A humble man, John Duns Scotus has been one of the most influential Franciscans through the centuries.Born
at Duns in the county of Berwick, Scotland, John was descended from a
wealthy farming family. In later years he was identified as John Duns
Scotus to indicate the land of his birth; Scotia is the Latin name for Scotland.
John
received the habit of the Friars Minor at Dumfries, where his uncle
Elias Duns was superior. After novitiate John studied at Oxford and
Paris and was ordained in 1291. More studies in Paris followed until
1297, when he returned to lecture at Oxford and Cambridge. Four years
later he returned to Paris to teach and complete the requirements for
the doctorate.
In an age when many people adopted whole systems
of thought without qualification, John pointed out the richness of the
Augustinian-Franciscan tradition, appreciated the wisdom of Aquinas,
Aristotle and the Muslim philosophers—and still managed to be an
independent thinker. That quality was proven in 1303 when King Philip
the Fair tried to enlist the University of Paris on his side in a
dispute with Pope Boniface VIII. John Duns Scotus dissented and was
given three days to leave France.
In Scotus’s time, some
philosophers held that people are basically determined by forces
outside themselves. Free will is an illusion, they argued. An ever
practical man, Scotus said that if he started beating someone who
denied free will, the person would immediately tell him to stop. But if
Scotus didn’t really have a free will, how could he stop? John had a
knack for finding illustrations his students could remember!
After
a short stay in Oxford he returned to Paris, where he received the
doctorate in 1305. He continued teaching there and in 1307 so ably
defended the Immaculate Conception of Mary that the university
officially adopted his position. That same year the minister general
assigned him to the Franciscan school in Cologne where John died in
1308. He is buried in the Franciscan church near the famous Cologne
cathedral.
Drawing on the work of John Duns Scotus, Pope Pius IX
solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception of Mary in 1854. John Duns
Scotus, the "Subtle Doctor," was beatified in 1993.
The Birth and Childhood of Bl. John Duns Scotus
Bl. John Duns Scotus was born in Duns, Berwickshire, Scotland, around 1265.
He was immediately baptized after birth and was named after St. John the
Evangelist. He grew up a good boy, healthy and pure like a little angel. He
received a solid Christian formation from home and from the parish priest. He
frequented the Cistercian Abbey of Melrose for his catechism lessons. There, he
absorbed the ardent love for the Mother of God which St. Bernard had left as a
patrimony to the Cistercians.
As a little boy, Bl. John suffered very much from the obtuseness of his
intellect. He wanted to read, to write and to study the profundity of the truths
of the faith, but his mind just could not manage to learn or understand
anything. By means of with prayers and sighs, he had recourse to Mary, the Seat
of Wisdom, asking Her to heal his dullness so that he could advance in his
studies. Mary appeared to him and granted his request. Going back to school, the
"pea-brained" could only astonish his classmates and teachers. Bl.
John resolved to make use of the heavenly gift of sublime intelligence, above
all, to glorify the sweet and glorious Virgin Mary, Treasurer of every good.
At the age of 15, he entered the Novititate of the Order of Friars Minor(the
Franciscans) at Dumfries, in the Kingdom of Scotland. There he made praiseworthy
progress day by day in piety and in seraphic virtue. After a year he consecrated
himself to God by the Religious Profession of the vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience. He was then sent for his studies in various theological schools of
the Order. He was ordained a priest by Msgr. Oliver Sutton, Bishop of Lincoln,
England, on March 17, 1291, at the church of St. Andrew of the Monks of Cluny.
After his ordination, he began a series of travels between England and France to
pursue advanced philosophical and theological studies.
The Blessed Virgin Appears to Bl. John
During the night of Christmas, 1299 at the Oxford Convent, Bl. John, immersed
in his contemplation of the adorable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, was
rapt in ecstasy. The Blessed Mother appeared to him and placed on his arms the
Child Jesus who kissed and embraced him fondly. This was perhaps the occasion
which inspired Bl. John to write so profoundly and fluently on the absolute
primacy of Christ and the reason for the Incarnation. Christ's Incarnation,
which is decreed from all eternity even apart from the Redemption, is the
supreme created manifestation of God's love.
Bl. John at the University of Oxford, England
After about four years of teaching at Oxford and Cambridge, at the end of
1301, Bl. John returned to Paris. He was granted his bachelor's degree in
theology. Later, on the vigil of receiving his doctorate, he had to leave France
suddenly, to return to England. Philip, the Fair, in a disgraceful quarrel with
Pope Boniface VIII demanded all clerics, nobles religious, bishops and the
University of Paris to appeal to the Council against the Pope. Bl. John Duns
Scotus, among the few members of the faculty, refused to accede to the wishes of
the King and chose the way of exile, sometime between the 25th and 28th of June
1308.
After a year, the situation abated and Bl. John was back again at the
University of Paris where he received the doctorate in theology and thus
inaugurated his official professorship which was to lead him to singular glory
among the great medieval scholastics. Soon the fame of his genius and learning
spread abroad and students came in great numbers to attend the lectures of the
new master. On account of his habit of making refined distinctions during
theologic argumentation, the title "Subtle Doctor" was conferred on
him by his contemporaries. Rodulphus wrote of him: "There was nothing so
recondite, nothing so abstruse that his keen mind could not fathom and clarify;
nothing so knotty, that he like another Oedupus, could not unravel, nothing so
fraught with difficulty or enveloped in darkness that his genius could not
expound." Another author wrote: "He described the Divine Nature as if
he had seen God; the celestial spirits as if he had been an angel; the happiness
of the future state as if he had enjoyed them; and the ways of Providence as if
he had penetrated into its secrets."
Bl. John's Defense of the Immaculate Conception
It was also in Paris that Bl. John came to be called as the "Marian
Doctor" after he championed the privilege of Mary's Immaculate Conception.
In England, Bl. John taught the truth of this Marian privilege without any
opposition. But at Paris the situation was reversed. The academic body of the
University admitted only the purification of Mary in the womb of Her mother St.
Anne, like St. John the Baptist. Alexander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas
Aquinas, the great Parisian Masters, were not able to solve the problem of the
universality of original sin and of the efficacy of Christ's Redemption. They
thought that even the Blessed Virgin Mary was included in this universality, and
therefore subject to contract the original stain even if only for an instant, so
that she may also be redeemed. Scotus in his attempt to introduce and teach a
theological position different from that upheld by the university, had to appear
in a public dispute before the whole academic body, at the risk of expulsion
from the university if he failed to defend his doctrine. Bl. John Scotus
prepared himself for the event in prayer and recollection and in total
confidence to the Immaculate Virgin, the Seat of Wisdom.
When the fixed day of the dispute arrived, on leaving the convent, he passed
before a statue of Our Lady and with suppliant voice entreated her: "Allow
me to praise You, O Most Holy Virgin; give me strength against your
enemies." Our Lady responded with a prodigious visible sign: the head of
the statue moved and bowed slightly before him. It was as if to say: "Yes I
will give you all the strength you need."
Two Papal legates presided over the dispute. Then with powerful dialectic and
with deep and subtle reasoning, Bl. Scotus refuted all the objections of the
learned men in attendance, undermining the foundation of every argument contrary
to Mary's Immaculate Conception. Bl. John Scotus pointed out: <"The
Perfect Redeemer, must in some case, have done the work of redemption most
perfectly, which would not be, unless there is some person, at least, in whose
regard, the wrath of God was anticipated and not merely appeased."> Bl.
John triumphed. From that day the University of Paris took up the same cause to
defend this privilege of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Bl. John's Death and Beatification
Bl. John Duns Scotus had to leave the university at Paris one more time,
partly for some political reasons and partly because some doubts had been cast
on his theology by opponents. The Franciscan Minister General sent Scotus to
Cologne, Germany ,where he lectured for some time in the Franciscan house of
studies until his untimely death on 8th November, 1308, barely 43 years of age.
He was called "blessed" almost immediately after his death.
Through the centuries his tomb has been visited by large numbers of the
faithful and public veneration has been offered to him in the dioceses of
Edinburgh, Scotland, Nola, Italy, and Cologne, Germany, as well as throughout
the Order of Friars Minor (the Franciscans).
In 1854, Pope Pius IX solemnly declared that the Marian doctrine of Bl. John
, was a correct expression of the faith of the Apostles: <"at the first
moment of Her conception, Mary was preserved free from the stain of original
sin, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ." >The seal of the Church's
approval was also placed on Bl. John's doctrine on the universal primacy of
Christ when the feast of Christ the King was instituted in 1925. On March 20,
1992 Bl. John Duns Scotus was beatified by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's
Basilica in Rome.
Bl. John Duns Scotus, "The minstrel of the Word Incarnate" and
"Defender of Mary's Immaculate Conception" is presented by Pope John
Paul II to our age "wealthy of human, scientific and technological
resources, but in which many have lost the sense of faith and lead lives distant
from Christ and His Gospel," as "a Teacher of thought and life."
For the Church, he is "an example of fidelity to the revealed truth, of
effective, priestly, and serious dialogue in search for unity." It is also
the Holy Father's hope that "his spirit and memory enlighten with the very
light of Christ the trials and hope of our society."
Intelligence
hardly guarantees holiness. But John Duns Scotus was not only
brilliant, he was also humble and prayerful—the exact combination St.
Francis wanted in any friar who studied. In a day when French
nationalism threatened the rights of the pope, Scotus sided with the
papacy and paid the price. He also defended human freedom against those
who would compromise it by determinism.
Ideas are important. John Duns Scotus placed his best thinking at the service of the human family and of the Church.
Prayer:
God of power and mercy,
only with your help can we offer you fitting
service and praise.
May we live the faith we profess and trust your
promise of eternal life. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your
Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for
ever and ever. Amen.