Descriptions of Divine Encounters in the Poetic Works of Symeon the New Theologian and Grigor Narekatsi

Although the tenth- and eleventh-century mystics, the Byzantine Symeon the New Theologian and the Armenian Grigor Narekatsi, led different lives and never met, they shared an astonishing intellectual affinity and spiritual likeness, as witnessed by their major poetic works: the Hymns of the Divine Love and the Book of Lamentation (Matean). Both mystics described the unique experience of their direct encounter with the divine —an experience at the same time exhilarating and agonizing—through a fascinating and daring use of language which, however, was perceived as inadequate, due to its constraints and its human limitations in expressing the unutterable. In this paper, I intend to look closely at the way in which the two poets described their mystical visions, their perception of divine light through which God revealed his physical presence, the pathos and anguish that emerge from their—often despairing—appeals to God. From this analysis, similarities and contrasts in the works of the two saints will emerge and will shed light on their inner life, as well as on their continuous effort to share their mystical experience with all mankind in an act of universal solidarity and spiritual edification.