Saint Diadochos of Photiki

Diadochos of Photiki (Greek: Διάδοχος Φωτικής) was a fifth-century Christian ascetic whose works are included in the Philokalia. Scholars have acknowledged his great influence on later Byzantine saints such as Maximos the Confessor, John Climacus, Symeon the New Theologian, and in general the Hesychast movement of the 14th century. He has also had great influence in the West via the work, "On the Contemplative Life" (De vita contemplativa) of Julianus Pomerius (†498). His feast day is commemorated on March 29. Diadochos was born c. 400 and died sometime before 486. He became bishop of Photiki, a small town in the province of Epirus Vetus, in the northwestern part of present-day Greece. In 451, he took part in the Council of Chalcedon as Bishop of Photiki. He was most likely part of a group of Epiran notables who were captured during a Vandal raid between 467 and 474. The group was later released in North Africa, somewhere around Carthage, from whence all vanished. His exact date and place of death are thus unknown, although it is assumed he died before 486. Diadochos' writing and ascetic practice were greatly influenced by Evagrius the Solitary (also known as Evagrius Ponticus) and Macarius of Egypt (the Great), incorporating their ideas of hesychia (Greek ἡσυχία, "stillness, rest, quiet"), sensible spiritual experience, and the fierceness of the fight against the demons. In all his work, Diadochos appears as a true champion of the doctrine of Chalcedon. In fact, his best-known work, On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination (known as the "Hundred Chapters" or "Hundred Texts"), was written for his monks in reaction to strange doctrines coming from the heretical Messalian sect in Mesopotamia (also known as Euchites). Some authors have misunderstood the role of Macarius in Mesopotamia and concluded that Diadochos wrote this main work against him.