medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Christopher Crockett had wondered:
>> >i wonder what "in secret prayer he had the gift of tears" means?
and I responded:
>> For a brief answer, see:
>
>> http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Christian/glossary.html
"... In the passage which follows, St. Isaac of Nineveh ..."
and CC then asked:
>was St. Isaac of Nineveh and/or John Climacus then known at St. Gall, in
>either Tutilo's or Ekkehard's time?
There are others on the list far better qualified than I to answer
that specific question, but I think of the association of tears and
prayer as a monastic commonplace going back to the earliest times.
For example, there's this passage from Cassian's [[1]] _Conferences_
5.14:
http://ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-11/Npnf2-11-53.htm#P4084_1508989
Wherefore we must enter the lists against these faults in such a way
that every one should discover his besetting sin, and direct his main
attack against it, directing all his care and watchfulness of mind to
guard against its assault, directing against it daily the weapons of
fasting, and at all times hurling against it the constant darts of
sighs and groanings from the heart, and employing against it the
labours of vigils and the meditation of the heart, and further
pouring forth to God constant tears and prayers and continually and
expressly praying to be delivered from its attack.
See also 9:27-30 for a more extended discussion of tears in prayer,
including its scriptural basis:
http://ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-11/Npnf2-11-57.htm#P4784_1737933
I don't find anything in Cassian on a supernatural gift of tears, but
I think it's an understandable natural development. The earliest
mention of the gift that I can find quickly is in the _Little
Flowers_, chapter 11:
http://www.ccel.org/u/ugolino/flowers/htm/viii.x.htm
so the concept goes back at least to the 14th c., probably 13th.
John
[[1]] Although I expect almost everyone on this list knows it
already, I should perhaps mention that Cassian was regularly read in
Benedictine monasteries (see RB 42) and thus provided a source of
eastern monastic spirituality to the western tradition.
--
*** John McChesney-Young ** [log in to unmask] ** Berkeley,
California, U.S.A. ***
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