Peter of Damascus

Peter of Damascus or Peter Damascene was an Eastern Christian monastic, theologian, and Church Father who lived in the 12th century. He is notable for being the second most voluminous author in the Philokalia.

Biography Little is known about the life of Peter of Damascus, partly due to the lack of a hagiographical account of his life and partly due to his confusion with another Peter of Damascus who lived some 400 years earlier. This confusion is present in volume three of the Philokalia in which Nicodemus the Hagiorite misattributes Damascene's writings to an 8th-century martyr, Peter the Bishop of Damascus. This earlier Peter is also called "the Damascene" and is a saint in the Eastern and Western traditions; the feast days of both bishop and monk are commemorated on 9 February.

The Peter of Damascus in question lived in the 12th century during the climax of monastic reform within Byzantium. He was a monk, as is attested to by his own words, using such phrases as "us monks", speaking about his "monastic habit" and describing himself as a "fully-tested monk". Furthermore, Peter mentions in his writings that he lived in a cell, never owned any books or possessions, and was under the guidance of a spiritual father. Peter himself identifies three types of monastic life; cenobitic, eremitic, and semi-eremitic. While it is not known for certain in which style of monasticism he lived or where he was from, the textual evidence suggests that he likely followed the semi-eremitic lifestyle. The title "of Damascus" does not necessarily mean that Peter was born in Damascusas is the case with the more famous John of Damascus.

It is generally thought that Peter wrote his works AD. This timeframe comes from a 13th-century manuscript in the Vatican and a 14th-century manuscript in Paris which agree. Additionally, Peter mentions Symeon the Metaphrast in his writings (who died in the last quarter of the tenth century) which means that he at least must have lived sometime after him. Notably, Theophan the Recluse's Russian translation of the Philokalia, called the Dobrotoliubie, omits the writings of Peter, probably because they had been translated into Russian earlier by hieromonk Juvenal Polovtsev at Optina Hermitage (who subsequently became the archbishop of Vilnius, Lithuania).

Manuscripts Of the 107 known manuscripts that contain writings attributed to Peter of Damascus, most have been edited and subsumed into the two books of Peter which exist in the Philokalia, making him the largest author by size after Maximus the Confessor and taking up a large portion of volume three. According to Jean Gouillard, the division of manuscripts between the two books of Peter in the Philokalia is as follows:

Book 1 manuscripts

Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. gr. 210 (13th century) Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ancien gr. 1134 (14th century) Oxford, Bodleian, Barocc. 133 (14th century) Athos, M. Iberon, Ms gr. 700 (14th century) Moscow, Gostudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Muzei, Sinod. gr. 420 and 421 (15th century)

Book 2 manuscripts

Athos, M. Lauras, Ms gr. K 125 (15th century) Athos, M. Lauras, Ms gr. Λ 24 (16th century) Athos, Sk. Annes 8 (17th century) Athos, M. Staur., Ms gr. 92 (17th century)

Structure As mentioned before, Peter's writings in the Philokalia are divided into two major books that offer a wide array of practical spiritual advice. In the words of Nicodemus of Hagiorite, Peter's writings are "a recapitulation of holy watchfulness... a circle within a circle, a concentrated Philokalia within the more extended Philokalia."

Book 1: A Treasury of Divine Knowledge Introduction The Seven Forms of Bodily Discipline The Seven Commandments The Four Virtues of the Soul Active Spiritual Knowledge The Bodily Virtues as Tools for the Acquisition of the Virtues of the Soul The Guarding of the Intellect Obedience and Stillness The Eight Stages of Contemplation The First Stage of Contemplation The Second Stage of Contemplation The Third Stage of Contemplation The Fourth Stage of Contemplation The Fifth Stage of Contemplation The Sixth Stage of Contemplation The Seventh Stage of Contemplation The Eighth Stage of Contemplation That there are No Contradictions in Holy Scripture The Classification of Prayer according to the Eight Stages of Contemplation Humility Dispassion A Further Analysis of the Seven Forms of Bodily Discipline Discrimination Spiritual Reading True Discrimination That we should not Despair even if we Sin Many Times Short Discourse on the Acquisition of the Virtues and on Abstinence from the Passions How to Acquire True Faith That Stillness is of Great Benefit to those Subject to Passion The Great Benefit ofTrue Repentance God's Universal and Particular Gifts How God has done All Things for our Benefit How God's Speech is not Loose Chatter How it is Impossible to be Saved without Humility On Building up the Soul through the Virtues The Great Value of Love and of Advice given with Humility That the Frequent Repetition found in Divine Scripture is not Verbosity Spurious Knowledge A List of the Virtues A List of the Passions The Difference between Thoughts and Provocations Book 2: Twenty-Four Discourses (which correspond to the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet) Spiritual Wisdom The Two Kinds of Faith The Two Kinds of Fear True Piety and Self-Control Patient Endurance Hope Detachment Mortification of the Passions The Remembrance of Christ's Sufferings Humility Discrimination Contemplation of the Sensible World Knowledge of the Angelic Orders Dispassion Love Knowledge of God Moral Judgment Self-Restraint Courage Justice Peace Joy Holy Scripture Conscious Awareness in the Heart

Editing The compilers of the Philokalia slightly edited the writings of Peter, which although not altering the content of the text significantly, occasionally shorten it. As an example, the manuscript supplies the lines: While the Philokalia renders this, shortened, as: Additionally, in places where a quote is misattributed by Peter, the text of the Philokalia often does not print the misattribution.

Lists of virtues and passions Peter of Damascus provides two exhaustive lists of virtues (228 in total) and passions (298 in total). These lists exist in book one of the Philokalia.

Select quotations All quotations are translations of the original Greek, taken from The Philokalia: The Complete Text compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth, translated from Greek by Palmer, Sherrard, and Ware.

Knowledge comes like light from the sun. The foolish man through lack of faith or laziness deliberately closes his eyesthat is, his faculty of choiceand at once consigns the knowledge to oblivion because in his indolence he fails to put it into practice. What health and sickness are to the body, virtue and wickedness are to the soul, and knowledge and ignorance to the intellect. If we bring all this to mind, we will be amazed at God's compassion, and with trembling will marvel at His forbearance and patience. We will grieve because of what our nature has lost angel-like dispassion, paradise and all the blessings which we have forfeitedand because of the evils into which we have fallen: demons, passions and sins. The pure in heart are those who have accomplished every virtue reflectively and reverently and have come to see the true nature of things. In this way they find peace in their thoughts. If you turn from all other activity and give yourself entirely to the cultivation of the virtues of soul and body...then the tears of joy and understanding will well up copiously within you and you will drink from their plenitude. Each virtue lies between two unnatural passions. Moral judgment lies between craftiness and thoughtlessness; self-restraint, between obduracy and licentiousness; courage, between overbearingness and cowardice; justice between over-frugality and greed. By means of the virtues of soul and body, and after many struggles, a person is enabled to rise noetically, by Christ's grace, and to engage in spiritual labourthe labour of the intellectso that he begins to grieve inwardly for his own soul.