Symeonis Junioris (949-1022 AD)
• Symeonis Junioris (949-1022 AD). Symeon the New Theologian (sometimes spelled "Simeon") (Greek:
Συμεὼν ὁ Νέος Θεολόγος; 949–1022 AD) was a Byzantine Christian monk
• By these and similar means we are fully assured and convinced that it is God himself who has lifted the
darkness of [PAGE 115] ignorance away from us; the same who made all things, who also created us
by lifting us from the clay of the earth, who graced us with mind and reason and rational soul, who has
made us in his own image and likeness. It is he who has allowed us to see dim realities which are
beyond us, as though in a shadow, by analogy with the things that are at hand. From these things we
have learned, and by them we see, and from them we believe, that just as he made our mind, our soul,
and our immanent rationality at the same time he formed our bodies - for when we say that 'God
formed man, taking clay from the earth, and breathed on his face the breath of life, and it became for
him a living soul.' (Gen 1:26) we show that our mind and reason existed at the same time as the soul;
none of these pre-existed or was presupposed by the others, and the three together are one, and were
given to us as one single breath of life - well, just as in this case none of the parts pre-existed or was
presupposed by the others because there was a unity of essence and nature, so too none of the
persons of the holy Trinity pre-existed the others since there is one and the same essence and
glory. The three-personed God, the maker of the image, never had one of the persons preexisting
the others. The three together are one very God, and in the same way the one is
eternally three. We therefore confess and believe this, and we witness to all others, that it is not rash
to speak and inquire about the things of God, namely that God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, the holy Trinity in whose name we were baptized. We are assured of this by the powers and gifts
of the Spirit which come down on us as well as by the sacred dogmas and the Gospels themselves.
(Simeon. The First Theological Discourse. McGuckin, 1982, p. 114-115)
• [Hymn 33] On theology: that those who have kept conformity in the image of God, trample on evil
powers of the Prince of Darkness; while the others, living by their passions, are under his power and
under his empire.
• Light is the Father, light is the Son, light is the Holy Spirit.
• Beware what you're going to say, my brother, watch so you don't fall.
• The three in fact are a single Light, unique, not separated but unified in three Persons, without confusion.
• God, in fact, is perfectly indivisible by nature, and by his essence he truly exceeds all essence.
• It is not divided in either its power, its form, its glory or its aspect: it lets itself be seen entirely, in fact,
like a simple light.
• The Persons are One, the three hypostases are One.
• The three are indeed in the One or better the Three are One.
• The Three are one power, the three are one glory, the three are one nature, essence and
divinity.
