Foolishness for Christ

Fools for Christ often employ shocking, unconventional behavior to challenge accepted norms. Basil Fool for Christ praying. He did not wear clothing either in summer or winter.

Foolishness for Christ refers to behavior such as giving up all one's worldly possessions upon joining a monastic order, or to deliberate flouting of society's conventions to serve a religious purpose - particularly of Christianity. Such individuals were known as both "holy fools" and "blessed fools." The term "blessed" connotes both feeblemindedness and innocence in the eyes of God.^[1]

The term fools for Christ derives from the writings of Saint Paul. Desert Fathers and other saints acted the part of Holy Fools, as have the yurodivy (or iurodstvo) of Eastern Orthodox asceticism. Fools for Christ often employ shocking, unconventional behavior to challenge accepted norms, deliver prophecies or to mask their piety.^[2]

Parallels for this type of behavior exist in non-Christian traditions as well. The Avadhuta (Sanskrit), for example, the Islamic tradition of Qalandariyya and Malamatiyya Sufism and other crazy-wise mystics all display similar traits.

Old Testament

Certain prophets of the Old Testament who exhibited signs of strange behaviour are considered by some scholars^[3] to be predecessors of "Fools for Christ". The prophet Isaiah walked naked and barefoot for about three years, predicting a forthcoming captivity in Egypt Isaiah 20:2,3; the prophet Ezekiel lay before a stone, which symbolized beleaguered Jerusalem, and though God instructed him to eat bread baked on human waste, ultimately he asked to use cow dung instead Ezekiel 4:9-15; Hosea married a harlot to symbolize the infidelity of Israel before God Hosea 3.

By the opinion of certain scholars,^[4] these prophets were not counted as fools by their contemporaries, as they just carried out separate actions to attract people's attention and to awake their repentance.^[4]

New Testament

A God´s Fool Sitting On the Snow, by Vasily Surikov, 1885

According to Christian ideas, "foolishness" included consistent rejection of worldly cares and imitating Christ, who endured mockery and humiliation from the crowd. That's why, spiritual meaning of "foolishness" from the early ages of Christianity was close to unacceptance of common social rules of hypocrisy, brutality and thirst for power and gains.^[4]

By the words of Anthony the Great: "Here comes the time, when people will behave like madmen, and if they see anybody who does not behave like that, they will rebel against him and say: 'You are mad', — because he is not like them."^[5]

Paul the Apostle

Part of the Biblical basis for it can be seen in the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:10, which famously says:

"We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised." (KJV).

And also:

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness." (1 Corinthians 3:19)

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." (1 Corinthians 1:21)

Western Christianity

Benedict Joseph Labre

The most famous example in the Western church is St. Francis of Assisi, whose order was known for following the teachings of Christ and walking in his footsteps. Thus, upon joining the order, Franciscans gave away all possessions and focused on preaching in the streets to the common man.

Saint Juniper, an early follower of the Franciscan order, was known for taking the doctrine of the Franciscans to the extreme. Whenever anyone asked for any of his possessions, he freely gave them away, including his clothes. He once even cut off the bells from his altar-cloth and gave them to a poor woman.^[6] His fellow Franciscans had to watch him closely, and strictly forbade him from giving away his clothes. While such behaviors were embarrassing to his brothers, he was also recognized as a pure example of the Franciscan order and thus esteemed.

"The Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Asissi",^[7] which documents the oral traditions of the Franciscans, told several stories of "Brother Juniper". The most famous of these is the story of how Brother Juniper cut off the foot of a pig to give it to a sick brother. Upon the sick brother's request for a pig's foot, Brother Juniper took a kitchen knife and ran into the forest, where he saw a herd of swine feeding. There, he quickly cut the foot off of one of the swine and carried it back to the brother, leaving the swine to die.

This angered the herdsman, who complained to Saint Francis. Saint Francis confronted Brother Juniper, who joyfully exclaimed, "It is true, sweet father, that I did cut off the swine's foot. I will tell thee the reason. I went out of charity to visit the brother who is sick." Brother Juniper likewise explained to the angry herdsman who, seeing the "charity, simplicity, and humility" (Hudleston, 1953) in Brother Juniper's heart, forgave him and delivered the rest of the pig to the brothers.

Eastern Christianity

Misha Samuil

The Holy Fool or yurodivy (юродивый) is the Russian version of foolishness for Christ, a peculiar form of Eastern Orthodox asceticism. The yurodivy is a Holy Fool, one who acts intentionally foolish in the eyes of men. The term implies behaviour "which is caused neither by mistake nor by feeble-mindedness, but is deliberate, irritating, even provocative."^[8]

In his book "Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond,” Ivanov described ‘holy fool’ as a term for a person who “feigns insanity, pretends to be silly, or who provokes shock or outrage by his deliberate unruliness.” ^[8] He explained that such conduct qualifies as holy foolery only if the audience believes that the individual is sane, moral, and pious. The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that holy fools voluntarily take up the guise of insanity in order to conceal their perfection from the world, and thus avoid praise.^[8]

Some characteristics that were commonly seen in holy fools were going around half-naked, being homeless, speaking in riddles, being believed to be clairvoyant and a prophet, and occasionally being disruptive and challenging to the point of seeming immoral (though always to make a point).

Ivanov argued that, unlike in the past, modern yurodivy are generally aware that they look pathetic in others’ eyes. They strive to pre-empt this contempt through exaggerated self-humiliation, and following such displays they let it be known both that their behaviors were staged and that their purpose was to disguise their superiority over their audience.^[8]

Fools for Christ are often given the title of Blessed (блаженного), which among the Orthodox does not necessarily mean that the individual is less than a saint (as in the Roman Catholic Church), but rather points to the blessings from God that they are believed to have acquired.

The Eastern Orthodox Church records Isidora Barankis of Egypt (d. 369) among the first Holy Fools. However, the term was not popularized until the coming of Symeon of Emesa, who is considered to be a patron saint of holy fools.^[2][9] In Greek, the term for Holy Fool is salos.

The practice was recognised in the hagiography of fifth-century Byzantium, and it was extensively adopted in Muscovite Russia, probably in the 14th century. The madness of the Holy Fool was ambiguous, and could be real or simulated. He (or she) was believed to have been divinely inspired, and was therefore able to say truths which others could not, normally in the form of indirect allusions or parables. He had a particular status in regard to the Tsars, as a figure not subject to earthly control or judgement.

The first reported fool-for-Christ in Russia was St. Procopius (Prokopiy), who came from the lands of the Holy Roman Empire to Novgorod, then moved to Ustyug, pretending to be a fool and leading an ascetic way of life (slept naked on church-porches, prayed throughout the whole night, received food only from poor people). He was abused and beaten, but finally won respect and became venerated after his death.^[10]

The Russian Orthodox Church numbers 36 yurodivye among its saints, starting from Procopius of Ustyug, and most prominently Basil Fool for Christ, who gives his name to Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. One of the best-known modern examples in the Russian Church is perhaps St Xenia of Saint Petersburg.

Rasputin was also one of the so-called Holy fools.^[11][12] Rasputin's complex personality was more multifaceted than all the scandals and rumors around him. Rasputin was called the "mad monk", but wasn’t insane in a medical sense of the word. He was part of a specific Russian religious tradition and Russian spirituality, a uniquely Russian notion of holiness. He belonged into a religious background that determined his personality and actions. He was a deeply religious man, with all the religious man's strong inner motivation, a highly controversial person who was compromised by his enemies. Rasputin's religiousness was not unusual; as one of all the "holy fools", he acted like one. Holy fools and Fools for Christ often employ shocking, unconventional behavior to challenge accepted norms, this conduct was widely known and respected behavior by the traditional Russian spiritually.^[13] Rasputin did demonstrate a shocking, unconventional behavior in many ways during his controversial life. As a "man of God" Rasputin was only one of all the "holy fools" in Russia.^[14]

The "yurodivy" is a minor character in The Brothers Karamazov and both Boris Godunov (play) and Boris Godunov (opera)^[15] Another modern holy fool is Grisha in Tolstoy's memoir of his childhood. Callis and Dewey described Grisha as follows:

He was an awesome figure: emaciated, barefoot and in rags, with eyes that "looked right through you" and long, shaggy hair. He always wore chains around his neck...Neighborhood children would sometimes run after him, laughing and calling out his name. Older persons, as a rule, viewed Grisha with respect and a little fear, especially when he suffered one of his periodic seizures and began to shout and rant. At such times adult bystanders would crowd around and listen, for they believed that the Holy Spirit was working through him.^[16]

Grisha’s abnormal social conduct, seizures, and rants were common behaviors amongst holy fools. The esteem expressed by adults was also common. In his autobiography, Tolstoy expressed such esteem in reaction to overhearing Grisha praying:

“Oh Great Christian Grisha! Your faith was so strong that you felt the nearness of God; your love was so great that words flowed of their own will from your lips, and you did not verify them by reason. And what high praise you gave to the majesty of God, when, not finding any words, you prostrated yourself on the ground.”^[16]

Dostoyevsky used holy fools twice in his Crime and Punishment.^[17]

Holy Russia, by Mikhail Nesterov

The Soul of the People, notice the old man in the background, with his arms streched to heaven, painting by Mikhail Nesterov.

Common phrases or epithets

A God's Fool, by Paul Svedomsky

Crazy for God

"Crazy for God" is an expression sometimes used in the United States and other English speaking countries to convey a similar idea as "Foolishness for Christ." It has been especially connected to the Unification Church of the United States. In The Way of God's Will, a collection of sayings popular among church members, Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon is quoted as saying: "We leaders should leave the tradition that we have become crazy for God."^[18]

In 1979 Unification Church critic Christopher Edwards titled a memoir about his experiences in the six months he spent as a church member: Crazy for God: The nightmare of cult life.^[19]

In 2007, author Frank Schaeffer titled his autobiography Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. It tells of his upbringing as the son of a well-known evangelical minister and his later conversion to the Greek Orthodox Church.^[20]

In the same year Stephen Prothero, author and chairman of Boston University's Department of Religion, wrote in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin: "I am crazy for people who are crazy for God: people nearly as inscrutable to me as divinity, who leave wives and children to become forest-dwelling monks in Thailand, who wander naked across the belly of India in search of self-realization, who speak in tongues and take up serpents in Appalachia because the Bible says they can."^[21]

On fire for God

"On fire for God" is an expression often used in respect of persons who are engaged in serving God in such a way that their activities reflect a 'burning' desire to fulfil their calling. This often manifests itself in what might be regarded as burning passion, such as evangelising (preaching) on the streets.

Modern theology

One of the more recent works in theology is Fools for Christ^[22] by Jaroslav Pelikan. Through six essays dealing with various "fools," Pelikan explores the motif of fool-for-Christ in relationship to the problem of understanding the numinous:

The Holy is too great and too terrible when encountered directly for men of normal sanity to be able to contemplate it comfortably. Only those who cannot care for the consequences run the risk of the direct confrontation of the Holy.

The yurodivy in art and literature

Prominent examples are the fool in Boris Godunov, Pavel's (= Smerdyakov's) mother and Father Ferapont in The Brothers Karamazov, Sofia Semyonovna Marmeladova (Sonya) in Crime and Punishment and Prince Myshkin in The Idiot. As mentioned in the “Eastern Christianity” section, another fool-for-Christ, Grisha, was described in Leo Tolstoy's book "Childhood. Boyhood. Youth".^[10]

Film references

• The Island (also known as Ostrov), a movie telling the life story of (fictional) Father Anatoly, in 1970s Russia.
• The Red Western The Burning Miles.
• The character Kayom in At Home Among Strangers, who quickly turns from foe to friend, can be seen as such a figure.
• In the film Andrei Rublev, a yurodivy character, "Durochka," is played by director Andrei Tarkovsky's wife Irma Raush.

See also

• Crazy wisdom
• Andrew of Constantinople, Andrew the Fool-for-Christ
• Basil Fool for Christ
• Benedict Joseph Labre
• Blessed John of Moscow the Fool-For-Christ
• David the Dendrite
• God: Sole Satisfier
• John the Hairy
• Mast (Sufism)
• Sign of contradiction
• Simeon the Holy Fool
• Xenia of Saint Petersburg

Notes

References

• Parry, Ken; David Melling (editors) (1999). The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Malden, MA.: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23203-6.  Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
• Russia and the Russians, Geoffrey Hosking; ISBN 0-14-029788-X
• Yurodstvo, by S.Kobets
• S.A. Ivanov. Symeon the New Theologian as Foolishness for Christ (in French)
• Georg Feuerstein. Holy Madness: The Shock Tactics and Radical Teachings of Crazy-Wise Adepts, Holy Fools and Rascal Gurus (Spirituality, Crazy-Wise Teachers, and Enlightenment). Hohm Press, 2006.
• Marius Kociejowski The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool: A Syrian Journey Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2004, contains much on holy folly in both the Christian and Islamic traditions

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Foolishness for Christ.

• Holy Fools for Christ
• St. Andrew, Fool-for-Christ-sake

Literature

Petzold, H.G. (1968IIa): Gottes heilige Narren. Hochland 2, 1968, 97-109.

Petzold, H.G. (1977II): Zur Frömmigkeit der heiligen Narren. In: Die Einheit der Kirche. Festschrift für Peter Meinhold, hrsg. v. Lorenz Hein. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 140-153.