The crowning achievement of Saint Amphilochius, who was a bishop in the latter part of the 4th century, is that he took all steps possible to stomp out a heresy known by different names (depending on the language): the Euchites (Greek) or the Messalians (Syriac)…a name that translates in either case to English as the Pray-ers.

Yup, Amphilochius used his position to stomp out a sect of Christians who held beliefs about prayer that he didn’t like. He set up Church Councils to condemn them. This bishop wrote invectives to be read at his churches against them. He did all that was in his power to ensure that they were stifled as thoroughly as possible.

What horrors did these Euchites or Messalians engage in? What terrible, frightful, and unforgivable threats did these damnable people represent? What sins against God and the Church did these heretics commit?

To begin with, they believed in prayer! They believed in gathering together for prayer. They believed more in the power of prayer than (gasp) in the power of Church-controlled sacraments. They believed that other religious practices–including fasting and other mortifications–were not so direct a pathway to living a godly life as prayer. But that’s not the worst of it, even as bad as their beliefs in paying more attention to direct communication with God than in obeying the mediating dictates of the Church were. Butler rats those Pray-ers out thusly:

[T]hey explained the text of scripture concerning selling all their goods, and praying without intermission, according to the rigour of the letter.

Yes, you read that correctly and may need to re-read it–these people had the audacity to take literally the scriptural call to divest themselves of possessions and to pray without ceasing! Clearly these heretics did not understand how this Christianity deal was supposed to really work–although they were choosing to lead lives of devotion and prayer (but aren’t there saints upon saints who did this very thing?!), to take their possessions and give them away (but didn’t saint after saint take whatever she or he had and give the proceeds to the poor and destitute, to those with need?!), nevertheless they took the unforgivable step of staking their faith and worshipping community on the conviction that the Church’s priests and sacraments were not essential in order for persons to experience the grace of God and God’s calling on their lives.

And because they weren’t taking their marching orders from the Church, but directly from God, the Messalians:

. . . pretended to visions and wonderful illuminations, in which much is to be ascribed to a heated imagination, though it seems not to be doubted, but, by the divine permission, they sometimes suffered extraordinary impulses and illusions from the devil . . . .

Clearly, nothing that these heretics came to regard as divine revelation obtained through their prayers could be anything save the products of “heated imaginations” or “impulses and illusions from the devil”! Though no specifically evil or even loony ideas could be named against them (except that crazy notion of selling all their possessions and praying constantly–individually and in community), the message that the Church hierarchy felt compelled to communicate clearly was “Do NOT go thinking you can get to God without US!” To that end, Amphilochius painted these people as either fevered or demonically possessed, and to be avoided at all costs.

Black is white and white is black indeed, when the enemy of the faithful are…those who dedicate themselves to prayer above all else!