St Phocas the Gardener of Sinope:
Flower power revisited

"One is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth."  So reads a popular inscription to be found on garden ornaments.  What a sublime truth it expresses!   The whole drama of human salvation began in the Garden of Eden beside a tree and culminated on Golgotha, also on a Tree.  So many strain their nerves looking for "proofs" of God's existence when they should really just take up gardening . . .

Our patron, St Phocas, lived at Paphlagonia on the Black Sea in the time of the persecutions of Diocletian.  This was the Emperor who took out a massive billboard to illustrate his own very personal feelings about Christians: "You are not permitted to exist!" 

When visited by the soldiers sent to find and execute him, Phocas told them he would lead them to the object of their mission in the morning.  He then fed them and put them up for the night in his own home.  Phocas went out to dig his own grave and then prayed until morning.  The soldiers couldn't believe all this about Phocas when he revealed himself to them.  But they fulfilled their mission, nonetheless. 

Paradise lost was a Garden and it was in this Garden that God Himself dwelt with His creations.

Noah received word about the subsiding waters of the Great Flood through an olive branch brought to him by a dove.  Abraham hosted God Himself Who came down to earth as Three Angels under the green Oaks of Mamre.  Moses spoke with God through a Bush that was on fire, but that did not, strangely enough, burn up.  

His brother Aaron's staff actually budded and was later kept as a Relic in the Temple of Jerusalem.  King David, in Psalm 50, begged God to cleanse him with hyssop so that he might be made clean.  References to the "Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon" and other floral images fill the Bible.

Isaiah talks about the "pine, cedar and cypress" and the Church sees in this a prophecy concerning the three types of wood that went to make up the Cross of Christ. 

The colour of green represents the Life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and, to this day, we decorate our Churches and homes with green-leafed branches on Pentecost.

Christ Himself, following His resurrection from the dead, is mistaken by Mary Magdalene to be a gardener, as His Tomb was located in a garden. 

The ground itself, formerly considered a source of punishment for the sin of Adam, since man had to toil hard with it for his daily bread, is now, as a result of Christ's entering into the earth, a source of blessing and rebirth. 

The Church celebrated the Divine Liturgy over the graves of the Martyrs and, to this day, an Altar must have an "Antimension" that contains the Relics of a Martyr that alludes to the early Church practice.

Flowers are always considered to be a great tribute of veneration to adorn God's Churches and icons with.  

Flowers not only have their Latin names for classificatory purposes and their popular names, but each also has a religious name since the vast majority of them were named after the Mother of God and other Saints.

For example, one of my favourites is the "Lady's Mantle" with its broad leafs that collect rain droplets.

The original religious name for this plant is "Our Lady's Mantle" or, in Ukrainian, "Pokrova," since its shape resembles the Veil or Mantle of Protection of the Mother of God.  

There is "Jacob's Ladder," the "Maltese Cross," and the "Seal of Solomon" as other examples.

Gardening was historically a way of life for most people who grew their own food and also cultivated herbs for cooking and medicinal purposes.

Every monastery had a herbalist and a herbarium where the monk in charge had an intimate understanding of which herbs to apply to which ailments.

So very many of our staples that we take for granted today are descended from the monastic and medieval gardening and culinary traditions.

An English gentleman who decided to retire to Norfolk in England bought an old manor home that was a former monastery. 

As the workmen were renovating the interior, they came upon an old scroll with a recipe written on it.

It was soon discovered that this was an old monastic recipe for a plum-based drink involving no less than 18 different herbs.  There were even directions for serving it hot and savouring its healthy vapours by breathing them in before drinking.  The herbs helped one's depression, stomach upset and even an overly ambitious sexual appetite!

As archaeologists eventually concluded, this was the ancestor of what we today call "punch" but without every single last one of the herbs listed in the old recipe . . .

There were also the physical benefits associated with gardening work.

St Benedict recommended two hours minimum of work in the garden for his monks.  This involved breaking the soil with a large hoe and involved quite the workout as the monks heaved the great implements over their heads, time and again.  Perhaps they worked out any frustrations through such exercise?

People today who own cottages say they need them for rest and relaxation.

Don't believe them, however!

What they say and what they really do at the cottage are two different things.  Most often than not, they are working away on their little properties gardening and what not.  

It is as if they leave the city to get back to their "roots," pardon the pun. Perhaps we need to establish our sense of creative relationship with nature, experiencing the joy of getting our hands dirty as we thrust them into the soil and help shape our natural environment, something so many generations before us took for granted.

Just as we're not likely to ever meet a gardener or farmer who is an atheist, so our own natural faith in God is strengthened and confirmed by a closer connection with nature through our gardens.

The great Saints often escaped to their gardens to pray, read and meditate.  So should we. We may have a little outdoor shrine in our garden for this purpose.  There are even Icons of the Mother of God that call to mind the garden theme of salvation history such as the "Unfading Bloom" and the "Enclosed Garden."

A school near me has established a "Biblical Garden" where it plants only flowers mentioned in the Bible such as hyssop, the Rose of Sharon etc.

Students are entrusted with the responsibility to take care of the garden throughout the year.  Many volunteer to come by during the summer holiday months to see to the garden.

And now those who have graduated find themselves coming by one day a month to do some trimming and digging . . .

The garden is what binds all the students at that school now.  It is as if they are afforded a living opportunity to reflect on the history of salvation as God has set out in the Bible through the plants of that Garden.

The centre of any such spiritual garden, especially the one we should already be cultivating in our souls and of which the physical garden is a reflection of, is Christ Himself, the Vine Whose Branches we are all called to be.

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org