In our modern times, all who are baptized and chrismated are called "illumined" without exception. It would seem almost unthinkable to most people to even challenge this notion. It is critically important that this be examined based on the witness of the saints.
What is illumination? And what are its fruits?
Let's first start with some definitions.
We know there to be only one patristic definition of illumination. This illumination is always connected with noetic prayer.
Illumination (ϕώτισις):
Closely connected with noetic prayer, illumination of the nous occurs when the heart is purified from the passions, the nous returns within the heart, and the prayer operates unceasingly.
— Monastic Wisdom, SAGOM, Glossary
Those who don't have noetic prayer, thus, cannot be illumined. The majority of baptized Orthodox Christians do not have noetic prayer, nor claim to have it.
In the state of illumination we have noetic worship.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Patristic Theology
Moreover, many baptized Orthodox Christians don't leave relics behind.
Holy relics are the result of illumination. He who reaches the state of illumination reaches the vision of God in the next life, or even in this life. And he leaves sacred relics, which are fragrant, and so on.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Empirical Dogmatics
Consequently, if we baptized Christians are all temples of the Holy Spirit, as modern Orthodox theologians claim, we should all leave behind holy relics and become saints when we depart from this life for the Lord. But that does not happen.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Patristic Theology
In summary, many baptized Orthodox do not have noetic prayer, do not leave holy relics behind, and thus, are not illumined, according to these definitions.
Baptism does not always imply illumination
Besides the simple examination of the fruits of illumination, we have clear scriptural and patristic witness that not all baptized Orthodox are illumined, as St. Cyril of Jerusalem points out:
Simon the magician had been baptised in the name of Christ, however he had not yet received the baptism of the Spirit. For this reason, St. Cyril of Jerusalem says: "He was baptised, but not illumined. And while he put his body into the water, he did not enlighten his heart with the Spirit." Obviously healing is in progress, even after the baptism in water, until the person receives the baptism of Spirit, which is the illumination of the nous, when he becomes a Temple of the All-Holy Spirit.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition
Thus, baptism is only connected with illumination in the sense that someone obtains baptism of the Spirit and illumination of the nous. It is absolutely not a given, simply due to their baptism of water.
The remaining text will offer many citations in favor of this view, along with covering some finer points.
Purification must come before illumination
Baptism in the patristic witness only conveys illumination when the person being baptized goes through the stage of purification first. There is no other way.
...The Lord first purifies, and then He illumines... So whoever would like to be illumined by God must first be purified of the passions by the commandments that make one godlike. 'For where purification is present, there is effulgence (says Gregory the Theologian in his "Discourse on Theophany"); for without the first, the second is not given. If someone seeks to be illumined before being purified, he labors in vain and without benefit.
— St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, The Way of the Feasts, vol. 1, p. 255 [in Greek].]
It is necessary for our vessel—here I call the mind, heart, and body of man the vessel of God’s grace—to be purified for the acceptance and preservation of the spiritual gift given by holy baptism. This vessel must not only be purified, but examined diligently, lest there be some defect, such as a crack, so that the defect can be mended carefully. If the defects are not mended, then the living water poured into the vessel by Holy Baptism will not remain in the vessel.
— St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, The Refuge, Chapter 21
Therefore, this is why someone's purification MUST precede baptism.
We know very well from our Tradition that purification always precedes Baptism, and that with Holy Baptism and especially with Chrismation the Catechumen has attained illumination. This is why Baptism itself is called illumination and Chrismation is also called Confirmation - since it evidences that through Baptism and Chrismation the person has become a member of the Body of Christ and a Temple of the Holy Spirit.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Entering the Orthodox Church
The entire purpose of catechism is to prepare for illumination by first going through the stage of purification.
Catechism was a journey towards purification, so that once purified the person would be baptised, chrismated and become a temple of the All-Holy Spirit. From this purification of his heart, he then had to attain illumination and theosis.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Entering the Orthodox Church
This helps us understand the following aspects of the catechumenate in the context of the early Church:
- Catechism generally should be long, so that purification can be attained: "Catechumens shall continue to hear the word for 3 years. But if a man is keen, and perseveres well in the matter, the time shall not be judged, but only his conduct” — St. Hippolytus, The Apostolic Tradition https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61614/61614-h/61614-h.htm
- A spiritual father determined an individual was ready for baptism if they achieved purification of their nous.
- The spiritual father himself was naturally illumined (noetic prayer), to be able to discern this unswervingly.
- Catechism was therefore never some arbitrary set amount of prescribed delay till baptism (6 months - 1 year) as it is today .
- The catechumenate was never about attending a specific amount of services, reading a certain number of books, learning about the faith, learning how to cross oneself, etc. These were not goals in themselves, but tools to assist in our first and primary goal of theosis: purification.
Is it any wonder that we, as baptized Orthodox Christians, do not have the fruits of illumination? Especially when many of us are completely unaware of what purification even is?
A church sanctuary, for example, might hold three hundred Orthodox Christians. Of that number, however, only five are in a state of illumination, while the rest of them are not. The rest of them have not even the slightest idea what purification is.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Patristic Theology
The following is a succinct explanation of this entire progression, along with its appropriate fruits:
When there is purification of the nous, illumination of the nous begins. There are the newly-baptised and then there are the illuminated, and the illuminated are presumed to have constant remembrance of God. Their nous has been freed from the rational faculty, the passions and so on, and is occupied only with prayer, noetic prayer, and the remembrance of God.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Empirical Dogmatics Vol. 2
Purification leads to illumination. Illumination, then, presumes one has noetic prayer. The fact that many do not have noetic prayer clearly shows a departure from the patristic tradition.
How do we achieve purification?
We are not going to answer the "what" of purification in this text, nor is it urgent for you to understand. However, the following is critical:
In order to achieve purification of your nous, you must be guided by someone who has achieved the level of illumination and has noetic prayer. This is the true definition of who a spiritual father actually is:
The teaching about purification and illumination not only defines the central task set before the catechumen, but it is also the chief duty of his spiritual father who is to open the eyes of the catechumen's soul and to prepare him for Baptism. Naturally, a spiritual father should already be in a state of illumination in order to be able to lead others to that state and to guide them to baptism of water (unto remission of sins) and of the Spirit, which takes place when the Holy Spirit visits the heart of the baptized and illumines it.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Patristic Theology
If your spiritual father does not have noetic prayer (illumination), he is not actually a spiritual father, and thus cannot guide you to acquire something he himself has not acquired.
We cannot decontextualize the Fathers
There are those who do not like this teaching and claim that baptism is always illumination. They claim it's obvious due to how the Fathers closely associate baptism and illumination, and how it is referred to in our services. They do this regardless of any other witness presented from the Fathers and thus play a very dangerous game called "decontextualization".
Many in our times seek to decontextualize the Fathers from their larger body of teaching in order to imply something that they never taught.
If someone was baptized by an active atheist or a satanist, that person may label this baptism; however, it obviously wouldn't be according to the tradition of our Church and, ultimately, according to our saints. If this person were to then use the writings of the Fathers and say, "I am baptized, therefore according to the Fathers, I am illumined," this would be decontextualizing the teachings of the Fathers. But why, specifically? Because the context in which the Fathers spoke of baptism has been departed from, and thus it wouldn't even be baptism according to them.
Ultimately, this is the same error of those who claim baptism always grants illumination.
The context in which our Fathers related baptism and illumination is one where the sacraments are geared towards illumination.
All the sacramental services of the Church, all the Church’s prayers, the whole effort of fasting and everything else have this single aim: that all Christians should go forward together to illumination, and through illumination to glorification.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Empirical Dogmatics Vol. 2
Purification, illumination, and glorification (deification): the three stages of Theosis. If our participation in the sacramental life of the Church is geared towards Theosis, it will always be done in a way that leads us further on that path. As we saw earlier, purification must always precede illumination.
We know very well from our Tradition that purification always precedes Baptism [...]
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Entering the Orthodox Church
Without this, we decontextualize baptism from it's presuppositions, thus can no longer claim baptism unswervingly grants illumination.
When purification of the heart is not achieved (as it is patristically called for), illumination does not happen and cannot happen.
The Fathers' teaching of the relationship between baptism and illumination assumes that the tradition and teachings of the Fathers are upheld.
Another simple example: when the Fathers say that one should partake of Holy Communion, they obviously don't mean catechumens and inquirers. It doesn't matter if they don't explicitly state it in every text they talk positively about Holy Communion in. It is absolutely implied without exception. Anyone who then would advocate then for catechumens to partake of Holy Communion, due to a decontextualized examination of a specific line that says that Holy Communion is profitable, decontextualizes the Fathers.
Baptism of water and spirit
As we saw in the very first quote provided, Simon the magician received baptism of water but did not receive baptism of the Spirit. So we see that there are two kinds of baptism:
In patristic tradition there are clearly two kinds of baptism. Firstly, there is the baptism in water, and secondly, the baptism in the Spirit. Christ revealed this truth in his conversation with Nicodemos. He said "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Obviously the baptism in water and the baptism in the Spirit are mentioned here. In the Acts of the Apostles it is evident that the Christians were first baptised in water and then in Spirit. The Christians of Samaria had been baptised in water, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and then the Apostles Peter and John baptised them with the baptism in the Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles says: "Who [Peter and John], when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8:15-17). It is clear here that, although they had been baptised, nevertheless they did not have the Holy Spirit. They had not yet received the Holy Spirit and this came about when the Apostles laid their hands on the Christians' heads.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition
We have lost this understanding that baptism of the Spirit must be connected with baptism by water. This is a driving reason we are not attaining the fruits of illumination:
Baptism by water must, however, be connected with baptism by the Spirit, according to the Orthodox patristic tradition.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Entering the Orthodox Church
The baptism that we receive in the holy font must, without fail, be connected with Baptism by the Holy Spirit, which is the advent of the Holy Spirit within the heart, when prayer of the nous and heart begin. When man becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, he then automatically has ceaseless remembrance of God.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Entering the Orthodox Church
In other words, all those who are baptized, who don't attain noetic prayer shortly thereafter, are outside the patristic tradition. Their baptism of water was not connected by baptism of Spirit. Why? They did not first go through the stage of purification of their nous, which as stated earlier, is the entire purpose of catechism. Not to read a bunch of books, listen to a bunch of lectures, and watch a bunch of podcasts, and to become great academics.
Why are we talking about this? So that we may judge others? No. If catechism and the original purpose of it has been lost, that should collectively bother us. Our saints state that baptism of Spirit (illumination) is critical for the sake of our salvation. This isn't the time for indifferent aphorisms. It is time for the "good uneasiness", as St. Paisios says.
All who are not baptized of the spirit, must depart with the catechumens
We've written a fairly extensive text that contains extensive witness from our saints on the topic of catechumens departing:
https://followthesaints.com/blog/on-catechumens-departing/
One particular citation in that text is worthy of further examination:
But even if some of the faithful had fallen into some sin, which meant that they lost the Grace of the Holy Spirit and ceased noetic prayer in the heart, or denied Christ, a sign that they had lost the Holy Spirit, they were expelled from the ranks of the faithful and they stood among the penitents, which means they left the Holy Temple after the reading of the Gospel together with the catechumens.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos (https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2022/02/homilies-on-divine-liturgy-catechumens.html)
Why then do catechumens depart? Simple: they lack the necessary illumination to partake of Holy Communion. In the early Church, the faithful were asked to depart along with the catechumens for the very same reason: they lack illumination and noetic prayer.
This story makes clear that all baptized Christians originally had noetic prayer, and thus were "expected" to be amongst the faithful, unless they lost noetic prayer. This also means that all baptized Orthodox were expected (if they were to be illumined) to go through the stage of purification. And once they were illumined, they were apart of the faithful, until they lost noetic prayer, and then were prevented from taking Holy Communion. Which leads us to the next point:
Those who have not achieved illumination may not partake of Holy Communion
The departure of catechumens really at it's core, shows us that Holy Communion is only for the illumined. Likewise, the expelling of baptized Orthodox Christians from "the faithful" shows us that not all baptized Orthodox can be illumined. This means they may never obtain or, or they obtain it, but they can certainly lose it.
Communing worthily, therefore, has nothing to do with morality, or avoiding sin, or whatever other rational explanations people come up with. Communing worthily is measured strictly on the basis of whether one is at the stage of illumination or not.
This was always the case with us. According to the Fathers, the one who takes Holy Communion is in the state of illumination. When it was ascertained that he was not in the state of illumination, he did not take Holy Communion. This was the criterion. In the phrase ‘those who communicate worthily’, they did not mean by ‘worthily’ those who avoided sin and were morally correct, but those who were in the state of illumination and so took Holy Communion.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Empirical Dogmatics Vol. 2
In the early Church, ascertaining whether it was possible for a Christian to take Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ was not a matter of ascertaining whether his life was moral, but whether he was in the state of illumination.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Empirical Dogmatics Vol. 2
It is, of course, assumed that baptized Orthodox receive illumination shortly after their baptism. However, this is gauged solely by an illuminated nous. This is the sole criterion. There is absolutely no other alternative criterion to gauge this by. And if one does not have an illuminated nous, he does not partake of Holy Communion because he lacks illumination. It's that simple.
It was assumed that at Baptism they had received illumination through Chrismation, but due to the life they were leading they did not possess an illuminated nous, so they did not take Holy Communion.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Empirical Dogmatics Vol. 2
Conclusion
There are two types of baptism. Not all who are baptized of water are baptized of the Holy Spirit. Thus, not all baptized Orthodox achieve the level of illumination (noetic prayer). This is witnessed by our scripture and saints.
Being at the level of illumination is a normal expectation for Orthodox Christians. So normal that in the early Church, if one lost noetic prayer, he was expelled from the faithful, and thus were prevented from partaking of Holy Communion.
The illumination of those newly baptized is the ideal, and is assumed by the Fathers, but only realized in the context given by the Fathers (as follows) and cannot be decontextualized from it in any way:
Through catechetical instructions the catechumens passed the stage of purification, and then by holy Baptism and by Chrismation they experienced the illuminating energy of God, discovered their nous, and their noetic faculty worked naturally and supranaturally. For this reason Baptism is called illumination.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, The mind of the Orthodox Church
These are an outline of the steps one must achieve before moving onto the next step, not merely steps that magically ritualistically happen without specifically setting out to lay hold of them.
Instead of being a therapeutic centre, the Church has ended up being a place of magical ceremonies. And Orthodoxy, devoid of this therapeutic aspect and method, which is purification, illumination and glorification, is in danger of ending up as nothing but superstition.
— Protopresbyter John Romanides, Empirical Dogmatics Vol. 2
Without going through a proper catechism that is solely aimed at achieving the patristic definition of purification, without going through the stage of purification, without achieving illumination, without noetic prayer, and especially without an illumined spiritual father who has noetic prayer, we do not, and cannot, meet the presuppositions for illumination.
It is not, however, the result of a mental exercise, but the fruit of our spiritual rebirth from a deified spiritual father.
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, The mind of the Orthodox Church
The idea that baptism is always illumination, without baptism of the Spirit, is false. This is not the patristic witness of any of our saints or elders who themselves are in the apostolic tradition.
We must be wary in our modern times of those who seek, without understanding, to decontextualize the teachings of the Fathers.
It is those who have reached illumination, that are actually apart of the body of Christ:
Anyone who has the Spirit of God in him, which means that his noetic faculty functions normally and acts in a natural way, has noetic prayer and is a son of God by grace. By the Spirit we acquire adoption as sons, and therefore the Apostle writes: “By Whom we cry out, ‘Abba Father’” (Rom. 8:15). This cry is no different from the noetic prayer which takes place in the heart. These people belong to Christ, are members of the Body of Christ, and, of course, actual members of the Church. What the Apostle Paul says is characteristic: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Rom. 8:9).
— Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, The mind of the Orthodox Church
Let us not forget that being baptized of water isn't enough.
It is not inscription in the baptismal records which makes one a member of the Church, but the spirit and content of one's opinions.
— St. Theophan the Recluse, https://www.orthodox.net/articles/anathema-bp-theophan.html
Through the prayers of St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, and all our saints, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.