Vigils Reading

The Historical Meeting Point of Martyrdom and Monasticism7 A chapter talk by St. Christian de Chergé

From the beginnings of Christian monasticism, there has been both continuity and discontinuity between the monastic choice and martyrdom. As we know, there is continuity in time: during the first centuries of persecutions there were certainly vocations to the solitary life, dedicated to prayer and intercession for all. It is easy to imagine John the Evangelist withdrawing into solitude and inspiring followers. But the threat was there for them and for everyone, and there was need to sustain believers’ courage and faith in that direct form of sequela Christi—the offering of martyrdom—to which they left themselves exposed by the very fact of being Christian. And there is discontinuity, because Constantine’s “peace of the Church” was needed in order for monasticism to find its specific place, when laxity and ease were quickly undermining the vitality of gospel witness.

It was indeed the gospel that incited Anthony to “lose his life” in a way different from the shedding of blood through “pagan” hatred. Paganism was not dead; it transplanted itself in the Church, where “secularization” made rapid headway. Anthony, therefore, would be “pursued” by the Word. He heard it and embodied it by following it literally and on the spot. It happened as quickly as the fall of the ax on the neck of Cecilia or Lucy. But for Anthony it was only the first step of the Pasch, the passing over. It then took dozens of years for the letter to be truly rewritten in terms of the spirit, in order to find, following Jesus’ example, ways of combining time and eternity, the earth and the things above. Anthony and many others instinctively returned to the place of the first Passover, the desert, for this unique kind of martyrdom.

Earlier persecutions had singled out towns—and even big cities—to offer the spectacle of faith to the crowds in the arenas as if it were a game. The persecutions faded away, but the Adversary remained and continued to have his fun. He, then, was the one to take on directly. Anthony’s combat was not againstpeople, pagans or not, but against the traditional Enemy of humankind, whom he confronted as a solitary, confident that he could contribute to conquering him where he is most rampant.

This flight from the spirit of the world and this fierce but humble solitude will become, strangely enough, “the seeds of Christianity,” to use the phrase Tertullian applied to the early martyrs. It is to this drop by drop spending of flesh and blood in the desert 7 Christian de Chergé, Dieu pour tout jour. Chapitres de Père Christian de Chergé à la communauté de Tibhirine [1986–1996], Les Cahier de Tibhirine 1, Abbaye Notre-Dame d’Aiguebelle, p. 449. Trans. Fr. Elias Dietz, OCSO we must constantly return, in order to sustain the specific fruitfulness of our lives here and now.