Today, March 30, the Catholic Church celebrates one of the greatest spiritual masters in history: San Juan Clímaco (San Juan ‘de la Escalera’), Christian monk who lived between the seventh century and the first half of the seventh century. Clímaco is the author of the famous spiritual treaty “Scale of Paradise” or “Staircase to Paradise”, a book that became popular during the Middle Ages and that is still today remains a source of inspiration and spiritual enrichment.
To reach the sky
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Although San Juan Clímaco is also known as Juan El Escolástico or Juan el Sinaíta, the name with which he is most remembered in the popular Christian culture is that of ‘Climaco’ in direct allusion to his famous work (‘Scale of Paradise’). The name ‘Clímaco’ is the transliteration of the Greek ‘Klímakos’, ‘staircase’ or literally ‘of the scale’; Hence some call it ‘Juan de la Escalera’.
Today, the most famous work of San Juan is disseminated in Spanish with less literal titles, but which also facilitates a first approach to the meaning of the text, such as ‘spiritual staircase’, ‘spiritual scale’ or ‘the holy scale’.
It distinguishes three successive phases that the soul must travel to achieve perfection in love (beatitude): the first is the break with the world in order to return to the state of evangelical childhood; The second is constituted by the spiritual combat against passions; and the third consists of the state of Christian perfection.
It is, consequently, an ascending, gradual path, whose sole purpose is the perfection of charity, which is reached in the full and eternal encounter with God.
A monk in the Sinai
It is believed that Juan was born in Palestine around 575. There are not many details about his childhood and youth; Nor has a safe chronology been established about his life. However, in general, it is known that he lived in Byzantium, capital of the Roman Empire of the East, at a time when he was in frank decline because of barbarian invasions and the consequent loss of territories.
From a young age he formed reading San Gregorio Naciannceno and San Basilio. At 16 he decided to be a monk and left for Mount Sinai (Egypt), where one of the most influential monasteries of Christianity was located.
According to the writings of the monk Daniel de Raito, condensate in a “life” (biography) of Clímaco, the saint had as a teacher the abbot martyrdom, head of the monastery of Mount Sinai, and after four years of preparation with this, he was definitively admitted.
God is in silence
When he turned twenty, a new type of life began, more withdrawn and silent. It was the beginning of his stage as a mite. He moved to a cave located at the foot of a mountain, located eight kilometers from the today Monastery of Santa Catalina (Monte Sinaí).
Since then, he dedicated himself, over forty years, to the reading and meditation of the Bible, to constant prayer and manual work. Thus became one of the greatest connoisseurs of the Holy Scripture and one of the wisest souls of the East, whom innumerable people attended in search of advice.
In the epilogue of his life he was chosen Abad of the Monastery of Monte Sinaí by the monks who inhabited it. In those years he dedicated himself to writing various texts, among which is the “holy staircase”, thinking about what the life of every monk should be in search of perfection in love.
San Juan Clímaco died near the year 650.
If you want to learn more about this distinguished spiritual master and his work, we recommend you read this article of the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Juan_Clímaco
To download ‘La Santa Scale’ (Book in PDF): https://www.aciprensa.com/docum/la%20_santa_escala.pdf
More information:
Central writing
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