Syméon le Nouveau Théologien
949-1022 10th century Feast day: March 12
The living experience of God as light, offered to all and not to the perfect alone.
Who was Syméon le Nouveau Théologien?
A monk and then abbot in Constantinople, he taught with rare boldness that every Christian can, already in this life, consciously experience God as light. This insistence earned him the opposition of the authorities and a spell of exile. His Hymns of Divine Love sing, in burning language, of that encounter in which one is seized by the uncreated brightness.
In their own words
O what intoxication of light, what movements of fire within me, wretched as I am, coming from You and Your glory.
This glory, I know it and I say it, is Your Holy Spirit, of the same nature as You, O Word, of the same honor, O Christ, O God of the universe.