The following in an excerpt from “Eros of Orthodoxy,” translated by Fr. Nicholas Palis and written by Mr. Pantelis Paschou.
Today, the weighty title of “theologian” accompanied by a University diploma is pervasive; one should probably have certain reservations either about the title or about the person who bears it. Today we have all become theologians by name only in order to teach others and we wonder how a society with such a great number of theologians remains in the same condition or worsens.
If we only knew how profound the word Theologian is in the language of our Church, we would title ourselves, or reference a religious speaker or specialized scholar, thus sparingly. In order to avoid misunderstandings and attacks from colleagues I will take recourse in the history of our Orthodox Church. How many of its teachers or Fathers were given the title theologian by our holy Church? The answer must give one pause, whether or not one believes the weight of the title: theologian.
In a tradition spanning 20 centuries of ecclesiastic life, our Church granted the title theologian to only three holy Fathers: to St. John the Theologian, to St. Gregory the Theologian and to Saint Symeon the Theologian! Our Church bestowed this heavily priced title sparingly, demonstrating the rarity of those named theologians but also that the criterion to be a real theologian goes beyond titles and diplomas, as the tradition of our Orthodox Church ordains and wants. I hope these words thoroughly justify the severity of the use of the previous terminology.
The rationale for the preceding introduction is attributed historically to the first theologian of our Church, whom we celebrate on May 8th and September 26th. From the encomium which is dedicated to him by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius, we learn that Saint John the Theologian, apostle and evangelist who wrote the “spiritual” 4th Gospel, the three homonymous Epistles and the “Revelation” which closes the New Testament, had Zebedee as his father and was a fisherman.
His mother was Salome, who was the daughter of Joseph the “betrothed”. It is purposeful to mention that tradition attributes to Joseph the “betrothed” four sons (James, Symeon, Juda, and Jose) and three daughters (Esther, Martha, and Salome). His third daughter, Salome, was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of John and James. Given this, some ancient authors call Christ the uncle of John.
Saint John, like almost all the Apostles, the “unlettered fishermen”, had little education. He lived and worked with his brother and father by the sea. He was a fisherman. Although very young he went with the Apostle Andrew close to Saint John the Forerunner, who was preaching at the Jordan River, “Repent, for the Kingdom of the heavens has come,” thus prophesying the coming of Christ. Shortly after He called Andrew and Peter to him, Christ called James and John near the lake of Gennesaret. With all their hearts they left the nets that caught fish to become “fishermen of men” according to Christ’s word.
Apostle John, the youngest Apostle, was excitable and infused with fiery zeal and enthusiasm that he often displayed. Let us remember what he said to Christ along with James when passing by a village of Samaria that had not received them well. James and John said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to descend from heaven and destroy them as Elijah did?” But Christ, who taught the spirit of love and forbearance, scolded them, saying, “Do you not know of what you are? The son of man did not come to destroy the souls of men, but to save them” (Luke 9:54-56).
The two brothers also demonstrated superficial enthusiasm when their mother asked Christ to put her children—what pride mothers have for their children!—one at his right and one at his left, in His Kingdom. But John, who left the depth of the sea where he fished ascending to the height of theology, found in Christ, instead of a throne, His own chest where “he leaned on” and from where, as a mystic observer of unspeakable things, he brought us the deep mysteries of high theology. Henceforth, Christ relayed to the “Voanerges” (son of thunder), without altering power, the content of his spiritual and Christian preaching, which was a true thunder, as is apparent even today in his Gospel, Epistles and the Revelation.
Saint John the Theologian remained the most beloved disciple of Christ. And he was the only disciple, when all the others scattered from fear, who along with the Panaghia was present at the Crucifixion, where Jesus gave to him His All-holy Mother, to take her as “his own,” telling him: “Behold your Mother”. Thus John became the child with three mothers: first the son of Salome, afterwards “the son of thunder” according to the word of the Lord, and then son by grace and position of the All-holy Mother of God.
Throughout the journey of the divine martyrdom of Christ, Saint John remained near by. In the Un-nailing along with Joseph and Nikodemos he helped and for the last time leaned his forehead upon the pierced chest of Christ. After the Resurrection, when the Myrrh-bearers “preached to the Apostles,” he arrived first, running to the empty holy Tomb. He recognized Christ, when he appeared on the seashore of Tiberias. And along with Saint Peter, he became a pillar, strengthening the new Church that was born with the “fiery tongues” of Holy Pentecost.
Ephesus, Exile on Patmos, and the Writing of the Gospel
After the Dormition of the Panaghia, John left Jerusalem, and after much toil he reached Ephesus, where he stayed for a long time supporting the New Church with his teaching. Persecuted by the Roman Emperor Dometian, he is chained and transferred to Rome, where he is tried and condemned to death. His death punishment began with whipping. John bore it bravely. Then they threw him into scalding oil to kill him. But nothing harmed him and he remained in jail to await other tortures.
Something changed, however, in the life of the emperor and he decided to send John, along with other convicts, in exile to work in the mines of Patmos. There in the sacred rock where John remained for quite some time, he envisioned the end and finale of the world. In the sanctified cave of Patmos, where many people go even today to venerate, the spiritual and mystical evangelist-Theologian, in divine ecstasy, dictated to his disciple Saint Prochorus the Revelation.
Nervos, who followed Dometian, allowed John to return to Ephesus free. There a heretic named Kirinthos created a fracture with his heretical teachings in relation to the second person of the Holy Trinity. Then with the grace and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, John wrote his famous Gospel, out of which the divinity of Christ shines from the thunder of his deep word. All theologians following him draw from his Gospel the “Word of God”.
Miracles in Ephesus
In Ephesus Saint John performed infinite miracles and fought with entire legions of demons of “Kynopa,” who, upon seeing the total destruction of the pagan temples of Apollo and Artemis, set themselves to annihilate the Saint with all their powers. Through his miracles and the victorious battles with demons, myriads of idolaters turned to the righteous road of the Gospel.
He also performed a miracle on a youth who wanted to keep his virginity, resulting in all youths who want to theologize and desire to keep their physical and spiritual purity to pray for help to the virgin Saint John the Evangelist-Theologian. There was once a woman who was called Prokliani and had a son called Sosipater. Sosipater was as handsome as a statue and very simple in manners. Satan entered his mother, who wanted to sin with her child. Because she couldn’t get her son to sin with her, she slandered him to the local governor, saying that he wanted to dishonor her. The ruler believed the pleasure-loving woman and prepared martyrdom for the prudent Sosipater.
Then the apostle John, to help the virginity-loving youth, prayed to God to punish the ruler and the sinful mother. And oh, a miracle occurred! At the same moment that the ruler prepared to submit the new Joseph to martyrdom, a great earthquake shook the earth, and immediately the right hand of the assistant-ruler and that of the provocative Prokliane were rendered dry and useless. When they saw that the earth wouldn’t stop trembling, the assistant ruler and Prokliane repented and started crying. The saint then prayed and the earth stopped shaking. Afterward, he healed their hands that were shortly before paralyzed.
The Manna of His Tomb and Other Miracles
The tradition of the Church has preserved an infinite number of miracles of Saint John the Theologian that can be found in special books of the Church. One example occurring on September 26th was his battles with the demonic ranks and the other dark powers. On May 8th an odd miracle occurs every year at his tomb. There, in a divine and strange manner, a powder that the locals call “Manna” suddenly gushes forth. Those who are afflicted take this “manna” and with great faith “use it for the deliverance from every suffering unto the healing of souls and health of bodies,” as is said in the characteristic distich of the synaxarion of the day:
Not food but health is distributed to men
Manna from your tomb, o mystic of the Lord.
Another miracle that refers to the years after the exile of the saint concerns a thief. During his exile, one of the best students of the Apostle had become a great thief and all the people were afraid of him because of his killings and great injustices. When Saint John returned and learned of it, he rode an animal up to the mountains to find “the lost sheep”. When the cruel thief with his many crimes saw the white-haired elder, something like an earthquake suddenly occurred inside him. He ran and hugged him and crying fell at his feet repenting. After a short time he followed him, as the sheep that strays from the flock follows the shepherd.
This event from his holy life is also most didactic. A hunter once saw the saint, advanced in age, playing with a tamed partridge. He wondered at such a holy man wasting his time like this, and, surprised, asked him why he did this. The saint answered him: just as you, my hunter, don’t always have your bow strung taut so that the cord doesn’t weaken and lose its elasticity, thus the spirit as well has need of loosening in order to rest and not buckle under great and constant intensity.
The Repose of the Saint
The saint’s end was wondrous. When he had almost reached 120 years of age, he foresaw his end and went for a walk with seven of his students. It was daybreak and he told them to sit down someplace. He got up, went a little further on and prayed. Afterwards he returned and told them to dig a hole his size, in the shape of a cross. He spread out his cowl, lay inside and told them to cover him up to his knees. They started kissing him with tears and, with sadness, gave him the final greeting.
Afterwards he told them to cover him up to the chest, up to the neck, first with the white shroud and then with dirt. At the time the sun was rising, he gave his sanctified soul into the hands of his beloved Teacher. All the people mourned him, because they had benefited by him and they ran to venerate his tomb. The Bishop of Ephesus Polycratis wrote in an epistle: “In Asia a great pillar has fallen asleep, who also will arise in the last day of the Lord’s coming, the bosom friend of Christ…who became a teacher in Ephesus.”
