35 John Climacus

John Climacus

In presenting the great writers of the Church of the East and West in the Middle Age, I include the figure of John, known as Climacus. His name is a Latin transliteration of the Greek term klimakos, which means “of the ladder” (klimax). This is the title of his most important work, in which he describes the ladder of human life ascending toward God. He was born in about 575. He lived, therefore, during the years in which Byzantium, the capital of the Roman Empire of the East, experienced the greatest crisis in its history…

Taken from Great Christian Thinkers by Pope Benedict XVI