RICHARD OF SAINT VICTOR, ABBOT AND MYSTIC - 10 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH 

Saints celebrated on the 10th of March

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RICHARD OF SAINT VICTOR, ABBOT AND MYSTIC

Saint Victor's Abbey, Paris

Richard of St Victor, a Scotsman, student and successor of Hugh of St Victor, was prior and teacher at the monastery of St Victor in Paris. He died [March 10], 1173.

Like Hugh of St Victor, Richard is a representative of orthodox mysticism. He distinguishes three types of knowledge: thinking or imagining (cogitatio), reflection (meditatio) or conceptual intellectual thinking, and contemplation (contemplatio), i.e., spiritual vision through the intellect, which grasps the supersensible directly and unifiedly ("Contemplationem dicimus, quando veritatem sine aliquo involucro umbrarum vel animi in sua puritate videmus"). 

There are six stages of contemplation: The first is based on the visual imagination (imaginatio), by means of which we admire divine power and goodness; the second turns to the reason and purpose of the world; the third already rises to the heavenly, but still through the imagination; on the fourth level, reason grasps the supersensible and the divine purely by itself; the fifth level already transcends reason, and on the sixth, which lies outside of reason ("supra rationem et praeter rationem"), the spirit grasps the divine mysteries. Then the state of mystical ecstasy and illumination occurs, in which the spirit, alienating itself ("alienatio mentis"), becomes one with the object of contemplation.

His notable writings include: De trinitate. De exterminatione et promotione boni. De statu interioris hominis. De quatuor gradibus violentae charitatis. De eruditione hominis interioris. De praeparatione animi ad contemplationes. De arca mystica. De gratia contemplationis.

Source:

Eisler, Rudolf: Philosophen-Lexikon. Berlin 1912, p. 597.