The Orthodox Word No. 52

THE ORTHODOX WORD

A Bimonthly Periodical OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF SAINT HERMAN OF ALASKA

 

Established with the blessing of His Eminence the late John (Maximovitch), Archbishop of Western America and San Francisco, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
PLATINA, CALIFORNIA 96076

1973, Vol. 9, no. 5 (52)
September October

CONTENTS

167 St. Anthony of Siya by Ivan M. Kontzevitch

168 The Life of St. Anthony of Siya

185 The Scroll: Six Chapters on Mental Prayer (Chapter Four) by Elder Paisius Veli Velichkovsky

187 The Life and Ascetic Labor of Elder Paisius Velichkovsky: Part Five: His Labors in the Translation of the Patristic Writings (Dragomirna)

196 Martyrology of the Communist Yoke: Bishop Arcadius

204 Orthodox Bibliography

COVER: St. Anthony of Siya's second hermitage, where he settled amidst twelve birches on the shore of Lake Padoun.

MICROFILM copies of all back issues and of individual articles are available from Xerox University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI, 48106

Copyright 1973 by The Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood.

Published bimonthly by The Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood.

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Yearly subscription $5, two years $9, three years $12.

All inquiries should be directed to: THE ORTHODOX WORD, PLATINA, CALIFORNIA 96076

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SAINT ANTHONY OF SIYA

SAINT ANTHONY OF SIYA is one of the many Saints who looked upon St. Cyril of White Lake and his testament as an example for emulation. Following in everything St. Cyril and the ascetics of the Northern Thebaid, he was, just like them, a follower of the hesychast school of "sobriety," and this is underlined in his Life, where the "inward activity" (of Jesus Prayer) is mentioned, to which the Saint "paid diligent heed." For the sake of silence and vision he went to a desert island. All of his instructions, words, and the facts written in his Life bear witness that the Saint was penetrated through and through with the Gospel teaching. In him there stands out a trait characteristic of all the Saints of St. Cyril's school: unacquisitiveness.

Like the other ascetics of the Northern Thebaid, he sought out a location which might inspire in the soul an elevated feeling, a feeling of God's presence. Yet the same wilderness that moved and exalted the soul was at the same time a threatening power, full of every possible danger. However, he lived even in the midst of wild beasts unharmed, having attained the state of dispassion. He lived in the midst of deep snow "as in a cave."

Where did St. Anthony and others acquire such strength that they could thus conquer the very laws of nature? Even as earlier St. Paul of Obnora, he was "a chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit." And here is the key to the Saint's supernatural life: he lived, as St. Seraphim of Sarov was to explain it centuries later to Motovilov, having acquired the grace of the Holy Spirit...

The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia
IVAN M. KONTZEVITCH


THE LIFE OF Saint Anthony of Siya
DESERT-DWELLER OF THE NORTHERN DVINA1

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1 The Life has been compiled and translated from the condensations of the ancient Life which are to be found in the Russian Lives of Saints (Supple. mentary Volume, Dec. 7) and in the periodical Russky Palomnik, 1895.


Commemorated December 7

 
ST. ANTHONY OF SIYA

KONTAKION, TONE 8

FROM THY YOUTH, O Saint, thou didst refine thy flesh in fastings and prayers,+ and taking up thy cross, thou didst follow after Christ.+ Wherefore thou didst joyfully finish thy course even to the heights,+ where with all the Saints thou dost stand before the Holy Trinity:+ and now, visiting thy flock, remember those who honor thy holy memory,+ that we all in thanksgiving may cry out to thee:+ rejoice, O divinely-wise Anthony, instructor of the desert.


SAINT ANTHONY of Siya was born in the year 1477 in the village of Kecht, which is thirty miles from the city of Archangelsk on the banks of the Dvina River, and in holy Baptism he was called Andrew in honor of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-called (November 30). The parents of the Saint of Christ, whose ancestors were from Novgorod, were peasants who were quite well-to-do by the standards of that time. His father's name was Nicephorus and his mother's Agatha. While laboring in their occupation, they nonetheless did not give themselves over entirely to worldly cares, but they found time for prayers and good deeds. Keeping strict watch over the purity of their hearts, and preserving a God-pleasing order in their family life, the pious couple often visited the temple of God, made large contributions for its benefit, and fervently entreated the Lord that He might give them children. The Lord heard their prayer and gave them a first-born son, Andrew. Later they had other children also, sons and daughters, but they all yielded the first place to Andrew, both in mental and moral qualities and in outward appearance. Andrew was handsome of face, tall, and had good health. The moral qualities of his meek soul disposed the hearts of his near ones in his favor.

From his earliest years Andrew was quiet, mild, and meek, and it is not astonishing that he was very much loved by his parents. When he was seven years old his parents sent him to learn reading and writing. To the astonishment of his teacher, the child quickly learned reading and writing and came to love the reading of Divine books. And besides this, his loving parents gave him the opportunity to study the painting of icons. Farm labors no longer attracted Andrew; but with greater love and zeal he gave himself over to his beloved occupations he painted icons and read whatever books of a spiritual and instructive nature he could receive in his village. With certainty one may assume that in these years he became acquainted, in addition to the service books, with other writings of the Holy Fathers as well; he could encounter these in the collections of Holy Fathers which were widely circulated at this time. It is known that later, in his monastery, there was a large library, and the writings of the Holy Fathers occupied the first place in it. These occupations strengthened in the soul of Andrew even more those pious habits and dispositions which were instilled in his childhood by his parents.

The time came when his parents grew old and, sensing the approach of death, they gathered all their children together and exhorted them to live piously. "Children," they said, "behold, we have come to deep old age, and severe afflictions have come upon us, as you see yourselves, and death already stands before our eyes. We entrust you to God and His Most Pure Mother. They will take care for you throughout your life and will be your Helpers in all your deeds. And you, children, live in all respects in the way in which you have seen us living. May the mercy of the Lord be with you unto the ages-" With special love and in detail they instructed also their first-born son Andrew, and then in peace they departed to the Lord, having travelled the earthly path irreproachably. At this time Andrew was 25 years old.

After the death of his parents the blessed Andrew settled in Novgorod and spent five years there, serving a certain nobleman. This nobleman was likewise pious and a good man. He came to love the labor-loving Andrew very much, and he gave him his own daughter for a wife. But it was not for long that the Lord ordained this pious union to continue: within a year the wife of Andrew died. Soon his father-in-law died also. The loss of these dear ones served as a sign for the orphaned-one of the Divine Will: that he, having left the world, should entirely follow Christ. Having become a stranger to everything worldly, to worldly joys and entertainments, and having become accustomed to spending his life in attending church, the thought of God, and labor, Andrew again went home. But he did not remain long in Kecht. Having sold his part of his parents' possessions, and having given the proceeds to the poor, he left his native place for good.

 
An old engraving of the city of Archangelsk

 
On the wide Northern Dvina River, in the vicinity of St. Anthony's wanderings: fishing boats in the midnight sun of summer


THE BLESSED ONE came to the bank of the river Kena, where, near Lake Keno, St. Pachomius1 had founded a monastery dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord. When the future ascetic, on the way to this monastery, was overtaken by the darkness of night not far (three miles) from it and lay down to rest, and after he had prayed fervently to God to be shown the path of salvation – he was made worthy of this vision: in a light sleep there appeared before him a dweller of heaven, a shining elder with grey hairs; he was clothed in white garments and in his hands he had a cross. He said to the blessed one: "Take up your cross and follow after me; labor and do not fear the devil's nets, for you will be a man of spiritual desires, an upbringing of the wilderness, and you will be an instructor for many monks." The elder signed him with the cross and, after saying: "By this conquer the evil spirits," he became invisible.

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1 † about 1515; commemorated the first Saturday after Theophany.


The heart of the blessed one was filled with spiritual joy. Awakening after this, he spent the entire night in prayer of thanksgiving to God, and in the morning, entering the monastery with tears of joy, he prayed again before the icon of the Saviour which was on the gates, and falling down at the feet of the superior, he humbly entreated him to receive him into his flock. St. Pachomius, the founder and superior of the Monastery of Keno, did not conceal from Andrew the difficulties of the monastic life and pointed out to him what severe labors he would have to undergo in this monastery which was being established; but nothing frightened the chosen one of God. He only increased his entreaties and indicated his past life, in which one could not but see indications from Above to leave the world. For an experienced ascetic and clairvoyant elder such as St. Pachomius already was, the Divine fore-choosing of Andrew could not be doubted, and he clothed the blessed one in the monastic garb, changing his name to Anthony in honor of St. Anthony the Great (January 17). This was in the thirtieth year of St. Anthony's life, 1508.

The Elder Pachomius entrusted the beginning monk for his ascetic upbringing to no one else, but took this labor upon himself. The zeal of Anthony was very great. Guided by St. Pachomius, while zealously attending the Divine services he manfully fought against the passions, slept extremely little, and fasted strictly, taking food every other day and even that in a very moderate quantity. For a year he labored in the bakery, fervently working for the brethren. He was distinguished by every virtue and firmly resisted every temptation from the evil spirits. All the brethren loved the Saint, but he was humble and meek, and praises were for him a burden.

It came then to pass that there no longer remained a hieromonk in the monastery. The choice of St. Pachomius and the brethren rested upon St. Anthony. And so the Saint had to go to Novgorod and accept the rank of priest. This fact, after he had returned to the monastery, yet more inspired the Saint to increase his labors of continence. In the monastery of St. Pachomius there was an infirmary, and St. Anthony labored not a little time in it: he prepared water, washed the sick, and cleaned their clothing, mixing his deeds with words of love and comfort. And the prayers and thanksgiving of the infirm monks served for him as the best reward.

In general St. Anthony, since he was sound in body, accompanied the spiritual activity with increased physical labors, and often he labored in the fields. By this path he purified his soul and mind from the passions, and mortified the flesh and every attraction toward the world.

And then there came the time for the Saint to leave the monastery which had raised him up, and himself to serve for the salvation of others, preparing himself for this by the labor of solitude. With deep humility he began to entreat the blessing of St. Pachomius for this. The latter, seeing his perfection, gave him all needful counsels and blessed him, saying: "May the Lord bless you, my child; may whatever the Lord wills be done!"

HAVING RECEIVED the blessing of the superior, St. Anthony, together with two other pious monks, Alexander and Joachim, departed from the monastery of St. Pachomius and, after travelling along the river Onega to the stream Shelksna, they went along this stream, through forests and impassable thickets, until they came to the river Emsa, into which the Shelksna flows, to the cataracts which are called the Dark Rapids. This place greatly pleased the anchorites. They built a cabin here, and after some time they built also a small wooden church dedicated to the Wonderworker St. Nicholas, and some cells.

For seven years St. Anthony lived in this place far from the noise of the world, serving God, when the silence of the wilderness was broken only by the sounds of the inspired monastic prayers and the singing of the feathered inhabitants of the forest. But then the local inhabitants rose up against the Saint and his disciples, the number of which had increased by four; for by this time Isaiah, Elisha, Alexander (another), and Jonah had also come to St. Anthony. The local inhabitants feared that with the foundation of a monastery their land would be taken away from them, and they began to drive away the monks. St. Anthony accepted this trial with submission to the Will of God, and he meekly went away from his persecutors together with his disciples.1

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1 Up to the time of the Russian Revolution there was a chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker at this place. The local inhabitants until very recent times lived in extreme poverty, and according to the common opinion this was because of their unjust treatment of St. Anthony; however, in the 19th century, when they began to venerate the Saint with faith, their condition became much better.

And so the monks went about the northern lands which lie in the region of the Dvina, passing through the impenetrable forests, gorges, and swamps which lie near the White Sea, and the mossy places and inconstant marshes and the many lakes, seeking a suitable place, wherever God might instruct them to stay. Once, at this time, St. Anthony stood at prayer; the monks were praying humbly and the Saint, as their intercessor, stood before them with his hands raised on high. At this very time a hunter whose name was Samuel came out to the place where the monks were standing. For a long time he did not dare to go up to them. The wondrous picture of the praying monks in the midst of the forest astounded the hunter. Finally, being convinced that what he saw was real, the hunter went up to the Saint and received his blessing, and when the Saint asked him to show them a place convenient for monastic labors, he brought him with his disciples to a distant lake, which was called Michailov, into which the river Siya flows. This place was even more remote than the place where the monks had settled before, having impenetrable gorges and dense forests, and great thickets and swamps, and mossy places and inconstant marshes, where there dwelled wild beasts, bears and wolves, deer and hares and foxes, a great multitude of them, which were like herds. There were many lakes round about, and they were very deep. And the place was surrounded by waters as by walls. There were not many paths which had been trod by human feet, and one could enter or leave only by one way. About the holy monastery there were many lakes, and the river Siya flowed from one lake to the next, and they were as if bound by the river Siya in a kind of union, so that visitors, when they saw this, marvelled at the unutterable wisdom of God.

No one had ever lived in this region; but hunters, when they visited this place, often heard the sound of bells and the singing of monks, and they even saw monks cutting the trees. Therefore the people living closest to this place were convinced that it had been appointed by God Himself as a place for a monastery.

THE PLACE on Lake Michailov was very pleasing to the soul of St. Anthony. Here he built a chapel and cells. This happened in the year 1520, in the 42nd year of St. Anthony's life; and thus the foundation of the Monastery of Siya was laid. Until 1524 the monks had nothing. The Saint himself, together with the other monks, cut trees and worked the earth, and by this means they obtained for themselves a scant living. They also ate wild plants: berries, roots, herbs, and mushrooms. Often they endured severe hunger. Once their hunger was so great that the brethren of St. Anthony murmured against him and were prepared to separate. At this time there came to them an unknown man who brought oil, flour, and bread and gave money for the building of the monastery. Having received the blessing of St. Anthony for his further journey to Novgorod, the benefactor departed and never returned again. Hav. ing received this unexpected help, St. Anthony began fervently to put the monastery in order; and at this time the following trial occurred.

The collector of taxes for the ruler of Novgorod, Basil Beber, thinking that the builders had much money, hired thieves and wished to plunder the monastery. But the Lord preserved His chosen one. When the evil-doers wished to attack the monastery, it seemed to them as if it were surrounded by a multitude of armed men. They told the collector of taxes about this, and he, knowing that the monks had no defenders, understood that the elders were being preserved by heavenly beings, and he repented of his evil thought and, falling at the feet of St. Anthony, begged forgiveness. The Elder meekly forgave the guilty one, and this served as a cause of great glory for the Godpleaser. From this time on many people began to come to the Saint and, receiving the tonsure, comprised a considerable community.

Seeing the increase of the brethren, St. Anthony sent two of his disciples, Alexander and Isaiah, to Moscow to the Grand Prince Basil Ioannovich, with the request to allow the establishment of a monastery and to give land for this. St. Anthony had been known to the Grand Prince even earlier as a man of holy life. Therefore he was kindly disposed to this request, and not only did he allow the establishment of the monastery, but he also awarded lands to it, and gave everything necessary for its beginning. With joy Alexander and Isaiah returned to their teacher, and the whole brotherhood fervently prayed for the health of the good Tsar. This was in the year 1544.

The Elder, rejoiced by this, energetically undertook the building of the monastery. Thus he built a church in honor of the Life-giving Trinity. St. Anthony himself painted the main icon of the Holy Trinity and entreated that this icon, being preserved in the monastery, would remind the brethren of his soul.

But the church that had been built with such effort soon burned in a fire caused by a candle which the candle-lighter had forgotten to extingaish before one icon. The fire could not be put out, for when the church burned the brethren, apart from the sick and the servants, were all laboring in the fields. The monks only saw with sorrow in place of the church a pile of ruins, and they wished to separate. But the Saint, even though he was saddened, nonetheless trusted in the Will of God and persuaded the monks to remain; and increasing his prayers and fasting, he began to build new churches. The monastery buildings apart from the church remained unharmed. At the same time the Lord visibly consoled his chosen servant. The church burned, but the icon of the Holy Trinity which had been painted by the Saint was found in the 'midst of the monastery completely unharmed. And it was triumphantly brought into the church of the Life-giving Trinity when its building was completed. Soon from this icon, by the prayers of the Saint, the infirm began to receive healing. Besides the church of the Holy Trinity, St. Anthony built two other churches: one dedicated to the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God, with a wing dedicated to St. Sergius of Radonezh, to whom the Saint often appealed in his prayers; and another in honor of St. Andrew the Firstcalled. The Annunciation church was heated, and it had a refectory.

When the monastery was completed the brethren entreated the Saint to take upon himself the rank of abbot. For the salvation of those who entreated him the humble Elder accepted this rank, and for several years he governed the monastery.

In governing the monastery the Saint gave to everyone a good example. Daily he was in the church of God, and standing at the Divine service from beginning to end, he did not lean on his staff or against the wall. And he watched over the brethren so that they would observe good order in church: that they should not go from place to place and would not go out except out of extreme necessity. He ordered that the brethren should without fail perform their cell rule of prayer also. At the end of prayer the Saint was the first to begin work, and here he gave the brethren an example of love of labor. He loved also divine books, and he collected many volumes of the Fathers and Teachers of the Church. Spending his nights in prayer, the Saint rested only for a short time, forgetting himself in sleep after the meal. His food was just as meager as that of the brethren. His clothing was old, covered with patches like the clothing of paupers, so that no one from outside could recognize the Saint as the Superior of the monastery. With concern he supervised the monastery labors, the kitchen and bakery; he encouraged the brethren who were bearing these difficult obediences and counselled them to avoid idle conversations. With special love he visited the monastery infirmary, instructed the sick monks to bear their infirmities with gratitude and to pray unceasingly, remembering the approaching hour of death. The Saint appointed a special supervisor to take care of the sick.

The strict c;nobitic life was established in the monastery; food and clothing were common and equal for everyone. Intoxicating beverages were totally prohibited; it was ordered that they should not be received from visitors either, and that those who brought them should not even be allowed in the monastery. And by this rule the blessed one was able to chop off the head of the serpent of drunkenness and uproot it entirely. The Saint was also much concerned for the poor brethren; he advised the monks to give unstinting alms and he himself not infrequently did this in such a way that the brethren might not know, fearing to evoke their complaints.

Hearing of the Saint's strict life, many began to come to him asking his prayers, and some entered the brotherhood. Some seventy monks were gathered together in the monastery. Many among them were distinguished by the sanctity of their lives and their spiritual labors; one of them, Jonah, later wrote the Life of his spiritual father and instructor.

In the monastery of St. Pachomius St. Anthony died to the world; his life in the wilderness by the Emsa River was a preparatory school for him; and his life in the Monastery of Siya was the time when the God-pleaser, the man of spiritual desires, served his Lord, laboring for the salvation of his lesser brothers. He was in truth "an instructor for many monks," as the shining elder had prophesied. Not being satisfied with his own instructions, the Saint gave the monks the opportunity to learn for themselves the essence and ways of the spiritual activity, by gathering in the monastery library the works of many of the Eastern ascetics and Fathers.

 
St. Anthony's Monastery reflected in the waters of the Siya River

 
The Catholicon (Main Church) of St. Anthony's Monastery

 
Holy Cross Church at St. Anthony's first hermitage, on Lake Dudnitsa

 
The Reliquary of St. Anthony of Siya


SAINT ANTHONY was weighed down by the glory of men. After several years of governing the monastery, having chosen in his place Theognostes, a man experienced in spiritual life, he left the abbotcy and, together with one simple monk, he departed from the monastery into a solitary place. At first St. Anthony settled on an island in Lake Dudnitsa, two miles from the monastery, upstream on the river Siya. This island was very beautiful and convenient for desert-dwelling. The Saint went about the island, examined it entirely and came to love it: the island was surrounded by the lake, on whose shores impenetrable forests grew, and on the island there was an extensive swamp, overgrown with moss. St. Anthony settled here, built a small hut and a chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and he began to labor in silence, unceasing prayer, and labors even more zealously than before: he felled trees, cleared a place for sowing, dug the earth with his own hands, sowed wheat, and lived by his own labors; and the wheat that was left over went to the monastery. At night, after the evening rule of prayer, the ascetic milled grain until time for Matins; during the summer nights he stripped to the waist and gave himself over to be eaten by mosquitoes.

The Lord granted to the ascetic the gift of clairvoyance. A young. monk of the Monastery of Siya, Philotheus, being engaged in warfare by the tempter, thought of going into the world, renouncing his monasticism, and getting married. But the good thought came to him to go beforehand to the Saint in the wilderness and receive a blessing from him. Seeing Philotheus, the ascetic turned to him with these words: "How is it, my child, that you have come here being disturbed by an evil thought? You wish to go into the world, to renounce monasticism, and you think you can conceal it from me."

Hearing this secret from the mouth of the Saint, Philotheus became terrified, fell at his feet, and acknowledged everything. The ascetic raised him up, encouraged him, and after instructing him let him go back to the monastery.

After some time St. Anthony went away to another solitary place three miles from the previous place. This place was in the mountains and was surrounded by mountains as by walls; and in the valley between these mountains was a lake, which was called Padoun. At the base of these mountains stood the cell of the Saint, and around it were twelve birch trees, as white as snow. On the mountains there grew such a tall forest that from below it seemed to reach to the heavens. Most melancholy was this place, so that one coming to see this wilderness would have great contrition, for the very sight of the place could bring the beholder of it into tender feeling. Here the Saint made a raft out of logs, and from it he fished on the lake for his food. While he was fishing he would bare his head and shoulders to be eaten by mosquitoes and gnats: whole hives of the insects would fly to him and cover his body, and the blood would flow along his neck and shoulders; but the ascetic would stand unmoving, not touching them with a single finger.

In the winter the Saint's cell was covered with snow, and he lived under the snow as in a cave, and sent up to God his fervent prayers with warm tears. Paying diligent heed to the inward activity, he joyfully strove toward the heights, remaining much in silence, removing his mind from all cares, and conversing purely with God, sending up his prayer like incense to heaven.

Thus did the Saint spend two years outside his monastery in both of these wildernesses.

In the meantime Theognostes renounced the abbotcy. The brethren entreated the Saint to be their abbot again, saying: "Father, do not abandon us, your children," the brethren said with tears. "Come to your monastery and remain with us. And if you do not come, we will all scatter like sheep that have no shepherd."

St. Anthony yielded to their entreaties. Again he began to govern the monastery, giving to all an example of pious and ascetic life. From old age he no longer had the strength to perform physical work, but he did not grow drowsy in prayer nor weak in fasting. And then there appeared in St. Anthony the gift of working miracles – the reward of his holy life.

Before the very feast of the Transfiguration, the monks labored the entire night at fishing, but they caught nothing. Saddened, they came to the monastery, but the Saint encouraged them and again sent them to the lake, to the Red Cape, saying: "Children, show obedience and you will see the glory of God, for the Lord is merciful: the Life-giving Trinity will not forget your labors and will not abandon the brethren who faithfully serve the Lord in this holy place and who are hungry on the great feast."

The monks set out for the place that was indicated to them, let out their net, and caught such a multitude of fish that they were eating it for a long time after the feast. From that time on they began to call this fishing place "Anthony's."

From his severe ascetic labors and from old age the body of St. Anthony withered and grew weak. His sight grew dim, his legs grew swollen, and the monks had to lead him to church. Like an olive tree under the burden of its fruit, he bent down towards the earth, bent over by his years and labors. His bodily powers declined; he had accomplished his earthly path, and his purified spirit was already prepared to arise into the heavens towards our Saviour, Whom he had served for his entire life. The repose of the Saint approached.

SEEING THE INFIRMITY of their instructor and expecting that he would soon die,the brethren entreated the Saint to give them a written rule and indicate to them a successor in the governing of the monastery. The Saint fulfilled the entreaty of his sorrowing disciples. he appointed as the builder of the monastery Cyril, and as abbot in his own place Gelasius. Gelasius at that time was beyond the White Sea, on the river Zolatitsa, having been sent there on business. Cyril was in the monastery, and the Saint addressed himself to him with his final instruction: he exhorted him to preserve the monastic rule inviolate, concerning the church services, concerning food and drink; to love the brethren equally and to be the servant of all; to judge concerning monastery matters with all the brethren at trapeza, and to do nothing without taking counsel of them, so that there might be no dissatisfaction in the monastery; he prescribed that the sick brethren should be visited and that special care should be taken for them.

Then the Saint turned to the assembled brethren and exhorted them not to grow faint in prayer, to have mutual love and oneness of mind, to remove themselves from anger and evil words, to submit to the elder, to preserve purity in body and soul, to have food according to the rule of the monastery and to flee drunkenness entirely, and to preserve without any infringement the c;nobitic rule of the monastery.

So that his instructions might have greater force, the Saint gave the brethren a testament written with his own hand, which contained also the rules of monastic life. Here we quote these rules of the great Saint of Siya:

"And whichever of the brethren are complainers and schismatics (that is, violators of brotherly unity) and do not wish to live according to the monastic order nor submit to the abbot and brethren, should be banished from the nonastery so that the others will have fear." However, after sincere repentance they should be accepted again and kept as brethren, as also were to be those who had left the monastery during the lifetime of the Saint and took from the monastery's funds, if they have repented. "Before everything else may you have the fear of God in your hearts, that the Holy Spirit may dwell in them, and that He might instruct you and set you on the true path. Among yourselves have love and submission in Christ to one another, by which you will tover up your many sins. In the common life live in equality both in body and spirit, in food and clothing, according to the commandment of the Holy Fathers. Do not give the abbot in the refectory anything in food or drink above what the other brethren receive. Let there be the same equality also in clothing and shoes. Do not keep intoxicating beverages in the monastery and do not receive them from visitors. Women should not spend the night in the monastery at all, and likewise men from the world should not spend the night with the brethren and should not live in the cells. Give the poor sufficient to eat and drink and give them alms, lest this holy place should come to know want. And the brethren who are well should not be left without monastic obedience for the sake of their salvation, with the exception of the sick. Do not allow the peasants to make fields and yards near the monastery, except for a place for cows, and let that be beyond the lake. Preserve this, I entreat you, and may the mercy of God be with you." Then, having entrusted his monastery to the Mother of God and St. Sergius, St. Anthony prepared for his end.

When the brethren asked where his body should be given over to burial, the Saint replied: "Bind my legs and drag my sinful body into the wilds and trample upon it in the moss in the swamp, that it may be eaten by beasts and reptiles, or else hang it on a tree to be eaten by birds, or else throw it with a stone into the lake."

But the monks said outright that they would not do this, but would honprably bury his body. On the eve of his repose the Saint received communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. On the next day, 7 December, 1556, before Matins, having bade farewell to the brethren, when the monks Andronicus and Pachomius had offered incense in his cell and at their teacher's word had left the cell, the Saint of Christ, having folded his arms in the form of a cross, peacefully gave his soul unto the Lord. In all he had lived 79 years, of which 37 he had spent in the region of Siya, both in the monastery and the wilderness. The orphaned brethren honorably buried his holy relics in the church of the Life-giving Trinity, on the right side near the Altar. The brethren adorned his grave with icons and candles, and every day they came to pray for the repose of his soul, and believing in his boldness before God, they asked his intercession.

The priest of the nearby village, Chariton, had envy towards the memory of St. Anthony, and once he expressed himself sacrilegiously regarding him. After this Chariton suddenly became blind, and soon he understood that the Lord was chastising him for his blasphemy against the Saint. Then he began to repent for his transgression, and he fervently prayed and his sight was restored. Giving thanks to the Lord and His Saint, Chariton went after this to the Monastery of Siya and labored in monasticism.

During his lifetime St. Anthony loved to paint icons. Even up to this century there were preserved holy icons painted by his own hand. And even after his repose he was a patron of those who undertook this God-pleasing work. Thus the abbot of the Monastery of Siya, Pitirim (15771586), being concerned over the proper adornment of the monastery, painted many new icons and restored old ones. Once Pitirim became ill. His infirmity increased all the time, and death began to threaten him. The sick man prayed to the Life-giving Trinity and St. Anthony. And behold, once at night, falling into a light sleep, he saw how a magnificent elder, adorned with gray hairs, was walking from the tomb of the Saint with a sack.

"Do you wish to be well and finish what you have begun?" he asked Pitirim. "I wish to, but I cannot," replied the sick man. To this the elder said: "The Holy Trinity heals you, do not grow faint in your work; I, the Abbot Anthony, have come to visit you in your affliction." The Wonderworker touched the sick abbot. Pitirim felt himself to be well and with new zeal he began to occupy himself with icon-painting and the adornment of the churches of the monastery.

A merchant from Holmagor whose name was Carpus was sailing on the sea off the shore of Tersk, beginning from the river Varzuga. In his boat, among other goods, there was a supply of fish for the Monastery of Siya. A great storm arose; the waves rose like mountains and lashed the boat; and the oarsmen already despaired entirely of salvation. Suddenly Carpus saw not far from him an elder who spread out his mantle over the boat and protected it from the waves.

"You called on many for help," said the wondrous elder to the astonished merchant, "but you did not call on me. Yet in your boat there is a part also for our monastery. But God will grant stillness."

"Who are you, O man of God?" asked the merchant. "I am Anthony, the Abbot of the monastery at Lake Michailov, on the river Siya," said the elder, and became invisible. From this time the storm began to grow still and a favorable wind arose. Coming safely to the Monastery of Siya, Carpus gave thanks for his salvation to St. Anthony, and soon received the monastic tonsure in his monastery.

A certain Timothy, whose surname was Ryabok, who lived seven miles from the monastery, became blind and could see nothing for two years. The feast of the Life-giving Trinity approached, and pilgrims were going to the Monastery of Siya. When the blind man heard the movement of people he wept bitterly that he was unable to go with the God-fearing people. Praying warmly to the Most Holy Trinity and the Saint, Timothy asked that he be conducted to the monastery, and the whole way he continued to pray mentally. Suddenly he felt that he began to see a certain faint dawn, and then he began to see green: this was the forest through which he was walking. Rejoicing, Timothy feared to believe his healing and did not say anything to his companions. Desiring to test his eyes, he began to examine the road on which he was walking, and he could make out the path. His heart was filled with joy and rapture, but he restrained himself and did not yet speak about his healing. Coming to the church of the monastery, Timothy saw the wonderworking icon of the Life-giving Trinity and other icons, and he saw the burning candles: and then in the hearing of all he gave thanks to the Lord and His Saint for his miraculous healing.

Many other miracles also occurred by the prayers of this great Saint of God to the glory of the Holy Trinity.

The numerous miracles performed at the grave of St. Anthony inspired the brethren of the monastery of Siya under the above-mentioned Abbot Pitirim to petition Tsar John the Terrible that the Saint be joined to the choir of Saints. This was done just 23 years after the death of the Saint, in the year 1579. Thus was St. Anthony joined to the choir of Saints venerated by the whole Russian Church.


The SCROLL
CONTAINING SIX CHAPTERS ON MENTAL PRAYER By Our Father of Blessed Memory,

ELDER PAISIUS VELICHKOVSKY

CHAPTER FOUR

WHAT PREPARATION IS NEEDFUL FOR THOSE WHO DESIRE TO UNDERTAKE THIS DIVINE WORK.

 
BLESSED PAISIUS


INASMUCH AS THIS Divine prayer is greater than any other mo nastic labor and is, according to the Holy Fathers, the pinnacle of all corrective labors, the source of virtues, the most refined and invisible work of the mind invisible in the depths of the heart so does the invisible enemy of our salvation extend against it the most refined, invisible nets of his various deceptions and fantasies, which are scarcely understandable to the human mind. Therefore, one who is zealous to learn this Divine work must, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, give himself over soul and body into obedience, in accordance with the Divine Scripture: that is, give himself in complete cutting off of his own will and his own understanding to a man who fears God, a fervent keeper of His Divine commandments, and not inexperienced in this mental labor, one who can, according to the writings of the Holy Fathers, show the one who submits himself to him an unerring path to salvation, the path of the mental activity of prayer secretly performed by the mind in the heart. This is essential in order that, by means of true obedience according to reason, he might become free from all noises and cares and attachments of this world and the body. And how can one not be free if he has placed all concern for his soul and body upon God and, after God, upon his father? And by the humility which is born of obedience, according to the testimony of St. John of the Ladder and many other Holy Fathers, he can escape all the deceptions and nets of the devil peacefully, calmly, without any harm, and may constantly exercise himself in this mental work, with great prospering of soul.

 
THE HANDWRITING AND SIGNATURE OF BLESSED PAISIUS


And if someone has given himself over into obedience, but has not found in his father a very profound and experienced and skilled instructor of this Divine mental prayer (at the present time, alas, which is worthy of many tears and much lamentation, skilled instructors of this work are completely disappearing) then he should not fall into despondency because of this; but remaining in true obedience according to God's commandments (and not self-willed and apart from others, without obedience – for deception ordinarily follows upon this), and having placed all his hope upon God, let him submit himself, in addition to his father and in place of a true instructor, in faith and love, to the instruction of our Holy Fathers, who have set forth in detail the teaching of this Divine activity from the enlightenment of Divine grace, and from this source let him take instruction concerning this prayer. And in any case, the grace of God, by the prayers of the Holy Fathers, will a;d and enlighten him as to how, without any doubt, to learn this Divine work.


The Life and Ascetic Labor of Our Father, Elder Paisius, Archimandrite of the Holy Moldavian Monasteries of Niamets and Sekoul. Part Five.

BLESSED PAISIUS' LABORS IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE PATRISTIC WRITINGS1

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1 This section in its entirety, except for the paragraphs noted in the footnote, comes from the Letter of Elder Paisius to Elder Theodosius, printed in the Optina edition of Elder Paisius' Life, pp. 201-208. There is a partial Russian translation-paraphrase of the Slavonic original in Chetverikov, I, pp. 97–103.


ONCE BLESSED PAISIUS had become established in the Monastery of Dragomirna, he began the most important labor of translating the writings of the Holy Fathers. Here is how he himself describes this labor:

"Once we had settled in the holy Monastery of Dragomirna, I began with all diligence to think and be concerned as to how I might correct the Slavonic Patristic books, or to translate them anew from the ancient Greek; and I found a great and unutterable difficulty in this work, for several good reasons. First of all, a translator of books must be complelely learned, and not only skilled in all grammatical learning and orthography and a perfect knowledge of the characteristics of both languages, but also he must have touched, and not superficially, upon the very highest studies, poetics, I say, and rhetoric, and philosophy, and even theology itself. But I, even though in my youth I spent four years in the Kiev schools, have studied only in part the grammar of higher studies. But even this little learning, in so many years, I have almost completely forgotten; and I feared and trembled to undertake such a great work.

"Secondly, there is my lack of skill in orthography, that is, in right spelling. One who is unskilled in spelling and desires to copy holy books, in my opinion, although in his heart he may believe in the truth, and his lips may connonetheless, because of his lack of skill, by his hand he fess it unto salvation commits blasphemy unto his own eternal condemnation, even though by the utterance of his lips he did not acknowledge his blasphemy. Wherefore I, being still unskilled at that time in spelling, was afraid and feared to begin this work.

"Thirdly, I did not have lexicons for this work, excepting only Varin, but even that was in the cell of Brother Macarius, for the sake of translating books into the Moldavian language, and was not always available. And the translation of books without lexicons is like unto the work of an artist without utensils.

"Fourthly, I knew only a part, and that the smallest part, of the words of the ancient Greek language; and I was in almost complete ignorance of the whole language.

"Fifthly, inasmuch as this ancient Greek language incomparably surpasses all the languages of the whole world in wisdom, beauty, depth, and the unutterable abundance and wealth of its expressions, and even native-born Greeks, who are thoroughly educated, can scarcely attain its depths in part, not a little fear was installed into me concerning how I could dare to begin my work of correcting or translating books from such a most wise language.

"Sixthly, our own most glorious Slavonic language, as I think, incomparably surpasses many languages in its beauty and depth and abundance of expressions, and above all in its nearness to the Greek language; but scarcely knowing even a certain part of the expressions of this language. and being ignorant of an incomparably larger part, I feared to undertake this work.

"Reflecting on these reasons and on my occupation with many concerns for the numerous spiritual and bodily needs within the monastery and outside, I all but despaired of undertaking this work as something most inconvenient. Seeing, however, the hunger of the word of God in our community, from which the souls of the brethren together with my own poor soul were entirely collapsing, I placed all my hope on the Lord Who makes wise the blind, and by the prayers of the holy brethren I dared to undertake this work, which is utterly beyond me, with this intent and understanding and in this way:

"Acknowledging my own limitations, for the reasons set forth above, I saw that it would be utterly impossible for me to bring this work which I had begun, that is, the correction or new translation of the Slavonic patristic books from the ancient Greek, into such a complete form as to be worthy of being copied or printed by the brethren living in other monasteries, lest it later become necessary for someone to examine and correct them a second time. And I saw also as clearly as in a mirror that not once but many times, after I had obtained lexicons and had come to understand the ancient Greek language at least a little better, and had come to know the orthography of the Slavonic language and had observed the art of the characteristics and the grammatical composition of both these languages, that it would be absolutely necessary either for me myself, if God should prolong my lite, or after my death for some one of the brethren who is skilled in this matter, to examine them most carefully again and correct them. Therefore, I did not see, as some think, any benefit for all those monks who wished to be saved, but rather I had hope in the complete correction of these much-desired books which was to be done after much time. And so I placed in my soul, as an unshakable foundation, this testament: that this my labor in the correction or translation of the Patristic books, halting and imperfect as it is in all respects, should in no way be allowed to depart from our community until, by God's help, it should be corrected and brought into befitting perfection.

"I began my work, that is, the correction of the Slavonic Patristic books and their translation anew from ancient Greek, in this way: seeing myself deprived both of lexicons and of all the skill needed for this work, as was set forth above, I placed for my instruction and guidance the translation of the Patristic books into the Moldavian language which was made by our beloved brethren Hieromonk Macarius and Hilarion the Didascalos from the ancient Greek into their own native Moldavian language; they are skilled in the translation of books and are learned men. Brother Macarius translated a part of them while still on the Holy Mountain of Athos, and a part in Dragomirna; likewise also the honorable Didascalos, Father Hilarion, translated a part of them in our community. Accounting their translation to be true in all respects without any doubt, I began to correct the Patristic books of the following Saints, books which of old had been translated into Slavonic from ancient Greek, looking carefully at the ancient Greek originals: St. Hesychius, St. Diadoch, the second book of St. Macarius, St. Philotheus, St. Nilus concerning prayer, St. Thallasius, St. Gregory the Sinaite, St. Simeon the New Theologian (homily on heedfulness in prayer), St. Cassian the Roman on the eight thoughts, and others, holding firmly, as a blind man to a railing, to the above-mentioned translations; and so I corrected these books for the first time.

"Likewise, after much time, when I had already begun to advance in this study, I discovered in the books which I had corrected, due to my lack of skill, very many mistakes; and so I corrected certain of them for a second time. Likewise, after some more time had passed, and finding many more mistakes in them, I corrected them for a third time. Some of them, however, remained in their first correction, because, for lack of time, I was not able to correct many of them. But they were yet a long way from true correction, inasmuch as the books in ancient Greek which had been copied on the Holy Mountain, and which due to my lack of skill I had counted to be without any mistakes, in many places were found to be orthographically in error. At that same time, when I did not as yet have a single lexicon in this labor, I translated anew from those books in ancient Greek the works of these Saints: St. Anthony the Great, St. Isaiah the Hermit, the second book of St. Peter Damascene, which because of my extreme lack of skill at that time has so many errors in translation that it is frightful for me even to think of it; but it is not possible to correct them completely without reliable ancient Greek texts. The book of St. Theodore the Studite, out of unavoidable necessity, I translated at that time from the simple Greek language, not having been able even up to the present time, despite my earnest wish, to see it in the ancient Greek language; and it likewise, for the above-mentioned reasons, has very many errors.

"Likewise also, concerning the ancient Slavonic translation of the book of St. Isaac the Syrian, by God's unfathomable providence and beyond all exexpectations, I was deemed worthy in this present life to see a printed text of it in ancient Greek, and I have labored a whole year in correcting it, now from the ancient Greek and now from the Moldavian; but woe to all my labor, for this also, for the same reasons, is far from perfection, and it will be needful for me now, already half dead, if only God in His mercy will preserve my life and grant enlightenment to my sight (for I am already all but blind), to labor again with all diligence in correcting it; for now I have some lexicons, and from frequency of practice I have somewhat advanced in this matter."

In another place the Elder Paisius relates the following details concerning his corrections of the Slavonic text of St. Isaac the Syrian: "When I was still living among a small number of brethren on Mt. Athos, I had the book of St. Isaac the Syrian, a part of which I had copied out in my youth in the Kiev Caves Lavra; and a certain zealot on Mt. Athos had finished it for me, at my request. I have this book at this present time. Reading this book on Mt. Athos many times with attention, in many places in it I could not find the meaning. I marked such places with special signs in the margin, hoping with time, by finding a better text, to correct them.

"After some time I met a certain hieromonk who had, as it happened, a text of St. Isaac which supposedly conformed in all respects to a Bulgarian text which had been copied out more than 400 years before, and which itself was supposedly in agreement with the Greek text. Believing this assertion, and desiring to correct my own text, I acquired the book from this hieromonk. For six weeks, day and night, I corrected my own book in accordance with it, but it happened that the unclear places in my book remained just as unclear as before, for in the book which had been given me they were copied exactly as in my book. My desire to obtain the book of St. Isaac in the ancient Greek language remained unfulfilled during the time of my stay on Mt. Athos and in the first years of my living in Dragomirna.

"After the passage of many years, when I had already lost almost all hope of obtaining this book, Almighty God by His grace inspired the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Ephraim, to print this book. The Patriarch entrusted this work to the most wise hierodidascalos, Nicephorus, who subsequently was Archbishop of Astrakhan, but at that time was staying in Constantinople. Finding out about this, a certain brother from our c;nobia who was then in Constantinople began to entreat both the Most Holy Patriarch Ephraim and the Hierodidascalos Nicephorus to deign to send the book to me in Dragomirna as soon as it should come off the press. With the blessing of the Patriarch, Father Nicephorus informed our brother that as soon as this book should be printed, 'I will immediately send it to your Elder as a sign of my sincere love towards him.' All this was in the year 1768.

"When our brother, having returned to the monastery, related concerning this, my soul was filled with the greatest joy, and with hope I awaited the fulfillment of the promise. In the year 1770, during the fast of the Nativity of Christ, the Hierodidascalos Nicephorus, fulfilling his promise, sent me the priceless gift, the printed Greek book of St. Isaac the Syrian, which I received with unutterable joy. And with tears having given thanks to God Who had fulfilled my long-time desire, I immediately began to read my own Slavonic book, comparing it word for word with the printed Greek text, with the aim of making in the Slavonic book a correction of those places in which the grammatical sense was not evident, but not at all with the intention of translating the book anew. For at that time I did not yet have sufficient knowledge of the ancient Greek language, and likewise I did not have the necessary books. And therefore my labor at that time cannot at all be called a translation, but only a certain correction of the Slavonic text.

"And when the text of St. Isaac in ancient Greek was translated into the Moldavian language, then, comparing this translation with my Slavonic text, I made in the latter some other essential corrections. And since the Slavonic text turned out to be more abundant in words than the Greek text, and these words, in my opinion, in fact belonged to St. Isaac, I did not exclude them from the Slavonic text, but only made a note of this. All this my labor in the correction of the Slavonic text of St. Isaac began in the year 1770 and was completed in 1771."1

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1 These five paragraphs concerning the text of St. Isaac are from Chetverikov, I, pp. 100-102.


"Likewise I should undertake the labor and make a second correction of the first book of St. Macarius the Great, and the first book of St. Peter Damascene, inasmuch as these are quite far from perfection. As for the book of St. Simeon the New Theologian, I have not begun to correct it, inasmuch as I have until now not even been deemed worthy to see the ancient Greek text.

"In the year 1774 there came from the Holy Mountain to us in Dragomirna, when we were still there, a Greek monk whose name was Constantius; he brought with him a book in ancient Greek, written out in his own hand, which contained a multitude of Patristic works: in it were to be found certain books which I had not even seen up to then in the Slavonic language, and at my fervent entreaty he copied them out for us with his own hand. But inasmuch as he was not in the least familiar with grammatical learning, he introduced innumerable mistakes both into his own book and into the copy he made from it, owing to his total lack of skill in orthography; and, in truth, we found the gold of the holy words floundering in a swamp of incorrect spelling, and what learned man can cleanse it without reliable originals in ancient Greek? Out of the books which he copied out at my entreaty, I therefore translated anew the following: St. Mark, and the 300 Chapters of St. Nicetas Stethatos, of which we had had only a certain part which had been translated of old into the Slavonic language, and I had not even seen up to then a complete text of this book which had the whole number of 300 chapters; and I did not have up to that time a single chapter of this book in ancient Greek. From these texts I also translated the book of St. Theodore of Edessa. These books, even more than the ones already mentioned, were unsuitable not only for printing, but even for being copied outside the monastery, until they should be corrected from reliable originals.

"And what shall I say of the book of St. Callistus the Patriarch of Constantinople and his fellow-faster St. Ignatius Xanthopoulos, of which the blessed Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica, testifies? This book I had desired with unutterable desire to be deemed worthy to behold before my death. And when I had already begun to despair about this, the almighty Providence of God so arranged it that I should not only behold it, but that I should also translate it into our Slavonic language; but this book also, even if – I say it truthfully – it is of better orthography than the others, nonetheless has in many places such mistakes that the most skilled translator of such books from ancient Greek into Moldavian, Father Hilarion the Didascalos, could not find any real and true sense in those passages at all; but he translated them, as I believe, out of unavoidable necessity, and I also followed his opinion in my translation. For this reason there are obstacles also in the way of printing this book or copying it in another place.

"And concerning the second book of St. Callistus who is called Kataphigiotes, what more shall I say because of the numberless orthographic errors which are to be found in it? Even if I did likewise translate it into our Slavonic language, nonetheless it is imperfect, and there are obstacles in the way of printing or copying it.

"The Life of St. Gregory the Sinaite, which was written by his disciple St. Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, was brought by the venerable Schema-monk Father Sabbas from the Holy Mountain to our common Father and Elder, Basil of blessed memory, and from him we took it and copied it; and even if after much time the Life of this Saint in the ancient Greek language was brought from the Holy Mountain to our community, nonetheless this text, besides the usual orthographic mistakes, did not contain the whole Life but only certain parts, and the account of the blessed repose of the Saint was not to be found in it; and even if I did translate this into our Slavonic language, nonetheless it has the same faults.

"As for the book containing 400 chapters on love by St. Maximus the Confessor, we have only the Moscow printed edition, and the homily of the same saint on fasting in questions and answers, which I copied out in my youth in our homeland with numberless mistakes and omissions due to my ignorance; and I have not been able up to the present time to behold a copy in the ancient Greek language despite my great desire for this.

"The book of the most blessed Simeon of Thessalonica is to be found in our community only in ancient Greek and Moldavian, but not in Slavonic. Likewise, we do not have the book of St. Callistus, the disciple of St. Gregory the Sinaite. The book of St. Nilus of Sora is not to be found at all in the ancient Greek language, but only in Slavonic; this I copied out in my youth, but with innumerable errors in orthography, and I have not had time up until now to correct it; and in addition, I do not have a reliable copy such as may be found in our monasteries.

"And so I have presented to your holiness as in a mirror, from the very beginning even to the end, what labor I have had in the correction of the Slavonic Patristic books from the ancient Greek, and in the translation of these books anew into Slavonic. This my labor has been above my power, and in every respect is deficient and imperfect, for the good reasons mentioned above; wherefore they are unsuitable not merely for printing but even for copying outside the monastery, until there be a complete correction from reliable originals in ancient Greek. And until these books shall be corrected from genuine Greek originals, they will not depart from our community."

It should be noted that Elder Paisius had an extraordinary skill in calligraphy, one such as is seldom encountered. In his youth, for example, he copied out the book of St. Abba Dorotheus. Notwithstanding the considerable length of this book, he managed to copy it completely on 24 sheets of paper, each page having 70 lines of square script, as thin as hairs yet with no flooding of the letters, but legible, clean, with a border above and below and on the sides as is fitting. When one disciple, being astonished at this, asked the Elder with what kind of pen he had copied this book, and whether it had not been a pigeon quill, the Elder replied: "No, it was a goose quill."1

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1 This paragraph is from Chetverikov, I, p. 123. For a facsimile of Elder Paisius' calligraphy, see p. 186.


Next Issue: VI. Further Labors of Blessed Paisius in the Moldavian Monastery of Dragomirna.


 
THE SIGNATURE OF ELDER PAISIUS

 
The Righteous Hierarch Nicephorus Theotoki Archbishop of Astrakhan

 
Interior view of Dragomirna Monastery


MARTYROLOGY OF
THE COMMUNIST YOKE

Bishop Arcadius
SHEPHERD OF CATACOMB LAY BROTHERHOODS

 
BISHOP ARCADIUS
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1922


This account was compiled from materials supplied to the St. Herman Brotherhood by Bishop Arcadius' spiritual daughter, Irene Mashin, who also supplied the photographs and gave corrections to Chapter 8 of Protopresbyter Michael Polsky's book, Russia's New Martyrs, vol. II, pp. 84-87.


Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. And He said unto another, Follow Me.

Luke 9:58-59


ONE OF SUCH literal followers of Christ in our own days was a humble shepherd of Christ's flock, bearing the name of Arcadius, which in Greek means "shepherd." He was born in January, 1888, and in holy Baptism was given the name of St. Arcadius, the son of Sts. Xenophon and Maria, whose memory is kept on January 26. His father, Presbyter Joseph Ostalsky, was arrested in 1919 and, after becoming ill with typhus, was released from prison and soon died. His mother, Sophia Pavlovna, was a pious woman and spiritually supported her son to the very end of her life.

Having prepared himself for the service of the Church, the young man married and became a priest, being pastor of the church in the town of Old Constantinovo. As a young priest he arrived in my town of Zhitomir straight from the front in 1917 and received a small church in the center of town. There he organized a brotherhood of laymen in the spirit of the early Christians. His wife, however, being of worldly interests, left him and married a Bolshevik. Father Arcadius quietly gave her a divorce and lived himself with his mother. This freed Father Arcadius to devote himself entirely to church work and to his flock. With zeal and the strength of youth, he turned his attention to the defense of the Orthodox Faith, attracting great numbers of the faithful with his flaming sermons. He celebrated church services every morning and evening. And these fervent, apostolic services supplied a stream of burning joy and faith for the souls of the persecuted Christians. He was all aflame. He never rested and never thought of himself.

Father Arcadius had a great power of prayer. In our church during the services there were no conversations or moving about; everyone prayed with concentration, just as Batiushka did in the Altar. Often everyone in church would fall to their knees spontaneously. Everyone would sing.

The persecution of the Church increased with every year, and the devoted pastor endured great trials, going from one danger to another. The Cheka persecuted the faithful; everywhere churches were being closed and the faithful were fired from work just because of their religious convictions. And Father Arcadius, burning constantly with heavenly fire, drew to himself more and more of the faithful and united them in a single-minded devotion to God.

He at once organized brotherhoods of laymen for bringing Christian work to the suffering Russian people. I was a member of the St. Nicholas Brotherhood. We were all burning with zeal and enthusiasm. Those who wanted to join the brotherhoods were solemnly received by giving their vow to carry out the aims of the brotherhood, which required, first of all, devotion to the purity of Orthodoxy – never to renounce it, even under threat of death; secondly, the wearing of modest attire; then fasting, and so on. The acceptance into the brotherhood was conducted very solemnly. Everyone had to make the necessary preparation for Confession and the reception of Holy Communion. Then everyone would remain in church, and before the reading of the Gospel we had to repeat the words spoken by Father Arcadius – the rules of the brotherhood – and to confirm them with a vow. We were then all given large lighted candles, which we were to treasure until death. Afterwards we would receive Holy Communion.

In our Brotherhood there were several groups: one was a missionary group, conducted by Father Arcadius himself, whose aim was to fight sectarians, atheists, and the Living Church; then there was a group of singers; a group which visited hospitals, taking care of the lonely and sick and those poor people who had many children; then a burial group, whose duties were not only to bury the faithful and see that they received the Church's burial service, but also to obtain and deliver coffins to the grave; and since the times were very hard, often we had to drag the coffins on little carts or sleighs to the cemetery, and even dig the grave. Don't forget what extremely difficult years those were! Then there was also a philanthropical group.

At first Father Arcadius had two churches: a small one dedicated to the Annunciation, and a larger one dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs, which was formerly a seminary church, the other buildings of the seminary being occupied by the secular authorities. When the Brotherhood became too conspicuous for the authorities, its members were fortunate enough to obtain a former Old Believers' church, dedicated to St. Ignatius the God-bearer, where we managed to exist until 1937; but that year the church was closed and the members of the Brotherhood began to gather around the cemetery church. The Brotherhood had two priests: Father Julian Krasitsky, who was later forced to flee; and Father John Sirov, who stayed to the very end and secretly conducted church needs. Thus, my child was baptized by him in 1939, even though for conducting church services one would be immediately exiled. But God protected him, and I was in contact with Father John until the coming of the Germans.

In 1921 there came the order of Patriarch Tikhon forbidding the giving of church vessels into the hands of unbelievers, especially the Holy Chalices, which had been blessed with the grace of God. Father Arcadius, as a devoted son of the Church, followed the Patriarch's appeal and would not give over the Church's valuables. But the satanic authority was doing its evil deeds. One day, right after the Divine Liturgy, Father Arcadius was arrested by Cheka agents. That was in 1922, during the Bright Week of Pascha, When the Chekists took him, the whole mass of people moved together with the arrested Father Arcadius to the Cheka building. Then the Cheka soldiers took rifles and yelled with hatred: "Everyone go home or we will start shooting!" Everyone was silent, clinging to one another, holding their breath. And then, out stepped a nun by the name of Seraphima and bravely said: "No! We will not leave until you release our Father Arcadius or arrest us all together with him." Then the soldiers put down their rifles and did not push us away, and we formed a wall; so they began to push us into the Cheka building. But since the crowd was enormous, they began to close the doors, and thus they arrested 35 women and 17 men. They put us in the basement of that building. Our choir leader was there, so instantly that dark building was filled with Paschal singing. Then they took us out and pushed us into the yard near the garage, and began to conduct us, one by one, to be interrogated; and then we were pushed out into the street. We were given a statement to sign which said that Father Arcadius had started a riot, but not one person signed it. Then a note was added to that statement, indicating that the people themselves had refused to leave their spiritual father. And this every single person signed individually, as if by mutual consent. Among those imprisoned were young girls about 16 years old, including myself, and we also signed.

The news of Father Arcadius' arrest was instantly spread throughout the city, and the Cheka building was besieged by an endless amount of food parcels for the arrested ones. Thus all of the arrested ones were fed with these parcels, as well as the guards.

In the meantime, Father Arcadius was tried for the uprising, and then for refusal to give up church valuables. At the open trial many witnesses were called. They all said the same thing, speaking of Father Arcadius as a fine man, an unmercenary, a priest who had devoted his whole life solely to the service of God and men. Many examples were brought forth of his goodness and exceptional self-sacrifice. There was no evidence against him at all. But the judge, who was young and very proud and self-assured, with cynical frankness declared that the whole description of Father Arcadius given by the witnesses was not a justification of him, but rather constituted an increase of the accusation which had been made against him; for the ideas which he so warmly preached and put into practice contradicted the ideals of the Soviet regime, and such people were not merely unnecessary to the Soviet government, but were extremely harmful to it.

At first Father Arcadius was condemned to death, but then he was given ten years in prison. He was imprisoned for five years in our town of Zhitomir, which made his lot somewhat easier, since there was constant contact between him and our Brotherhood. In prison he gained the love not only of the prisoners, but also of the jailors and guards, and thanks to this ha managed several times to give Holy Communion to the condemned, who were then led out to be shot. He saved many souls. And, of course, the food given to him by our Brotherhood helped his fellow-prisoners.

After his release, in 1927, Father Arcadius went to Petrograd for a meeting with our (Catacomb) hierarchs, and from there he made a pilgrimage to Sarov. There the closeness to the great Saint Seraphim made him decide to embrace monasticism. He returned to Petrograd, received the monastic tonsure, and soon was made bishop by the hands of Metropolitan Joseph himself, the actual founder and head of the Catacomb Church. He was made a vicar of the Poltava diocese, but he never saw his diocese. On the way to his flock, having arrived in the city of Lubin, he was arrested and sent to Kazan, from where he managed to escape, living in hiding for a long time in Petrograd, secretly celebrating Divine services at the Kiev-Caves Metochion and inspiring Catacomb brotherhoods.

Then he left for Moscow, where he was arrested and put into the infamous Butyrka prison, being later banished to the Solovki concentration camp. A witness recalls Bishop Arcadius' triumphant celebration of Divine Liturgy in Moscow: the church was filled with light, and amidst a multitude of loving and eagerly-listening believers stood the young pastor-hierarch, and everywhere there was spiritual joy, beauty and exalted prayer. And then, suddenly – a dreary night at the railroad depot – his exile to Solovki. Through a crowd of women, standing alone, who had gathered to see him off, a group of armed Red Army soldiers conducted Bishop Arcadius to a prison car fenced with barbed wire, and then there was the last glimpse of the beloved shepherd as he thrice blessed them through the grating of a dimly-lit window of the moving train. When he returned from Solovki, he was already an almost unrecognizable, gray-haired old man.

The president of our Brotherhood, Natalia Ivanovna Orzhevskaya, and others went all the way to Solovki in order to receive permission to see him, but they were not allowed even to receive a blessing from him. In a large room two rows of tables were placed. At one row of tables the visitors were seated, at the other, the prisoners. Between them a whole crowd of guards were constantly walking back and forth, making such noise that one literally had to scream in order to be heard. And, of course, they were not allowed to approach for a blessing because of the "danger of infection." Years later, Bishop Arcadius related that they proposed to him that he remain voluntarily at Solovki occupying a position as cashier, and that they even promised to stop the constant spying and watching over him provided that he would renounce the rank of priest; but he preferred life in total deprivation, keeping in his heart the Lord God.

After being released from Solovki, Bishop Arcadius was deprived of the usual Soviet identity permit, without which one's very existence becomes illegal, and this doomed him to constant homeless wanderings. Secretly, however, he managed to travel around and visit the brethren of his Catacomb brotherhoods. Several times he visited his mother in Zhitomir, where his arrivals were a great inspiration and support, both for the clergy and for us sinners.

Factually our St. Nicholas Brotherhood was deprived of regular leadership after 1922, but we managed to continue up to 1937, when the last church was closed and the Brotherhood, of course, was not registered, but the remainder of our members continued to gather in the cemetery chapel. In 1934 Bishop Arcadius secretly visited Kiev and saw Schema-bishop Anthony. In his wanderings, which were mostly at night so as not to arouse suspicion, he had contacts even in Georgia and Siberia; but then once again he was arrested in the town of Rylsk. His whole life was one of suffering for Christ. Hardly would he return from one exile than within a month he would be arrested and again exiled. There was not much difference between freedom and exile.

At the time when he gave his monastic vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, he was given as his patron St. Arcadius of Viazma and Novotorzhsk.1 St. Arcadius, a fool for Christ of ancient Holy Russia, led a life of homeless wanderings, often praying on a certain huge rock. Now, being in his wanderings a new homeless Arcadius of crucified Holy Russia, could he fail to stop at the site of his Saint's Monastery in the town of Viazma? And venerating the rock upon which the ancient ascetic had knelt in prayer, the modern confessor had to realize that he was deprived even of a cold rock upon which he could stay to rest for a while and pray.

___
1 Commemorated Jan. 28, June 11, and Aug. 14.


Once, when his strength was undermined from this constant loneliness, homelessness and fear for the next day, being secretly in Moscow, Bishop Arcadius was tempted to visit Metropolitan Sergius. In order to see the Metropolitan, one had to go through great difficulties and dangers. And when he finally saw Metropolitan Sergius and told him about his situation, the latter, not listening to him, abruptly asked: "Did you register with the GPU? Until you are registered there, I will not speak with you." When Vladika Arcadius was walking out of the Metropolitan's office, he noted that both Metropolitan Sergius and all his clergy were well fed and wore clean clothing, and when he looked around at the people who were waiting outside the office in hope of seeing the Metropolitan in order to get help and encouragement, being themselves destitute and miserable, he understood that his path was different, and that he had to return to his hapless wandering. And so he left...

Above him was a wide starry sky; in his heart there was peace. He was in the blissful state of being deprived of everything that a man can possess. But that something which was burning in his pastoral heart, no one could take away from him! For he was a shepherd of Christ's catacomb flock and was aflame with zeal for pure Orthodoxy – and he bravely marched on and on, distributing the Bread of Life to his brethren in Christ, scattered like the stars above him over the wide horizon of the Russian land. Thus, finally, in 1938 he was spotted in the territory of the wide Volga River, in the city of Kostroma, was thereupon arrested, and was never heard of again. Those were the years of the Ezhov purge, when many perished without a trace and when the Catacomb Church went deep underground, hiding any trace of its existence – until the time pleasing to God, when from within its bosom will shine forth through the whole world the blazing glory of Russia's Catacomb Saints...

Holy New Hieromartyr Arcadius, pray to God for us.

 
The Monastery of St. Arcadius on the Viazma River

 
Fresco of St. Arcadius praying on his rock in a niche before the enshrined actual rock on which the Holy Fool prayed


Orthodox Bibliography

 

Ivan V. Kireyevsky


EUROPEAN AND MUSCOVITE: IVAN KIREEVSKY AND THE ORIGIN OF SLAVO PHILISM, by Abbott Gleason. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1972. 376 pages.

OF ALL the literary figures in 19th-century Russia who may seriously be considered Orthodox, and in particular among those who had any connection with the great seedbed of Orthodox enlightenment, Optina Monastery, none more thoroughly entered into and absorbed the spirit of Orthodoxy, and saw its immense significance for the contemporary world, than did I. V. Kireyevsky (1806-1856). Nearest to him in spirit was his close friend A. S. Khomiakov, whose writings he highly valued; but Kireyevsky's intimate connection with the patristic-spiritual revival in 19th-century Russia, and his deep philosophical mind. give him a unique significance which has hitherto gone largely unrecognized.

"In his person," as Prof. I. M. Kontzevitch has accurately said in his excellent article on Kireyevsky (Optina and Its Epoch, pp. 201-222), "the Western philosophical tradition encountered the tradition of the Eastern Church." That is to say, all that is meant by Western "enlightenment" or "modern knowledge," together with its fragmenting and destructive effect on the human soul, met the whole tradition of the Church of Christ in its purest form at that time: the God-bearing Elders of Optina Monastery. Kireyevsky, like almost all the Russian intellectuals and writers of his time, was Orthodox at first only in name, unconsciously, and he sought in the universities of Europe that enlightenment which he thought did not exist in Orthodoxy. Only after he had thoroughly absorbed this philosophy and made the crisis of contemporary European life and thought his own, was he brought back to the truth of Orthodoxy (under the influence of his wife, a spiritual daughter of St. Seraphim of Sarov, and Archimandrite Philaret of Novo-Spas Monastery), and here he found the whole answer to the crisis of European and modern man.

The mature Orthodox philosophy of Kireyevsky is contained chiefly in his three major essays: "In Reply to A. S. Khomiakov" (1838), "On the Character of the Enlightenment of Europe and Its Relation to the Enlightenment of Russia" (1852), and "On the Necessity and Possibility of New Principles for Philosophy" (1856).

These articles contain a subtle and profound analysis of the whole essence and course of Western thought from the 9th to the 19th centuries, beginning with the corruption of faith when "Rome placed the syllogism above the consciousness of the whole of Christianity," as a result of which "there developed at first scholastic philosophy within faith, then a reformation in faith, and, finally, philosophy outside faith." In the Roman mind, with its apostasy from Orthodoxy, "outward logicalness overbalanced the inward essence of things," leading to the whole network of corrupt attitudes, beliefs, and practices, from purgatory and papal infallibility to spiritual "self-satisfaction" and the substitution of opinion for conviction, which distinguishes Roman Catholicism from Orthodoxy. Kireyevsky saw precisely that the difference between Orthodoxy and the Western confessions was not merely one of belief and practice, but involved entirely irreconcilable ways of thinking, and to the two-dimensional rationalist view of papalism he opposed "the profound, living and pure love of wisdom of the Holy Fathers," and in particular the spiritual philosophy (totally unknown in the West) of the Eastern Fathers who lived after the 10th century, which is "a philosophy directly and purely Christian, profound, living, elevating the reason from a logical mechanism to a higher, morally free vision." As the seedbed of this knowledge he opposed to the dead academies of the West the Orthodox monasteries –  "these schools of the people and higher universities of the religious realm."

In these insights Kireyevsky anticipated and expressed quite thoroughly and philosophically what sensitive Orthodox thinkers of our own day have said in setting forth the differences between genuine Orthodoxy and the pseudo-Christianity of the modern West; and it is by no means only Russians who view the matter in this light, as the writings of Photios Kontoglou and Alexander Kalimiros plainly testify.

Such insights for Kireyevsky were no mere idle speculation; they were living truth which turned him into an active champion of Orthodoxy against the prevailing currents of Western ideas in Russia. Together with the Elders of Optina Monastery and Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, Kireyevsky be. came one of the key figures who succeeded in throwing off the fascination with Latin ways of thinking which was then widespread, and returning the mainstream of Russian Church tradition to the pure sources of Orthodoxy in the footsteps of Blessed Paisius Velichkovsky.

The project of the final correction, translation into Russian. and printing of the Slavonic Patristic translations of Elder Paisius (which until then remained mostly in manuscript) was undertaken chiefly by two men: Elder Macarius of Optina, and Ivan Kireyevsky. While deferring always to the spiritual and theological authority of Elder Macarius and Metropolitan Philaret in the correction and interpretation of the texts, Kireyevsky nonetheless participated fully in their preparation, and such was his theological and spiritual awareness that at times his views prevailed over theirs. He knew Greek well and would compare the texts even of such profound Fathers as St. Isaac the Syrian and St. Gregory Palamas with the Greek originals and supply necessary corrections from them. He was extremely precise in translating, ing, with the aim of "composing a true philosophical language, agreeing with the spiritual language of the Slavonic and Greek spiritual writers."

Yet, important as were Kireyevsky's analysis of the Western mind and his labors in publishing the Patristic sources of Orthodoxy, perhaps the most important aspect of his thought is the one that has as yet been least appreciated. From his avid reading of and deep understanding of the writings of the Holy Fathers, he came to the conviction that the teaching contained in them is the answer to all the questions which men had asked in vain of modern "enlightenment," that modern man needs no "philosophy" whatever apart from that of the Holy Fathers, that the Orthodox world-view is all-encompassing and is not at all the sphere merely of theologians or of a theology divorced from life. Thus Kireyevsky laid the foundation of "new principles for philosophy" – a Christian philosophy of "wholeness" that is to be found in the writings of the Holy Fathers. In Optina Monastery he saw this philosophy in practice, and this liberated and inspired his own thought, which speaks today to us, who live in a world governed by the corrupt Western habit of abstract knowledge, with undimmed freshness.

Abstract knowledge, Kireyevsky clearly saw, produces a "divorce from reality." As opposed to this, "living truths are not those that constitute a dead capital in the mind of man, which lie on the surface of his mind and may be acquired by outward learning, but rather those that enkindle the soul, which can burn or be extinguished, which give life to life, which are preserved in the secret place of the heart." Knowledge of truth must be a being in truth, and it is the work not of the mind alone, but rather of one's whole existence. "Spiritual enlightenment" as opposed to logical knowledge is bound up with the moral state of the soul and therefore requires ascetic labor and moral tension. Unlike the case with outward knowledge, there must be a constant struggle to preserve it, for "one can extinguish it in oneself if one does not constantly maintain the fire by which it was ignited." "The chief distinguishing feature of Orthodox thought is that it seeks, not to arrange separate concepts in accordance with the demands of faith, but rather to elevate reason itself above its usual level to strive to elevate the very source of understanding, the very means of thinking, up to sympathetic agreement with faith." Thus, there is no conflict between "faith" and "reason" such as has pragued the Western mind, whose rational analysis finds "self-contradictions in faith itself. Orthodox thinking is chiefly characterized by its wholeness: "The chief characteristic of believing thought consists of the striving to collect all the powers of the soul into one power; one must seek out that inward concentration of being, where reason and will, and feeling, and conscience, the good and the true, the wondrous and the desirable, justice and mercy, and the whole scope of the mind are fused into a single living unity, and in this way the essential personality of man is restored in its indivisibility."

The reader of the book here being reviewed it must now be saidwill not find a satisfactory treatment of these points there. About the book it can be said that it offers an adequate account of the outward events of Kireyevsky's life, being based on broad research in the Russian biographical sources; but the author, being a typical rationalist scholar for whom Orthodoxy is totally foreign, has not at all grasped the spirit that moved Kireyevsky. He entirely misses the point by finding Kireyevsky's chief significance to lie in the "influence" he exerted on Soloviev and others who precisely misinterpreted Kireyevsky. The author judges Kireyevsky's "career" by purely outward standards and finds him to be a "failure" when in actuality, on the basis of the Orthodox standard which he himself valued above all else, he was probably the single most "successful" lay Russian intellectual of the 19th century! In his ignorance of Orthodox spirituality and the phenomenon of Orthodox Elders, the author regrets Kireyevsky's "pathetic dependence" on Elder Macarius (without whose blessing he did nothing of importance, and to whom he submitted his articles for criticism before publication), and sees in the true repentance, humility and fear of God of Kireyevsky's last years a "retreat from the world" and "an overmastering sense of guilt and failure."

It may well be that it is only in our day that the message of Kireyev. sky will finally be heard. We, the last Christians, find ourselves in the midst of temptations far worse than he faced, and we do not have among us the God-bearing Elders and great theologians whom he knew. We know that we cannot trust our own theological wisdom, any more than we can trust our own sanctity. And so we can only thank God that He has given us as a guide in these last days such great lanterns of sanctity and theology as Elder Paisius, the Optina Elders, and Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, as well as the devout layman Ivan Kireyevsky, who faced and resolved the basic spiritual and intellectual problems that even more critically face the Orthodox believer today. May their words and example be truly fruitful among us!


STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION

(Act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code)

1. Title of publication The Orthodox Word

2. Date of filing: October 8, 1973

3. Frequency or issue: Bimonthly

4. Location of known office of publication: Beegum Gorge Road, Platina, California 96076

5. Location of the headquarters or general business offices of the publishers: Same as above

6. Names and addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor

Publisher: The Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, Calif.

Editors: Father Herman and Father Seraphim, both of Platina, Calif.

Managing Editor: Father Seraphim, Platina, Calif.

7. Owner: The Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, Calif. 96076 (Father Herman and Father Seraphim, Platina, Calif. 96076)

8. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders: None

9, 10. For optional completion: Not applicable

11. Extent and nature of circulation

Avg. no. each issue last 12 mos. Actual no. last issue
A Total no. copies printed (Net Press Run) 2176 2195
B Paid circulation
1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales
2. Mail subscriptions




138

1349




138

1445
C Total paid circulation
1577
1583
D Free distribution by mail, carrier or other means
1. Samples, complimentary, and other free
2. Distributed to news agents, but not sold





83


—





74


—
E Total distribution (sum of C and D)


1660


1657
F Office use, left-over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing



516



538
G Total (sum of E and F)
2176
2195

I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete.
Father Seraphim

 
Saint Herman Calendar for 1974

Price: $3.00. Order from:

THE ORTHODOX WORD PLATINA, CALIFORNIA 96076