Preface to the new edition

Preface
TO THE NEW EDITION

TWENTY YEARS AGO, as a result of our monastic life in the wilderness of northern California, the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood came out with its first full book in English: an anthology of vivid representatives of Russian monasticism after the ascetic flowering of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Initially we did not even dream of having it come out as a book, and were satisfied with merely publishing the Lives of Russian ascetics, one by one, serialized in our magazine The Orthodox Word, but in time, with great strain and difficulty, we were able to present these Lives in one volume.

These Lives were not translated straight from any one source (with the exception of the Life of St. Nicodemus of Kozha Lake, taken from Rasky Palamnik of 1898), but were compiled from various rare sources. Our intent in making these compilations was to inspire a young generation of American Orthodox converts with the idea of podvig (ascetic struggle), which is all but absent in the present-day ecclesiastical situation, where church-oriented subjects are treated not as something alive and vibrant, demanding energy, creativity, and unwavering commitment, but as a part of the establishment of a particular ethnic church, devoid of life, and almost as an addendum to the liturgical practices, covered with cobwebs and dust. That is why, perhaps, this book evoked a surprising response and was accepted as something fresh, new, and almost unheard-of in church circles. It was printed twice, in very small quantities due to our poverty, and was sold out immediately. The interest it drew was an indication to us that the "desert ideal" of Orthodox ascetics is something very real to the young person living in today's post-Christian reality. It was also inspiring to us because at that time we had several young people coming to our wilderness hermitage, trying their strength. Above all, The Northern Thebaid became an arrow on a compass that leads young people to Christ's otherworldly realm.

Through our meager efforts in publishing this Book, we hoped to present in the English language that which had been almost lost by the Russians, Serbs and Romanians on both sides of the Iron Curtain. As for the Greeks, young Americans with monastic fervency in the Greek Church were officially directed to Greece, to the Athonite heights, thus depriving America of a monastic presence amidst her contemporary youth of the post-hippie counterculture.

Innumerable problems sprang up, quite mystically, when we embarked on the job of printing the Lives of Russian ascetics separately for the book. The roofs would leak and the paper would warp; the linotype machine and generator would constantly break; tracks with supplies would get stuck on the muddy mountain roads, and various accidents would occur. The Life of St. Paul of Obnora had to be printed over again. The translation of the Life of St. Cyril of White Lake was lost, and my co-laborer Fr. Seraphim had to retranslate it. When the Life of St. Anthony of Siya was being printed-which was Fr. Seraphim's favorite, and required almost no additions or corrections--the printing press kept breaking down and finally hurt Fr. Seraphim's finger, disfiguring it for life. In spite of all this, Fr. Seraphim was especially determined to have the Lives of these Holy Fathers and Mothers see the light of print. The podvigs and difficulties we experienced in printing them were proofs to us that the book was piercing the darkness of the modern-day American wilderness and was infuriating the demons by shedding spiritual illumination in an age of rock culture and satanism.

As we worked to publish these Lives, we felt that the Saints depicted in them were alive and with us, and were participating in the process of their emerging on the American continent. We would sing services to them in church after having printed troparia hymns to them along with their Lives, and we would proofread their Lives aloud during our monastic meals, which at the time, due to our poverty, were sometimes as meager as those in the Lives themselves.

There were obvious indications to us that the Saints were responding to our prayers and helping us. When we were about to print the Life of St. Alexander of Svir in The Orthodox Word, we were lamenting that, although we had received from Finland a rare manuscript of the Saint's Life, we did not have a single icon of the Saint. At that time we stopped at the post office to get our mail, and there we found an envelope containing an icon of St. Alexander. Totally amazed-for we had never requested it-we gave thanks to God and immediately printed it to go along with the Saint's Life.

This book could have been much more extensive, but we rushed to come out with it because we felt that, due to the darkness of Communism in ravaged Holy Russia and other Orthodox lands, the end was so close. We had hoped to include many other Lives, but hesitated to do so because we had no icons of them.

Today, as we are bringing out a new edition of this book, the climate has changed. Communist regimes have collapsed, dragging their evil deeds to hell. A new generation of ascetics is emerging in Russia, giving an impetus to young ascetics in the West. Though the night of spiritual unrighteousness is now darker than when Fr. Seraphim was hastening to work on the book, a new light comes from the East. In Russia today, they translate back into Russian our English translation, and publish it at any cost. Thousands of men and women are now taking on the monastic, ascetic podvig in the land of these northern Saints, and, at least to some small measure, are building their house with bricks from our labors in California.

The Northern Thebaid has also become an inspiration to Orthodox monastics in Greece, and is especially loved and treasured by monks on Mount Athos. In 1980, some pious Orthodox Christians in Greece translated and published the book in mass quantities in the Greek language, and today it is very popular in Greece.

May the new edition of The Northern Theband inspire the reader to call to mind the contemporary American struggler who translated and compiled it, humble Fr. Seraphim, and heed his admonition to "hasten to do the work of God," as he said, "for it is later than you think." As for me, who saw his secret tears and sweat, it is clear that the American soul that of the land of Abraham Lincoln and innumerable righteous pastors on the other side of the threshold of the Orthodox Church-can produce, and perhaps is already producing, a semblance of the Northern Thebaid, only in a much more modest form, since the times we live in are fragile and evil. Before the throne of God, any repenting, loving soul, inspired by the grandeur of God's world adorned with myriads of spiritual lamps, is capable of shedding divine light and providing a glimpse into eternal glory, for which man is created.

All the Saints of the Northern Thebaid-together with millions of New Martyrs, confessors, and missionaries, and joined now by an unseen choir of spiritual toilers of this land pray to God for us! Amen.

Abbot Herman
Commemoration of St. Paul of Tobolsk
January 10/23, 1994


PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

This new, offset edition of The Northern Thebaid has been photographed from the original edition of 1975, which was set in lead type and hand-printed on a simple letterpress by Fr. Seraphim Rose and his monastic brothers at the St. Herman of Alaska Hermitage in the mountains of Northern California. The title pages, Table of Contents, Prefaces, Introduction and Index were updated for this new edition.