Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity. Claudia Rapp
convinced that the exemplary ascetic lifestyle of these holy men assured their prayers being heard by God. Acknowledging these men’s privileged connection to the divine, they often praised them for having perfected all virtues57 and addressed them as christophoroi.58 It was only through the mediation and intercession of these holy men that the letter writers hoped for access to God. The extent to which the supplicants depended on the holy men is expressed in terms such as these: “I have set my heart upon thy fatherhood next after God” or “I have no helper beside God and thee.”59
The Egyptian papyri and ostraca support three important points. First, living holy men of the fourth century were considered “bearers of Christ,” thus continuing to make manifest in a tangible way the tradition regarding christophoroi and pneumatophoroi that Clement and Origen had expounded in the preceding centuries in more abstract terms. Second, in the eyes of the petitioners who address the holy men there is a direct dependence between personal conduct, specifically an ascetic lifestyle, and the efficaciousness of intercessory prayer. Third, the prayers of these holy men are sought for spiritual tribulations, especially the burden of sins, in addition to physical ailments and similar such concerns.
The need for spiritual assurance continues to be a concern even as we move on in time. It is also very pronounced in the correspondence of Barsanuphius and John, two holy men who lived near Gaza on the coast of Palestine, during the first two decades of the sixth century. The corpus of their correspondence consists of 850 letters that they dictated in response to the queries and requests addressed to them.60 These letters were subjected to some editorial touch-ups before being circulated in manuscript form. They thus lack the direct immediacy of the papyri and ostraca from Egypt, but their documentary character is still significantly greater than that of the literary hagiographical production of the same period. The correspondents of Barsanuphius and John represented a cross section of society: pious laypeople, philosophy professors, and military leaders, as well as priests, bishops, and monks. Besides concrete concerns such as how best to deal with an infestation of grasshoppers61 or whether it is appropriate to share one’s winepress with a Jewish neighbor,62 many of the correspondents asked for guidance in spiritual matters. The Letters of Barsanuphius and John highlight how spiritual guidance is connected with personal holiness, and they clarify a further aspect that is of great importance for the present investigation: the holy men’s ability to “bear the burden” of others.
The forty-nine letters that Barsanuphius wrote to his disciple John of Beersheba show his full awareness of his personal responsibilities as a spiritual adviser.63 Especially striking is his willingness to lend support to his disciples and fellow monks by shouldering part of the share that has fallen to them. Barsanuphius spoke about himself with a confidence bordering on boastfulness that is otherwise present only when hagiographers write about others. He instructed John to regard him as a role model and to follow in his footsteps, held by his hand.64 In his last letter in the sequence to John, Barsanuphius looked back on their correspondence, asserting that he had given John a complete course of instruction, from the novitiate to perfection. John should meditate on his words as a means to his personal salvation, for they contain the Old and the New Testament.65 Barsanuphius knew and let it be known that he was the channel through which the divine logos was communicated to John.
Barsanuphius also maintained relationships with other fellow monks.66 One of them, Euthymius, confidently expected to be buried in the same tomb as Barsanuphius. He was certain that, on the Day of Judgment, the Old Man’s abundant good deeds would also be counted in his own favor.67 In other words, Barsanuphius’s ample stock of virtues was expected to compensate for any deficiencies on the part of Euthymius.
A further fifty-one letters of correspondence between Andrew and Barsanuphius and John the Prophet, the holy man’s closest associate and author of some of the letters in the collection, highlight Barsanuphius’s ability to convey the certainty of God’s forgiveness of sins and his willingness to shoulder part of his brothers’ sins.68 Andrew was a complainer. Plagued by a chronic illness and irritated by the “brother” who lived with him, he was anxious about his inability to fast, troubled by his unkind thoughts toward his cell mate, and concerned about these impediments to his spiritual progress. Barsanuphius sent him numerous letters of assurance, promising to pray for him, invoking their spiritual unity, and expressing his desire to take Andrew to heaven with him.69 Like Euthymius, who in his request for his burial arrangement hoped on the Day of Judgment to benefit from the abundance of Barsanuphius’s good deeds, Andrew was assured that he could depend on the Old Man’s pledge to carry half of his burdens.70 But Andrew was not to remain passive. He was expected to bear the full weight of the remaining half. Barsanuphius not only asserted that his prayers would sustain Andrew in times of tribulation;71 he even had the confidence to announce that, through him, Christ assured Andrew of the complete remission of all his sins from the time of his birth to the present.72 Barsanuphius’s and John’s entire correspondence with their fellow monks is permeated by the idea that a fraternal relationship based on mutual prayer and the bearing of each other’s burdens provides a safeguard against the dangers on the path to perfection and a remedy against the punishment that follows sin. Barsanuphius often encouraged his associates by quoting Galatians 6:2 (“Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ”) and Proverbs 18:19 (“A brother who is assisted by a brother is like a strong and fortified city”).73
The Letters of Barsanuphius and John forcefully underscore the crucial importance of prayer in shaping the interaction between a holy man and his followers. More specifically, the prayers that were most valued were those for the lightening of the burden of one’s sins. The efficacy of Barsanuphius’s prayer was directly linked to the intensity of the asceticism he practiced. His virtues had reached such a level that he could share their benefits with others, making up for their deficiencies as if from a well-stocked bank account of good deeds. This confluence of asceticism, intercessory prayer, and the ability to alleviate the burden of the sins of others distinguished the holy men and monastic leaders who were pneumatophoroi from other Christians, and which attracted admirers, followers, and disciples. Assistance to sinners, however, was not given by these outstanding individuals alone. It was also one of the main tasks of the bishop.
CARRYING THE BURDENS OF OTHERS’ SINS
The complex ways in which spiritual authority, ascetic authority, and pragmatic authority at times intersect, at other times overlap, and at yet other times are in competition are brought into focus through consideration of the alleviation of one man’s sin by another. We need not be concerned here with the difficult collateral issues of man’s ability to sin, the nature of sin itself, and the distinctions between capital and other sins, nor will we deal with the development of penitential discipline in the church. The question is this: What exactly are the personal qualities of the man who has the ability to assure others that their sins are forgiven and who can alleviate others of the burden of their sins?74
The Role of Monks and Hermits
The cleansing of all sins was provided through the Christian initiation ritual of baptism. The full-body immersion into the baptismal waters brought complete purification and signaled a new birth in the Spirit. The adults who sought baptism thereby indicated their willingness to undergo a complete transformation of their spiritual state and to adjust their lifestyle in accordance with the teaching of the church.75 An analogous decision to lead an even more intensified Christian life was entry into the monastic state. Any sins committed in this state weigh that much more heavily. This view of monasticism was not formulated until monastic life was institutionalized and the ritual of monastic initiation was regularized. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the elusive author of the early sixth century who posed as the disciple of Paul known from Acts 17:34, was the first to attribute sacramental character to monastic consecration by a priest when he called it a mysterion.76 He also gave voice to the concept of entry into the monastic life as a second baptism, which became popular in the religious literature of Byzantium.77 The analogy with baptism is enforced by the fact that the newly initiated monk received a new name and that he had a sponsor (anadochos) who fulfilled the same ritual role as the