look at the luster;
I reflect the light of your grace,
and I am astonished at the mystery of the radiance,
and I am beside myself when I consider myself,
from what a lowly condition I have come, what a marvel!
And I wait quietly and stand in awe at myself,
and I fear and reverence as though before You yourself.”

- Hymn 2

“Of a sudden, [God] appears shining before my face,
such a one as He makes himself appear flashing in me,
and He fills all of me with total joy, every desire,
and sweetness of vision, me the humbled one.
The sudden change, the strange transformation
being accomplished in me is beyond telling.
For if this sun which we all see,
someone saw going down within their heart
and in like manner all of it shining and swelling within,
would they not be speechless as a corpse at this marvel,
and would not all who saw this be out of their senses?
And one seeing the Maker of the sun like a torch
shining out, operating, speaking within them,
seeing this how shall they not be out of their senses? How shall
they not tremble?
How shall they not love the One Who gives live?”

- Hymn 8

[Upon the death of a friend:]

“Night has separated me from my very sweet brother,
dividing the indivisible light of love.”

- Hymn 10

[Symeon laments his vainglory and his enslavement to the passions:]

“Alas, how shall I write all this? The passions have taken away
from me my strength.
Like bandits, having put upon me self-conceit and hesitation,
pleasure, and anxiety as to how I shall please human beings,
dragging me to and fro, they divide me among themselves.
The one showing my discretion and my sobriety,
the other showing my good works and my inspired actions,
they rendered me a corpse,
and what is great, extraordinary, and awesome
is that they have left self-conceit in me, the defiled one.
For tell me how is it not wonderful, how is it not pitiful,
that such passions fall upon me unawares,
rendering me dead and naked of every virtue,
again without noticing myself, having learned nothing of what
happened,
but supposing myself to be greater than everyone,
a wise theologian both dispassionate and holy,
rightly honored by all persons,
but also praised as though worthy of praises,
summoning everyone, I supposed that I am gathering honor.
For when the people are gathering I puff myself up the more,
and I constantly look around me, lest somewhere someone
has been left out who was not present and did not see me,
and if somewhere someone was found looking suspiciously at
me
then I bear it with malice, and revile, and tear them to pieces,
so that after they hear and cannot bear my censures,
they will come, greet me, and show themselves under my
obligation,
and as if in need of my prayer and love,
and I say to all the other: ‘such a one comes
and seeks my prayers, and to listen to my words,
and to my teaching.’ Woe is me, such simplicity!
So how do I not see the nakedness of my suffering,
nor sense the blows, nor be distressed, nor cry,
nor seek healing lying in a hospital,
how do I not call doctors, showing to them my bruises,
stripping bare even my secret passions for them,
so that they may apply dressings, bandages, and cautery,
and I may steadfastly endure through my healing?”

- Hymn 12

“Is this not a fearful wonder? […]
that You are with us now, and unto all ages, (Mt 28.20)
and that You make each person a home and You dwell within
everyone,
and You become a home to all, and in You we dwell,
each one of us entirely, Savior, with You entirely,
You alone are with each one alone,
and You are entirely alone above us?
[…]
We are made members of Christ, and Christ becomes our
members, (1 Cor 6.15)
and Christ becomes my hand and the foot of all-wretched me,
and wretched I become the hand of Christ and the foot of
Christ.
I move my hand and my hand is Christ entire.
For, understand me, the divine divinity is indivisible!
I put my foot in motion and behold, it flashes as Himself.
Do not say that I blaspheme, but accept these things
and fall down and worship Christ Who makes you like this!
[…]
For while we become many members He remains one and
indivisible,
and each part is the whole Christ himself.
And so thus you well know that both my finger and my penis
are Christ.
Do you tremble or feel ashamed?
But God was not ashamed to become like you,
yet you are ashamed to become like Him?
‘I am not ashamed to become like Him.
But in saying He is like a shameful member
I suspect that you speak blasphemy.’
So then, you suspected badly, for there are no shameful
members!”

- Hymn 15

[Symeon evokes the Song of Songs, speaking of his longing for union with Christ in sensuous, nuptial language:]

“This is why I am wounded by his love, (Song 2.5)
insofar as He is not seen by me, I melt away in my senses,
and groaning, I burn in my mind and heart.
I walk about, and I burn, seeking here and there,
And nowhere do I find the lover of my soul. (Song 5-6)
And I often look around to see the one I desire,
and He, as though invisible, is wholly unseen by me. (Mk 5.32)
But when I begin to mourn like one in despair, then
He is seen by me and He looks at me, He Who looks upon all
things.
Amazed, I am astonished at the shapeliness of his beauty,
and how the Creator stooped down when He opened the
heavens
and displayed his unspeakable and strange glory to me.
Who therefore shall also come closer to Him?
Or how shall one be carried up to the immeasurable heights?
When I considered this, He himself was found within me,
flashing forth within my wretched heart,
illuminating me from all directions with immortal radiance,
shining upon all my members with his rays,
folding his entire self around me He tenderly kisses all of me.
He gives his whole self to me, the unworthy,
and I take my fill of his love and beauty,
and I am filled full of divine pleasure and sweetness.”

- Hymn 16

[Symeon on the immanence, transcendence, and omnipresence of love:]

“I am seated in my cell,
in the night or in the day,
love is invisibly
with me, unbeknown to me.
Love is outside of all creatures,
then again it is also with all things;
it is fire, it is dazzling light,
it becomes a cloud of light, (Mt 17.5)
it completes itself as a sun.”

- Hymn 17

[Symeon finds vanity and disappointment in his worldly relationships, lamenting over how he let his desire for social acceptance lead him astray, and learns to place his trust in God alone:]

“I may explain in full the things You have done for me
through your boundless mercy, O my God,
and through your benevolence alone!
For they are frightful and great, beyond the mind,
what You provide for me, the stranger,
the unlearned, the beggar, who cannot speak freely,
who has been rejected by every person.
Parents did not turn to me with natural love,
my brothers and friends were all mocking me,
for when they said that they love me they only lied.
My relatives, strangers, the princes of the world
did not so much as turn to me and bear to see me,
except to destroy me by their ungodliness.
Often I blamelessly yearned for glory,
and I have not yet found it in the present life.
For glory, worldly glory, I am well assured,
even without other action, is sin.
How often I yearned for people to love me,
and to have the intimacy of friendly relations with them,
and no one among those who think good things would tolerate
me,
but others wanted even more to see me and to know me,
but I fled such types as workers of wickedness.
[…]
The good fled from me on account of my outward appearance,
but I took flight from worthless folk by my own free will.
[…]
When anyone would invite me to the works of madness
and sin of this deceiving world, truly,
my heart completely gathered itself within,
and it hid itself as though ashamed,
wholly and invisibly held together by your divine hand.”

- Hymn 20

[Camiel 2004 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Mijn penis is Christus" okeeeej Symeon🤨🤨📸

[Adaelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved this. I love the combination of St Symeon’s deep ascetic monasticism and his beautiful poetry. While being a deeply different text, it is in comparison in my mind to Rilke’s “Book of the Hours” just because of the monastic/poetic nature of the work.

[Clement · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are moments of brilliance in St. Symeon's writings, especially when his hymns are at their most prayerful or when he is discussing mortification or seperation from the world; however, there are also long stretches of the hymns where St. Symeon seems to ramble that are a bit difficult to get through. Furthermore, the title chosen for his hymns, Divine Eros, is extremely misleading and odd as St. Symeon rarely writes from a bridal theology perspective in his hymns. A vast majority of his hymns are addressed to the Father and not to the Bridegroom. His hymns are intimate at moments but, not anything that would really be considered "Divine Eros" in a Song of Solomon sense in any way. Again, moments of brilliance but, not a favorite. I may revisit a few passages I've highlighted but, I will probably never read this again.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read one Hymn per day during 2017 Great Lent for meditation. The Hymns comprise a broad range of topics from the theology of the Trinity, Apophatic knowledge of God and God's love for humanity just to name a few. Some of St. Symeon's poetry is quite lofty and challenging to relate to as a modern living in the 21st century. However, I found the poetry to be of great value as a means of inspiration in contemplating the divine.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

St Symeon is one of the most unusual of the Patristic writers in that so much of what he writes is his personal experience with Christ and the Holy Spirit, couched in Orthodox theology, but very anecdotal and he recognizes what he is writing is not what one would commonly find Orthodox bishops and monks talking about. But because it is so personal, to me it is not always useful for quoting or to use to guide other readers. He found a lot of opposition in his lifetime and no wonder for his claims of dialogue with Christ no doubt did not sit well with those who prefer a spirituality in which we are unworthy to be in Christ's presence and must just beg God's mercy.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what theology should be. Beautiful, poetic, awed, mysterious. These hymns are deep and rich, and surprisingly fresh sounding. Absolutely fantastic.