Inclusion of Isaac the Syrian in Roman Martyrology ‘a wonderful step forward’

By Joseph Tulloch

Earlier this month, Pope Francis announced that Isaac the Syrian, a 7th century desert-dwelling mystic and hermit, and a saint of the Church of the East, would be added to the Roman Martyrology.

St Isaac had long been renowned for the beauty and power of his spiritual writings, but until now not been officially venerated outside his native Church of the East – an ancient Christian body indigenous to modern day Iraq and Iran, which split from the rest of Christianity after the Council of Ephesus in 431.

What is the significance of the Pope’s announcement, and what does it mean for the relationship between the Catholic Church and the various eastern Churches?

To answer some of these questions, Vatican News spoke to Sebastian Brock, one of the world’s foremost scholars of Syriac Christianity.  

This is the second in a series of interviews with Professor Brock on St Isaac. You can read to the first one – about Isaac’s life and works, his views on hell and his theological poetry – here.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for style and brevity. 

Vatican News: How did you react to the news that St Isaac has been added to the Roman Martyrology?

Sebastian Brock: Well, I was absolutely delighted. I think it’s a wonderful move forward. Rather curiously, it so happens that the Church of the East only officially put Isaac into the calendar a few months earlier at a Synod, I think, in April. This is one of the curiosities about Isaac’s status – he’s immensely popular in the Orthodox world, but, until modern times, he’d never been formally canonised by any tradition.

Another intriguing thing about Isaac – I suppose you could call it a sort of ‘unofficial canonisation’ – is that the Greek Orthodox church in Doha, Qatar, is actually dedicated to “St. Isaac of Qatar,” because it’s now recognised that Isaac came from that region. 

So that’s why I’m really delighted by this decision of the Pope’s, and I think it’s very important for all sorts of reasons. Isaac is an ecumenical saint – he’s been revered in all the Eastern traditions, not just in the Middle East – but until recently he had never been officially canonised by anyone.

VN: Do you think this will be a step forward in relations between the Catholic Church and the Church of the East, and perhaps the eastern Churches more broadly?

SB: I think it’s a step forward. I hope it will stimulate other people to take notice. I’m particularly interested in what might happen in the Coptic tradition, because the Coptic Orthodox Church has always greatly admired the works of Isaac – he was behind their monastic revival in the 1960s – but he comes from the Church of the East, which unfortunately, at least in the view of [the previous Coptic] Pope Shenouda, is unacceptable.

The Church of the East has been barred from joining the Middle East Council of Churches, which is really a tragedy. It is awful that an indigenous Church of the venerable character of the Church of the East should be barred from that very important body. Whether the Pope’s decision will have any effect on this, I’ve just no idea.

VN: This is not the first time that Pope Francis has put a non-Catholic saint in the Roman Martyrology; he did so with the Coptic martyrs about a year ago. As someone who’s dedicated their life to ecumenism, as well as to Syriac studies, what’s your assessment of that strategy?

SB: I think it’s wonderful. It’s, as it were, the counterpart to something that the Church of the East did about 15 years ago or more, and that is to remove all the anathemas on saints of other Churches. I think the Church of the East is the only one that has officially done that, and it’s a wonderful move. The Pope’s initiative is, as it were, the opposite way of proceeding, and I’m all for it.

Obviously, in the case of some saints, it’s going to be quite difficult – certain saints would be quite difficult to accept into the Roman Catholic tradition. A Syrian Orthodox counterpart to St Isaac would be Severus of Antioch, who is a great saint in the Syriac tradition, but was very strongly opposed to the Council of Chalcedon, and wrote against it. It could be problematic for the Roman Catholic Church to accept someone like that. It’s much better to choose a monastic saint – they’re fairly harmless!

VN: What can Catholics learn from St Isaac?

SB: That’s quite difficult to say! I think what strikes me most about Isaac’s writings is that he has the ability of speaking across the centuries. Although his audience in his own day was probably entirely monastic, a lot of what he says is actually very applicable to any Christian, lay or otherwise. Isaac certainly speaks to me, and I know he speaks to many other people today. There’s a wonderful passage in a book by a Greek monk in Mount Athos, describing the effect of giving a novice some writings of Isaac to read. The novice says that Isaac is like someone contemporary who comes and puts his arms around his shoulder and meets him where he is. I think there’s a lot of truth in that, and I’m sure many people have had that sort of experience.

VN: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

SB: I think this sort of action on the part of the Pope is really to be encouraged. I think it’s a wonderful way forward. If every one of the Pope’s meetings was with a Patriarch of one of the Eastern Churches, one could get through quite a lot of saints …