He is the one whom the Lord God willed as a mediator to plant Eastern monasticism in the West. He was born in Scythia, at the mouth of the Danube River, what is known today as the Dobročka region in Romania, from a distinguished pious family. After he successfully continued studying the sciences of his time, he headed to the Holy Lands accompanied by his friend Germanus.
They joined one of the monasteries in Bethlehem, where they followed, for a time, the basics of corporate life. Then they decided to head to the wilds of Egypt to be near the hermits for benefit and blessing and to investigate their sayings about the foundations of spiritual life. They settled in Egypt for seven years, during which they moved from place to place until they reached the Scythe Desert, which was established as a monastic order by Saint Macarius. There are ascetics of great fathers such as Abba Moses, Serapion, and Paphnutius the priest. The latter benefited them greatly when he told them that it is not enough for a monk to renounce the world financially and give up his possessions in order to engage in asceticism and silence, but he must also give up his past habits and desires. The goal of the monk is to enter into the company of God through constant prayer offered by the mind freed from the worries of the world with serenity and peace in the purified temple of the heart.
Thus, after the two friends were raised to seek the pinnacle of monastic life and witnessed living examples, they devoted themselves to following the models they had seen, to the best of their ability. But they were unable to live quietly because of a campaign of persecution against the monks, launched by the Bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus, which caused such great turmoil that groups of monks fled the wilderness of Egypt. As for Cassian and Germanus, they joined fifty monks who took refuge in Constantinople, under the care of Saint John Chrysostom. This was around the year 401 AD. Chrysostom convinced Germanus to accept the priesthood from him, and he appointed Cassian as a deacon. The splendor of His Holiness Chrysostom and the sublimity of his speech captivated the heart of Cassian, so he made himself content with sacrificing the serenity of the wilderness to benefit from a teacher like this one. But as soon as a short time had passed, Chrysostom fell victim to the conspiracies of Theophilus of Alexandria, and was exiled, while Cassian and Germanus traveled to Rome accompanied by Palladius the bishop, a student of Chrysostom, to convey to Pope Enocandius I a message from the faithful people and priests to support Chrysostom, who had been unjustly overthrown. (See the biography of Saint John Chrysostom).
Saint Cassian spent ten years in Rome, during which he received the rank of priest. Then he moved to Marseilles in Gaul (France), where he established the Monastery of Saint Victor for men, at the tomb of a third-century martyr. He also established the Monastery of the Savior for women. Cassian made monastic education compatible with the conditions of living in Gaul, the personal conditions and the nature of the population. At the request of Bishop Castor, he wrote a book entitled “Corporate Institutions” for the benefit of the monasteries in the Provence region. He completed his education with another book called “Encounters,” in which he presented the stages of struggle for purity of heart and meditation.
Saint Cassian remained faithful to the Eastern Fathers, especially Chrysostom and the Cappadocian Fathers. He stood up to the blessed Augustine, who exaggerated the separation between human nature and divine grace with the aim of combating the Pelagian heresy. Although every good gift and every blessing descends, in the end, from God, who is the “Father of Lights,” human freedom, created in the image of God’s absolute freedom, renewed through baptism, is called upon to respond and cooperate with divine grace to produce in the soul the saving fruits of the virtues so that we can Saying with Chrysostom that “God’s work is giving grace and man’s work is bringing faith closer.” This teaching sparked a violent reaction among the extremists among the followers of the Blessed Augustine, who accused Cassian of semi-Pelagian heresy. But he remained silent and did not seek to justify himself. He rested in peace in the Lord in the year 435 AD. His contemporaries considered him a saint and Western monks honored him, ever since, as their father and one of their greatest teachers. His remains are placed to this day in the Monastery of Saint Victor in Marseille.
From the words of Saint John Cassian:
We must be diligent in memorizing the collection of the Holy Scriptures, and recall them in our memory without interruption. While attention is occupied with reading and studying, bad thoughts no longer have a way to captivate the soul in their nets. However, if you want to achieve a true knowledge of the [Holy] Scriptures, first hasten to acquire the humility of a firm heart. It is He who leads you, not to the knowledge that puffs up (see 1 Corinthians 8:1), but to the knowledge that illuminates through the fulfillment of love. It is impossible for an unpurified soul to gain the gift of spiritual knowledge... Be careful with the utmost care lest your passion for reading become a cause of destruction through false claims.
The Church celebrates him on February 29 (the feast is moved to the 28th in non-leap years)
Through his intercession, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us
Troparia in the fifth tune
O righteous father, since you have cultivated the plow of asceticism, working as a faithful administrator, you have taught us the paths of divine virtues, and since you have striven with good worship, O Cassian, who is passionate about God, you have become a wise teacher. So intercede with the Savior to have mercy on our souls.
