What is a fool for Christ?
A fool for Christ is a Christian who, out of humility, accepts the appearance of folly or madness in the eyes of the world, and in the Orthodox tradition the vocation is called yurodstvo, from the Russian yurodivy. The Greek word is salos. It is among the rarest forms of sanctity. Most holy fools have no school and no followers; what they leave behind is a few remembered acts, often puzzling, and the conviction of their neighbours that they were something more than they seemed.
The point is not eccentricity for its own sake. The classic holy fool hides a hidden prayer life under a mask that invites scorn, so that no one will praise him. In a world that rewards reputation, he refuses it. This is the reverse of the pursuit of fame, and it is why the tradition insists that real foolishness for Christ is invisible to the one who claims it: a person who announces that he is a holy fool almost certainly is not. See also what makes a saint in the Orthodox sense.
Where does the phrase come from in Scripture?
Paul writes to the proud and comfortable Corinthians: "We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:10 listen in the Audio Bible). He had just described the apostles as a spectacle to the world, hungry, homeless and reviled. A little earlier he had argued that "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise" (1 Corinthians 1:27 listen in the Audio Bible), and that "if anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise" (1 Corinthians 3:18 listen in the Audio Bible).
The Gospel supplies the other root. Christ sets a child in the midst of the disciples and says that unless they turn and become like children, they will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3 listen in the Audio Bible). A child has no reputation to defend. Orthodox writers also point to the Cross itself, which Paul calls folly to those who are perishing, as the pattern behind all holy foolishness: God appears weak and ridiculous in order to save. The Church reads these passages in the light of its own tradition; for how she does so, see how the Fathers read Scripture. To hear Paul's letter read aloud, use the Audio Bible.
Who are the best-known holy fools?
The earliest figure usually named is Isidora, a nun in the women's monastery at Tabennisi in Egypt, in the fourth century. According to the Lausiac History of Palladius, written about 419-420, she feigned madness, ate scraps and was mocked and struck by the other sisters. A visiting hermit, Pitirim, bowed before her, and the sisters learned who had lived among them; she then left and disappeared from the record. Her feast is on 10 May.
Andrew of Constantinople lived in the tenth century. According to his Life, attributed to a certain Nicephorus, he was a Scythian slave in the household of a court official under Emperor Leo VI. He and his disciple Epiphanius are said to have seen the Mother of God spreading her veil over those praying at Blachernae. He is commemorated on 2 October. In Moscow, Basil the Blessed was born in 1468, trained as a cobbler, and died on 2 August 1557. The Life says he rebuked Ivan the Terrible for thinking about building a palace during the services. The cathedral on Red Square, built in 1554 as the Protection cathedral, was later named for him, and he was glorified in 1588.
Xenia of Petersburg was an eighteenth-century widow. When her husband, an army officer, died suddenly at a party when she was twenty-six, she gave away her possessions and wore his clothes, and for about forty-five years lived as a wanderer. The tradition says she prayed through the night in a field outside the city and secretly carried bricks to a church being built. People sought her blessing for their children, and she is invoked today for healing and for help in finding work. Her feast is 24 January. Most of these stories come from traditional Lives and are best read as such.
How is holy foolishness different from mental illness?
It differs on every point that matters. The holy fool plays a part; the person who is ill suffers one. The accounts depict the holy fool as lucid, often startlingly perceptive, patient under abuse, and not self-destructive. Where he is shown acting strangely, the act has a purpose: it exposes hypocrisy, protects the poor, or hides his prayer. Nothing in the tradition suggests that those who are seriously unwell are saints because of their illness, and nothing suggests they should be left without care.
That is important, because the Church has never confused the two. Mental illness is an illness, to be treated with compassion and, where needed, with a doctor; a priest can pray with such a person but does not replace medical help. It is also true that some of the simple and the unwell have been unexpectedly gifted with sanctity. That is a matter for the Church to recognise afterward, if at all, and certainly not a conclusion for observers to draw in advance. If this is a personal concern, please speak to your priest and a qualified physician.
Why does the Church warn against imitating it?
Because the calling is a gift, not a method. A person who decides to behave oddly in order to seem holy has swapped one vanity for another, which is the opposite of what the holy fools did. The Church has long taught that the spiritual life goes astray most easily where a person admires his own humility; the Fathers call this prelest, and the article on spiritual deception discusses it at length.
The apostle's counsel to test everything applies here. "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1 listen in the Audio Bible). A genuine holy fool is recognised by fruits: humility, love for the poor, patience, truthfulness, and fidelity to the Church and its sacraments. Rudeness, contempt for others and rejection of obedience are not fruits of the Spirit. A believer who feels drawn to exceptional paths should speak to a priest, and by long custom should not choose such a path alone.
Does simple holiness look any different?
Most holy people are not fools at all. They are the quiet ones: the grandmother who prays every evening, the man who carries on with an unglamorous job without complaint, the neighbour who is always there when someone is sick. The communion of saints, which includes both canonised figures and countless unknown believers, is much larger than the calendar of named saints; see the communion of saints explained.
In countries where the Church was persecuted in the twentieth century, much of the faith was kept alive by exactly such people, and it is commonly said that elderly women were the backbone of many congregations. They taught children the Lord's Prayer, kept icons at home and came to church when it was dangerous. Their names usually went unrecorded. Their holiness had no visible marks, and in that respect it resembles the holy fool's: both are hidden from the people who would admire them.
Why do the holy so often look ordinary?
The Gospel gives the reason. Christ tells his disciples not to practise their righteousness before others to be seen by them (Matthew 6:1 listen in the Audio Bible), and the Church's whole ascetic tradition builds on that warning. A person who is trying to be seen is, to that degree, not yet holy. Therefore holiness is often discovered afterward, by those who knew the person, and often only after death.
This is why an Orthodox believer does not go looking for spectacular saints. The task is smaller and harder: to keep the commandments, to pray, to attend the Liturgy and to forgive. Each of these is something ordinary, and none of them requires either madness or genius. The services and feasts of the Church year, including those of the saints named above, are listed on the church calendar and at the services page. Among the saints there are fools and kings alike; what unites them is the humility that finds nothing to boast about.
