The Last Wonderful Thing: The icon of th Heavenly Ladder1 Dr. Elena Ene D-Vasilescu Oxford i) Description and dating of the icon of the Heavenly Ladder Jacob ‘dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28: 12). Fig. 1. Icon of the Heavenly Ladder of St John Klimakos Constantinople or Sinai, late twelfth century, Egg tempera and gold leaf on wood, primed with cloth and gesso, 41.1 x 29. 1 cm. The Holy Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai; Robin Cormack and Maria Vassilaki (eds.), Byzantium. 330- 1453, The catalogue of the exhibition Byzantium. 330-1453, 25 October 2008-22 March 2009, Royal Academy of Arts with the collaboration of the Benaki Museum in Athens, London, 2008, Cat. 323, p. 375, description p. 462 in the catalogue of the exhibition Byzantium. This is what is happening in this icon of The Heavenly or Celestial Ladder, the last ‘wonderful thing’ which a visitor to the ‘Byzantium’ exhibition at the Royal 1 In St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai: Its Monuments and their Conservation, St. Catherine Foundation, 2011, p. 40 it is mentioned that the manuscript Sinai New Finds MS MT 71, fol. 3r of St. John Climacus Ladder of Divine Ascent appears to date from the seventh century. In addition, in the Birmingham Mingana?? Collection, Syr. 637 the ‘Upper text’ is on??John Climacus’Ladder of Divine Ascent (the ‘Undertext’ is in Christian Palestinian Aramaic): 46- 47. 1 Academy saw before leaving the place. Except that on the Sinai ladder there are not only angels depicted, but also their ‘counters’ – the devil figures (Fig. 1). In the icon from Sinai a ladder with 30 rungs crosses the composition diagonally and unites earth with heaven. On a golden and luminous background the dark silhouettes of the monks caught in their struggle, helped by the chants of two choirs, capture the viewer’s eye. The mouth of Hell is at the bottom of the ladder and one of the monks is already half inside it. Other monks at the bottom right are attending the scene and are raising their arms in prayer. Some angels at the upper left are also part of the narrative, as they have a vital role to play in people’s ascension to Heaven. As shown by Robin Cormack and Maria Vassilaki in the catalogue of the exhibition, “Their haloes resemble spinning wheels, as they are polished to reflect light. This technique of burnishing is a characteristic of several icons produced at Sinai”2 The authors continue, emphasizing further the similarity between the icon under discussion and another particular icon, also from St Catherine: “The back of the icon [of Heavenly Ladder; Fig. 3] shows crosses within medallions, a decoration found in other twelfth-century icons from Sinai, with which this icon has been connected in style, such as the icon of the Annunciation” 3 [Fig. 4]. In addition to this example, the icon of the Crucifixion (Fig. 5) and the icon with the Miracle at Chonai (Fig. 6), both from the Monastery of St Catherine, can be used to illustrate the similarity of the technique of burnishing, and of the icons themselves. In this latter case, however, the cross on the back is not identical to those of the back of the previous two icons, and the medallions are absent. 2 Robin Cormack and Maria Vassilaki (eds.), Byzantium. 330 – 1453, The catalogue of the exhibition Byzantium. 330 – 1453, 25 October 2008 – 22 March 2009, Royal Academy of Arts with the collaboration of the Benaki Museum in Athens, London, 2008, p. 462. 3 Cormack and Vasilaki (eds.), Byzantium. 330 – 1453, p. 462. 2 Fig. 4. Annunciation icon. Front and Back. St Catherine Monastery, Late 12th century. 61x42.2 cm, Tempera on wood, Thelma K. Thomas, “Christianity in the Islamic East”, in Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixom (eds.), The Glory of Byzantium: Arts and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A. D. 843-1261, Exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 11- July 6, 1997, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997, Fig. 246, p. 375 in the catalogue; description on pp. 375-376. In the book by Konstantinos A. Manafis (ed.), Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Ekdotike Athenon, Athens, 1990, Fig. 29, p. 160, description on p. 107. This similarity, especially with the icon of Annunciation, is the major factor in the latest dating of the Ladder icon. Other attempts placed it to a somewhat earlier period. Thus, Weitzmann says: “One cannot avoid the impression that the icon of the Scala Paradisi, the Ladder to Heaven, must have been copied directly from the title- page miniature in one of the many manuscripts of the treatise on that subject by John Climacus. The monks clamber zealously up the thirty rungs of the ladder, corresponding to the thirty virtues treated by John in an equal number of chapters. Their ascent is impeded by the temptations of vices, personified by tiny devils who try to cause the stumbling monks to fall. Only one has virtually succeeded in reaching the goal of Heaven; this is John Climacus himself, the author of the treatise and the abbot of the monastery on Mount Sinai. Directly behind him follows a certain Archbishop Anthony, who most likely was another abbot of Sinai, presumably at the period when the icon was made, which means sometime during the eleventh to twelfth centuries.”4 4 Kurt Weitzmann, “l. Sinai Peninsula. Icon Painting from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century”, in Kurt Weitzmann, Manolis Chatzidakis, Krsto Miatev, Svetozar Radojčić, Icons from South Eastern Europe and Sinai, Thames and Huston, London, 1968; Belgrade, Sofia, 1966, p. Xlll. In describing this icon the authors use J.R. Martin’s study The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladderof John Climacus, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1954, which we will also use further in the paper. 3  Weitzmann goes further, and in the process of describing the icon, he brings also elements to justify why he attributed to it such a date: “The quality of this icon as a work of art is revealed in the animated rhythm of the climbing monks, in the mixture of typified and individual characterization in the heads, and, not least, in the subtle colour range of the monks’ garments. This range is rich in nuances and at the same time subdued, in contrast to the gay light colours of the angels’ robes. The broad expanse of gold background, against which the devils stand out sharply in silhouette, is itself a daring feat.” 5 It seems a natural mental tendency for people to try to posit chronologically everything around them, “[a]lthough the value of finding a chronology for icons ought to be a subject of controversy and debate”, as Cormack shows6. As he states, “While it was clearly an intention to make icons look ‘timeless’ and while this was indeed achieved, this very success may make the context of production necessary to find.” It is important to know, says Cormack, “How was timelessness achieved at different times”.7 As regarding the place where the icon of the Heavenly Ladder might have been painted, Weitzmann thinks that: “The subject matter of the icon suggests that it may have been made, not at, but for Mount Sinai; the icons that we can be fairly certain were executed there are rougher in style. Thus it seems likely that the icon was made as a gift for the Sinai monastery, and we must again assume that Constantinople was the most likely place of origin.”8 Other specialists dated this icon by associating it with other icons of the period. This is what Doula Mouriki does. She also considers that the icon which is the 5 Weitzmann, “l. Sinai Peninsula. Icon Painting from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century”, pp. Xlll-XlV. 6 Robin Cormack, Painting the Soul. Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds, Reaktion Books, London, 1997, p. 21. 7 Cormack, Painting the Soul, p. 21. 8 Weitzmann, „Icon Painting from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century”, p. XlV. 4 topic of this paper was painted at the same time with the icon of Annunciation, and with other two icons from St Catherine on Sinai Peninsula. She also opts for a Constantinopolitan hand in the painting of the Celestial Ladder. This is what Mouriki states: “ The Sinai icon of the Annunciation has been generally acknowledged as a masterpiece of Late Comnenian art, despite the alteration in colour caused by excessive use of varnish in a much later period, which resulted in the loss of the brilliance of colours and the delicate gradation of tones. A rare iconographic element is the Child, rendered in grisaille within a transparent mandorla at the breast of the Virgin, according to the scheme of prolepsis, since the Annunciation prepared the way for the Incarnation. The waterscape with its impressive variety of animal life remains a striking peculiarity of the iconography of the scene. Nevertheless, the hint of water appears from the twelfth century onwards in a few examples which depict a fountain. The inclusion of the stream in the Sinai icon has been attributed mainly to the influence of hymnography, which addresses the Virgin as the ‘Source of Life’, but also to rhetorical texts that praise the coming of Spring, which coincides with the date of the feast of the Annunciation (March 25). The icon might have been painted by a Constantinopolitan artist at the Monastery, as is suggested by the technical handling of the gold and by the intricate painted design on the reverse, also found on the icon of the Heavenly Ladder, a tetraptych with the Dodekaorton [Fig. 7 below], and another tetraptych including the Last Judgement, the Dodekaorton, two scenes from the Life of the Virgin, and saints; all works might have been painted at Sinai.”9 Regarding the Tetraptych, Mouriki enlists other stylistic characteristics to help her in dating it to the twelfth century. They consist in the “dynamic quality that pervades the 9 Doula Mouriki „Icons from the 12th to the 15th century”, in Konstantinos A. Manafis (ed.), Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Ekdotike Athenon, Athens, 1990, pp. 107 – 108; the fig. numbers there refers to the numbering in the book Sinai. Treasures… 5 figures in their poses, gestures, facial expressions, and in the drapery.”10 Further iconographical elements which are common to other icons of that century are the ‘hanging’ garden behind the Virgin (this is common with that in the icon of Annunciation), the ladder which leads to it (it seems that the ladder was a topic of the time), etc. Moreover, she not only dates the Heavenly Ladder icon to the twelfth century in general but, bringing more evidence to support her opinion, she is more precise and concludes that it was painted in the late part of this century: “The icon of the Heavenly Ladder belongs to the group of didactic works that derived elements from the monastic literature which blossomed in the Monastery of Sinai from an early period. A major author was John Climacus, the seventh-century Abbot whose name is derived from his well-known treatise for the moral perfection of monks, the Heavenly Ladder. In order to reach the goal of heaven, the monks must acquire thirty virtues which are presented in metaphorical form as the equivalent number of rungs of a ladder. The composition on this panel is the earliest extant pictorial example of this metaphor for the code of perfection of monastic life on a portable icon. The struggle of the monks for moral perfection and the resulting heavenly salvation is demonstrated to be difficult and often unattainable. The only certain victors are John Climacus himself at the top of the ladder and the Archbishop Antonios of Sinai behind him. The dematerialization of the figures in the broad expanse of the gold background, which interacts with the brown, olive, and ochre of the monks’ garments, is the main stylistic characteristic of the icon. The psychological intensity on the faces and the agitated drapery with the wavering highlights on the robes argue for the dating of the icon to the late 12th century. Moreover, the decoration on the reverse side of the 10 Mouriki „Icons from the 12th to the 15th century”, in Manafis (ed.), Sinai: Treasures…, p. 108. 6 panel is of the same type as that found on the icon of the Annunciation, which can be dated to the late 12th century on more definite stylistic criteria.”11 It seems plausible that indeed the icon of the Heavenly Ladder was painted in late twelfth century: the dynamism and the movement within it are specific to a later period of Byzantine icon-painting than the eleventh century, initially thought as the date of the icon by Weitzmann; especially the icons with which it is associated, as for example the Tetraptych in Fig. 6, have almost the characteristics of Giotto’s paintings as it is visible, for instance, in the movement of Angel Gabriel while delivering the ‘good news’ to the Virgin, the gestures of Christ in front of Lazarus’ tomb, and of the figures around him in the baptism scene. All those elements point to a date of late twelfth century. 11 Konstantinos A. Manafis (ed.), Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Ekdotike Athenon, Athens, 1990, p. 107. 7  ii) Connection of the Heavenly Ladder icon with the written text of Scala Paradisi Starting with Jacob’s vision mentioned in the beginning of the paper, the theme of the ladder as a metaphor for the spiritual progress of a person, especially one who has chosen the monastic life, come up from time to time in iconography after St John Klimakos (c. 579 – 650), Figs. 8 - 9, wrote his Scala Paradisi treatise in the seventh century12. John was a monk at Sinai, who later became the abbot of the monastery of St Catherine. There is no evidence that he was ever ordained as a priest.13His feast is on the fourth Sunday of Lent. I have to admit with Martin that the theme of the ladder in iconography is not as frequent as others. It was first developed in illuminated manuscripts with this popular text from the eleventh century onwards, as Weitzmann quoted above, also testifies. Its spread after the eleventh century took place especially in connection with the attempt of St Symeon the Theologian (c. 965- c. 1040) to revive mysticism in Constantinople about 1000. Both Martin, in his works mentioned here, and Hans Belting draw attention to this fact, and they based their statements on Symeon’s writing in, for example, his Homily on Confession14, and on the ‘Vie de Syméon”, written by his disciple and biographer, Nicetas Stethatus (c. 1000 - ?). Nicetas was a monk at the Studios Monastery – from were St Symeon was virtually expelled. 15 12 Joannis Climaci, Scala Paradisi, PG88, 632-666. 13 The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russel, Introd. Kallistos Ware, SPCK, London, 1982, p. 6. 14 Symeon the New Theologian, “Homily on Confession”, in K. Hall (ed.), Enthusiasmus und Bussgewalt beim griechischen Mönchtum; eine Studie zu Symeon dem Neuen Theologen, Leipzig, 1898 , pp. 110-127. 15 I. Hausherr and G. Horn (eds.), “Un grand mystique byzantine. Vie de Syméon le Nouveau Théologien par Nicétas Stéthatos”, Orientalia Christiana, Xll, 1928, no. 45 (usually known as ‘Vie de Syméon”). Hausherr, in his Introduction to this book, on p. XXlll, gives this date for the birth of Nicetas. For St Symeon see also V. Laurent, “Un nouveau monument hagiographique; la vie de Syméon le Nouveau Théologien”, Echos d’orient, XXVll, 1929, pp. 431- 443. Martin speaks at length about St Symeon in his The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder…, pp. 156- 160, and Belting in his Likeness and Presence, p. 272. 8 Among the manuscripts which contain the motif of the ladder within them there is one in Sinai itself: cod. 423 (Fig. 10), one on Mount Athos in Vatopedi Monastery, Cod. 376 (Fig. 11), one at the Vatican, Gr. 394 (Fig. 12), one in Washington (Freer Gallery of Art. De Ricci 10. Fol. 2: The Heavenly Ladder), one in Moscow (Hist. Mus. Cod. Gr. 146. Fol. 278v: The Heavenly Ladder), one in Milan. (Bibl. Ambros. Cod. G 20 sup. Fol. 212v: Table of Contents), one in Paris (Bibli. Nat. Cod. Coislin 88. Fol. 12v; Fig. 13 below), etc. The icon here discussed was painted no long after the moment when the ladder motif entered the iconography as a sign of the inventiveness which the monastic Byzantine iconography began displaying around the beginning of the eleventh century. (According to Martin, another contemporary sign of this creativity was the Fromance of Barlaam and Joasaph which glorify the monastic life16). Manuscripts might have been illustrated as early as the ninth century, as for example the Apophthegmata Patrum (Egyptian desert fathers’ writings)17, but the topic of the ladder came with the new spirit in iconography.18 Fig. 10. The Heavenly Ladder. Sinai. Cod. 423, Fol. 10v, John Rupert Martin, The illustation of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1954, p. 151., p. Vll, fig. 23 in the respective book. 16 John Rupert Martin, The illustation of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1954, p. 151. 17 Migne, PG, 65. 18 Martin, The illustration…, p. 161. 9 Fig. 11. The Heavenly Ladder. Athos. Vatopedi. Cod. 376. Fol. 421 v. Martin, The illustation of the Heavenly Ladder..., p. V, fig. 17 in the respective book. Fig. 12. The Heavenly Ladder. Vatican. Cod. Gr. 394. Fol. F v; Martin, The illustation of the Heavenly Ladder..., p. XVl, fig. 67 there. Fig. 13. Heavenly Ladder. Paris. Bibli. Nat. Cod. Coislin 88. Fol. 12v: Table of Contents, Martin, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder…, p. Vl, Fig. 19 in the respective book. Beyond the fullness of the message the Sinai icon of the Heavenly Ladder conveys, it is a beautiful piece originally meant to add to the beauty of the Liturgy. Belting sees a rhetorical structure in this icon, expressed “both in the ordered advance of the rising monks and in the wild disorder of the falling monks. The double 10 movement, couched in a dramatic contrast, fills the space between heaven and earth, which is inhabited, on both ends, by angels and monks – or, to use a metaphor of the time, by heavenly and earthly angels […] The underlying rhetorical structure, based on antithesis and hyperbole, here is transferred into a convincing visual form.19 However, in general he sees the capacity of icons to play such a role in a manner which is disputable. He affirms that: “As soon as the icon had become an object of rhetorical ekphrasis, it revealed how much it was at a disadvantage to church poetry and sermons as a narrative medium.”20 His statement is not true because the icon has not replaced anything in the Church; it has added to the richness of its Liturgy, which has kept the sermons and the hymns as its core. John Klimakos’ treatise Scala Paradisi - The Ladder of Divine Ascent or of the Virtues, as it is also known- is divided into 30 chapters, as was the age of Christ before baptism. The text speaks of the vices that a monk has to avoid and of the virtues that he has to acquire in order to reach God. The thirty steps of the ladder which a monk has to climb are as follows: [l. (The Break with the World): with three steps] 1. Renunciation (of the World)], 2. Detachment, 3. Exile; [ll .The practice of the Virtues (‘Active Life’)] (i) Fundamental virtues 4. Obedience 5. Penitence 6. Remembrance of Death 7. Sorrow [(ii) The struggle against the passions (Passions that Are Predominantly Non-physical] 8. Anger 9. Malice 10. Slander 11. Talkativeness 12. Falsehood 13. Despondency (b) Physical and Material Passions 14. Gluttony 15. Lust 16 – 17. Avarice (c) Non-Physical Passions (cont.) 18-20 Insensitivity 21. Fear 22. Vainglory 23. Pride (also Blasphemy) (iii) Higher Virtues of the “Active Life” 24. Simplicity 25. Humility 26. Discernment; [lll. Union with God (Transition to the “Contemplative Life”) 27. Stillness 28. Prayer 29. Dispassion 30. 19 Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of Image before the Era of Art, trans. Edmund Jephcott, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1994, p. 273. 20 Belting, Likeness and Presence, p. 272. 11 Love.21 In same of the manuscripts the name of the vices and virtues were written on the corresponding rung, as for example in the Vienna Manuscript of the Ladder (Fig. 14), but also in Cod. Coislin 262. Fol. lr: Title Page. Paris (Fig. 15 below), and Cod. 368. Fol. 178v: The Heavenly Ladder (Vatopedi. Athos) [Fig. 21 in Martin’s book]. Fig. 14. The Heavely Ladder. Vienna, Nationalbibl., Cod. Theolog. Gr. 207. Fol. 2r, Martin, The illustation of the Heavenly Ladder..., p. Vll, fig. 22 in the respective book. Fig. 15. The Heavely Ladder. Paris. Bibli. Nat., Cod. Coislin 262. Fol. lr: Title Page, Martin, The illustation of the Heavenly Ladder..., p. Vl, fig. 20 in the respective book. On the top of the ladder is St John, followed by the abbot of the monastery Antonios, who may have commissioned this icon. Their names are written in red majuscule letters on the golden background; this is how we identify them. Christ, half-length, appears from a quadrant, which represents heaven, and is blessing John, who is reaching him. St John and the Abbot are the only ones who have their names 21 I have summarised some of the text of Joannis Climaci, Scala Paradisi, PG88, 632-666; John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russel, Introd. Kallistos Ware, SPCK, London, 1982; Ioan Scărarul, Scara Raiului precedată de Viaţa pe scurt a lui Ioan Scolasticul şi urmată de Cuvîntul către Păstor, trans., introduction and notes by Nicolae Corneanu, Amacord Publishing House, Timişoara, 1994. 12 written above their heads in the icon. Also in a manuscript from Athos (Athos. Vatopedi. Cod. 368. Fol. 178v), the name of the monk who arrives at the upper end of the ladder is indicated as being that of St John Klimakos (Fig. 16). Fig. 16. The Heavenly Ladder. Athos. Vatopedi. Cod. 368. Fol. 178v, Martin, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder, p. VI, fig. 21 in the respective book. Do these works state that the word (the written word in this case) by naming people, saves their souls? Are they speaking about the saving power of the word? From manuscripts the ladder topic passed to portable icons, and from there in printed works, and also, in the 16th and 17th centuries, in the frescoes which decorate the churches’ walls, as seen in the examples of Suceviţa (Fig. 17) and Râşca Monasteries (Fig. 18) in Moldova, Romania, still visible today, and also in Docheiarious Monastery, on Mount Athos (Fig. 19). Fig.17. Sucevita Monastery, fresco painting (1692-1702) by Constantinos, Ioan and their (Brancovan) School 13  Fig. 18. Rȃşca Monastery. The Heavenly Ladder; personal photo, 2009. It is also to be found at Dobrovăţ, Cetăţuia (in Iaşi), St. Elias [Sfântul Ilie] (in Suceava), both in Moldova, but also in Wallachia, for example on the walls of the church in Hurezu Monastery, where the frescoes were painted between 1692 and 1702 by Constantinos, Ioan and their (Brâncovan) school. That happened in parallel with the text of the „Ladder” being copied in the scriptoria of these and other monasteries; at Hurezu, for example, a copy was made in 1773. Today the text of the Heavenly Ladder is still read in many Orthodox monasteries during the Lent22, as for example, on Mount Athos, where some fragments of the Triologion contain some of the text of the Heavenly Ladder.23 Klimakos’ ladder model has entered the folklore, and in some countries it has concretised in various customs which take place especially when a person dies (when money are put in the coffin for the departed to pay each step of the ladder to the other world, in the fact that the bread people share at the funerary meal is shaped in the form of a ladder, etc.).24 22 The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Introd. Kallistos Ware, p. 1. 23 Ioan Scărarul, Scara Raiului, p. 66. 24 Ioan Scărarul, Scara Raiului, p. 64. 14  This model was influential not only, as shown above, within a strictly religious context – on „the spiritual imagination of the Christian East”25 and on St Symeon’s mysticism mentioned earlier- , but also on literary works in general, as for example, on Dante’s Divina Commedia.26 Fig. 19. The Heavenly Ladder, Docheiarious Monastery, Stylianos G. Papadopoulos (ed.), Parousia: I.M. Docheiarious, Aghios Oros, IMD, 2001, Fig. 13, p. 304 in the respective book.27 The passing of the author/the main character, accompanied by Vergilius, from the Inferno to the Purgatory, and then to the Paradise in searching for peace symbolises the idea of a continual progress of the soul, and looks like a climbing of a mountain or of a ladder, as a progress towards perfection, i.e. towards God. 25 John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Introd. Kallistos Ware, p. 11. 26 Ioan Scărarul, Scara Raiului precedată de Viaţa pe scurt a lui Ioan Scolasticul şi urmată de Cuvîntul către Păstor, trans., introduction and notes by Nicolae Corneanu, pp.62 - 64 . 27 Thanks to Dr Veronica Della Dora from Bristol University, UK, for indicating this source to me. 15  Bibliography Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of Image before the Era of Art, trans. Edmund Jephcott, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1994. Cormack, R., Painting the Soul. Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds, Reaktion Books, London, 1997 Cormack, R. and M. Vassilaki (eds.), Byzantium. 330 – 1453, The catalogue of the exhibition Byzantium. 330 – 1453, 25 October 2008 – 22 March 2009, Royal Academy of Arts with the collaboration of the Benaki Museum in Athens, London, 2008 Evans, H. C. and W. D. Wixom (eds.), The Glory of Byzantium: Arts and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A. D. 843-1261, Exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 11- July 6, 1997, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997 Ioan Scărarul, Scara Raiului, trans., introduction N. Corneanu, Amacord Publishing House, Timişoara, 1994 Joannis Climaci, Scala Paradisi, PG88 John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russel, Introd. Kallistos Ware, SPCK, London, 1982 Hausherr I. and G. Horn (eds.), “Un grand mystique byzantine. Vie de Syméon le Nouveau Théologien par Nicétas Stéthatos”, Orientalia Christiana, Xll, 1928, no. 45 Manafis, K. A. (ed.), Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Ekdotike Athenon, Athens, 1990 Martin, J.R., The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladderof John Climacus, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1954 Laurent, V., “Un nouveau monument hagiographique; la vie de Syméon le Nouveau Théologien”, Echos d’orient, XXVll, 1929. Papadopoulos, S. G. (ed.), Parousia: I.M. Docheiarious, Aghios Oros, IMD, 2001 Symeon the New Theologian, “Homily on Confession”, in K. Hall (ed.), Enthusiasmus und Bussgewalt beim griechischen Mönchtum; eine Studie zu Symeon dem Neuen Theologen, Leipzig, 1898 Weitzmann, K., M. Chatzidakis, K. Miatev, S. Radojčić, Icons from South Eastern Europe and Sinai, Thames and Huston, London, 1968; Belgrade, Sofia, 1966 16