“Acedia is wedded to the man seeking silence.”
Acedia was basically unavoidable for the monastic because everyone struggles at some time with not doing what society says they should do. Even so, experiencing acedia and getting through it was seen as an important rite of passage for the monastic. Acedia was common in semi-eremitic monasteries because of their composition that allows for collective meals and worship only on weekends, and organization in independent cells. They placed a high value on the success of the individual. The symptoms of acedia, both somatic and psychological, and responses to acedia varied widely. It would be difficult to explain the distribution if acedia were simply caused by laziness, boredom or depression. Instead, looking at Robert Merton’s concept of anomie helps explain how acedia could occur in such a narrowly circumscribed environment as a semi-eremitic monastery. Signs of acedia could be classified based on the monastics’s tendency towards activity or passivity, and conformation or alienation.
Somatic symptoms of acedia included sleepiness and sickness, pain, fever, and heaviness in the body. Joseph Hazzaya explained during his affliction with acedia the demon had placed a heavy weight on his head so he was unable to perform mass. Pachomius explained that there were both natural and unnatural causes for somatic symptoms. Natural causes were genuine illness or injury, and unnatural causes were demonic. It would take a spiritually discerning monastic to tell the difference.
Psychological symptoms include tedium, desire to leave cell, general dissatisfaction with monastic life, and desire to perform charities or manual labor, or extreme asceticism. The overwhelming desire to leave the cell could be to find companionship or find a new cell in hopes that a change of scenery will allow the monastic to renew his concentration, or the monastic may miss his family. No matter what the reason, the demon’s reasoning is the same; an attempt to get the monk to leave the cloister. Monastic dislike could also stem from a sense of superiority that the brethren are hindering their asceticism and they could become hypersensitive to others’ faults. Demonic temptation can also make the monastic do generally praised activities like caring for the sick but for the wrong reasons.
The treatments for acedia are different if not mutually contradictory. Monastics must alter their behavior to conquer demons. Some presuppose laziness is the problem. Underperformance can be corrected by renewed efforts to reach community standards.
