I don’t normally post news on this blog, but I think that readers will understand that this is of particular interest to me. This morning I received an email from a blogging friend with the news that Father Gabriel Bunge had become Orthodox.
The only account that I’ve been able to find is that on the Moscow Patriarchate’s website, which recounts that:
On 27 August 2010, the eve of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk officiate at the All-Night Vigil at the church of the “Joy to All the Afflicted” Icon in Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow.
Concelebrating were Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, a vicar of Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain (Patriarchate of Constantinople), president of the “The Friends of Mount Athos” charity society, clerics of the church, and a well-known Swiss theologian, hieromonk Gabriel (Bunge) who became an Orthodox before the divine service.
It appears that Father Gabriel is less well-known in the English-speaking world than he is in Europe. His book Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer According to the Patristic Tradition has been available for some time, but it is only recently that Dragon’s Wine and Angel’s Bread
and Evagrius of Pontus, Talking Back: A Monastic Handbook for Combating Demons (Cistercian Studies Series)
have been translated into English. (In fact I spent a lot of effort trying to convince a friend who has German to English translation skills to translate them, only to discover that they’d just been translated!) I have only browsed through them, mainly in French, but they are all books that I have been seriously intending to get hold of, read and blog on as Father Gabriel is clearly one of the most solid monastic scholars of our day. He was originally a monk of Chevetogne but has lived as a hermit in the Swiss mountains for the past thirty years.
I must confess that the news has moved me profoundly – a sort of “if somebody like that is doing it then I can’t be totally crazy!”, not that I really think I’m crazy, but it does help!
P.S. Father Gregory Wassen once translated one of Father Gabriel’s essays on Evagrius that can be found here.
An afterthought: If anyone is interested in knowing more about Father Gabriel and has access to back issues of Saint Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, there was a long review article on him some years ago (I’m afraid I can’t remember the details and don’t have access to it at the moment). I think that it was a review article of his Earthen Vessels, but it was also much more than that and gave both background information on his life and discussed his contribution to Evagrian scholarship.
Update to afterthought: Father Gregory Wassen has kindly left the details in a comment. The article I was thinking of is Augustine Casiday’s “Gabriel Bunge and the study of Evagrius Ponticus: Review article”. SVTQ 48 (2004): 249-98. (And with thanks to Dr Casiday for further details).
September 1, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Thanks for this news! On the one hand it does not surprise me, given that his Practice of Personal Prayer seems so immersed in Orthodoxy already. And yet it is surprising – in terms of joy! To be honest I found for myself that adopting the practice of bowing before icons had a profound impact on me. So how could his bodily prayer not impact him at a very deep level? I too am moved by this news. (It also impacted me to know that Jaroslav Pelikan had converted to Orthodoxy. Seems like any journey to the “sources” carries this risk.)
September 2, 2010 at 12:48 am
How beautiful!
I can see how you would be encouraged by this.
September 2, 2010 at 4:45 pm
[…] 2, 2010 Macrina reports that the renowned Swiss Benedictine monk and theologian, Fr. Gabriel Bunge, was received into the […]
September 2, 2010 at 6:14 pm
It was a review article by Agustine Casiday. He was reviewing the Evagrius Scholarship of recent times and especially that of Fr. Gabriel:
“Gabriel Bunge and the study of Evagrius Ponticus: Review article(SVSQ, 2004)”.
I am sorry Fr. Gabriel’s spiritual development was unable to continue to be grounded in the communion of the Roman Catholic Church. I pray he may find the peace that – as a Benedictine – he has been searching for.
Fr. Gregory +
September 4, 2010 at 12:17 pm
PS The full bibliographic details for anyone interested: SVTQ 48 (2004): 249-98.
September 3, 2010 at 4:14 am
Fr. Gabriel’s conversion is very inspiring. Glory to God!
September 4, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I find myself agreeing with Fr Gregory (not for the first time, either!) — but also wondering whether Fr Gabriel will continue living as a Benedictine hermit. I hope he will.
September 15, 2010 at 12:37 pm
It saddens me that Fr. Bunge has left the Church.
September 17, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Fr. Bunge has not “left the Church.” He has entered into the Fullness of the Church.
October 2, 2010 at 5:30 am
Like Fr Lev Gillet wrote to his mother at his reception into Orthodoxy
“I go to a stronger Light. Not a better light but a stronger”