Saint Simeon’s theology of the Holy Spirit is not treated as a separate subject in his writings; rather, it is developed in conjunction with his theology of the Father and the Son. The theology of the Holy Spirit is addressed within the context of the teaching on the Father and the Son, and through it Saint Simeon sought to emphasise the unity of the Holy Trinity. By highlighting the Persons of the Holy Trinity in turn, Saint Simeon thus maintains a balance through which he demonstrates once again the unity and closeness of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. At the same time, he shows that when he speaks of human salvation, he emphasises the Father’s decision, carried out through the Son and shared in the Holy Spirit – naturally without implying that all three Persons did not participate together in these works. In this way, Saint Simeon shows us that his theology does not merely involve the scholastic presentation of ideas; rather, for him, theology entails, first and foremost, living in accordance with God’s will and experiencing the teachings of the Gospel. So: ‘What, tell me, is more unclean than one who, with self-importance and pride, attempts to teach others the things of the Spirit without the Spirit?’1; and he goes on to explain: ‘What is more repulsive than one who, without having first repented and purified himself, setting these things aside, wishes to engage in theological discourse and speak boldly about those things which are and always remain the same, solely through that knowledge which bears a false name (1 Timothy 6:20) and outward wisdom?’2”.
As we can see, the writings of Saint Simeon are marked by the work of the Holy Spirit, which harmonises with and highlights the powerful Christocentric vision 3. Thus, wherever in the writings of Saint Simeon one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity is mentioned, the other two also appear, thereby seeking to demonstrate their unity and that the Three Persons are inseparable and equal, for it cannot be said that there is a first, a second and a third: ‘Neither is the Father the first, though He is the source of the Son, nor is the Son the second, though He proceeds from the Father, nor is the Spirit the third, though He proceeds from the Father (ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορεύεται)’4 The fact that He proceeds from the Father does not place the Holy Spirit on a lower level, for human reasoning cannot be applied to intra-Trinitarian relationships: “The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, being entirely of the same nature as the Father and the Son, of one essence and united with Them, equally worshipped and glorified together with Them by all creation”5. Regarding the proceeding of the Holy Spirit from the Father, Saint Simeon states that it must be viewed in conjunction with the begetting of the Son by the Father: ‘(The Father) begets, outside of time and from all eternity, the Son, who is in no way separated from Him, together with whom proceeds (συνεκπορεύεται) the Divine Spirit, of one essence with the Son, from the Father of one essence… bear witness with me from now on that the Father begets without pre-existing (in relation to the Son), that the Son is not born after a time or in the process of becoming, that the Holy Spirit proceeds, yet remains together with the Son, who is co-eternal and of one essence with the Father Himself’6 In developing this doctrine, Saint Simeon is a guardian of the tradition of the Holy Fathers, particularly when he speaks of the procession of the Holy Spirit and His sending into the world through the Son: ‘The Holy Spirit is Spirit because He proceeds from the Father and because He is given through the Son (δια τοῦ Υἱοῦ) to us, the unworthy; not that He is sent and imparted against His will, but because He fulfils the Father’s will, His own will, through One of the Trinity, through the Son Himself’7”. As such, following Saint Irenaeus of Lugdunum, who said that the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Father’s two hands, Saint Simeon calls the Holy Spirit ‘the mouth of the Lord’ when he says: ‘Behold, then, what the Father said through the Son, what the Spirit uttered, the Spirit who is the mouth of the Lord’8 Father Dumitru Stăniloae emphasises that, through the procession, the Holy Spirit does not become subordinate to the Father, for: ‘the proceeding of the Spirit is not constituted by the Father as a Person in His own right, but the Spirit constitutes Himself as the perfect bond between the Father and the Son. This is demonstrated by the statement that the Spirit, proceeding from the Father, rests upon the Son, or shines forth from the Son’9”.
The fact that He proceeds from the Father does not place the Holy Spirit on a lower level, for human reasoning cannot be applied to intra-Trinitarian relationships.
In a completely separate context, Saint Simeon speaks of the Holy Spirit in Catechesis 33, which has a distinctly pneumatological character, being entitled: ‘The Holy Spirit, the key to the Door through which one enters the House of Light of the Trinity’ 10. The Saint begins this catechesis with an analogy he draws between the human soul and God. Thus, the human soul is a lamp, and God is the fire that kindles the lamp of the soul 11. The lamp of the soul cannot be kindled merely by observing the divine commandments and acquiring virtues, for whoever possesses ‘all the virtues, but does not have within him the light of the Holy Spirit, neither sees his deeds clearly, nor is he fully assured whether they are pleasing to God’12 Thus, it is the light of the Holy Spirit that gives a person the assurance that their deeds are accepted before the Holy Trinity and also gives them the hope of communion with the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. Consequently, in order to open the ‘door’ to knowledge and to have a soul bathed in divine light, man needs the ‘key’ to knowledge, which is nothing other than: ‘the grace of the Holy Spirit, given through faith, which, through illumination, truly brings about full knowledge and recognition (γνῶσιν ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ ἐπίγνωσιν) and opens our mind (Luke XXIV, 45) which is locked and veiled’13 Thus, drawing on scriptural verses, Saint Simeon draws an analogy regarding the manner in which man enters into communion with the Holy Trinity, and says: ‘The door is the Son – for it is said: “I am the door” (John 7:9) – and ‘the key’ is the Holy Spirit, for it is said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained’ (John 20:22–23), and ‘the house’ is the Father, for He says: ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions’ (John 14:2)… so if the ‘key’ does not unlock… the door does not open; and if the door does not open, no one enters the Father’s house’14). Elsewhere, Saint Simeon says: “The Holy Spirit is called the ‘key’, because in Him and through Him our mind is first enlightened, and, if we are purified, we are enlightened with the light of knowledge”15
Another original image, used by Saint Simeon to show how man receives the illumination of grace, is found in Catechesis 23. In this catechesis, Saint Simeon speaks of the mystical ‘intoxication’ which a person attains through the Holy Spirit, who is identified with ‘wine’. Archbishop Vasili Krivoșein says that the most striking and original idea found in this catechesis is that of the sun, whose rays are reflected in the wine, and the sun is Christ, who is reflected in the Christian and unites with him through the Holy Spirit – the wine, just as the sun is reflected in the wine that permeates the whole being of the one who drinks it 16.
Elsewhere, Saint Simeon says that the Holy Spirit ‘is the seed of Christ, through which we, the poor and mortal, become His kin, and if this seed falls on good soil, it yields a harvest thirty, sixty or a hundredfold (Mark 4:20), and this is the Kingdom of Heaven; all else apart from this is of no use’ 17. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is the most precious treasure that man can acquire, and which ‘neither moth nor rust destroys, nor do thieves break in and steal’ (Matthew 6:19). Saint Simeon calls the acquisition of the uncreated grace of the Most Holy Trinity through the Descent of the Holy Spirit the most precious treasure that a person can acquire in this earthly life, the only treasure that will accompany him beyond the threshold of death 18.
Furthermore, commenting on the scriptural verse: ‘The Lord, however, is the Spirit’ (2 Corinthians 3:17), Saint Simeon shows that this highlights the consubstantiality of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, for: ‘he says this so that, although you hear the Son of God being spoken of, you may understand and hear the Spirit together with Him; and again, even if you hear the Spirit being spoken of, you may contemplate the Father together with Him [...] teaching you everywhere the inseparability and consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity, and that where the Son is, there is also the Father; and where the Father is, there is also the Spirit; and where the Holy Spirit is, there is the entire tri-hypostatic Godhead’19”. Through this we realise that the water of baptism cleanses a person from sins, after which they are sealed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, Who becomes their helper against the enemy, as Saint Simeon says: ‘Will death reign over souls sealed with the grace of the Most Holy Spirit and with the blood of Christ? Will the wolf understood by the mind (the devil) dare to look with enmity upon the seal of Christ?’20 In this case, the seal of the Holy Spirit becomes within us a source of many blessings: ‘where there are many tears, brothers, together with true knowledge, there too is the radiance of divine light; and where the radiance of the light is, there is also the bestowal of all blessings and the seal of the Holy Spirit planted in the heart, from which all the fruits of life spring forth’21 The seal of the Holy Spirit is evident from the fruits which the soul brings forth, and if these are gentleness, peace, charity, compassion, kindness, mercy, faith and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23), then we have the true seal within us; but if: ‘on the contrary, the deceitful world dwells within us, and we ourselves dwell within it, wretchedly regarding temporal things as great, we fall into troubles, we suffer harm and indulge in pleasure and wealth… we are truly pitiful and strangers to eternal life and the Kingdom of Heaven, since we have not acquired Christ within ourselves, but the world dwells within us, since we live in it and set our minds on earthly things (Philippians 3:19; Colossians 3:2)’22
Certainly, the coming of the Holy Spirit into a person makes them a partaker of the Lord’s Resurrection, that is, it enables them to feel the presence of Christ and the power which He shares with them through the Resurrection: ‘for the coming and the light-bearing presence of the Spirit reveals to us, like the dawn, the Lord’s Resurrection, or rather grants us the grace to see Him rising from the dead… Thus, to those to whom Christ is revealed as rising, He is revealed in a wholly spiritual manner, being seen with spiritual eyes. For when He (Christ) comes into us through the Spirit, He raises us from the dead, makes us alive, and enables us to see Him, the immortal and imperishable One, whole and alive within us”23 This emphasises the fact that without the grace of God, descending upon us through the Holy Spirit, virtues and good deeds cannot assist us in our ascent towards the Holy Trinity. To this end, Saint Simeon describes the action of the Holy Spirit upon the soul by drawing on the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel, chapter XXXVII, which recounts the story of a field full of dry bones upon which, at the Lord’s command, flesh and sinew grow, and through the coming of the Spirit upon them, they come to life and a multitude of people appear, thus foreshadowing the general resurrection; but a parallel can also be drawn with the ‘resurrection’ of the soul wrought by the Holy Spirit, as Saint Simeon explains: ‘Place a dead bone next to another bone and a joint beside a joint – if you will, apply this to deeds and the acquisition of virtue – this is of no use to you whatsoever if He who has the power to weave flesh and nerves over them is absent; and even if we were to concede that this had been achieved, and the joints were connected by nerves and the dead bones were covered with flesh and skin to form a cohesive body, even this would serve no purpose, if the body remains devoid of the breath that gives it life and sets it in motion—that is, if it is devoid of a soul. So it is, believe me, with the dead soul; turn your mind to the inner workings of your limbs and examine all the practices taken together—I mean: fasting and vigils, sleeping on the ground and on a hard surface, poverty and abstaining from bathing with all that follows from it, and regard them as dead bones and (parts) bound together, calling out to one another, and whose union constitutes, in a sense, the whole body of the soul. But what good is it if this body functions without a soul and without breath, since the Holy Spirit is absent from it? Truly, it is only when He comes to dwell within us that He once more binds together these virtuous practices—as lifeless as lifeless limbs, separated from one another—with the nerves of spiritual power, and He unites them in love for God; then He makes us new and alive, from what we once were—old and dead. And for the soul there is no other means of living’24 A passage similar to this is also found in Ethical Discourse IV, where Saint Simeon speaks of the virtues that make up the body of the perfect man in Christ. In this discourse, Saint Simeon constructs a body of virtues, assigning anatomical parts of the human body to correspond to the virtues 25.
…without the grace of God, descending upon us through the Holy Spirit, virtues and good deeds cannot help us on our ascent towards the Holy Trinity.
Elsewhere, Saint Simeon likens man to a vessel into which the grace of the Holy Spirit is poured and which is composed of all God’s commandments: ‘for each of these is in itself like a sheet—one of gold, another of silver, another of bronze, another of precious stone, and so on, and the others made of various other materials, which are all united by the Spirit, welded and harmoniously assembled into one, make man a most useful vessel into which is poured, like new wine (Matthew 9:17), the grace of God’26”. Saint Simeon goes on to show that the ‘vessel’ formed by man’s virtues must be complete, with not even a single virtue missing, for: ‘if any one of the virtues mentioned above—of which and through which the vessel is formed and assembled—is missing, will God still allow even one of the gifts of His Spirit to be poured into it, even if the hole in the missing sheet—that is, the place of the virtue—seems very small? By no means! For, flowing unnoticed, little by little, through that tiny crack, the liquid (grace) poured into it will undoubtedly spill out’27 Elsewhere, in a prayer of thanksgiving to the Saviour, Saint Simeon gives thanks to Him for the grace of the Holy Spirit, whom he calls the ‘tree of life’: ‘Blessed are You, O Lord, blessed are You, the One… You who have placed the light of Your commandments in my heart and planted within me the tree of Your life, You who have made me another paradise… a spiritual paradise amongst sentient beings, spiritual in a conscious sense. For You have united with my soul another Spirit, Your Divine Spirit, the One whom You have caused to dwell within my limbs. He is truly the only tree of life; He who, wherever He is planted – that is, in a person’s soul – in whatever heart, takes root and immediately transforms it into a radiant paradise, adorned with all manner of beautiful plants, with trees, with various fruits,… humility, joy, peace and gentleness… the rain of tears and the marvellous joy that is savoured there, the splendour of Your grace which illuminates all who are in Paradise. You are the chalice that pours out the stream of life upon me; You bestow upon me, without measure, the words of divine knowledge; but when You do not give to me, when You withdraw, here I am without understanding, without a shred of feeling, like a stone. Never shall the trumpet sound without the musician’s breath; and, in the same way, without You I remain lifeless. It is impossible for the body to do anything without the soul; indeed, without Your Spirit, the soul can neither move nor keep Your commandments, O Saviour; it cannot see You, nor draw near to You, nor sing Your glory with understanding, my God’28
‘It is impossible for the body to do anything without the soul; indeed, without Your Spirit, the soul can neither move nor keep Your commandments, Saviour.’
In this passage, Saint Simeon mystically describes the presence of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. The human soul is likened to the garden of paradise, filled with all manner of trees bearing good fruit: humility, kindness, joy, peace and many others, and in the midst of these stands the tree of life. It is worth noting that the saint makes no mention of the tree of knowledge, and this is because those who are to dwell in this paradise will arrive there as a result of keeping the divine commandments; they will be saints united with the Holy Spirit and will themselves be godlike, not by nature, but through participation. In this passage, Saint Simeon also speaks of the successive withdrawals and returns of grace, which make man realise that without the Holy Spirit he can do nothing and that he cannot rely on his own deeds to attain salvation, for salvation is not earned by man, but is given to him by God as a gift out of His goodness. To illustrate even more clearly man’s need for the grace of the Holy Spirit, Saint Simeon points out that just as a trumpet does not sound without the musician’s breath, so too is the human soul dead without the breath of the Spirit.
Again using an analogy, this time from the world of music, Saint Simeon shows the monks that what he teaches them does not come from him, but that it is the Spirit who speaks through him, he being merely an instrument: ‘Brethren and fathers, I should never have dared to address you with even the slightest word, nor to take the place of the Master before your love. But you know, the organ prepared by the musician does not play whenever it pleases, but when the air fills its pipes and the musician’s fingers touch them in rhythm, then the instrument produces its sounds and fills the listeners’ ears with melodious music; and so you must imagine what is happening within me, without regarding the instrument as unimportant, lest you be troubled by what is about to be said. Rather, turn your gaze towards the grace of the Spirit, which from on high inspires and fills the souls of the faithful, and indeed towards the finger of God, which strikes the strings of understanding and gives us words; and, as at the sound of the Lord’s trumpet—or, rather, as at a word which the King of the universethrough an instrument, listen with fear and trembling, with all your wisdom and with all your attention’29
In another analogy, Saint Simeon describes the human soul, which partakes of the Holy Spirit, as a field that receives the seeds and bears fruit. The seed is the Holy Spirit who descends into the human soul and makes it alive and fruitful: ‘The mustard seed,’ says Simeon, commenting on the Gospel parable, ‘is the Most Holy Spirit, and He… is the Kingdom of Heaven… Just as a garden produces nothing useful without a seed, save for thorns and wild weeds, and just as a seed that has not been sown in a garden bears no fruit but remains on its own, as is indeed the case, so too do our souls, without the divine seed, remain barren and continue to produce only thorns. For the divine seed, before it is planted within us—that is, in our hearts—remains in itself that which God is in His entirety, Who has no need within Himself of any addition and suffers no diminution; and within us the seed can in no way either sprout or develop. Indeed, how could it, remaining at a distance and without contact, display its power of growth in the same way as in those who are in contact with it? It is impossible, just as fire could never set alight matter which it does not touch, and just as matter does not catch fire unless it is united in substance with the fire’30 The Holy Spirit is the ‘seed’ that causes our soul to bear fruit, but for the soul to bear fruit, the seed must be ‘sown’, and it is ‘sown’ only through self-denial, humility, repentance, tears and obedience to the spiritual father. Without the seed of the Holy Spirit, our souls bear no good fruit, and all they will yield will be ‘thorns and weeds’ which will be cast into the unquenchable fire. In this passage, Saint Simeon urges all Christians to seek the ‘seed’ of the Spirit, to receive it into their souls and to bear good fruit.
Indeed, to illustrate the grace bestowed by God upon mankind, Saint Simeon uses a parable, namely that of the soldier who receives his pay from the emperor for his service; the pay for Christ’s ‘soldiers’ being the grace of the Spirit: ‘indeed, it is absolutely necessary… to realise the fullness of virtue so that we may embody within ourselves the perfect man, after the likeness of God, in order to receive the grace of the Spirit from Christ, the King of Heaven, just as soldiers receive their share from the earthly emperor. Then, since from now on we shall be perfect men, having reached the stature and measure of Christ, enrolled among His soldiers and servants, we shall be able to set out against the rebellious enemies, given that – as Paul says – no one ‘enlists in the army at their own expense’. What are these expenses of which he speaks? It is the pay in kind, given by the emperor. So, if we do not ourselves receive from God the bread that comes down from heaven, and which gives life to the world—that is, the grace of the Spirit—this is, indeed, the spiritual ration on which the soldiers of Christ feed and which, in a spiritual sense, serves as their equipment – how, tell me, in what way shall we advance to positions of honour in God’s army and how shall we be received into the ranks of His servants?’31
Thus, through the coming of the Holy Spirit, the human soul is cleansed of sins and becomes free from passions, for the Spirit drives away the memory of sins and causes man to no longer desire the pleasure of sins: ‘and by applying the commandments to them (to the passions) as remedies, and trials as a red-hot iron, humbling himself, weeping and fervently seeking God’s help, he clearly sees the grace of the Holy Spirit coming, tearing them away and wiping them out one by one, until his soul is made completely free from all these things’32 Through freedom from passions, man becomes dispassionate, something which Saint Simeon shows is possible even whilst on earth, for he says: ‘But the grace of the Spirit does not merely work this in him; rather, it no longer allows such a person to perceive anything of the sensible realm, but rather makes it as though he were not perceiving with his senses; for whenever the mind unites with the intelligible, it is entirely outside the sensible realm, even though it may seem to perceive the sensible’33’. By becoming dispassionate, man is transformed, for the Spirit enables him to see and understand things differently from other people, who have not yet been cleansed of their sins: ‘for from the Spirit Who renews us, man acquires new eyes and new ears as well; and from now on he no longer perceives sensible things in a sensible manner as a man would, but, having risen above the human condition, he perceives sensible things in a spiritual manner and as icons of the unseen, whilst he regards the forms of these as devoid of image and form’34”.
A very similar passage concerning the purification and transformation which the Holy Spirit brings about in the human soul through the coming of grace is also found in St Basil the Great’s Treatise on the Holy Spirit. He says: ‘Through the Spirit, hearts are lifted up; the weak are led by the hand; those on the path of virtue are perfected. By illuminating those who have been cleansed of every stain, He reveals them to be spiritual, by virtue of their communion with Him. And just as it is with luminous and transparent bodies, that when a ray falls upon them they become more luminous and another radiance emanates from them, so too with souls that are indwelt and enlightened by the Spirit: they themselves become spiritual and radiate grace to others. The result of this is the foreknowledge of future events, the interpretation of mysteries, the knowledge of hidden things, spiritual gifts, heavenly life, fellowship with the angels, boundless joy, and abiding perpetually in communion with God”35 Thus, through the fulfilment of God’s commandments, repentance and humility, man receives the grace of the Holy Spirit; and just as the Son, through the Incarnation, took on what He was not—namely, human nature— so too does man, through divine grace, become what he was not, namely, a god, not by nature but through ‘adoption’36 Man becomes god through union with Christ, a union brought about by the Holy Spirit: ‘He who has united his own spirit with the divine Spirit has become like God, for he has received Christ into his heart; he is a Christian in the name of Christ, for he harbours Christ within himself, yes, the One, the Unfathomable, the One who is truly beyond the reach of all creatures’37
Through the fulfilment of God’s commandments, repentance and humility, man receives the grace of the Holy Spirit; and just as the Son, through the Incarnation, took upon Himself that which He was not—namely, human nature— so too does man, through divine grace, become what he was not, that is, god, not by nature but through ‘adoption’.
Christ the Lord is the One who bestows the Holy Spirit upon the faithful and reveals the Father to them: ‘Let all Christians therefore know: Christ does not lie; He is the true God; to those who show their love for Him by keeping His commandments, He reveals Himself without any doubt, just as He Himself has said; through His revelation, He bestows the Holy Spirit Himself upon them, and then, through the Holy Spirit, He Himself and the Father will remain inseparably united with them’38 As such, the Son became incarnate to save mankind, who were thus able to partake of the Holy Spirit and come to know the Father. The Son of God had to become incarnate, for only He can send the Holy Spirit to the faithful, because: ‘He is the One who suffered the cross and death and rose again in the Spirit, was exalted in glory and opened a new path to Heaven for all those who believe in Him with unending faith, He who poured out the Most Holy Spirit in abundance upon all those who proved their faith through their deeds. He is the One who even now pours Him out, without measure, upon those who do likewise; He, through this Spirit, immediately deifies those with whom He has united Himself and, whilst leaving them as human beings, transforms them without altering them and makes them become sons of God, brothers of the Saviour, co-heirs with Christ and heirs of God, themselves divine, united with God in the Holy Spirit; certainly captive in the flesh, but only in the flesh, yet free in the Spirit, ascending together with Christ, unhindered, towards the heavens and having there, on high, all their rightful citizenship in the contemplation of the good things which the eye has not seen”39.
A teaching characteristic of Saint Symeon the New Theologian is the teaching on the perception of the presence of the Holy Spirit. This teaching brought the saint much criticism from his contemporaries. Although he was criticised by some for this teaching, it is not unorthodox, but is based on the teachings of the Holy Fathers. Saint Simeon is very clear-cut when it comes to sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit’s grace and shows that the descent of the Holy Spirit into the human soul does not take place unconsciously, but that man is aware of the One whom he receives: ‘Behold, once again I turn to those who say that they have the Spirit of God within them without realising it, and who consider that they have acquired Him within themselves through divine Baptism, and believe that they possess this treasure (2 Corinthians 4:7), yet they recognise themselves to be entirely devoid of it, in contrast to those who confess that they felt nothing at Baptism, yet they assume that the gift of God has dwelt within them and that it has existed from then until now in their souls in an unknown and imperceptible manner (ἀγνώστως καὶ ἀνεπαισθήτως)’40
Starting from the conscious perception of the grace of the Holy Spirit, Saint Simeon shows that the vision of God is also possible in this very life, and only by seeing God in this life will we have the certainty that we shall see Him in the life to come: ‘for if there is purity here, there will also be the vision here; and if you say that the vision is after death, you will inevitably place purity after death as well, and so it will come to pass that you will never see God, because after passing into the next life there will be no work within you by which to find purity’41”. Thus, through the descent of the Holy Spirit, the eyes of the mind are opened and the believer sees beyond matter, just as Saint Simeon says of Holy Communion, which is truly experienced by the faithful as union with God: ‘for only those who, in partaking of the divine Body of the Lord, have been deemed worthy to see and to eat with the eye and mouth of the mind, and to experience the revelation of the unseen Godhead in a spiritual touch, they know that the Lord is good (Psalm XXXIII, 9), as those who do not merely eat and drink bread perceived in a sensory manner, but at the same time perceive God spiritually (intelligibly) God, nourishing themselves with twofold perceptions at once—one in a visible manner, and the other in an invisible manner’42
To conclude the above remarks on the Holy Spirit, we shall present a prayer which Saint Symeon the New Theologian addresses to the Person of the Holy Spirit, in which he summarises the entire dogmatic teaching: ‘In the same way, calling upon the Holy Spirit, we say: “Holy Spirit, Who proceeds ineffably from the Father, Who comes to us believers through the Son, Spirit of life and understanding, Spirit of holiness and perfection, good, wise, people-loving, gentle, glorious Spirit, Who nourishes and quenches at the same time, Who protects, Who enlightens, Who strengthens, Divine Spirit of patience, Spirit who bestows happiness, joy, self-control, wisdom, knowledge, gentleness, and the ability to forget insults and earthly cares, the vision of heavenly blessings, Who drives away sloth, Who drives away carelessness, Who drives away curiosity and evil, Spirit Who reveals mysteries, pledge of the Kingdom of Heaven, fountain of prophecy, chalice of teaching, the remedy of repentance, Who, like the gatekeeper, shows the way in to the warriors, Spirit of love, of peace, of faith, of self-control, Spirit of longing, You who stir up longing, come, dwell and abide within us without division and without any possibility of separation: sanctify, transform and enlighten our hearts, You, You who share in the being and dominion of the Father and the Son, You who deify those who receive You, blot out all sin and bestow upon me all virtue through Your coming; for You do not have to bestow it upon us by taking it from outside, but You Yourself, being all the good that exists here, those in whom You will come to dwell truly possess all good within themselves by their very nature”43”.
As we have seen, Saint Symeon the New Theologian’s theology of the Holy Trinity is not systematised in a specific work. Nor did Saint Symeon set out to produce a dogmatic treatise dealing with the Holy Trinity. Everything he wrote was done with the aim of defending himself against those who accused him of heretical teachings, and he wrote to urge the faithful to follow him and to share in the divine light. Saint Simeon’s theology of the Holy Trinity is a theology of experience, for for him the most important thing is the vision of the uncreated light of the Most Holy Trinity and union with It. In his treatise on the Holy Trinity, he emphasises its unity, without denying the three Hypostases: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He shows that man’s purpose is to behold the Holy Trinity even in this life as a pledge of eternal life. When he speaks of the Holy Spirit, he does not speak of Him as being separate from the Father and the Son, but always mentions the other two Persons as well, demonstrating once again that the Persons of the Trinity cannot be separated. A favourite teaching of his, which he expounded whenever he had the opportunity, is that concerning the conscious experience of the Holy Spirit’s grace. He emphasises this conscious perception because only in this way can a person be certain that they are fulfilling God’s will and that their deeds and efforts are accepted by Him as a pleasing sacrifice.
- 1
SC 122, Theol. I, 271–273.
- 2
Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 273–277.
- 3
Emanuel Banu, PhD candidate, ‘The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Writings of Saint Symeon the New Theologian’, S.T., XXXII, no. 1–2, Jan–Feb 1980, p. 82.
- 4
SC 122, Theol. 1, 124–126; cf. Archbishop Vasili Krivoșein, In the Light of Christ. The Life and Spiritual Teachings of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, trans. Ioan-Vasile Leb, Gheorghe Iordan, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 2005, p. 282.
- 5
Theol. 2, 202–204.
- 6
Teol., 83–84; 108–111.
- 7
Theol., 101–105.
- 8
SC 196, Hymn 41, 188–189.
- 9
Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, Op. cit., pp. 75–76.
- 10
SC 113, Cat. XXXIII, 95–150; cf. also St Simeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, trans. Deacon Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis Publishers, Sibiu, 2002, pp. 335–342.
- 11
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Op. cit., p. 335.
- 12
Ibid., p. 336.
- 13
Ibid., p. 337.
- 14
Ibid., p. 338.
- 15
Ibid., p. 339.
- 16
SC 113, pp. 28–29, note 1.
- 17
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, p. 323.
- 18
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Theological and Ethical Discourses, trans. Deacon Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis Publishers, Sibiu, 2001, p. 135.
- 19
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Theological and Ethical Discourses, p. 135.
- 20
Ibid., Catecheses, p. 31.
- 21
Ibid., p. 35.
- 22
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Op. cit., pp. 35–36.
- 23
Ibid., p. 174.
- 24
SC 129, Eth. 7, 311–333.
- 25
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Theological and Ethical Discourses, pp. 218–220.
- 26
Ibid., Catecheses, p. 280.
- 27
Ibid., p. 281.
- 28
SC 196, Hymn 47, 1–29; cf. Archbishop Vasili Krivoșein, Op. cit., p. 285.
- 29
SC 104, Cat. 9, 1–25.
- 30
SC 122, Floors 43–45; 56–59.
- 31
SC 129, Floor 7, 568–585.
- 32
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Catecheses, p. 178.
- 33
Ibid., p. 178.
- 34
Ibid., p. 179.
- 35
PSB vol. 12, p. 39.
- 36
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Theological and Ethical Discourses, p. 114.
- 37
SC 156, Hymn 13, 32–36; cf. Archbishop Vasili Krivoșein, Op. cit., p. 294.
- 38
SC 129, Floor 5, 418–424.
- 39
SC 196, Hymn 51, 88–104.
- 40
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Theological and Ethical Discourses, pp. 237–238.
- 41
Ibid.
- 42
Ibid., p. 381.
- 43
SC 122, Theol. 3, 47–69; cf. Archbishop Vasili Krivoșein, op. cit., p. 300.