Tears and Saints Author: [France] EM Cioran Translator: Shamei Publisher: Commercial Press

Romania, mid-1930s. Cioran is already a star writer in the eyes of the new generation of intellectuals. He spends long hours in a Transylvanian library, poring over the biographies of saints. This contemporary hagiography "dreams" of being "the chronicler of these (saints) who have fallen between heaven and hell, the confidant of their inner passions, the historian of those who lose sleep for God". Inspired by Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, Cioran "explores the origin of tears". He asks himself if saints "could be the source of the bitter light of tears".

The book was first published in Romania in 1937. "Who knows?" he wrote in the first paragraph of the book. "What is certain is that tears are their traces. Tears did not enter the world through saints, but without saints, we would never understand that we were crying because we longed for paradise lost." "How does a person renounce himself and embark on the path of holiness?" This is Cioran's question, and it is also the starting point of the record of "Tears and Saints".

Cioran focuses not on the martyrs and heroes of traditional hagiography who are worshipped for their virtues, but on mystics known for their high spirituality, first and foremost female mystics, who possessed a private knowledge of God, leading to another "explosion of the absolute in history." Many of them left classic works, such as Meister Eckhart, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. John of the Cross.

Tears and Saints is Cioran's "struggle record of giving up halfway on the pilgrimage." After repeated questioning of religion and faith, Cioran completed his spiritual exile.

About the Author

EM Cioran (Emile Michel Cioran, 1911-1995) was a French-Romanian philosopher and essayist who wrote in Romanian and French. His major works include: On the Peak of Despair, Tears and Saints, Outlines of Disintegration, Bitter Syllogism, The Temptation of Being, History and Utopia, The Creator of Evil and Exercises in Appreciation.

About the Translator

Sha Mei: Doctor of Philosophy, specializing in Christian art, Orthodox theology and Dostoevsky studies. She was formerly an honorary researcher at the Department of Religious and Cultural Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and executive editor of Tian Nan magazine.