How the Buddha Became a Christian Saint

Gautama Buddha seated connected a lotus throne. Credit: The Trustees of the British Museum / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

For centuries, Christians honored Saint Josaphat—only aboriginal discovering his communicative was rooted successful the beingness of the Buddha.

By Philip C. Almond

From the 11th period onwards, the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat enjoyed a popularity successful the medieval West attained possibly by nary different legend. It was disposable successful implicit 60 versions successful the main languages of Europe, the Christian East and Africa. It was astir acquainted to English leaders from its inclusion successful William Caxton’s 1483 translation of the Golden Legend.

Little did European readers cognize that the communicative they loved of the beingness of Saint Josaphat was successful information that of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, the laminitis of Buddhism.

The ascetic life

According to the legend, there reigned successful India a king called Abenner, immersed successful the pleasures of the world. When the king had a son, Josaphat, an astrologer predicted helium would forsake the world. To forestall this outcome, the king ordered a metropolis to beryllium built for his lad from which were excluded poverty, disease, aged property and death.

But Josaphat made journeys extracurricular of the metropolis wherever helium encountered, connected 1 occasion, a unsighted antheral and a horribly deformed 1 and, connected different occasion, an aged antheral weighed down by illness. He realised the impermanence of each things:

No longer is determination immoderate sweetness successful this transitory beingness present that I person seen these things […] Gradual and abrupt decease are successful league together.

While experiencing this spiritual crisis, the sage Barlaam from Sri Lanka reached Josaphat and told him of the rejection of worldly pursuits and the acceptance of the Christian perfect of the ascetic life. Prince Josaphat was converted to Christianity and began to practise the perfect of the spiritual beingness of poverty, simplicity and devotion to God.

Jehoshaphat preaching successful a Christian practice of a 13th-century Greek manuscript. Credit: Public domain

To forestall his quest, his begetter surrounded him with seductive maidens who “tantalised him with each benignant of temptation with which they sought to arouse his appetites”.

Josaphat resisted them all.

After the decease of his father, Josaphat remained determined to proceed his ascetic beingness and abdicated the throne. He journeyed to Sri Lanka successful hunt of Barlaam. After a quest lasting 2 years, Josaphat recovered Barlaam surviving successful the mountains and joined him determination successful a beingness of asceticism until his death.

A large saint

Barlaam and Josaphat were included successful the calendars of saints successful some the Western and Eastern churches. By the 10th century, they were included successful the calendars of the Eastern churches, and by the extremity of the 13th period successful those of the Catholic church.

In the publication we cognize arsenic The Travels of Marco Polo, published astir the twelvemonth 1300, Marco gave the West its archetypal relationship of the beingness of the Buddha. He declared that — were the Buddha a Christian — “he would person been a large saint […] for the bully beingness and axenic which helium led”.

In 1446, an astute exertion of the Travels noticed the similarity. “This is similar the beingness of Saint Iosaphat”, helium declared.

It was, however, lone successful the 19th period the West became alert of Buddhism arsenic a religion successful its ain right. As a effect of editing and translating of the Buddhist scriptures (dating from the archetypal period BCE) from the 1830s onwards, reliable accusation astir the beingness of the laminitis of Buddhism began to turn successful the West.

Then the West came to cognize the communicative of the young Indian prince, Gautama, whose begetter – fearful his lad would forsake the satellite – kept him secluded successful his palace. Like Josaphat, Gautama yet encountered aged age, illness and death. And, similar Josaphat, helium near the palace to unrecorded an ascetic beingness successful quest of the meaning of suffering.

After galore trials, Gautama sat beneath the Bodhi histrion and yet attained enlightenment, thereby becoming a Buddha.

Only successful 1869 did this new-found cognition successful the West astir the beingness of the Buddha pb inescapably to the realisation that, successful his guise arsenic Saint Josaphat, the Buddha had been a saint successful Christendom for immoderate 900 years.

Cultural transmission

How did the communicative of the Buddha go that of Josaphat? The process was agelong and complicated. Essentially, the communicative of the Buddha that began successful India successful the Sanskrit connection travelled eastbound to China, past westbound on the Silk Road wherever it was influenced by the asceticism of the religion of the Manichees.

It was past transposed into Arabic, Greek and Latin. From these Latin versions it would beryllium translated into assorted European languages.

Years earlier the West knew thing astir the Buddha, his beingness and the ascetic perfect which it symbolised were a affirmative unit successful the spiritual beingness of Christians.

Prince Jehoshaphat greeting a leper. Credit: Public domain

The Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat demonstrates powerfully the intimate connections betwixt Buddhism and Christianity successful their committedness to the ascetic, meditative and mystical spiritual life.

Few Christian saints person a amended assertion to that rubric than the Buddha.

In an epoch wherever the Buddhist spirituality of “mindfulness” is precise overmuch connected the Western agenda, we request to beryllium mindful of the agelong and affirmative past of the power of Buddhism connected the West. Through the communicative of Barlaam and Josaphat, Buddhist spirituality has played a important relation successful our Western practice for the past 1 1000 years.

Philip C. Almond is Emeritus Professor successful the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland.

The nonfiction was published in The Conversation and is republished nether a Creative Commons License.