Mystic · Patristic
St. Isaac the Syrian
d. c. 700 · East Syriac mysticism
Bishop of Nineveh in the Church of the East; venerated as a saint by the Byzantine, Syriac, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches (feast 28 January), though not in the Latin calendar.
Monk of Qatar made bishop of Nineveh, who resigned after five months to return to solitude in the mountains of Khuzistan. His Ascetical Homilies teach the merciful heart that burns for all creation, even for demons; tears, stillness and the prayer that passes beyond prayer; and a God whose justice is swallowed up in love, so that Gehenna itself is a mercy and the scourge is for correction.
Why he matters: Though a bishop of a church outside the Chalcedonian communion, Isaac was translated into Greek at Mar Saba and became one of the most loved spiritual writers of the Byzantine and Russian East (Dostoevsky's Zosima quotes him); Eastern Catholics read him as a Father, and Latin readers find in him the purest voice of divine mercy.
Where to be careful
His Second Part teaches an explicit hope that all, including the devil, will be saved, and that Gehenna is temporary; the Church does not share this certainty, and he belonged to a church that did not accept Ephesus.
Reading
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The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the SyrianSt. Isaac the Syrian · The “First Part” as the Greek East has always read it.
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Isaac of Nineveh: 'The Second Part', Chapters IV–XLItrans. Sebastian Brock · The newly recovered homilies, including those on the end.
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The Spiritual World of Isaac the SyrianHilarion Alfeyev · A clear thematic guide.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each question the test asks.