Saint John of Karpathos is a rather mysterious figure. As The Synaxarion says, “Very little information has been preserved about the life of this holy ascetic.”[1] We do not know with certainty when he lived; we do not know with certainty where he lived; and we do not know with certainty the details of his life. We know that he was a monk, since his writings make that obvious. His writings also tell us that he was educated, since he is familiar with ancient philosophy and history, and with philosophical terminology that he uses effortlessly. It is believed that he came from the Greek Island of Karpathos, one of the Dodecanese Islands, situated between Crete and Rhodes. It is believed by some scholars that he became Bishop of Karpathos, that he lived during the time of the Sixth Oecumenical Synod (that is, in the seventh century) and that he both participated in that Synod (which condemned the heresy of Monothelitism) and signed its Acts.[2] His works were known to Saint Photios the Great, who mentions him in his Bibliotheke (Library) or Myriobiblion (Myriad of Books). The dearth of biographical information notwithstanding, the Saint is held in high regard and a number of his writings are included in the Philokalia.

        Saint John of Karpathos is best known for his work, Consolations to the Monks of India, also known as For the Encouragement of the Monks in India. This work is composed of one hundred passages, or paragraphs, on monastic spirituality. The author calls it a “century of spiritual texts”[3] which he “gathered from various sources.”[4] Apparently, a body of Christian monastics in faraway India (some say it was actually Ethiopia, since at that time that country was often referred to as “India”) wrote to the Saint asking for some spiritually edifying words. His Consolations was his response to their request.

        After a brief introduction, Saint John of Karpathos begins his treatise with the following paragraph:

1. “The King of all reigns for ever, and there is neither beginning nor end to His kingdom. To those, then, who choose to serve Him and who for His sake strive to attain holiness, He grants a reward infinitely greater than that given by any earthly ruler. The honours of this present life, however splendid, come to an end when we die; but the honours bestowed by God on those whom He regards as worthy are incorruptible and so endure for ever.”[5]
   

        That passage is, of course, elementary knowledge to the Christian and although it is elementary, it is of the greatest value to remind ourselves continuously, even daily, of its truth. It is, moreover, reflective of the maxim spoken by Christ God: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”[6] The things of this world are temporary; the things of the next everlasting. Therefore, we must seek the good things of the next life over those of this life.

        Perhaps the most oft-quoted passage from the Saint’s Consolations is this:

1. “Do all in your power not to fall, for the strong athlete should not fall. But if you do fall, get up again at once and continue the contest. Even if you fall a thousand times …, rise up again each time, and keep on doing this until the day of your death. For it is written, 'If a righteous man falls down seven times' - that is, repeatedly throughout his life - 'seven times shall he rise again' [Prov. 24:16]”.[7]
   

He adds in the very next paragraph the closely related thought, “It is more serious to lose hope than to sin.[8]” While this counsel is specifically directed by the Holy Father to monks, it is in truth of immeasurable value to all Christians.

        All of us commit sin. As the passage from the funeral service says, “there is no man who liveth and sinneth not.” Our wise Holy Mother, the Church, by the command of Christ God, offers us a remedy to sin through the Holy Mystery of Confession during which, if true repentance is present in the sinner, sins are forgiven and a remedial epitimia, designed as a cure for the soul, given. There is no sin—there is no sin—which, if confessed with repentance, cannot be forgiven.

        Yet, there are some who imagine that there is no road back, that their sins have blocked that road, so to speak. That mindset is something that the Evil One encourages. Before one commits a sin, Satan strives to convince the potential sinner that the sin is only a minor thing, not worthy of concern. Once the sin is committed, however, he shifts his strategy, striving then to convince the sinner that the sin is of such huge concern that it is beyond forgiveness. Thus, the sinner is trapped, should he be so foolish as to listen to Satan’s venomous direction. The sinner thus slips into despair, which is defined as a complete loss of hope, and a loss of the belief in God’s mercy.

        One could say that despair is to the Christian what defeatism is to an army commander on the field of battle. If a general, facing a decisive battle, enters the conflict believing that he cannot possibly win, then, of course, his army is likely doomed before the first shot is fired. Our hypothetical general’s lack of faith in himself and his army determines the outcome of the battle—“self-fulfilling prophecy,” as the saying goes. In contrast, a general electrified with faith in his judgment and his army, and determined to win, will often prevail even when he faces a superior foe. History is replete with examples of that.

        Our own General George Washington had, according to conventional wisdom, no chance of victory in the American War for Independence. The forces of the British Empire so vastly outweighed his own that, had he been a defeatist, he would have been finished practically from the start. One could accurately say that, at certain times in that war, Washington’s army was a defeated army—disease-ridden, downhearted, poorly equipped, poorly clothed, poorly fed, but never poorly led. And, at the end of it all, the General’s faith in ultimate victory prevailed and he had the honor of receiving the surrender of the vastly superior British forces of General Lord Cornwallis.

        Similarly, we can use the metaphor of the athlete, as does Saint John of Karpathos in the aforementioned quotation. At the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens, the Greeks did poorly in the track and field events. Few thought that they would do well in the twenty-six mile marathon race. But young Spyridon Loues was a determined athlete, and, despite the odds against him, won the race for Greece. Imagine an athlete running a marathon race. Imagine that, unlike Spiridon Loues, this athlete convinces himself beforehand of the certainty that he will lose, that he has no chance of victory. Or, imagine that near the beginning of the race, the athlete stumbles and falls, and then immediately gives up and goes home. He may as well have not even begun. In fact, he may as well give up running at all, in any races. The athlete’s lack of hope colors the outcome; he thinks that he is a born loser and thus becomes precisely that—a loser. It is not for nothing that despair is considered among the most terrible of sins, terrible because it dooms the struggler before any real struggling has taken place. The Saint writes that “It is more serious to lose hope than to sin.”[9] Indeed so, since to lose hope compounds the initial sin with another sin, a sin of tremendous magnitude, a sin that, unless overcome, condemns the sinner since he, the sinner, surrenders to the delusion that God is powerless to help him and that God is deficient in His mercy. God is not powerless to help and God is not deficient in His mercy.

        The Holy Prophet and King, David, of the Old Testament, the author of the Book of Psalms, committed the sins of adultery, with Bathsheba, and then ordered the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. Adultery! Murder! Mortal sins! Capital crimes! Yet, while he could easily have given up hope after committing such horrifying sins, he did not. He did not despair but instead repented of his sins and, as a consequence, became one of the great Saints of the Old Testament. God did not abandon him. God did not abandon him, and God will never abandon us, whatever failings we may have, so long as we do not abandon God through the loss of hope and trust.

        “There is no man that liveth and sinneth not.” If we sin let us never capitulate. Christians do not capitulate! Christians are courageous! Christians fight on! Repentance and salvation are ever forthcoming! If these truths are always in the forefront of our minds, then we cannot fail.

        And so, it is essential that we remember the wise counsel of Saint John of Karpathos: “Do all in your power not to fall, for the strong athlete should not fall. But if you do fall, get up again at once and continue the contest. Even if you fall a thousand times..., rise up again each time, and keep on doing this until the day of your death.” [10]

[1] The Synaxarion, Vol. 6, p. 605.

[2] The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Vol. II, p. 1065.

[3] Philokalia, Vol. 1, p. 298.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] St. Mark 8:36.

[7] Philokalia, Vol. I, p. 318.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Philokalia, Vol. I, p. 318.