Did you know?… What are Fools for Christ?

Published 2023-07-08

Did you know?… What are Fools for Christ?

Among the multitude of the Saints, which are people who loved Christ ‘with all their heart’ and who expressed this love through self-denial and acceptance of their crosses, and lived this form of ascetic Christian life are called ‘fools for Christ.’

A Fool for Christ (or Holy Fool) is one who acts intentionally foolish in the eyes of men.

In Greek, the term is Salos.
In Russian its, Yurodivy.
These Saints often go around half-naked, or are homeless, speak in riddles, are believed to be clairvoyant and a prophet, and may occasionally be disruptive and challenging to the point of seeming to be immoral (though they always feign (pretend) this to make a point).

Usually monastics, they presented themselves to the world as lunatics, acting contrary to common sense, saying and doing things which made them look insane and immoral. Their behaviour, however, concealed their conquest of the passions, their faith, their gifts and their sanctity.

This kind of spiritual struggle was a gift from God, not a personal choice. It was a particular gift granted to certain people in specific circumstances, in a specific society. Most often the society was one of secularized Christianity which had lost the true meaning of Church life and was living in a formal, superficial and duplicitous manner.

Since foolishness for Christ is a gift of the Holy Spirit, it can be understood through His illumination. Foolishness for Christ and ordinary foolishness are no different externally, which is why they can be distinguished only by those people who have the discernment to see the presence of God’s grace in the fool’s words and deeds.

Fools-for-Christ, taking on the appearance of madness and suffering defamation from those around them, exposed human vices, brought those in power to their senses, comforted the suffering. Some of these Saints are St. Andrew the Fool for Christ, St. Xenia of St. Petersburg, St. Basil of Moscow, Nicholas of Pskov and John of Rostov ("the Hairy").

~What is the sanctity of being a Fool for Christ?

Holy fools lead a very unusual way of life, renouncing worldly wisdom.

St. Seraphim of Sarov once said;
“There are thousands of fools for their own sake and only a few fools for Christ.”

A holy fool challenges the norms accepted by contemporary society to reveal their deviation from Christian values.

For example, after St. Basil the Blessed overturned a tray of rolls, the merchant admitted that he had been adding chalk into the flour.

The phenomenon of foolishness for Christ originates from the Holy Scripture. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:19);
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

A fool for Christ can be distinguished from a mentally ill person by his struggle with his own pride, considered the root of all other sins. Humbled before people, a holy fool hides his virtues deep within himself, pretending to merely be flouting society’s conventions.

In doing so, he denounces the world’s deviation from virtue, trying to guide it on the path of correction. Revealing a particular vice to society, they seems to be taking the responsibility for it upon themselves, suffering for people, similar to Christ. Challenging the ‘letter’ of social norms, a holy fool draws people’s attention to their ‘spirit.’

This put-on madness makes a holy fool an object of derision and sometimes even beatings, but they will never grumble or answer to them in any way. On the contrary, fools for Christ pray for their offenders. This helps them achieve even higher humility. Foolishness for Christ is a radical path to holiness.

It is rather hard to say when this path was first discovered. In fact, even the early Christians put themselves in a certain conflict with the world, denouncing it. Some deeds of the Old Testament prophets can also be compared to some of the holy fools.’

Hosea married a harlot (Hosea 1:2), Isaiah took off his clothes and walked around naked (Isaiah 20:2), Jeremiah wore a yoke around his neck (Jeremiah 27:2), Ezekiel lay 390 days on his left side and 40 days on his right side (Ezekiel 4:4-6), eating bread made from cow dung. (Ezekiel 4:15)

In the very first centuries after the birth of Christ, the very phenomenon of Christianity was perceived by the world as foolishness, because believing in something like the resurrection of Christ was pure madness from the standpoint of conventional wisdom. (1 Corinthians 1:22)

Reached capacity:

@bettyhal665 11 months ago

AGIOS O THEOS!!! GLORY TO GOD!!

Thank you for the lovely and edifying videos. May God bless you and keep you healthy in order for you to continue with this uplifting work. I love your collection of chants.

@HomoEucharistica 7 months ago

I don't know about other countries, but at least where I live there is a saying "one didn't become holier (or more pious) than a fool"... which is used to refer to situation when given explanations or orders don't help at all - a person doesn't wisen because of them. That's slightly derogatory I think, but after exploring these holy fools I found myself from using that very same saying in its Orthodox context (e.g. "Well, perhaps I've succeeded to keep my prayer rule for now, but don't think, my soul, that due to that thou could become holier than a fool")

@eliasmanzanom.h6501 11 months ago

Beautiful videos, they always make me cry, God bless you

@stephaniebailey864 11 months ago

Thank you again for another excellent video, I have an attraction to the Holy Fools for Christ , especially St Xenia of St Petersburg and St Basil of Moscow. I hadn't thought before before about the old testament prophet's behaving this way at times, this is very interesting and inspiring. This video has given me alot to think about...God bless you