Saint John Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks under him.

* Saint Cassian, abbot of Spasso-Kamenny Monasteries

* Venerable John Cassian the Roman, abbot of Monastery of St Victor, Marseille

Saint John Cassian ( c. 360 – 435 ) presents as the formula used in Egypt for repetitive prayer, not the Jesus Prayer, but " O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me ".

The " Peregrinatio " does not mention the number of psalms sung at this hour, but Cassian, who, a short time after the " Peregrinatio ", describes this Office as it was celebrated by the monks of Egypt, says they recited twelve psalms as at Vigils ( Matins ).

John Cassian began his monastic career at a monastery in Palestine and Egypt around 385 to study monastic practice there.

However, his scheme was taken from that described by John Cassian, in his two major spiritual works, the Institutes and the Conferences, in which he described the monastic practices of the Desert Fathers of Egypt.

John Cassian ( c. 380 ) tells us that throughout Egypt the Psalms were divided into groups of twelve, and that after each group there followed two lessons, one from the Old, one from the New Testament ( De caenob.

The Eastern Orthodox Church, as expressed in the teachings of John Cassian, holds that though grace is required for men to save themselves at the beginning ; there is no such thing as total depravity, but there remains a moral or noetic ability within men that is unaffected by original sin, and that men must work together ( synergism ) with divine grace to be saved.

More than 130 more distant sources have been identified for the tales related of the saints in the Golden Legend, few of which have a nucleus in the New Testament itself ; these hagiographic sources include apocryphal texts such as the Gospel of Nicodemus, and the histories of Gregory of Tours and John Cassian.

He is survived by his wife Mary, as well as their three children, Carol, Ros and Jon, and seven grandchildren ; Sam, Tom, Arthur, Theo, Rylan, Cassian and Lily.

; John Cassian

Other methods are equally accepted, such as the recitation, as recommended by Saint John Cassian, of " O God, come to my assistance ; O Lord, make haste to help me " or other verses of Scripture ; the repetition of a single monosyllabic word, as suggested by the Cloud of Unknowing ; the method used in Centering Prayer ; the use of Lectio Divina ; etc.

Semipelagians are warmly praised ( Fastidiosus, lvi, p. 80 ; Cassian, lxi, 81 ; Faustus of Riez, lxxxv, 89 ); full Pelagians ( Pelagius himself, xlii, 77 ; Julian of Eclanum, xlv, 77 ) are heretics ; Catholics are treated shabbily ( Augustine of Hippo, xxxviii, 75 ; Prosper of Aquitaine, lxxxiv, 89 ); even popes are called heretics ( Julius I, in i, 61 ).

For instance, Owen Chadwick stated that Cassian held that man can come to God without the intervention of divine grace first ; and B. B.

The ideas expressed by Cassian to which critics have pointed as examples of his alleged Semipelagianism are found in his Conferences, in book 3, the Conference of Abbot Paphnutius ; book 5, the Conference of Abbot Serapion ; and most especially in book 13, the Third Conference of Abbot Chaeremon.

The couple have three sons: Kahlil Boatright, Richard L. Spencer, III ; and Cassian Boatright.

It did not endorse Augustine entirely and, while later Catholic theologians accepted Augustine's authority, they interpreted his views in the light of writers such as Cassian.

Approximately fifteen years later, in c. 399, Cassian and Germanus fled the Anthropomorphic controversy provoked by Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, with about 300 other Origenist monks.

According to the established traditional view among scholars, Cassian is the most prominent of the representatives of the monastic movement in southern Gaul who, in about 425 gave expression to the soteriological view that much later was called Semipelagianism.

It did not endorse Augustine entirely and, while later Catholic theologians accepted Augustine's authority, they interpreted his views in the light of writers such as Cassian.

Neither Cassian nor any of his teachings have ever been directly or indirectly called into question or condemned by Eastern Orthodox, as they are considered a witness to the Orthodox position.

After the battle, the Romans quickly bridged the river, thereby prompting the Helvetii to once again send an embassy, this time led by Divico, another figure whom Caesar links to the ignominious defeat of 107 BC by calling him bello Cassio dux Helvetiorum ( i. e. “ leader of the Helvetii in the Cassian campaign ”).

Dom Plaine also traced the source of Compline back to the 4th century, finding mention of it in a passage in Eusebius and in another in St. Ambrose, and also in John Cassian.

St. John Cassian is not represented in the Philokalia except by two brief extracts, but this is most likely due to his having written in Latin.

Hence, the tradition of St John Cassian in the West concerning the spiritual practice of the hermit can be considered to be a tradition parallel to that of Hesychasm in the Orthodox Church.

* Coenobitical Institutions and Conferences of St John Cassian.

He was probably aware of the Rule written by Pachomius ( or attributed to him ); and his Rule also shows influence by the Rule of St Augustine of Hippo and the writings of Saint John Cassian.

* St. John Cassian

This is similar to the position taken in the Conferences of St. John Cassian.

" St. John Cassian

Descriptions predating the fifth and fourth centuries appear in John Cassian, in Melania the Younger, in the Peregrinatio Ætheriae, St. John Chrysostom, St. Hilary, Eusebius.

In the novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, protagonist Ignatius Reilly informs one of his professors that " St. Cassian of Imola was stabbed to death by his students with their styli.

Cassian's achievements and writings influenced St Benedict, who incorporated many of the principles into his monastic rule, and recommended to his own monks that they read the works of Cassian.

* Catholic Encyclopedia: St. John Cassian

* Catholic Online-Saints & Angels: St. John Cassian

* The Ecole Initiative: St. John Cassian

* Patron Saints Index: St. John Cassian

In October, 2008, the pastor of St. Elias, Andreas Richard Turner, was made a bishop, taking the name Mar Cassian.

Examples among the Egyptian monks of this submission to the commands of the superiors, exalted into a virtue by those who regarded the entire crushing of the individual will as a goal, are detailed by Cassian and others, e. g. a monk watering a dry stick, day after day, for months, or endeavoring to remove a huge rock immensely exceeding his powers.

It is heavily influenced by the writings of John Cassian, and shows strong affinity with the Rule of the Master.

In the monastic library at Jarrow were a number of books by theologians, including works by Basil, Cassian, John Chrysostom, Isidore of Seville, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Pope Gregory I, Ambrose of Milan, Cassiodorus, and Cyprian.

His brothers are Damian Elwes, an artist, and Cassian Elwes, a producer and agent.

Peter the Deacon gives a list of some seventy books Desiderius had copied at Monte Cassino, including works of Saint Augustine, Saint Ambrose, Saint Bede, Saint Basil, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and Cassian, the registers of Popes Felix and Leo, the histories of Josephus, Paul Warnfrid, Jordanes and Saint Gregory of Tours, the Institutes and Novels of Justinian, the works of Terence, Virgil and Seneca, Cicero's De natura deorum, and Ovid's Fasti.

About the same time John Cassian dedicated to him the treatise against Nestorius written at his request.

* + The Revd Fr Cassian Reel, OFM Cap, B. Litt., MA

Cassian is a town in Oneida County, Wisconsin, United States.

John Cassian calls it Vespertina synaxis, or Vespertina solemnitas ( P. L., XLIX, 88-9 ).