St Cantoque: mission to the heretics
Saint Cadoc was born in Monmouthshire, Wales, in the late 5th century AD and came from a noble family. He was the eldest son of Gundleus and Gladys. His parents, although of royal descent and economically and socially well off, became monks, followed an ascetic life and are honoured by the Church as Saints. Both his mother and his spiritual father, the hermit priest Tathan, supported and guided him in his life in Christ*. The Saint refused the earthly glories and titles offered by the world, as the child of illustrious parents, and devoted himself to spreading the Gospel to the nations as a child of the Lord Jesus Christ. He deserved the angelic form and ordination as an elder. He was the founder of the Monastery at Llancarfan, near Cardiff**, South Wales. This monastery, of which St Caddock was abbot, was ‘flooded’ with hundreds of monks and surrounded by a multitude of sketes and ascetics spiritually guided by the Saint. Inside the monastery, Cantock founded a seminary, a “saints’ workshop”, since it was there that outstanding spiritual figures such as St. Finnian and St. Barrog were nurtured with the seeds of faith. It is even said that this school was visited – and sometimes taught – by the great Saint Gildos, who maintained a close friendship in Christ with Cantock. The monastery of Llancarfan had acquired thousands of acres of arable land and had in addition a hospital, which treated not only the monks, but all the inmates of the region. Worthy of mention is that incident of bandits attacking the monastery; they surrounded it and were about to loot it when the wise and prudent abbot urged the hundreds of monks to chant together. So the robbers fled in shame. The saint did not rest from the enormous spiritual work he was doing, but, confirming the saying “let the holy man be sanctified” (Rev 22:11), he moved, burning with apostolic zeal, towards Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland, where he preached the Gospel and led multitudes to Christ, even to monastic life. In 580 to 590 AD, he was martyred by Anglo-Saxon pagans during the Mass while praying for the Christians of his country, that is, his newly converted brothers and sons. His memory is commemorated on 24 January each year.
Mission to the heretics
Above, we have felt the missionary spirit of St. Cantoque and witnessed the essential work he accomplished in attracting multitudes of pagans to Christianity. However, since the countries where the Saint discontinued and offered the Orthodox witness are today inhabited by Christians, mainly heretics, and, moreover, the month of January is brightened by the celebrated confessors and militant fathers of our Church, who by their brave and heroic attitude benefited the heretics, it is worthwhile to orient our thoughts on the question of missionary work towards them. Saints Basil the Great, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril and Athanasius, Archbishops of Alexandria, Mark the Noble, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, primarily demonstrated the truth to heretics. They then abolished falsehood and in no way abandoned them to their error, but on the contrary, taught them the truth unadulterated and brought many of them back to Orthodoxy, even at the risk of their lives. A representative example is Gregory the Theologian, who transcended his peaceful self for the sake of the confession of faith and succeeded in freeing the inhabitants of Constantinople from the grip of heresies, Arianism and spiritualists, and in returning them to Orthodoxy. It is widely known that, on arriving in Basileus, Gregory did not find a single church in the ‘hands’ of the Orthodox to serve, except the church of St. Anastasia, a house church from whose pulpit he delivered his stirring sermons on the divinity of the Holy Spirit. All the above-mentioned activities had the effect that, although he left the throne of the Church of Constantinople as a “wounded eagle”, he had restored Orthodoxy in the hearts of its inhabitants.
There is therefore, following the example of the holy fathers mentioned above, an urgent and immediate need for missionary work. Not only of the nations of the African continent, or of the countries of the “Third World”, as many call them, but also of the nations of the “western, civilized world”, to all nations. Not only pagans and idolaters, but also heretical Christians. Not only to underdeveloped nations, but also to developed nations. Of course, in a different way, but not in a different spirit. Certainly in most of the “Western World”, people are not hungry, not thirsty, not lacking clothes. However, their souls are hungry and thirsty and long to know the truth. What truth? The one and only one, Orthodoxy.
On the other hand, it is not allowed that our hearts – of all those who struggle to spread the gospel to the nations – should be filled with hatred, empathy and antagonism towards heretics. This is, moreover, why St. Chrysostom emphasizes:
“I do not fight with material weapons, but with the word I persecute, not the heretic, but heresy; I do not turn away from man, but I hate error and want to turn him away from it. I do not make war on substance, but I want to correct the opinion which the devil has corrupted. So also the physician, in healing the sick man, does not fight the body, but relieves the body from the injury. “***.
But in what way are we doing missionary work to the heretics?
- By dialogue, by discussion, if we are of course aware of the truths and experiences of our faith. And this discussion needs to take place not on a collective level, but on an individual level. “But if we are weaker in faith, let us avoid intercourse with them, let us keep away from their assemblies, lest the cause of friendship become an occasion of impiety. “****.
- With the presence of Orthodox dioceses and parishes – which, thank God, exist – which function, minister and offer Orthodox witness to the inhabitants of the cities and countries of the “Western World”.
- By our example, since we ought to be – according to the hagiography – “the light of the world” and a city which “cannot hide itself on the mountains” (Mt 5:14). And finally,
- With our prayer for heretics, which St Chrysostom calls the “safest weapon” *****.
* Dmitry Lapa, Venerable Cadoc, Abbot of Llancarfan in Wales
** Christoforou Kommodatou, The Saints of the British Isles, Athens 1985, p. 62
*** EPE, Discourse to the Martyr Phokas, ed. 297
**** Chrysostomou, EPE, Per Aclateptos II, ed. “Gregorios Palamas”, vol. 35, Thessaloniki 1989, p. 75
***** EPE, Per Aclateptos II, ed. “Gregorios Palamas”, vol. 35, Thessaloniki 1989, pp. 74-76
