The Stages of Spiritual Life: Joseph Ḥazzāyā and the Greek Spiritual Legacy
Ihnatia Havrylyk
Università Cattolica Ucraina (Lviv) , Ukrainehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8357-8021
Abstract
For the Assyrian Church of the East, the 5th century became a turning point, which somewhat changed the spiritual and theological face of this Church. It marked the beginning of translations of the philosophical texts and works of the Greek Fathers from Greek into the Syriac language. Some elements of the Greek spirituality gradually penetrated into the Syriac monastic environment, leaving its imprint on it. This article presents a panoramic view of the influence of the Greek ascetic tradition on the Syriac spirituality, as exemplified by the teachings of Joseph Ḥazzāyā, a spiritual author of the 8th century, who is considered to be a systematizer of all Syriac spiritual and mystical experiences. The teaching of Ḥazzāyā was, without a doubt formed, on the basis of his own Syriac tradition, as well as under the influence of great spiritual authorities of other traditions: Evagrius of Pontus, Macarius of Egypt, and John of Apamea. From them, Joseph borrowed the key concepts of his doctrine, formulating it for the first time in the so-called three-stage synthesis of spiritual life, covering various elements that are analyzed in this article.
Keywords:
spirituality, Syria, Joseph Ḥazzāyā, Evagrius of Pontus, stages of spiritual life, contemplation, prayer, patrologyReferences
‘ABDISHO’ ḤAZZĀYĀ, Tractatus de gratia, ed. e trad. ingl. A. Mingana: ‘Abdisho’ Ḥazzāyā, Treatises on the Workings of the Grace, in: Woodbrooke Studies. Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni. Edited and translated with a critical apparatus, vol. 7: Early Christian Mystics, Cambridge 1934, 148-175.
EVAGRIUS PONTICUS, Kephalaia gnostica, trad. ingl. I.L.E. Ramelli: Evagrius’s Kephalaia Gnostika: A New Translation of the Unreformed Text from the Syriac, Atlanta 2015.
IOSEPHUS ḤAZZĀYĀ, Capita scientiae, trad. ted. G. Bunge: Rabban Jausep Ḥazzāyā, Aus den “Capita scientiae”, in: Briefe über das geistliche Leben und verwandte Schriften: Ostsyrische Mystik des 8. Jahrhunderts, Sophia: Quellen Östlicher Theologie 21, Trier 1982, 299-324.
IOSEPHUS ḤAZZĀYĀ, Epistula de tribus gradibus vitae spiritualis, ed. P. Harb – F. Graffin, PO 202 (45.2), Turnhout 1992, 255-442, trad. it. V. Lazzeri: Giuseppe Ḥazzāyā, Le tappe della vita spirituale, Magnano 2011.
IOSEPHUS ḤAZZĀYĀ, Epistulae, ed. e trad. fr. R. Beulay: Joseph Ḥazzāyā, Lettre 48 et Lettre 49, in: Ioannes Daliathensis, Collectio epistularum, PO 39/3, Turnhout 1978, 500-520.
IOSEPHUS ḤAZZĀYĀ, Tractatus de via brevissima, ed. e trad. ingl. A. Mingana: Joseph Ḥazzāyā, Treatise on the Shortest Path that brings us near to God, in: Woodbrooke Studies. Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni. Edited and translated with a critical apparatus, vol. 7: Early Christian Mystics, Cambridge 1934, 177-184. (Crossref)
ARGÁRATE P., The Semantic Domain of Fire in the Writings of Joseph Ḥazzāyā, in: Eastern Crossroads: Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy (Gorgias Eastern Christianity Studies 1), ed. J.P. Monferrer–Sala, Piscataway 2007, 97-107. (Crossref)
BAUM W. – Winkler D.W., The Church of the East: A Concise History. London – New York 2003. (Crossref)
BERTI V., Grazia, visione e natura divina in Nestorio di Nuhadra, solitario e vescovo siro-orientale († 800 ca.), „Annali di Scienze Religiose”10 (2005) 219-257.
BETTIOLO P., Lineamenti di patrologia siriaca, in: Complementi interdisciplinari di patrologia, ed. A. Quacquarelli, Roma 1989, 503-603.
BEULAY R., Des centuries de Joseph Ḥazzāyā retrouvées?, ParOr 3 (1972) 5-44.
BEULAY R., Joseph Hazzâyâ, DSp VIII 1341-1349.
BEULAY R., L’enseignement spirituel de Jean de Dalyatha, mystique syro-oriental du VIIIe siècle, ThH 83, Paris 1990. (Crossref)
BEULAY R., La lumière sans forme. Introduction à l’étude de la mystique chrétienne syro-orientale, Chevetogne 1987.
BEULAY R., Spiritualité et mystique syriaques, „Nos sources. Arts et littérature syriaques” 1 (2005) 163-184.
BEULAY R., Theophanies mesopotamiennes, “Bayn al-Nahrayn” 97 (1997) 77-84.
BROCK S.P., “Una fontana inesauribile”. La Bibbia nella tradizione siriaca, Roma 2008.
BROCK S.P., La prière et la vie spirituelle selon les pères syriaques, ParOr 26 (2001) 201-266.
BROCK S.P., La spiritualità nella tradizione siriaca, Roma 2006.
BUNGE G., Le “Lieu de la Limpidité”. A propos d’un apophtègme énigmatique: Budge II, 494, “Irénikon” 55 (1982) 7-18.
CHIALA S., “Les mystiques syro-orientaux: une école ou une époque?”, in: Les mystiques syriaques, ed. A. Desreumaux, Paris 2011, 63-78.
COLLESS B.E., The Mysticism of John Saba, OCP 39:1 (1973) 83-102.
GOLIZIN A., Recovering the “Glory of Adam”: “Divine Light” Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Ascetical Literature of Fourth-Century Syro-Mesopotamia, in: The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity. Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001, ed. J.R. Davila, Leiden – Boston 2003, 275-308. (Crossref)
GREPPI C., La spiritualità del cuore nella tradizione cristiana siriaca e nella mistica musulmana, “Divus Thomas” 48 (2007) 173-189.
GUILLAUMONT A., Sources de la doctrine de Joseph Ḥazzâyâ, OrSyr 3 (1958) 3-24.
GUILLAUMONT A., Syriaque, DSp XIV 1429-1442.
HARB P., Faut-il restituer à Joseph Hazzâyâ la Lettre sur les trois degrés de la vie monastique attribuée à Philoxène de Mabbug?, „Melto” 4 (1968) 13-36.
HAUSHERR I., Aux origines de la mystique syrienne: Grégoire de Chypre ou Jean de Lycopolis?, OCP 4 (1938) 497-520.
HAUSHERR I., Un grand auteur spirituel retruvé: Jean d’Apamée, OCP 14 (1948) 3-42.
LAVENANT R., Le problème de Jean d’Apamée, OCP 46 (1980) 367-390.
LAZZERI V., Introduzione, in: Giuseppe Ḥazzāyā, Le tappe della vita spirituale, intr., trad. e note di V. Lazzeri, Magnano 2011, 7-57.
MURAVJEV A., Macarian or Evagrian: The Problem of Origenist Legacy in Eastern Syriac Mystical Literature, in: Origeniana Octava: Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition/Origene e la Tradizione Alessandrina. Papers of the 8th International Origen Congress, Pisa 27–31 August 2001, ed. L. Perone, Leuven 2003, 1185-1191.
OLICKAL T., The Three Stages of Spiritual Realization according to Joseph Ḥazzāyā, Catholic Theological Studies of India 4, Changanassery 2000.
VINE A.R., The Nestorian Churches: A Concise History of Nestorian Christianity in Asia from the Persian Schism to the Modern Assyrians, London 1937.
Università Cattolica Ucraina (Lviv) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8357-8021
License
Papers published in Vox Patrum are covered by the Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) licence. Authors and users can use published works licensed under the CC-BY-ND since 2018. For earlier publications, copyrights are available under fair use rights in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 on copyrights and related rights.
