Who was St. Cassiodorus?

Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), known as St. Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman, scholar, and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. In his later years, he devoted himself to Christian learning and founded the Vivarium monastery, where he worked extensively during the final decades of his life.

St. Cassiodorus despaired over the uneducated masses and illiterate clergy he saw, and he formed monastic schools dedicated to the preservation of letters through copying books, as well as to the worship of God. His was one of the many monasteries that is repsonsible for the preservation of ancient books and ancient knowledge, even pagan knowledge, by which we are now able to read the ancient texts we still have.

In his Institutions of Divine and Secular Letters, St. Cassiodorus defined the meaning of the term liberal arts, not in Aristotle's terms of availability to certain classes, but as arts having to do with books. He wrote it as a manual for the monks living there, saying:

"I was moved by divine love to devise for you, with God's help, these introductory books to take the place of a teacher. Through them I believe that both the textual sequence of Holy Scripture and also a compact account of secular letters may, with God's grace, be revealed."

Because of his effort to restore education and consderation of books as teachers, we feel that St. Cassiodorus is an appropriate model and inspiration for our little group, which is our effort to do the same.

For St. Cassiodorus, the trivium and quadrivium were preparation for studying theology. See in the quote below how lovingly he praises the words of the scriptures:

"Note, excellent friends, how marvelously and how harmoniously the arrangement of words moves in Divine Scripture. There is an ever-increasing desire, a fullness without end, a glorious hunger of the blessed where excess is not reproved but constant desire is, instead, praised — and rightly so, since Scripture both teaches beneficial knowledge and offers eternal life to those who believe and act on their belief. They describe the past without fiction, and reveal more of the present than is seen, and tell of the future as if it had already taken place. Truth rules everywhere in them; everywhere divine excellence shines forth; everywhere benefits to the human race are revealed. While the present situation exists on earth, heavenly truth, in so far as we are able to grasp it, is revealed by parables and mysteries, as God himself bears witness in the seventy-seventh Psalm: ‘I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter mysteries from the beginning’ [Psalm 77:2]. For they pass on to us, in order that we may discharge all duties, a prayerful knowledge of the holy Trinity (which, over the great passage of time, humanity, blind, sad, and enslaved to idols, has not known). They tell us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, creator and director of all created things does ‘all that he wills in heaven and on earth’ [Psalm 134:6]. If you seek its faithfulness, listen to the brief statement: ‘A stronghold for the oppressed in times of distress’ [Psalm 9:10]; if you seek power, hear: ‘Who can withstand your power?’ [Psalm 75:8; Wisdom 11:22]; if justice, read: ‘He will judge the world with justice’ [Psalms 9:99 and 95:13]. For Scripture declares most obviously that God is everywhere; in the words of the writer of the Psalms: ‘Where can I go from your spirit? from your presence where can I flee? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I sink to the nether world, you are present there’ [Psalm 138:7-8], and likewise the other aspects of God’s majesty are embedded in the holy writings." -Cassiodorus, Inst. I.XVI.1, trans. J W Halporn, p. 146