Great Saints of the gnosis

SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE PRINCIPAL SAINTS OF THE GNOSTIC TRADITION


by
the REV. STEVEN MARSHALL
Priest-in-Charge, Queen of Heaven Gnostic Church,
of the Ecclesia Gnostica in Portland, Oregon.

Originaly published in pamhplet form by

The Gnostic Press
 4516 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood,CA 90027
1995

Reproduced here with publishers permission


INTRODUCTION

We commemorate those who did of old adore Thee, and manifest Thy glory unto us,the holy and enlightened teachers

Simon,Menander,Saturninus,Bardesanes,Cerinthu,Basilides,Valentinus, Marcion, as well asThy Holy prophet, Esclaremonde,and Jacob Molay who transmitted the Light of the Gnosis to us, their successors and heirs. Hear ye, all saints of the true church in every age, now essentially present in our midst, of you we claim heirship, with you we claim communion, and from you we claim benediction and intercession in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus we commemorate all the saints who were, and are, and are to come.

So Prays the Gnostic Ecclesia in its Holy Eucharist in commemorating its principal saints and all other saints. By ancient definition a saint is a person whose heroic practice of virtue led to a formal recognition by the Ecclesia as having attained an exalted position in heaven (the Pleroma) and as being entitled to veneration here on earth. Prior to the Christian era, the ancient Greeks recognized four categories of beings in ascending order: Mortals, Heroes, Demigods and Gods. Of these, the category of heroes corresponds most closely to that of the Christian saints; indeed the latter may have been at least in part a successor to the former. Saints also exist under various names in other faiths, notably the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic traditions.

In view of this, it follows that the Gnostic tradition should possess its saints also. Among the Gnostic saints a particular distinction belongs to what might be called the eight Founding Fathers of the tradition, to whose number is added The Prophet Mani, who consolidated and expanded the original message of the Gnosis, and the two exemplary representatives of subsequent transmissions within the same stream, that is, the Cathar or Albigensian branch and that of the Order of the Templars. The eleven names mentioned in our Eucharist are those of the principal saints of the Gnostic tradition in the sense that through them descend all of the various manifestations and transmissions of our tradition. It will be very helpful to worshippers at the altars of the Gnosis to possess at least some basic information about the personalities and lives of these holy persons, whose names are invoked in such a solemn manner. The Ecclesia is thus greatly indebted to the Rev. Steven Marshall for having prepared the following concise but informative biographical notes concerning the principal saints of the Gnostic tradition. May our understanding of these great sages and saints be enhanced by the reading of the following pages and may the presence of our saints increase in our midst and remain with us always!

+Stephan A. Hoeller
Tau Stephanus
Regionary Bishop
Ecclesia Gnostica

Simon Magus

Simon lived and taught during the latter part of the 2nd century CE. He had many followers among the Samaritans, many of whom revered him greatly as a prophet and a teacher. He himself claimed to be an incarnation of the "Great Power" sent to free the sparks of light from ignorance by reminding them of their divine heritage.

The best preserved of the extensive literature attributed to him is a work entitled The Great Announcement. In this treatise he passed on a highly developed Gnostic scheme, elements of which appear in the Barbelo literature and the development of the feminine "ennoia" (thought-power) of the Sethian Gnostics. Other features of his teachings in common with other Gnostic systems included; the Unknown Father, the Logos, the aeon-worlds, the syzygies, the world soul, the descent of the soul, the creation of the world by archons, and doctrines of reincarnation and redemption.

The story of Simon and Helen (said to be a prostitute of Tyre), may have alluded to a real relationship. The legend certainly describes the Simonian myth of the descent of the feminine soul into the world where it is seduced, prostituted and taken captive by worldly powers. She is then redeemed by her heavenly consort who reminds her of her celestial origin. This legend influenced such treatises as the Exegesis of the Soul in the Nag Hammadi collection and the Sophia literature of the Gnostics, particularly in the references to Sophia as Prunikos (whore). Works ascribed to him that have perished, include Four Quarters of the World and Refutatorii Sermones, a searching criticism of the God of the Old Testament and the serpent legend in Genesis.

One of the main characteristics of this branch of Gnosticism is the practice of magic, which he learned in Egypt, hence his title, Simon Magus. The Book of Yeu from the Books of the Saviour give an idea of what this system of magic may have comprised.

Menander

Menander was a native of the Samaritan town of Capparatea. The exact period of his activity is obscure, but he is reported to have been a predecessor of Simon Magus. He later founded a school and a church in Antioch, a center for much of the commercial and literary activity of the Greco-Roman world.

He taught a system of magic and cosmology expressing a general exposition of the Gnosticism of his time. He taught that wisdom could not be attained by faith alone, but through spiritual practice and conscious endeavor along a revealed path of cosmological and psychological science. He, like Simon Magus after him, claimed to be a savior sent by the higher spiritual powers to teach people a sacred knowledge whereby they could be liberated from the domination of the archons. Christian sacraments were associated by him with the attainment of certain states of interior purification and spiritual insight.

No records or writings of his followers, the Menandrists, have survived. The recorded evidence left by the historian Justin seems to indicate that Menander was one of the earliest links between the apostles and the Simonian tradition of the second century.

Saturninus

Saturninus was a predecessor of Basilides and a disciple of the teachings of Menander. He lived and taught somewhere during the end of the 1st Century and the beginning of the 2nd Century CE. He taught at Antioch and his followers were noted for their strict asceticism, although since encratism was equivalent with heresy among the heresiologists of the time, any group thought to be heretical would be charged with it.

The fragments of his teachings preserved in the writings of polemicists show the main features of the Simonian and Menandrian Gnosis. These include God as the Unknown Father, intermediate hierarchies, and the seven planetary spheres or archons as the builders of the material universe and fashioners of humanity.

His teachings included the doctrine of a World-Savior, who came in the semblance of a man to defeat the evil powers and rescue the children of the light from the dominion of the archons. He criticized the Old Testament scriptures as imperfect and erroneous, some being inspired by the heavenly aeons and others by the evil archons, which included Yahweh of the Jews. The story that is ascribed to him of the fashioning of the first man is identical to that found in the Origin of the World, the Hypostasis of the Archons, the Apocryphon of John and other treatises contained in the Nag Hammadi collection of Gnostic writings.

Bardesanes (Bar-daisan)

Bardesanes was born at Edessa in Syria of a rich and noble family on July 11, 155 CE. As a youngster, he received the finest education available and was raised with a prince who later succeeded the throne as an Agbar. He embraced Gnostic Christianity at an early age and persuaded the Agbar to make it the state religion.

During his life he produced a great volume of literature in Greek and Syriac; a translation of temple chronicles from the temple of Ani, a book on Indian religion, and many others. He is most famous for a collection of 150 hymns composed on the model of the Psalms of David. Although he wrote polemics against the Marcionites, his teachings included many of the main features of Gnosticism.

The fragments of his hymns and writings that have survived show familiarity with several Gnostic concepts. These include the Ogdoad, the seven spheres, the Divine Mother (Barbelo), the Daughter of the Light, the figure of Wisdom (Sophia), the gathering of the spiritual souls of humanity into the Pleroma, the Bridechamber, and a doctrine of the Right and Left that is more fully developed in the Pistis Sophia of the later Valentinian schools.

The one hymn that has been preserved entirely from this collection is called the hymn of the Pearl or the Hymn of the Robe of Glory. This hymn comprises one of the most beautiful and poetic accounts of the journey of the soul and Gnostic initiation to be found anywhere in Gnostic literature.

During his life Bardesanes was considered a respected and orthodox leader within the Christian Church of his day. He died, very likely in the city of his birth, in 233 CE at the age of 78.

Cerinthus

Cerinthus is thought to have lived and taught during apostolic times in the latter part of the first Century. He is reported to have been trained in the Egyptian mysteries and schooled in Asia minor. He was said to have been in contact with St. John the Divine who wrote the book of Revelation. Some Gnostics claimed that Cerinthus himself authored the Apocalypse ascribed to St. John.

The fragmentary account of Irenaeus indicates a teaching that bridged canonical and Gnostic doctrines of Christianity. Its cosmogony made a distinction between the supreme excellence of the absolute and transcendent God and the subordinate status of the Demiurge, which prefigures the main tenets of Marcion's contribution to the Gnostic tradition. The scripture of the Cerinthians maintained that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary, and not until the Spirit of Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove did he begin to carry out his divine mission.

Basilides

Basilides lived in Alexandria of Egypt during the turn of the first Century. He was a disciple of Glaucius who was himself a disciple of Peter the fisher. He was taught by Saturninus of Antioch in the Gnostic tradition of Simon Magus and received the teachings of Matthias, which were said to have been secretly given to Matthias by Jesus after the resurrection.

Basilides was one of the earliest Gnostic writers and had a copious amount of literature ascribed to him, including many gospels, a psalm book, several odes, and an exegesis on the New Testament. Hebrew scriptures and the Pauline letters contributed the major influence on his writings. Nearly all of them were lost in the destruction of the Library in Alexandria.

Basilides contributed a unique and personal vision of the Gnosis, the two features of which were a sophisticated cosmology of intermediate realms and beings between creation and the Unknown God, and a method of ascensional mysticism for rising through the lower spheres to the spiritual heights. Basilides originated the mythological figure of Abraxas who, after repenting of the deeds of his father the Demiurge, becomes a liberating and transforming power to help souls ascend to the aeons of the upper worlds. Basilides scheme was decidedly Christian in scope, the entire process of releasing spiritual humanity from the darkness of material existence being dependent upon the descent of the Christ and the light of the gospel through the lower worlds.

The teachings of Basilides greatly influenced the development of the Valentinian Gnosis and later Gnostic movements. Little is known of the history of the Basilidian school of Gnosticism after the death of its founder. It continued at least until the fourth century, as Epiphanius at the end of the fourth century records that he met students from the school of Basilides near Memphis in Egypt. Even though Basilides made a unique contribution to Gnosticism, he was also a link in the chain of transmission of an ancient and living tradition of the Gnosis.

Valentinus

Valentinus was an Egyptian educated at Alexandria and lived during the period between 100 and 180 CE. One of his most noted disciples was Marcus and later Heracleon and Ptolamaeus.

The influence of Valentinus spread over most of the civilized world, from Egypt eastwards to Syria and Asia Minor, and westwards to Rome, Gaul and Spain. The esteem in which others saw him may be measured by the report that he was nearly elected bishop of Rome.

Valentinus is acknowledged as one of the greatest, most brilliant and most eloquent Gnostics of all time. He is generally agreed to be the author of the Gospel of Truth, and he or his disciples influenced many other Gnostic writings, including the Gospel of Philip, the Pistis Sophia and the Bruce and Askew codices.

Valentinus wrote numerous letters, homilies and psalms. He synthesized a complex aeonology describing as male and female pairs, or syzygies, the intermediate powers between the darkness and chaos of material existence and the perfect light of the Pleroma (fullness)

Valentinus considered himself, and was regarded by others, to be an orthodox leader of the Holy Catholic Church of his day. Later Church Fathers criticized the Valentinians for performing the same rites and confessing the same creed yet meaning something different by it. Valentinus further refined and elaborated the cosmology of Basilides, reconciling the differences between the various schools of Gnosticism by means of inner, secret teachings which were claimed to have originated from the Saviour himself, that is from the resurrected Jesus.

Marcion

Marcion lived and taught during the middle of the second Century. He was a bishop, and the son of a bishop in the Christian Church of his time. Marcion could be called the father of literary Biblical criticism.

He was the first to document so clearly, through a painstaking and exhaustive comparison of Old and New Testament Scriptures, the vast differences between the vengeful and morally inferior Jehovah of the Old Testament and the truly good and loving God proclaimed by Jesus in the New Testament.

He attended the first Roman synod in 150 CE expecting to find tacit acceptance of his views but was instead excommunicated as a heretic. No other religious leader in history has inspired more polemics than Marcion. Justin, Tertullian and Irenaeus together wrote volumes against the Marcionites.

Undaunted by this, Marcion went on to found his own Church based upon his deeply held views. The Marcionite Church spread quickly and became a growing threat to the mainstream Catholic Church. The views of Marcion spread over the entire Greco-Roman world. Marcionite churches sprang up in Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Persia.

Marcionite churches were among the first to popularize congregational singing and were responsible for the composition of many original hymns. Although their hierarchy was similar to the mainstream Church, including bishops, presbyters and deacons, Marcionite churches made far less of a distinction between the clergy and the laity. Although Marcion criticized the Old Testament God and eschewed the biblical references to Jesus as a messiah solely for the Jews, there is no evidence that he was anti-Semitic. Marcionite churches welcomed the participation of diverse cultures including non-christians and Pagans in their worship services.

Following the example of many churches descended from St. Paul, women were accorded equal status with men and held offices in the clergy of the Church. In contrast to the mainstream Church, Marcionite churches allowed catechumens to participate in the Mystery of the Eucharist.

Wheras the mainstream Church directed itself towards developing a canon that attempted to synthesize the Old and New Testaments, Marcion sought the opposing purpose of divorcing the New Testament from the Old Covenant. He claimed possession of an original Gospel of Paul who, he believed, was the one apostle who truly understood the universal scope of Christ's message. The Marcionite bible included the Gospel of Paul (which scholars consider to be an edited version of Luke), a selection of Pauline epistles and a collection of Davidic and non-Davidic Psalms.

Marcion espoused a doctrine of three heavens similar to that of the Ophites and Valentinians - the realms of Pneuma, Psyche and Hyle - interpreted through his study of the Pauline epistles. These three heavens were those of the Good God, the God of the Law, and the God of Root-Matter. He re-interpreted the story of Genesis in a Gnostic fashion based upon this doctrine. He called Jesus the Chrestos, (Perfect One) which is a title given to the Saviour in Eastern Orthodox prayers, the Gospel of the Egyptians, and a title given to the elite (Parfaits) of the Cathar religion. The Church of Marcion was bitterly persecuted for its views during the first three centuries of its existence. This Gnostic movement apparently died out, or was assimilated into the Manichean church by the end of the fifth century.

The Holy Prophet Mani

Mani lived during the third century in Persia. He was born of a royal family and his Father joined a proto-Mandaean sect called the Elkasites when Mani was a child. From a young age, he developed a trade as a painter and poet. His paintings were so fine that his very name, Mani, became the title of a good painter.

At the age of twelve, a god-like angel, a light-twin, which Mani called the Paraclete, came to him and revealed to him many mysteries. At the age of twenty-four, his light-twin again came to him and bade him give up his outer life and begin preaching the mysteries that had been revealed to him.

Mani revered many of the prophets of old - Seth, Moses, Zarathustra, and the Buddha. He called himself an apostle of Jesus Christ. He wrote many books recounting the mysteries that he had received.

His teachings spread all over the world - to the Bogomils in Bulgaria, other groups in the Roman Empire, the White Lotus Society of Buddhism in China and India, and very likely to the Cathars of Southern France. He preached a doctrine akin to that of the Zoroastrians of his homeland where, in the fight between light and darkness the Primordial Man of Light was fractured and consumed by the darkness of material existence. In his scheme, the goal of redemption was the gathering of the sparks of the Man of Light, and their restoration to the place of light.

Followers of Mani suffered persecution wherever they went. Mani himself was imprisoned many times and finally died in chains and fetters. After his death, the Persian King took his body out of the fetters and had it flayed and stuffed with straw, so as to prove he had truly died. The King had Mani's head struck off and hung on a gate post and hung his skin at the same gate. Many of his followers were cruelly tortured, then flayed alive and then crucified. Despite the years of persecution, the teachings of this religion managed to survive until the latter part of the thirteenth Century when the last remaining Cathars, the inheritors of the tradition were rooted out by the Inquisition.

Holy Esclaremonde de Foix

Esclaremonde de Foix was born in 1155 CE in the heart of Southern France, the daughter of Lady Zebelia Trencavel de Carcasonne and Roger Bernard, Count of Foix. Living her life in the noble courts of Southern France, she was entertained by the troubadours or trouveres and had contact with the fideles d'amour who promulgated Catharist teachings throughout Occitania, the Languedoc region of Southern France. The house of Foix welcomed the "heretical" Bulgarian Bishop Nicetas, who organized the Cathar religion in the region and deeply impressed the young Esclaremonde.

In 1181 Esclaremonde led a group of Cathars out ofpersecution at the hands of Cardinal Henri of Albano to safety in the County of Foix. Throughout her later years she devoted herself to the leadership of the Cathar faith and was called by her people "the Dove of the Paraclete." She founded hospitals for the elderly and wounded, lodging places for refugees of war, convents for the "perfecti" (perfect ones) and schools for the poor. Under her leadership perfecti went out to every home assisting the poor and healing the sick. The charity of the Cathars under her leadership did much to attract people to the new faith.

At age 55 Esclaremonde received the Consolamentum and was raised to the rank of Archdeaconess. With her friend Guilhabert de Castres she undertook the reconstruction of the fortress of Monts'gur. For the next few years Pope Innocent III issued several maledictions against the Cathars. Esclarmonde participated in several cross examination councils and debates where she eloquently and passionately defended the Cathar faith.

Beginning In 1207 and lasting for 37 years, the King of France under the auspices of the Pope mounted a crusade against the Cathars. Esclarmonde made the fortress of Monts'gur the center of Cathar resistance. The armies of the King led by Simon de Montfort slew thousands of people throughout Southern France, Cathars and Catholics alike. The most conservative estimate is that 250,000 were killed over a 40 year period. Esclaremonde passed over in 1240 at Monts'gur, and was secretly buried by her friend, Guilhabert de Castres. He wrote her epitaph thus: "Great Esclaremonde! A dove has flown away, but in the Catharist country thy name remains forever engraved."

Jacob Molay (Jacques de Molay)

Jacob Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was elected to that office in 1297. Jacob was heir to the secret tradition of the Order of the Temple which was founded in 1118. The order was influenced by various Gnostic groups with which it came in contact while fulfilling its charge to keep safe the passage to the Holy Land in Palestine. The Templars are reported to have contacted a group named the Johannite Order of Oriental Christians, another eastern Christian group called the Nazoreans, the Mandaeans and certain other esoteric traditions of the Middle East. Very likely, the order honored two traditions, one secret and concealed from the many, and another outwardly conforming to the rules of the Roman Catholic Church.

The persecution of the Knights Templar extended over a period of seven years. Jacob Molay languished in prison for five and-a-half of those years during which time he, together with most of his other officers was subjected to unbelievable tortures and interrogation by the inquisitors.

On the evening of March 18, 1314, Jacques de Molay and the knights imprisoned with him were burned at the stake by order of King Philip the Fair of France. He died proclaiming his innocence and prophesying the imminent deaths of the Roman Pontiff and the King of France. The esoteric tradition of which Jacob Molay was the last known guardian is reported to have survived in the traditions of Freemasonry.

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