St Nilus, A Spiritual Director of the Fifth Century (II)

Extract

Saint Nilus's characteristically balanced view of the life of prayer and action leads him, like St Thomas at a later date, to prefer the ‘mixed’ or apostolic life. ‘bishop,’ he says, ‘is a man accomplished both in action and contemplation (praxei kai gnosei), more perfect than the ascetics in the desert’ (Oratio ad Albanum, 704A). It is a high ideal, difficult to attain, and calling for expert guidance. In his Liber de monastica exercitatione St Nilus traces the portrait of the perfect spiritual director which is as valid today as it was then. ‘Those’, he writes, ‘who would undertake the guidance of others must first have fought their own passions and prudently stored up in their memory the experiences of this warfare so that they may hand them on to others and thus make victory easier for them.’ (Mon. Exerc, 25; 752A). This ‘tight against the passions’ is a typical conception occurring in many of the Greek Fathers who are influenced by Stoic philosophy.