‘Ecce homo’ by Saint-martin

Over the coming weeks I will be publishing Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin’s book Ecce Homo in installments. At the end of that time I will make the entire tome available as one PDF file.

‘Ecce Homo‘ is Latin for ‘Behold the Man‘. This phrase was used by Pontius Pilate, as we see in John 19. Having been arrested, Jesus, or The Repairer in Saint-Martin’s terminology, is taken out and flogged. A crown of thorns is placed upon his head and a reed in his hand. He is robed in purple, the color of royalty. And Pilate stands him on the dais before the people and says: ‘Behold the Man’.

Tradition has it that this took place on a Friday, which is the day we commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion. We recall the passage in Genesis 1:27 in which, on the sixth day, God created man: “So God created man in his own image…” On that day, again traditionally a Friday if we count the week from the Sunday, God beheld Man, His creation, and “was well-pleased.” At that moment Adam was perfect and had not yet sinned. Similarly, in the Martinist tradition of Saint-Martin, God emanated the First Adam (Kadmon) to rule over all of creation: he was clothed in a glorious, luminous body, and was able to speak directly with God.

Now we see the Second Adam, similarly perfect and free from sin, standing before God and mankind and dressed in robes of royalty. But this time it is an insult, a demeaning parade.

And it is this image of The Repairer that Saint-Martin takes for the title of his book.

According to Rémi Boyer in his book The Rectified Rite (trans. Michael Sanborn, pub. Rose Circle Publications, see under Published Books above), Robert Amadou, the great Martinist scholar, considered Ecce Homo to be the first in a series of books written by Saint-Martin which represent the stages of man’s progress from Man of the Stream, to Man of Desire, to New Man, to Man-Spirit, as he traces his arduous path back to reintegrate with the Prime Source.

Since the book is quite short, I have decided to publish it here for the benefit of our readership. I will publish is later in book format, probably together with another short book, as I continue to translate the important books by this great author (Man of Desire is in the pipeline). I am publishing it in installments, one Chapter each week or so, since I believe that it pays dividends to take time to read this book in short passages, and to meditate upon the messages contained in each before moving on to the next section. Saint-Martin is not an easy author to read, not least because his subject matter is mixture of theosophy, philosophy, politics and spirituality all firmly based in 18th Century thinking. However, those who wish to understand the fight against the Encyclopedists and atheists of the time, and Martinists especially, will find this book a welcome addition to their reading list. And remember: while countering the agnosticism and atheism of his time, Saint-Martin was no fan of the official Catholic Religion either, believing that very few priests were worthy of leading the people towards a closer understanding of and reunion with God, as is clearly seen in later chapters of this important work!

Ecce Homo by Mihály Munkácsy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.