Fools for Christ

While studying about fools-for-Christ, a form of ascetism developed during
the Byzantine times, I came accross the following:

What is a Fool for Christ?  What are examples of Saints who were Fools for
Christ?  Does a Bishop declare one a Fool for Christ, is it a lifestyle of
choice or of the person's temperment?

In the book "Kokkos Sinapeos" by Dr.Kleitos Ioannides, ed.Holy Monastery of
St.Neofytos in Paphos, Nicosia 1990 we find:

Fools for Christ stood in their apparent foolishness as pillars of
Christianity.  They showed their foolishness by entering whorehouses,
taverns, bad companies etc and pretended to adopt the lives of these people.
Their utmost goal was the pinpointing of salvation, with terms that low
people understood.

Often the fools for Christ did miracles, to prevent worse happenings or
scold sinful people.  Through Diorasis ("Envisionment? tr.") they knew the
depths of the human soul and mocqued faults in a way that made the person
responsible alone realize it. (my experience:  When I met one priest who is
a bit fool for Christ, first he might burst out singing traditional songs
that he wrote and then at one point during the break-meal, when someone in
the audience was asking me if she should talk to him in private, he turned
to the audience without having heard this and said that during break one is
supposed to rest and eat in peace and not be disturbed.  "Do you want me to
choke?"  he said humorously).

The fool-for-Christ, by being mocqued by everyone, receives a high laurel
because s/he does an utmost form of ascetism, i.e. the disolvement of human
appraisal.  The F-f-C obeys Paul's order in A Cor.:  Us fools for Christ,
you norm-favoring in Christ (tr?), "but the mora (=babies and fools in
Greek) of the world did Christ choose so as to bring the wise to shame",
"that the moron of God wiser of humans is, and the weak of God mightier than
humans is".  Again in A Cor:  Because in the wisdom of God the world did not
know God through His wisdom, God arranged so that through the moria
(foolishness and babyishness) of the preaching save the believers".

Some fools for Christ, mainly in the East, are St.Symeon of Emesis, in the
years of Justinian, St.Andreas of Constantinople (9th-10th c), St.Thomas the
F-f-C, St.Luke of Ephesos (11th c) and some from the Russian and Serbian
church: St.Ivan (=John, Ioannis) 15th c, St.Ivan of Moscow (16th c), St.
Vassileios (16th c).  From "Charismata kai Charismatouchoi" ed. Iera Moni
Paraklitou,19015 Oropos Attica, GR : St.Andreas, the teacher of Bishop
Epiphanios, received a blessing to become a F-f-C, and St.Pelagia the F-f-C
also took a blessing from St.Seraphim of Sarov.  The saint gave her a
komboscoinion (chotki, like rosary).  She was married, and after starting to
act foolishly her husband sent her away.  At her time, in the monastery of
Diveyevo, the abbess was Gerontissa Elisabeth Usakov, an excellent monk (I
do not know the female equivalent in Orthodoxy in English).  A male monk,
jealous of her, arranged with the local Bishop to remove her, against the
will of the 400 or so female monks.  Bishop Nectarios came to Diveyevo.  He
visited the saint first, who also lived in the monastery.  Upon asking for
her blessing, she replied that the Bishop was struggling in vain.  Suddenly
the saint stood and started moving her arms in the air, as if she wanted to
cast away something (which we may all guess what it is).  The next day,
after he had thrown the abbess away, he found St.Pelagia playing on the road
with easter eggs.  He got off his wagon and offered her a Prosforon (the
bread used in Communion and offered to the faithful after Liturgy).  At the
time, it is noted, Bishops were the highest rank in people's eyes in the
country, and were tremendously respected.  St.Pelagia, after initially
turning away, slapped him on his insisting to take the prosforon!  From that
moment, the Bishop Nectarios realized his mistake and never stopped sending
her gifts.

In another case, St.Andreas the F-f-C was watching his student Epiphanios
discuss with a philosopher.  At one point the saint tells the Philosopher,
"You are tired, o philosopher, but you are almost through with the book.
Your ship is coming to port.  In three days!"  The philosopher, astonished,
asked saint Epiphanios who this beggar was, and he told him not to pay
attention and go get ready.  Upon insisting, the saint repeated to get ready
with candles, incense, washing clothes for a burial and spreading his money
to the poor.  When questioned how he knew this to happen, the saint told the
philosopher the dream that the philosopher had seen the previous night, that
he was reading a book and there were three pages left.  The philosopher,
convinced of his oncoming death, prepared himself and in three days departed.

There are still more stories on Fools for Christ from the Lausaikon, the
history of the monks (abbas) in the Egyptian desert, and other sources.  If
you have not had enough, please let me know and I write more.  In Christ,

Minos Orphanides


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