The Ladder of Divine Ascent
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The Ladder of Divine Ascent or Ladder of Paradise (Κλίμαξ; Scala or Climax Paradisi) is an important work for monasticism in Eastern Christianity, composed by John Climacus in ca. AD 600, at the request of John, Abbot of Raithu, a monastery situated on the shores of the Red Sea.
The "Scala", which obtained an immense popularity and has made its author famous in the Church, is addressed to anchorites and cenobites, and treats of the means by which the highest degree of religious perfection may be attained. Divided into thirty parts, or "steps", in memory of the thirty years of the hidden life of Christ, the Divine model of the religious, it presents a picture of all the virtues and contains a. great many parables and historical touches, drawn principally from the monastic life, and exhibiting the practical application of the precepts. At the same time, as the work is mostly written in a concise, sententious form, with the aid of aphorisms, and as the reasonings are not sufficiently closely connected, it is at times somewhat obscure. This explains its having been the subject of various commentaries, even in very early times. The most ancient of the manuscripts containing the "Scala" is found in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and was probably brought from Florence by Catharine de' Medici. In some of these manuscripts the work bears the title of "Spiritual Tables" (Plakes pneumatikai).
The Scala consists of 30 chapters or "rungs",
- 1–4: renouncement of the world and obedience to a spiritual father
- 1. Περί αποταγής
- 2. Περί απροσπαθείας
- 3. Περί ξενιτείας
- 4. Περί υπακοής
- 5–7: penitence and affliction (πένθος) as paths to true joy
- 5. Περί μετανοίας
- 6. Περί μνήμης θανάτου
- 7. Περί του χαροποιού πένθους
- 8–17: defeat of vices and acquisiton of virtue
- 8. Περί αοργησίας
- 9. Περί μνησικακίας
- 10. Περί καταλαλιάς
- 11. Περί πολυλογίας και σιωπής
- 12. Περί ψεύδους
- 13. Περί ακηδίας
- 14. Περί γαστριμαργίας
- 15. Περί αγνείας
- 16. Περί φιλαργυρίας
- 17. Περί αναισθησίας
- 8–26: avoidance of the traps of asceticism (laziness, pride, mental stagnation)
- 18. Περί ύπνου και προσευχής
- 19. Περί αγρυπνίας
- 20. Περί δειλίας
- 21. Περί κενοδοξίας
- 22. Περί υπερηφανείας
- 23. Περί λογισμών βλασφημίας
- 24. Περί πραότητος και απλότητος
- 25. Περί ταπεινοφροσύνης
- 26. Περί διακρίσεως
- 27–29: acquisition of hesychia or peace of the soul, of prayer, and of apatheia (absence of afflictions or suffering)
- 27. Περί ησυχίας
- 28. Περί προσευχής
- 29. Περί απαθείας
- 30. Περί αγάπης, ελπίδος και πίστεως
It was translated into Latin by Ambrogio the Camaldolese (Ambrosius Camaldulensis) (Venice, 1531 and 1569; Cologne, 1583, 1593, with a commentary by Denis the Carthusian; and 1601). The Greek of the "Scala", with the scholia of Elias, Archbishop of Crete, and also the text of the "Liber ad Pastorem", were published by Matthæus Raderus with a Latin translation (Paris, 1633). The whole is reproduced in P.G., vol. 88 (Paris, 1860). Translations of the "Scala" have been published in Spanish by Louis of Granada (Salamanca, 1551), in Italian (Venice, 1585), in modern Greek by Maximus Margunius, Bishop of Cerigo (Venice, 1590), and in French by Arnauld d'Andilly (Paris, 1688). The last-named of these translations is preceded by a life of the saint by Le Maistre de Sacy.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Fr. John Mack, Ascending the Heights - A Layman's Guide to The Ladder of Divine Ascent, ISBN 1-888212-17-9.
