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
1974, Vol. 10, no. 2 (55)
March - April
CONTENTS
41 Contemporary Youth and Orthodox Sanctity
44 Young Saints: Saint Artemius of Verkola
52 The Holy Childhood of Archbishop John Maximovitch
59 The Life of St. Herman of Alaska
62 The Life and Ascetic Labor of Elder Paisius Velichkovsky. Part Seven: Letters of Elder Paisius from Dragomirna (Cont.)
66 Blessed Xenia's Recent Miracle
68 The Typicon of the Orthodox Church's Divine Services. Chapter Two: The Psalms of David
73 Orthodoxy or Death: New Persecutions of the Zealot Monks of Mount Athos
79 Orthodox Bibliography
COVER: A 19th-century folk-icon of the Life of St. Artemius of Verkola, distributed by the St. Artemius Monastery at the turn of the century. For explanation, see page 51.
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 1974 by The Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood.
Published bimonthly by The Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood.
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Contemporary Youth and Orthodox Sanctity
VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, EXCEPT YE BE CONVERTED, AND BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN, YE SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
—Matthew 18:3
CHILDREN AND SANCTITY are very closely related. The innocence, guilelessness, and purity of heart which are the normal attributes of childhood, are also the basic qualities of Saints at any age. Almost all Orthodox Saints, save for those who were converted in later life, preserved the purity which had developed naturally in them in their younger years. Orthodox Christian asceticism is precisely the practice of keeping one's heart pure, requiring a constant battle against the assault of the forces which strive to adjust one to this world that lies in evil.
Growth into adulthood and the acquiring of worldly knowledge need not be a process of adjusting oneself to evil. The primary function of education is precisely to teach a child what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, and likewise to give him the true Christian hierarchy of values according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, thereby equipping him to live in this world while preparing for the next world. The pastors of Christ's Church, which alone is competent to guide the education of children, are the guardians of their flock's guilelessness and purity; keeping the wolves from devouring the flock, they conduct the rational sheep to Paradise. And an Orthodox child, receiving through the Church's education the means of understanding the attacks of this world, and being guided by pastors experienced in spiritual life, can preserve his purity and in it acquire the Holy Spirit and Orthodox sanctity.
However, "education" today has become precisely the adjustment of the young to the evils of this world. The criminal experiments in sex education, the use of newspapers as educational material, the presentation of worthless, unprincipled contemporary writing on the same level as, or even in place of, classical literature all deprive the young soul of a balanced hierarchy of values, confuse his taste and judgment, and instil in him a totally unnatural instability and disorientation. The formation of the young soul is to a large extent taken over by television and newspapers and similar media, and the undeveloped mind and imagination are stunted by imbecile "comics" and "cartoons," "sports," cheap comedy and senseless violence, not to mention the increasingly acceptable pornography and occultismall pervaded by a profoundly anti-Christian philosophy and intent: the adjustment and slavery of the child to this world, even in its ugliest and most evil aspects. As examples for emulation the child is given, not the heroes of asceticism and Orthodox principle and conviction, but only the cheap heroes of modern decadence, the "stars" of sports and movies, glamorized political figures, demonstrators for the worldly causes which take the place of religious values in the modern soul: imitation heroes as false and empty as the fashions they inspire.
The anti-Christian philosophy of popular education has now penetrated religious education as well. One need only examine the periodicals for children and youth of the "Orthodox Christian Education Commission" in the United States (representing the Greek Archdiocese, Metropolia, and other "canonical" jurisdictions) to find an educational philosophy which is exactly the opposite of Orthodox Christianity. In "Young Life" (for children), "Upbeat" (for teenagers), and "Concern" (for college youth), there is no attempt whatsoever to discern the nature of today's reality by the standard of Orthodoxy; on the contrary, the Church's standard is adjusted to fit today's reality, and Orthodoxy is "jazzed up" to make it palatable to the corrupt modern taste. It in "Young Life" at least some attempt is made to present Lives of Saints (including heterodox "saints" and cartoon "lives"), it is only in the spirit of "fairy tales" which the child is obviously expected to outgrow; and the magazines for older children and youth are wholly absorbed in contemporary concerns, as indeed their titles indicate, and both in content and presentation they are almost entirely of this world that lies in evil. Serious pastors and parents forbid their children even to look at such magazines, recognizing them as a source of corruption for the unformed Orthodox soul.
The young generation of today, raised on the philosophy of meaningless change, and even taught this philosophy in the guise of "Orthodox education," has been deprived of a sense of stability, sobriety, concentration, inward peace and silence of soul. The older generation today is confused and without principle, although it still hides its inward emptiness behind a remnant of law and order inherited from the past; but the younger generation is entirely exposed to the naked power of the prevailing philosophy of anti-Christianity. Especially in boys just growing into manhood can the deadly results of this philosophy be seen: so many of them are in a state of utter confusion, deprived of Christian manliness and resolve, and run aimlessly to and fro at the mercy of their own uncontrolled passions or of the newest pseudo-religious movement. Parents who are Orthodox only in name are totally unable to help these young people, whose desperate thirst for real spiritual life can only reject the "moderate" path of lukewarmness and hypocrisy.
The situation of contemporary youth is desperate; but it is not hopeless. It is natural to youth to be inspired by high ideals, to seek and find the meaning of life, to have a deep spiritual thirst which finds genuine satisfaction only in the one true religion, Holy Orthodoxy. Contemporary youth can find truth and salvation if only, having "stumbled across" true Orthodoxy, or having rediscovered the religion it was so often improperly taught in childhood, it makes the resolve to sell everything else in order to purchase the field in which the treasure of living Orthodoxy is buried. The sooner in youth this happens, the better; for the endless intellectualizing and the self-worship which one breathes in with the spiritual atmosphere of our times, easily kill the first tender shoots of spiritual aspiration in a young soul.
Man is made to worship the One True God with all his mind and heart and soul. This is the Creator's First Commandment. And this must be done in the true way – in the right worship of Orthodoxy, which alone gives the greatest joy and the deepest satisfaction on earth, and opens the door to Paradise. In this is the soul's union with God, which nothing and no one can take away. This experience of true worship has been handed down to our own days by all the Saints and Fathers of the true Orthodox Church as an inheritance which we must enter into and claim as our own. Every Orthodox person has such a Saint as his patron, bearing his name from the Mystery of Baptism in which he was reborn. This patron Saint, being alive in God, is able to help and guide one who knows him and loves him and entreats his aid. As one fills one's soul with knowledge and love of one's patron Saint, the other Orthodox Saints, the Holy Scriptures and writings of the Holy Fathers, the defilement of the soul peels off and the new and wondrous Divine world opens up for him, into which no fallen human wisdom can penetrate.
Let the Saints themselves tell our contemporary youth how to lead a meaningful Orthodox life, how to worship God and acquire sanctity!
YOUNG SAINTS
Saint Artemius of Verkola
THE RIGHTEOUS CHILD WONDERWORKER WHOSE RELICS WERE THE FIRST TO SUFFER MARTYRDOM AT THE HANDS OF THE GOD-HATING COMMUNISTS1
___
1 Translated from the Lives of Saints, Synodal Edition, Moscow, 1904, vol. 2, October 20.
ST. ARTEMIUS OF VERKOLA
Commemorated on June 23 and October 20
TROPARION, TONE 2
WHEN, BY THE COMMAND of the Almighty,+ heaven was darkened by a thundercloud,+ and lightning flashed and thunder resounded with threatening,+ thou didst give up thy soul into the hand of God,+ O most wise Artemius.+ And now thou dost stand before the Throne of the Master of all,+ unfailingly granting healing to all who come with faith and love to thy shrine,+ and entreating Christ God that our souls may be saved.
THE HOLY RIGHTEOUS ARTEMIUS, Wonderworker of Verkola, was born in 1532 in the village of Verkola in the land of the Northern Dvina on the River Pinega (a tributary of the Northern Dvina), a mile and a half upstream from Kevrola, His father Cosmas, who was called the Lesser, and his mother Apollinaria were peasants of this village. The raised up their son in the fear of God and in Christian piety. From the age of five he already began to be a stranger to the usual habits of children. He di; not love childish games. He was quiet, meek, God-fearing, obedient to his parents, and he helped his father diligently in the farm labors as much as he could at his age.
Once, when he was twelve years old, Artemius was working with his father in the field, furrowing the ground. Suddenly a thunder-cloud approached. It became as dark as night. A storm arose with a downpour of rain, and a frightful clap of thunder broke right over the head of the terrified Artemius and the blessed child fell dead. This occurred on June 23, 1545. Thus the Merciful, All-wise Lord God deigned to receive in His heavenly mansions the soul of His righteous slave.
The fellow villagers of Artemius in their senselessness did not understand this visitation of God. Out of superstition they considered that the unexpected death of the blessed child was the righteous judgment of God, which had punished Artemius for some secret sin. Thus the body of Artemius remained without funeral and without burial. It was placed in a clearing in the pine forest on top of the ground, covered with branches and birch bark, and surrounded with a wooden fence. Thus it lay for 32 years, forgotten by all.
St. Artemius with St. Basil the Blessed of Moscow
Stroganov Icon of the 17th century
The Monastery of St. Artemius of Verkola
Once many years later in the summertime a certain Agathonicus, a reader in the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Verkola, was walking in this forest gathering mushrooms. He saw a light above the place where the blessed child reposed, and he went up and found his incorrupt body. He immediately informed the peasants of Verkola about this, but the latter in their senselessness simply took the body of Artemius without any kind of honor to their parish church and placed it on the porch, covering the coffin with the birch bark which had covered the blessed child in the forest. This was in the year 1577.
But the Lord was pleased to glorify this Saint in the land of Kevrola. From his relics there began to flow forth inexhaustible healings for the sick. And in the same year, by God's allowance, a pestilential fever spread in the region of the Northern Dvina. Many died from this severe illness, especially women and children. The son of a resident of Verkola, Callinicus, also fell ill from this infirmity. In deep sorrow, Callinicus prayed for the healing of his son. And then he went to the church, kissed the tomb of the Righteous Artemius, and having taken from it some of the birch bark which covered the incorrupt relics, with faith he put it together with the Cross which was around the neck of his dying son. The sick one became well. Callinicus, being overjoyed, told all his fellow villagers about this and with joy they gathered at the church of St. Nicholas and began to sing molebens and to commemorate the Righteous Child Artemius. And the Lord had mercy on His slaves. The pestilence in that region came to an end.
From that time the miracles of St. Artemius began to multiply. A certain man, whose name was Paul, had a terrible infirmity. His neck was so twisted that his head was turned face backwards and his eyes were closed. In such misery Paul turned with fervent prayer to God and the Righteous Artemius, and his head became straightened and his eyes were opened. The healed one hastened to tell everyone in his village about what had happened. After this the inhabitants of Verkola built a special wing in the church of St. Nicholas, and here they brought the relics of Artemius from the porch where they had been, placing them in a new coffin. This was in the year 1584.
Seeing the healings which were multiplying from the relics, two priests, John and Thomas, commanded that there be painted on the boards of the old coffin several icons of the Righteous Artemius. From these boards some chips remained. Priest John carefully collected these chips and put them to be kept in the church. The pious reverers of the Righteous Artemius, having collected these chips with faith, received healing from their afflictions.
One man from Pinega, whose name was Pancratius, who was passing through Verkola in 1601, brought to Great Ustiug one of such icons of Artemius, and from this icon many received healing at that time.
When the relics of the blessed child were brought into the church wing, a woman went there with a paralyzed child and asked that a moleben be served. And she brought her child to the tomb of Artemius, and the afflicted arm of the child was healed. About the same time, a peasant named Andrew and a young woman named Irene, who had an affliction of the eyes, received healing and clear sight from touching the sacred shrine of the newly-revealed Wonderworker. Another woman whose name was Mary had suffered for forty years with an affliction of the stomach that was so severe that in her extreme suffering she would often be unconscious for two or three hours. Having heard of the miracles which flowed forth from the relics of Artemius, she turned to him in prayer and received swift healing.
In 1619 the Metropolitan of Novgorod, Macarius, examined the relics of the Righteous One and gave his blessing for them to be brought into the church itself on the feast day of the Hierarch and Wonderworker Nicholas, December 6. This was done in the year 1620. Some time after this there came to Verkola Ilarion Artemiev, a resident of the city of Holmogor, and he declared that he had long had an affliction of the eyes and had been able to see nothing at all and had suffered terribly, so that in his despair he had tried to strangle himself. Only the neighbors who ran up managed to prevent this. Having heard about the miracles which flowed from the relics of the Righteous Artemius, he turned to him with fervent prayer for his healing. "In that very hour," he related later, "I regained my sight and saw in a vision St. Artemius in white garments with a small staff in his left hand and a Cross in his right hand. He made the sign of the Cross over me and said, 'Old man! Why are you suffering? Arise. Christ, through me his slave, heals you. Go to Verkola, kiss my coffin, and inform the priest and all the peasants of this.' At these words the righteous child, having taken me by the hand, as it were forced me to do this and then became invisible. And I, having awakened, felt myself completely well, as if I had never been ill. And behold, I have come here to venerate his holy relics."
Especially remarkable was the miracle which occurred to a peasant from the village of Kivokurya in the region of Ustiug, whose name was Patrick Ignatiev. From his childhood he had suffered from a hernia. Having heard about the miracles of the Righteous Artemius, he prayed to him with faith, made a vow to revere his coffin, and he was healed. But then he forgot about the vow he had made. After several years he again felt the onset of the hernia, which began to torment him even worse than before. Patrick again turned with prayer to the Righteous Artemius and remembered about his unfulfilled promise. His prayer was heard, but Patrick again forgot the promise he had made. Then there fell upon him a despondency, and an impenetrable darkness covered his eyes. The unfortunate one again remembered his unfulfilled vow, and he bitterly repented and promised without fail to fulfill his duty. The Righteous Artemius again delivered Patrick from his infirmity. The healed one hastened with joy to Verkola to the tomb of Artemius and ordered there that a moleben be served for him, and with tears he kissed the Saint's coffin which was the source of so many healings, and confessed before everyone the miracle which had happened to him and his sinful forgetfulness.
In 1636, in the month of March, a certain Commandant, Athanasius Pashkov, was going from Kevrola to Mezen, being assigned there. On the way he stopped at Verkola, but he did not go to the relics of the Righteous Artemius and did not have a service of thanksgiving celebrated to him. In Kevrola his son, the child Jeremiah, became very ill with a fever and was already preparing for death. Then the father remembered that he had failed to celebrate a service to the Righteous Artemius, and he gave a vow to go to Verkola. And behold, suddenly the son of Pashkov, who was lying in a coma, raised himself up from his bed and, holding on to the window-sill, began to ask his father the way to the Righteous Artemius. Being astonished at this, the father brought his son to Verkola. Here, according to his promise, he had a moleben celebrated by the priest. He took birch bark from the coffin of the Wonderworker so that his son might wear it on his chest together with his Cross, and he was healed. The grateful father built in Verkola, on the place where the relics of the Righteous Artemius had been found, a church in honor of the Righteous Martyr Artemius, who had the same name as this new Artemius.
After some time the church of Verkola burned. The relics of Artemius likewise were scorched. The local priest and parishioners of the village of Verkola, in order to protect the relics of Artemius from such unfortunate incidents, built over them a special chapel, placed them in a new coffin, and covered them with a new cover.
After this, new miracles began to flow forth from the grave of the Wonderworker. Thus, a certain Simeon Kazarinov was saved by the relics of Artemius from drowning. After the feast day of the Prophet Elijah, he was sailing in a boat together with his companions along the Arctic Sea from Mangazea to Archangelsk. Suddenly a terrible storm came up and the boat was in immediate danger of capsizing. Those who were sailing fell into a state of horror and despair. Seeing no hope for themselves from anywhere for deliverance, they began to prepare for death, and in expectation of it they bade farewell to each other. Then they came to themselves and with tears they began to pray to the Lord God and the Righteous Artemius for their deliverance, promising to serve a moleben to this Saint of God. And, according to their prayer, the sea became calm, and those who were about to drown escaped what looked like inevitable death.
The glory of the healings from the relics of the Righteous Artemius spread far and wide. The Metropolitan of Novgorod, Cyprian, sent again to examine the incorrupt relics, by his signature he confirmed the list of healings which was furnished him, and he sent to the church of the village of Verkola a newly-composed church service to the Wonderworker.
In 1648 there was sent a document of Tsar Alexis Michailovich to the Commandant Anichkov in Kevrola. He was commanded to place the relics of the Righteous Artemius in a new shrine, and it was permitted to build a monastery on the place where the relics had been found. The relics, in accordance with the royal document, were brought there the next year to be placed in the church of the holy Martyr Artemius which had been built earlier by Commandant Pashkov. At the same time there flowed forth from the holy relics many and various healings to everyone who came to them with faith. People gathered in great numbers and offered up fervent entreaties to Christ our God and to His Saint Artemius, Wonderworker of Verkola, glorifying the grace of God which was manifested in him for the consolation of all Orthodox Christians.
Subsequently the relics of St. Artemius, because of fires, three times were taken out of the church, until finally there was built in 1793 a stone church in the monastery which was dedicated in honor of the Righteous Artemius, and there his relics were placed.
The St. Artemius Monastery tradition has handed down some miracles not mentioned in the Life of the Saint, as may be seen in the Icon of the Saint's "Life" depicted on the cover of this issue. Around the central panel showing the Saint and his Monastery, may be seen, at the top: Simeon Kazarinov and his companions being saved from drowning on the river Pinega; the finding of the relics of St. Artemius. At the left: the appearance of the Saint to Ilarion Artemiev; St. Artemius healing the paralyzed arm of St. Tryphon of Vyatka or Khlynov. At the right: the Saint's appearance to the monastery superior Raphael; he grants healing to the Elder Ignatius by placing his hand on his head. At the bottom: the repose of St. Artemius; Theodore Bleznin of Holmogor, with his companions, is saved from disaster during a storm at sea by the Saint's prayers.
In the summer of 1918 the Soviets began their systematic mockery and destruction of holy things, in particular of the holy relics of Saints, and the relics of St. Artemius had the honor of enduring the first martyrdom at the hands of the God-haters. His relics were chopped into pieces and thrown into a well.
And so the seed of one pious and holy childhood became a fruit of blessing and spiritual power for a whole multitude of living Christians for centuries, and even the martyrdom of his holy relics cannot obliterate the memory of the Saint from the hearts of Orthodox Christians. Even now, in Heaven, he hears our fervent prayers and entreats on our behalf the One God in Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Whom may there glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Holy Childhood of Archbishop John Maximovitch
In our times of feeble Christian life, we hardly even dream of seeing the strength of true Orthodox character in a child. Here, then, is an example of this from almost our own times-the childhood of a 20th-century wonderworker, as gathered from eye-witnesses of it, principally his own brother and sister, who are still alive.
MISHA MAXIMOVITCH, THE FUTURE ARCHBISHOP JOHN, AT 15
THE BIRTHPLACE of Archbishop John was the warm, blossoming land of the Kharkov region in southern Russia. Here, in the estate of Adamovka, in the illustrious noble family of Maximovitch, on June 4, 1896, a son was born to the parents Boris and Glafira. In holy Baptism he was named Michael, in honor of the holy Archangel of God. From of old the Maximovitch family had been famous throughout Russia for its piety and patriotism. The most illustrious member of this family was a Saint glorified by the Church, the holy Hierarch John, Metropolitan of Tobolsk, a well-known spiritual writer and poet, translator of the "Heliotropion, or Coordination of the Human Will with the Divine Will," missionary to Siberia who sent the first Orthodox Mission to China, and who, especially after his repose, poured forth a multitude of miracles for the faithful. He was canonized in 1916, and his incorrupt relics are preserved even to this day in Tobolsk. Although the holy Hierarch John died at the beginning of the 18th century, yet his spirit rested on his distant nephew, who was to receive his name in monasticism, and the young Michael (or Misha, as he was called for short) from earliest childhood was a remarkable boy.
Misha's grandfather on his father's side was a prominent landowner of the area, and his grandfather on his mother's side was a doctor in Kharkov. His father held a position of leadership among the nobility, and his uncle (his father's brother), who edited the Heliotropion of St. John of Tobolsk, was Rector of the University of Kiev; a similar worldly career seemed to be in store for the boy Michael also. His relationship to his parents was always excellent, and he took their opinions into serious consideration as long as they lived. They died in Venezuela, his mother in 1952, and his father in 1954.
As a boy, Misha Maximovitch was sickly and ate little. He was very quiet and gentle. He strove to be on good terms with everyone, but he had no especially close friends. He loved animals, and dogs in particular. He did not like noisy children's games and was often in a very pensive frame of mind.
The outstanding characteristic of his childhood was his deep religiousness, which he manifested in ways far beyond his years. In his sermon on being consecrated Bishop in 1934, he himself said: "From the first days when I began to become aware of myself, I wished to serve righteousness and truth. My parents kindled in me a striving to stand unwaveringly for the truth, and my soul was captivated by the example of those who had given their lives for it."
The beautiful "Sviatogorsky" Monastery just eight miles from the Maximovitch estate, where the family of the young Misha spent every summer.
The Poltava Cadet Corps (Boys' Academy), as it looked when the teenager Misha attended it, graduating from it in 1914.
Young Misha loved to "play monastery," dressing toy soldiers as monks and making toy forts into monasteries. As he grew older, his religious fervor deepened. He collected icons and religious and historical books, amassing a large library, and he loved above all to read the Lives of Saints. At night he would stand for a long time at prayer. Being the oldest child, he had a great influence on his four brothers and one sister, who knew the Lives of Saints and the facts of Russian history through him. He was very demanding of himself and others in keeping the Church's laws and national customs. From his earliest years he was a fervent Russian patriot, and he instilled in others also a reverence for Russia and its history. His love extended likewise to all the Slavic and Orthodox peoples, and in 1912, when the Serbs were betrayed by the Bulgarians, in righteous indignation he removed the pictures of the Bulgarian king from the younger children's scrapbooks and sealed up the family's phonograph record of the Bulgarian national anthem so that it could not be played.
Misha's holy and righteous childhood greatly impressed his French Catholic governess, and it was under his influence that she was baptized Orthodox when the boy was fifteen years old. He helped to prepare her for baptism and taught her how to pray. He took an active part in church life, and every year he would participate in the procession of the Wonderworking Ozeryansk Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God from Kharkov to the Ozeryansk Monastery.
The Maximovitch country estate in Bare Valley was located only eight miles from the famous Sviatogorsky Monastery. The family spent every summer at their estate, and young Misha would sleep outdoors in a tent. The family had great reverence for the Monastery and spent much time there. It can be imagined what awe and fervor was inspired in Misha's eager heart when he came as a pilgrim to this remarkable Monastery, which was situated on a forested bank of the Northern Donets. It had an Athonite Typicon, majestic churches, a high "Mount Tabor," many caves, schema-monks, sketes, and a large brotherhood of 600 monks – enough to inflame the zeal of any young lover of the Lives of Saints. Misha, a "monk from childhood," was immensely impressed, and he would often come to the Monastery by himself.
When he was eleven years old, Misha was sent to the Poltava Cadet Corps (Military Academy), which his father had attended. Here he continued to be quiet and religious and not at all like a soldier. He did well in all subjects and liked them all, with the exception of physical education, from which he was excused in his last years.
While he was attending the Cadet Corps, at the age of 13, Misha was guilty of a serious "breach of conduct" which is extremely revealing of his character as a boy. The Cadets would often march formally in the city of Poltava, and in 1909, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Russian victory in the Battle of Poltava, they were marching with special solemnity. As they passed by the front of the Poltava Cathedral, Cadet Michael turned toward the Cathedraland made the sign of the Cross! The boys laughed, and later they mocked him for this; and he was disciplined by the authorities for it. Finally the Grand Prince Constantine Constantinovitch, patron of the Corps, whose son was a fellow cadet of Misha's, issued the order that Cadet Michael Maximovitch was not to be punished for an act which, far from being reprehensible and deserving of censure, was most praiseworthy and revealed sound religious feelings. Misha, from an object of ridicule, became a hero.
In 1914 Michael graduated from the Cadet Corps and, following the deep desire of his heart, he wished then to attend the Kiev Theological Academy. His parents insisted, however, that he attend Law School in Kharkov, and out of obedience to them he put away his own desire and began to prepare for a career in Law.
It was during his university years that the Orthodox education and outlook which he had received in his childhood came to maturity in the youth Michael. At an age when some boys who are raised unconsciously Orthodox are "rebelling" or even discarding the "fairy tales" of their religious upbringing, young Michael understood the point of this upbringing; he saw that the Lives of Saints, in particular, contain a profound wisdom which is unsuspected by those who read them superficially, and that the proper knowledge of them is more important than any university course. And so it was, as his classmates noticed, that Michael spent more time reading the Lives of the Saints than attending academic lectures, although he did very well in his university studies also. He studied the Orthodox Saints precisely "on the university level": he assimilated their world-outlook and their orientation toward life, entered into their psychology, studied the variety of their activity and ascetic labors and practice of prayer. He came to love them with all his heart, was thoroughly penetrated by their spirit, – and began to live like them. "While studying the worldly sciences," he said in the sermon mentioned above, "I went all the more deeply into the study of the science of sciences, into the study of the spiritual life." He put all his efforts into this, and his spiritual eyes became fully open, and his soul was wounded with the thirst to acquire the true meaning and path of life in Christ.
The boy Michael came to the age of a man and finished his university studies just as the fearful Revolution was beginning its course with the intent to subject the whole world to anti-Christianity. His whole family was intensely loyal to the Orthodox Tsar, and for it the very first days of the February Revolution in 1917 were days of mourning; and Michael, now thoroughly penetrated with the principles of Orthodox life according to the example of God' Saints, was especially bold in continuing to live by the standard of Orthodox sanctity even in the midst of the new conditions of life. Thus, at a Church meeting in Kharkov there was talk of taking down a silver bell in the cathedral belfry and melting it; the vast majority, caught up in the revolutionary spirit or fearful of opposing it, were in favor of this sacrilege, and only Michael and a very few others dared to speak out boldly against this. As the revolutionary spirit spread and the arrests began, his boldness became very dangerous, and his family tried to persuade him to leave home and hide himself. He only replied that there is nowhere to hide from God's will; without God's will nothing happens, not one hair falls from our head. He was arrested, then released after a month. After a short time he was arrested again, but when it was seen that he seemed not to care whether he was free or in prison, he was soon released again. Already he quite literally lived in another world, and he simply refused to conform to the "reality" that governs the lives of most men; he had resolved to follow unwaveringly the path of God's law.
Thus, the seed of true Orthodoxy planted in his childhood took deep root in the soil of the heart of this chosen one of God, and his knowledge and love of the different kinds of Saints prepared his soul to become as it were a wondrous new plant, with marvellous and varied fruits seldom to be seen together in one person. As his later life revealed, he was at one and the same time a stern ascetic, and a loving pastor; a feeder of orphans and unmercenary healer, and a missionary and apostle; a profound theologian, and a fool for Christ's sake; a true shepherd of his banished Russian flock, and a hierarch of universal significance.
The Life of Saint Herman
CHAPTER ONE
His Native Serpukhov
SAINT HERMAN came from the merchant class of Serpukhov, a city not far from Moscow. Serpukhov was an ancient city with an old fortress and many monasteries. It had been sanctified by the steps of the great Sergius, Wonderworker of Radonezh and foundation-layer of the Northern Thebaid of Orthodox monasticism. When the fame of St. Sergius had spread far and wide, Prince Vladimir of Serpukhov, desiring to have a monastery near his city, asked the Saint to come himself and choose a suitable place for a monastery, leaving one of his disciples as abbot. The Saint chose his beloved disciple, whom he had tonsured himself with the name of the Athonite c;nobiarch Athanasius, and came with him to Serpukhov. Going about the vicinity, he found a beautiful place greatly to his liking on a high cliff overlooking the river, and he consecrated it for the future monastery. Having received the blessing and wise instruction of his Abba, St. Athanasius remained here, and soon there sprang up and blossomed a new and glorious branch of the monastic tree of the great Sergius. St. Athanasius was a man of learning, highly educated for that time. In his solitary cell he occupied himself with the copying of sacred books, and he took spiritual instruction from the great Holy Fathers, St. Basil the Great, St. Isaac the Syrian, and many others. Once there came to his cell a young boy who gently knocked at the door. St. Athanasius, opening the window a little, asked what he wanted. Finding out that the boy wanted to be made a monk, he said: "You cannot be a monk: monasticism is a great thing; you are young, and the rules of the elders are great. Many have come here but have become lazy and have not endured the difficulties of fasting and continence and have fled. Monks are called voluntary martyrs; but many martyrs, having suffered for a short time, have received their end, while monks their whole life long endure sufferings; even though they have not received wounds from torturers, yet by enduring warfare from the flesh and battling with mental enemies they suffer to their last breath. Therefore, my son, if you wish to serve the Lord, prepare your soul so as to endure with patience all the temptations and sufferings inflicted by the enemies." The boy fell to the Elder's feet and could scarcely utter: "Have mercy on me! The great Abba, the blessed Sergius, sent me to you so that you might clothe me in the monastic habit." Hearing this, the Saint said: "Arise, child. Now your desire is fulfilled." And having performed prayer, he clothed Nicon in the monastic habit. And Nicon began to live in Serpukhov, in the monastery of St. Athanasius, and he attained to a high spiritual life in God, so that he was enabled to become the successor of the great Sergius himself.
The life of St. Herman begins in this same Serpukhov, where he passed his childhood in the shadow of St. Athanasius' Vysotsky Monastery under the protection of St. Sergius. Like St. Nicon, from early childhood he had great zeal for pious life, and already at the age of 12 we shall see him in Sarov Monastery, living in the dense Sarov forest in the cell of the ascetic-elder Barlaam. The protection of St. Sergius is visible for the whole length of his life: at the age of 16 he was in the St. Sergius Hermitage on the Gulf of Finland; on the feast of St. Sergius he stepped upon the earth of distant Alaska; and he died like St. Sergius, in a shining of unearthly light amid the fragrance of heavenly incense.
St. Herman was born in Serpukhov in a pious merchant family probably in 1757, or a little earlier. Judging from the notes of his close friend and fellow ascetic in Sarov and Sanaxar, the later Archimandrite Theophanes, his name in the world was probably Gerasimus. His family was very pious; it is known that one of his relatives finished her days in the Convent of the Theotokos of the Passion in Moscow, leaving behind some treasured letters of St. Herman from Alaska. His surname is not known.
The merchant class at that time was distinguished by its special devotion to the Church. Its whole way of life was penetrated through and through by profound, age-old Orthodoxy, and it had preserved the ancient traditions of iconography and Znamenny chant, and the patriarchal customs and traditions. Although Russia in the 18th century had already been subjected to a powerful alien influence from the West, the merchant class was still untouched by it, and every aspect of life in Serpukhov, which was close to the ancient capital of Moscow, breathed the air of Holy Russia. In every merchant family with any means at all there were to be found such books as the Bible, the Lives of Saints, the Prologue of daily edifying readings, and collections and works of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church. These books were no dead capital, either, but were zealously read, and each new generation found instruction in them and drew lessons for life from this pure source. Reading and writing were learned from church chanters, beginning with the Horologion and the Psalter, which disposed the soul from an early age to assimilate easily that which is elevated and truly beautiful, making it for the rest of one's life something deeply desired and natural. Therefore, life was naturally lived in the fear of God, with reverence toward parents and elders, its rhythm governed by the Church feasts and fasts, and not by cold laws and eternally changing fashions. Life proceeded in quietness, in concentration and seriousness, in sufficiency and yet with a harmonious yearning for the beautiful and true, for what is above.
There exist exact descriptions of life in Serpukhov at that time, written perhaps by relatives of St. Herman himself. Families were large, with the grandfather at the head and all the generations living together. Everyone arose with the sound of the bell for Matins. Not a single feast, with its All-night Vigil of many hours, was missed. After the feast-day Liturgy and the common festive meal, everyone sat down and would sing with contrition the "Psalms," or religious songs based mainly on the Psalter, with titles like "O Lord, he that dwelleth in Thy dwelling," "My soul doth strive to offer praise to the Master Almighty," "Oh, woe is me a sinner, woe to me who have no good deeds." The singing would be harmonious, without haste, and often with tears of contrition. Passersby would stop and listen, and the spiritual content of these songs would be poured into their souls. Worldly songs, however, were avoided, as unbefitting Orthodox Christians. The children, of course, took an active part in all of this, and their minds would be elevated and take wing, being inspired with spiritual reality. Frequent visits of pilgrims with their tales of holy places, contact with the God-fearing clergy, encounters with fools for Christ's sake, who fought against the fallen logic of this world all left a powerful impression on young souls. And so the heart of the pious little St. Herman became filled with zeal for God.
In the Vysotsky Monastery in these years there was living a pious monk, Hierodeacon Joel, a relative of the future Optina Elders, the brothers Moses and Anthony Putilov. Many would come to visit this elder of holy life, bringing gifts, and he would reward them with loving spiritual conversation and a fond affection for the children, so that the latter would visit him with joy and reverence and be involuntarily edified.
The nearness to Moscow and the Lavra of St. Sergius could not but attract pilgrims from Serpukhov, and of course they would often visit the holy Monastery. This would be a great event in the life of the children, and especially for such chosen ones of God as St. Herman. The pilgrimage would be made without fail on foot, a labor of love for St. Sergius, who was venerated from one end to the other of the Russian land. The shrine with the incorrupt relics, the magnificent churches, the whole choirs of monks would strike the young pilgrims with their other-worldliness, and tales of the beginning of the Monastery, taken from the Life of St. Sergius, would inspire young souls and draw young imaginations to thoughts of desert-dwellers, dense forests with wild animals, and holy monasteries far from the ways of this world. Celebrated at that time as such a monastery, with a strict and holy life, was Sarov. The soul of the young St. Herman was already striving toward this desert place where he was to become a young hermit. Perhaps he had an uncle or some other relative there, but in any case a twelve-year-old boy is not easily accepted into a monastery, much less such a strict one as Sarov. Therefore, we can readily conclude that this child already had upon him the seal of one of God's chosen ones when he was allowed to live in the forest of Sarov as cell-attendant of the Elder Barlaam, whose kinship to St. Herman is unknown to us.
And so the young St. Herman, like St. Nicon 400 years before him, went as a boy to live in the forest with an Elder and learn the monastic life.
MONKS WALKING IN THE INNER COURT OF ST. ATHANASIUS' MONASTERY OF SERPUKHOV
An old engraving from the Pochaev RUSSIAN MONK, 1911
St. Sergius calls St. Athanasius to found a monastery in Serpukhov
A fragment from the Document given for the foundation of the Vysotsky Monastery
NEXT CHAPTER: THE SAROV DESERT-DWELLER.
The Life and Ascetic Labor of Our Father, Elder Paisius, Archimandrite of the Holy Moldavian Monasteries of Niamets and Sekoul. Part Eight
ELDER PAISIUS' LETTERS FROM DRAGOMIRNA
2. To Hieromonk Sophronius, Superior of the Skete of Rubai1
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1 Russian text in Chetverikov, II, pp. 44-45.
To your request to send a priest to put your community in good order, I do not know what to reply. We ourselves are at the beginning of this work and require instruction in very much. We can only tell you how, in the power of the Holy Scripture and according to the rule of the Holy Fathers, you might put your community in good order.
In the first place, it is required that the superior be wise in the Holy Scripture, that he be just, that he know how to instruct his disciples, that he have for everyone a true, unhypocritical love, that he be meek, humble, patient, free from anger and from all other passions – love of money, vainglory, love of delicacies, and so forth. The disciples for their part should be in the hands of the superior like an instrument in the hands of a master, or like clay in the hands of a potter; they should do nothing without his blessing, should have nothing of their own, but should have everything-books, bed, and the restby the blessing of their father; they should not trust their own mind, and in a word, they should be like dead men before their death, having no will or understanding of their own. Such should be the rule of true novices.
And no matter where your skete might be, it should not be in submission to any other monastery whatever, but it should be governed independently; and the brethren should be saved through their head, as the latter is saved through the Lord. And this order should be confirmed with a blessing from both sides – from the State and from the local Hierarch. In your skete no women should be allowed. Only in this way, with great labor, can you put into practice a life which is saving for you and pleasing to the Lord.
And if any of you wishes to come to dwell with us, only the Lord knows if he will be able to have such zeal so as to endure to the end the need. and poverty of our life in material things, in food, in cells, and in everything else. This is all that we can tell you from our lack of skill. But may our God and Lord Jesus Christ be for you Light and Understanding for holy salvation and eternal life.
3. To the Priest Demetrius1
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1 Slavonic text in the Optina edition of the Life of Elder Paisius, pp. 237-238; almost complete Russian translation in Chetverikov, II, pp. 53-55.
A certain married priest, a friend of the Elder's from his youth and a fellow student with him in Kiev, who kept up a correspondence with the Elder, wrote him of his desire to leave his wife and parish and become a monk. Blessed Paisius replied to him as follows:
My beloved friend, fervent doer of Christ's commandments, most reverent among priests, Father Demetrius:
Rejoice in the Lord!
I thank Christ God that you have kept unquenched the spark of Divine fire which He cast into your blessed heart in your youth, by means of the diligent doing of His soul-saving commandments. Now you wish that this spark might blaze up into the flame of His perfect love by receiving, if the Lord wills, the Angelic habit.
But there is a great obstacle before you in this matter, my beloved. For one who is married, according to St. John of the Ladder, is like one who is bound hand and foot, who even if he might wish to become a monk, cannot. In the second place: you have obliged yourself to a flock of Christ's rational sheep, which it is not safe simply to leave, just like that. In the third place: it is not at all easy to abandon the habits acquired through being so long in the world, which have all but become part of your nature, and likewise the deeplyrooted love for your wife and children, and your attachment to the world and the things of the world. Finding yourself in such conditions, how can you be freed of these bonds which are difficult to loose, and avoid these obstacles?
First of all, beloved, you must take spiritual counsel concerning this with your God-given helpmate and have her approval for this. Second, you must arrange for your children lawfully and according to God. Third, most important of all, you must ask the blessing on this holy deed of your Most Reverend Archpastor, if only the Holy Spirit will inspire his holy heart to this, and ask him for a skilled pastor for your flock after you are gone. He who sows with blessing also reaps with blessing. And thus, if this matter proceeds in an orderly way, your desire for monasticism will be according to God, firm and unwavering, deserving praise from God and men.
But even if you are able to fulfill the above-mentioned conditions and are free of every obstacle, even then you must with great discernment count your soul's possessions, and only thus begin to build the tower of monasticism, lest your undertaking be a subject for laughter and mockery, according to the Gospel, because you foolishly started the building and did not finish it; and lest this cup, which is with tears, and the bread of monasticism, which is with mustard, be for condemnation in the Day of Judgment, because of your foolishness. For no one, says St. John of the Ladder, enters the heavenly bridal chamber wearing a crown unless he has made the first and the second and the third renunciation. The first renunciation is of the world and the things of the world; the second renunciation is of the will and understanding; the third renunciation is of the vainglory which follows obedience. Of these the first is the easiest, but only to those who love God. The second requires until death ascetic exploit and labor unto blood. The third is conquered by ceaseless selfreproach. For all of these God's invisible help is present, without which one cannot do a single one of them.
Wherefore, beloved, if, God's grace helping you, you have hope, as you are able, to be freed of the above-mentioned obstacles and to renounce the world and everything in the world in truth, and to renounce likewise your own will and understanding and give yourself over in true obedience unto death according to God and God's commandments; and not to have anything at all of your own possessions, even the smallest thing, but to consider yourself as the least and last of all and to endure without faintheartedness the mental warfare which is waged ceaselessly against the slave of God by the invisible enemy of our souls; and besides this, if you can voluntarily endure unto death, with sweetness, hunger and thirst, and want of bodily necessities, and mockery and dishonor, and every kind of confinement and sorrow, which characterize the monastic life – then rejoice and be glad, glorify God, and believe undoubtingly that God by His wondrous decrees will bring into reality this your God-pleasing intention. And you will be enabled, even if in the eleventh hour of your life, to labor unto God in the Angelic habit; but have no doubt that you will receive, equally with the first ones, who have labored unto God in monasticism from youth until old age, as a reward in Heaven from the allmerciful right hand of God, the unutterable good things prepared for those who love God.
Desiring with prayer that you may be vouchsafed these things in Christ Jesus our Lord, I remain your sincere well-wisher and constant friend, the unworthy superior of the brotherhood gathered in the Name of Jesus,
March 18, 1772
Hieromonk Paisius
C;nobitic Moldovlachian Monastery of Dragomirna Sent with Father Spiridon
Blessed XENIA's Recent Miracle
Before his canonization a Saint usually manifests himself as especially close to earth, more attentive than ever in his heavenly intercessions for those who have reverence toward him. The following miracle only confirms the faithful in their belief in Blessed Xenid's closeness to those on earth, before her canonization which, God willing, will soon be decreed.
IN ANTICIPATION OF the canonization of Blessed Xenia, the Blessed Xenia Memorial Fund has been established, with the aim of informing the Orthodox people about this new wonderworker. Already it has published two collections of her recent miracles. Here is a report of her latest miracle.
"While returning to our Convent from a Paschal visitation on the second day of Pascha, April 17/30, 1973, the automobile in which our priest and I were travelling was suddenly struck head-on by another car. There was a noise as of a bomb exploding. Our car was so wrecked that we could hardly be dragged out of it. My chest was injured; the right side of my neck was dark and my right eye was injured; but the greatest pain was in my left side. For four hours we sat on the street without any help, waiting for the police and an ambulance. In the hospital I was suffering very much, and they could not take X-rays of me because I would simply scream when they tried to touch me. Day and night I groaned, sitting in an armchair, but I could not lie down at all. I informed Archbishop Nikon and he told Metropolitan Philaret, since at that moment there was a session of the Synod. And there, immediately, as I found out later, a moleben was served before the Kursk Icon of the Mother of God. But I was still suffering all the time from the pain. Some time passed and I was still suffering, and then I asked Father Rostislav Gan to serve a panikhida for Blessed Xenia. I do not know exactly at what hour he did so, but that very evening when I lay down to sleep, even though with great labor and groans, I was able to lie down so that it was not so painful until I fell asleep. And in the morning I felt no pain at all. I was astonished, for it was as if I had never been sick at all. When Father Rostislav came he confirmed the fact that he had served a panikhida for Blessed Xenia. That means that it was by the intercession of Blessed Xenia that I received healing. In New York they were also praying for me, but only after the panikhida for Blessed Xenia did the pain stop immediately. I have the feeling that Blessed Xenia is awaiting her canonization. May God grant that this will happen soon!"
March 11, 1974
Abbess Elena
Novo-Shamardino Convent, Australia
BLESSED XENIA IN HER SMOLENSK CEMETERY
Detail of a painting by Archimandrite Cyprian (1968)
A small shrine of Blessed Xenia in the garden of one of her venerators today.
The TYPICON of the Orthodox Church's Divine Services
CHAPTER TWO
THE PSALMS OF DAVID
THE HOLY PROPHET KING DAVID icon by Pimen M. Sofronov
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
—Eph. 5:19
BY FAR the largest single element in the Church's Divine services is the Psalms of David. Of them St. John Chrysostom has said: "If we keep vigil in church, David comes first, last and central. If early in the morning we want songs and hymns, first, last and central is David again. If we are occupied with the funeral solemnities of those who have fallen asleep, or if virgins sit at home and spin, David is first, last and central. O amazing wonder! Many who have made little progress in literature know the Psalter by heart. Nor is it only in cities and churches that David is famous; in the village market, in the desert, and in uninhabitable land, he excites the praise of God. In monasteries, among those holy choirs of angelic armies, David is first, last and central. In the convents of virgins, where are the communities of those who imitate Mary; in the deserts where there are men crucified to the world, who live their life in heaven with God, David is first, last and central. All other men at night are overcome by sleep. David alone is active, and gathering the servants of God into seraphic bands, he turns earth into heaven, and converts men into angels."
The function of the Psalms in the Orthodox Christian spiritual life has been well set forth by St. Basil the Great: "When the Holy Spirit saw that the human race was guided only with difficulty toward virtue, and that, because of our inclination toward pleasure, we were neglectful of an upright life, what did He do? The delight of melody He mingled with the doctrines so that by the pleasantness and softness of the sound heard we might receive without perceiving it the benefit of the words, just as wise physicians who, when giving the fastidious rather bitter drugs to drink, frequently smear the cup with honey. Therefore, He devised for us these harmonious melodies of the Psalms, that they who are children in age, or even those who are youthful in disposition, might to all appearances chant but, in reality, become trained in soul. For never has any one of the many indifferent persons gone away easily holding in mind either an apostolic or prophetic message, but they do chant the words of the Psalms, even in the home, and they spread them about in the market place, and if, perchance, someone becomes exceedingly wrathful, when he begins to be soothed by a Psalm, he departs with the wrath of his soul immediately lulled to sleep by means of the melody." (Homily X, 1; On Psalm I.)
In our own times of such feeble Christian life, alas, these words of the Holy Fathers have largely lost their force. Where, even among Orthodox Christians, is the Psalter still read and sung? And yet it is a central part of the Church's Typicon, of the standard against which we must measure our own Christian worship, a central part of the normal Christian life towards which we must constantly strive. The Blessed Archbishop John Maximovitch, striving to awaken his flock to a more conscious participation in the Church's life, published the following appeal in his weekly diocesan bulletin (Shanghai, November 24, 1941, no. 503):
"Perhaps it will happen that you will die without having once in your life read in full the Psalter of David... You will die, and only then will good people read over your lifeless body this holy Psalter, which you had no time even to open while you lived on earth! Only then, at your burial, will they sing over you the wondrously instructive, sweetly-wise – but alas, to you completely unknown – words of David: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord... Blessed are they who search His testimonies, who keep His revelations, and seek Him with their whole heart. Do you hear: Blessed are they who search His testimonies, seek out the revelations of the Lord; and you had no time even to think of them! What will your poor soul feel then, your soul to which every word of the Psalmist, repeated by a reader or singer over your coffin, will sound as a strict reproach that you never read this sacred book?... Open now, before it is too late, this wondrous book of the Prophet King. Open it and read with attention at least this 118th Psalm, and you will involuntarily feel that your heart becomes humble, soft, that in the words of David are the words of the Spirit of God, and you will repeat involuntarily, many times, with sighing of heart, the last verse of this Psalm: I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost; seek out Thy slave, O Lord!"
The Psalter, of course, may be read at any time, but it will be good here to give the indication of the Church's Typicon concerning the reading and singing of the Psalms in church, especially now when there are few places remaining where the Psalter is read at all in church, beyond a few Psalms at the Sunday Matins. Perhaps the discovery of the Church's inspiring ideal in this regard will arouse some of the faithful even now to restore in their own life of prayer something of the order which should prevail in the holy churches of God!
First of all, the entire Psalter is appointed to be read through once every week in church (twice during the weeks of Great Lent). In order to do this, the entire 150 Psalms are divided up into 20 kathismata, and each kathisma into three sections, as follows (using the numeration of the Psalms in the Septuagint or Greek Psalter):1
Kathisma 1: Psalms 1-3, 4-6, 7-8
Kathisma 2: Psalms 9-10, 11-13, 14-16
Kathisma 3: Psalms 17, 18-20, 21-23
Kathisma 4: Psalms 24-26, 27-29, 30-31
Kathisma 5: Psalms 32-33, 34-35, 36
Kathisma 6: Psalms 37-39, 40-42, 43-45
Kathisma 7: Psalms 46-48, 49-50, 51-54
Kathisma 8: Psalms 55-57, 58-60, 61-63
Kathisma 9: Psalms 64-66, 67, 68-69
Kathisma 10: Psalms 70-71, 72-73, 74-76
Kathisma 11: Psalms 77, 78-80, 81-84
Kathisma 12: Psalms 85-87, 88, 89-90
Kathisma 13: Psalms 91-93, 94-96, 97-100
Kathisma 14: Psalms 101-102, 103, 104
Kathisma 15: Psalms 106, 106, 107-108
Kathisma 16: Psalms 109-111, 112-114, 115-117
Kathisma 17: Psalms 118:1-72, 73-131, 132-176
Kathisma 18: Psalms 119-123, 124-128, 129-133
Kathisma 19: Psalms 134-136, 137-139, 140-142
Kathisma 20: Psalms 143-144, 145-147, 148-150
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1 The Latin Vulgate, upon which Roman Catholic translations into English are based, follows the Septuagint numbering. However, the Hebrew Psalms, upon which the King James Version and other Protestant translations are based, are numbered slightly differently, as follows:
Greek Psalms correspond to Hebrew Psalms
1-8 1-8
9 9-10
10-112 11-113
113 114-115
114-115 116
116-145 117-146
146-147 147
148-150 148-150
The weekly reading of the Psalter is begun with the Vespers of Saturday, when the new weekly cycle of the Octoechos is begun. At Saturday Vespers the first kathisma is sung (not read, as will be explained in a later chapter), and at Sunday Matins the second and third kathismata are read. For the rest of the week three kathismata are read daily, as follows:
Monday: Kathismata 4, 5, 6
Tuesday: Kathismata 7, 8, 9
Wednesday: Kathismata 10, 11, 12
Thursday: Kathismata 13, 14, 15
Friday: Kathismata 19, 20, 18
Saturday: Kathismata 16, 17, 1
Generally the first two kathismata appointed each day are read at Matins, and the third kathisma at Vespers.1 At the Vespers of Sundays and great feasts no kathisma is read, as the Typicon says, "due to the labor of the vigil" which has preceded.
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1 For a precise indication of the apportionment of the kathismata for all the weeks of the year, see The Festal Menaion, Faber & Faber, London, 1969, pp. 532-534.
The Psalms are read, not in a normal reading tone, but in a kind of "recitative" or monotone, which may most easily be executed by beginning as if to sing on one note which is convenient for one's voice, and then continuing to read on this same note. No particular expression should be given to any words or phrases, and the voice should not drop at the end of any phrase, but should remain always at about the same level,, yet without any attempt to pronounce every word in an artificially uniform or featureless manner. The reading should be slow enough that the words can be understood, but not so slow that an effect of "dragging" is created. This traditional church reading, which with practice comes to seem very natural, is immediately distinct from worldly reading (as of newspapers), and helps set the proper tone in which the sacred words can enter one's heart. At the end of every section of every kathisma, the following words are read in the same tone of voice, or actually sung on one note: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God. Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Then the next section is begun.
Since most parish churches do not have daily services, it is obvious that most Orthodox Christians do not hear the whole Psalter every week in church. Indeed, the weekly reading of the Psalter entails considerable labor (even though it is much less than the labor of the early monks who read the Psalter daily), and it is only in a few of the larger monasteries that it is still performed in its entirety. As a concession to the weakness of contemporary Orthodox Christians, the late Archbishop John Maximovitch had as his rule to read in church the whole Psalter every two weeks, by reading the first kathisma of Matins on weeks when the Tone of the Octoechos was odd (1, 3, 5, 7), and the second kathisma when the Tone of the Octoechos was even (2, 4, 6, 8). (The Tone for the week is indicated in Orthodox calendars on the Sunday which begins the week.) The same result might be obtained by dividing each kathisma in half and reading the first half of both when the Tone is odd, the second half when the Tone is even. And indeed, any arrangement by which one reads the Psalms regularly, even if only a single Psalm or section of Psalms daily at Morning or Evening Prayers, is a good beginning. Any Orthodox Christian can read the Psalter at home according to such an arrangement and, with a little labor of prayer, enter into the Church's rhythm of psalmody, which in a short time will make the Psalms familiar to him and part of a regular rhythm of prayer.1
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1 A new edition of the Orthodox Psalter, arranged for use in church (with the Psalms arranged by kathismata and sections), is now being printed and may be ordered from Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 278 Warren St., Brookline, Massachusetts, 02146. There is also an inexpensive paperback edition of the translation of Fr. Lazarus Moore, likewise arranged for church use: The Holy Psalter from the Septuagint. (Available from Eastern Orthodox Books, P.O. Box 302, Willits, Calif., 95490.)
In addition to the weekly reading of the Psalms, many of the Psalms are read again as a part of the daily services: Vespers, Matins, Nocturn, Compline, the Hours. Indeed, every one of these services, after the usual beginning (O Heavenly King, Holy God, Our Father...), commences with a Psalm or several Psalms. The God-inspired and inspiring material of the Psalms provides a most natural beginning for the Church's services, which thus proceed from the prophetic prayer of the Old Testament to the New Testament prayer in which the prophecies are realized (the troparia, stichera, etc., which follow the Psalms in all services). Thus, in every service the Orthodox Christian experiences in some degree what the soul of God's faithful people has gone through in its religious awareness, from the Old to the New Testament.
Furthermore, a few of the Psalms are singled out for special execution, being sung according to a particular tradition which is either indicated in the Typicon or contained in the Church's musical tradition; such Psalms also often have a refrain added to each verse, usually "Alleluia," the Hebrew word meaning "Praise ye the Lord." Among such Psalms are the two Psalms of the Polyeleos sung at Matins on feast days and some Sundays (Ps. 134 and 135); Psalm 118 (the 17th kathisma), which is sung in one way for requiem services, another way at the Sunday Matins of the spring and summer months in place of the Polyeleos, and yet another way at the Matins of Great Saturday; the "Lord, I have cried" (Ps. 140, 141, 129, 116) of Vespers, which is sung in the Tone of the stichera which are joined to it, as is "Let every breath praise the Lord" (Ps. 148-150) of Matins; the Prefatory Psalm of Vespers on great feasts (Ps. 103): and the first section of the first kathisma (Ps. 1-3). The singing of these Psalms, in whole or in part, is by no means difficult, even for those with very little musical knowledge. About this more will be said in later chapters, after some introductory remarks on the Russian traditional chant.
Next Issue: The Russian Tradition of Orthodox Chant.
Note: This series of articles on the Typicon is intended to be of practical benefit to the Orthodox faithful. Comments and questions from readers, as well as suggestions for future chapters, are welcomed.
Orthodoxy or Death
NEW PERSECUTIONS OF THE ZEALOT MONKS OF MOUNT ATHOS
Readers of THE ORTHODOX WORD are aware of the existence on Mt. Athos of the "Zealots," some 250 monks who hold to uncompromising Orthodoxy and refuse to have communion with the apostate Patriarch of Constantinople and those who commemorate him (see THE ORTHODOX WORD, Sept.-Oct., 1972). Most of these monks belong to the sketes and hermitages of the Holy Mountain, but in 1971 one of the ruling monasteries, Esphigmenou, with its 45 monks, joined the Zealots, and since then this monastery has been subjected to numerous pressures from the Holy Community (the governing council of Mt. Athos) and the Patriarchate. The newest attack against the monastery and the Zealot monks is described in the following article by one of the leading Zealots of the Holy Mountain, himself a candidate for expulsion; and then in a more recent letter from another Zealot monk of the Holy Mountain.
1. THE CRISIS ON MT. ATHOS
By Theodoritos, Monk of St. Anne's Skete
BEGINNING on the 10th of March, 1974, the Holy Mountain has been passing through a critical period, perhaps the most serious crisis of its later history.
The reason for this crisis is the refusal of the Zealot Fathers to accept as Orthodox Patriarch Demetrius of the Phanar, because they believe him to be a pure and true follower of the heretic Athenagoras. They refuse to commemorate his name in their prayers, and they have broken off communion with those monks who do commemorate him.
In 1972 and in September, 1973, emissaries of the Patriarchate attempted to persuade the Fathers of Esphigmenou (45 monks), and also the approximately 250 independent Zealot monks who are spread out all over the Holy Mountain, to accept Demetrius, the new Patriarch who succeeded Athenagoras, as Orthodox. All these attempts having failed, the Patriarchate has decided to take radical measures against the Zealots.
Therefore, in cooperation with the Holy Community of Mt. Athos, the Patriarchate has decreed the deportation of thirteen of the Zealot Fathers, among them the Abbot of Esphigmenou, Archimandrite Athanasios, and three monks of the Monastery's ruling council. Already nine of these Zealot monks have been expelled from the Holy Mountain.
The monks of Esphigmenou, however, have resolved to defend their Abbot and spiritual father and the three other monks scheduled for expulsion. They refuse to give them up, and in protest they have raised a black flag over the tower of the Monastery with a sign: ORTHODOXY OR DEATH.
The Holy Community, therefore, in cooperation with the political governor of Mt. Athos, has disconnected the Monastery's telephones and has prohibited the delivery of mail, while two policemen are on permanent guard outside the Monastery gate. The Holy Community has likewise sent an encyclical letter (No. 50/K of March 10 OS) to the other 19 ruling monasteries, exhorting them to obey the Patriarchal decision to deport the leading Zealots, because, as the document says: "For a long time the breath of genuine Orthodoxy has been blowing in the Phanar."
But on the contrary, Patriarch Demetrius in his Paschal Message for 1974 proposes a fixed date for Easter for all who call themselves Christians, contrary to the holy Canons, "greeting and embracing" all the heretics of the West, and especially "our most holy elder brother the Pope of Rome"!
Several months ago the same Patriarch declared to Cardinal Willebrands that "the work commenced with such sincerity and zeal by our illustrious predecessor, Patriarch Athenagoras, will be continued just as conscientiously for as long as God will permit us to occupy this post" (See Episkepsis, no. 90, Dec. 11, 1973, p. 12). Thus he shows his complete indifference to the letter of Professor and Archimandrite Justin Popovich, who since 1971 has declared that Athenagoras is an "apostate and heretic" (see Contacts, 1971, no. 4; and Orthodoxos Typos, Nov. 1, 1971).
And so again the Zealot Fathers of the Holy Mountain prove that genuine and true Orthodoxy is still alive on Mt. Athos in the hearts of at least onefifth of its inhabitants, as a challenge not only to the rest of the monks of the Holy Mountain but also to the whole Orthodox world, which observes with indifference the heretical proclamations of the Ecumenical Throne. Now we see the result of this cruel indifference: the adoption against believers in Greece, and especially on Mt. Athos, of the methods of the Soviet Iron Curtain!
THE MONASTERY OF ESPHIGMENOU UNDER ATTACK
Encircled are the black flag above the tower, and the sign 'Orthodoxy or Death'
The sign on the tower: ORTHODOXY OR DEATH
Monks preparing to raise the black flag
Archimandrite Athanasios, Confessor-Abbot of Esphigmenou proceeding from the Monastery church to the refectory.
2. A LETTER FROM A ZEALOT OF MT. ATHOS, APRIL 18, 1974
I GREET YOU during these joyous days after Pascha. The Feast is joyous but what is taking place is sad. For this reason I am writing of what is happening here on Mt. Athos.
Last October four bishops from Constantinople were on Mt. Athos. Their purpose was to determine the number of Zealot monks, those who do not commemorate the Patriarch. During sessions at the Holy Community in Karyes, they summoned various monks with this question. They had to send a telegram several times to the monastery of Esphigmenou (whose monks are Zealots), but they received no response. After the bishops returned to Istanbul, nothing more was heard until a week or two before Pascha. A letter was sent to the Holy Community from the Patriarch, naming several monks who had to leave Mt. Athos. As of now the fate of Esphigmenou is still undetermined. I was told today that several Abbots (from Dionysiou, Koutloumousiou, etc. – those who are with the Patriarch) went to speak with the Abbot and monks at Esphigmenou. We'll know in several days what the outcome was.
Now it has been revealed that the bishops will return in early May to determine the fate of all the Zealots. Our future here is uncertain. The aim of the Patriarch is for Mt. Athos to be as one – not with two parties. All monks who refuse to adhere to the Patriarch must leave; the remaining monks will be as one community under the Patriarch and the Pope. Roads will be constructed, tourists will come with cars, perhaps even women – if the Holy Theotokos allows it to go that far. We can be sure the situation will not improve, as the entire world is in such an evil condition.
Now, what can be done? I believe that if Church organizations, individuals, clergy, and hierarchs begin to protest, sending telegrams and letters to the Patriarch and the Government, both in Greece and on Mt. Athos, in order to frighten them, they may ease up for a while, just as happened when the world protested against the Soviet Government's treatment of Solzhenitsyn. This is more important. It seems that all the prophecies about Mt. Athos are coming into reality. I wonder if the Iveron Icon of the Theotokos will leave, and if so, when?
Here we are witnesses that She and God are not pleased. For Pascha and Bright Week we had fog, rain, cold winds, cloudy weather. All the monks commented on this the first Pascha they've seen with such unpleasant weather.
Where the Zealots will go, myself among them, is uncertain. It is rumored that if the decision is that all Zealots must leave, then soldiers with guns will come to enforce this.
It is not for nothing that the Zealot monks of Greece begin to view their situation in the light of the persecutions of Orthodoxy in Russia, for indeed the experience of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century offers a sad parallel to the present crisis of the Holy Mountain: the once-flourishing spiritual center, Valaam Monastery, even though at first it escaped the Soviet yoke, was dealt a fatal blow by the forcible introduction of the "New Calendar" in the 1920's, accompanied by the brutal deportation, with the aid of the Finnish police, of leading Zealot monks and a severe persecution of the rest. The Soviet bombardment of the Monastery twenty years later only brought a final end to a community that was already spiritually destroyed. The Holy Community of Mt. Athos today, defending its position, declares, in a spirit exactly like that of the "moderate" Valaam monks and the Finnish Government fifty years ago: "The Monastery of Esphigmenou not only has deviated from the order of canon law, but has gone counter to it by declaring allegiance to the so-called Auxentian [Old Calendarist Church... The Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Holy Mountain and the State are making efforts in full harmony to pacify and restore order where it has been disturbed" (HELLENIC CHRONICLE, Apr. 18, 1974). Let us recognize the truth: the principal cause of the disorders on the Holy Mountain and in the Greek Church is the Patriarchate of Constantinople itself, which for many years has pursued an anti-Orthodox course. (See Archbishop John Maximovitch, "The Decline of the Patriarchate of Constantinople," THE ORTHODOX WORD, July-August, 1972.) Let the prayers and all possible help of every true Orthodox Christian be with Archimandrite Athanasios and his brethren, and with all the Zealots of the Holy Mountain, who give to us a genuine example of how we too must be prepared to fight and die for our Holy Orthodox Faith!
THE HOLY MONASTERY OF ESPHIGMENOU Drawing by Rallis Kopsidis
ORTHODOX BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, by Constantine Cavarnos. Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 115 Gilbert Road, Belmont, Ma., 02178. 1973, 172pp. $6, hard cover.
THE NEWEST PUBLICATION of Prof. Constantine Cavarnos is a very informative book on the Holy Mountain of Athos. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, and so it does not repeat general information that is available in many other books, but rather concentrates on several aspects of Athonite life and history about which very little is to be found elsewhere in English.
The book is divided into three parts: one devoted to brief biographies of "Scholars, Missionaries, and Saints" of the Holy Mountain, from ancient times up to the present; one on church music as sung on the Holy Mountain, giving the basic principles of Orthodox Church hymnody and remarks on leading Athonite hymnographers, past and present; and finally, notes on a "Recent Visit to Athos" (in 1965, together with some more recent information), which is a kind of sequel to the author's earlier book, An chored in God (1959).
Perhaps the strongest point of the book is the fact that the author approaches Mount Athos not as a tourist or antiquarian, but as an Orthodox Christian who finds in the Holy Mountain a living reality which is to be valued not by any standards foreign to Orthodoxy, but solely by its faithfulness to genuine Orthodox tradition. His comments on the contemporary state of the Holy Mountain are sound. Thus, for example, he understands and approves the monastic disapproval of the modern plumbing and mirrors which have been introduced into the guesthouse of the Monastery of Koutloumousiou in order to please worldly visitors with the natural result that most of the monks have left, leaving the Monastery to the tourists (p. 108). He reports frankly the widespread protest of the Athonite monks against the ecumenist actions and speeches of Patriarch Athenagoras (pp. 113, 116). He quotes one monk's critical evaluation of the Zoe Brotherhood and its anti-monastic outlook (p. 119). He discusses in general the question of the existence of monasticism in the modern world, and mentions the growing number of publications by Athonite monks who strive to make the ideals of Orthodox monasticism understandable to the young seekers who find that the values of the modern world say nothing to the human soul. The overall impression of the book is not merely one of the rich Orthodox tradition of the Holy Mountain, but even more of the vitality of this tradition today, as is attested by the actual increase in numbers of monks of several of the monasteries and sketes (always the stricter ones). Unfortunately, the author does not discuss specifically the Zealot monks, who are so much in the news right now; hopefully, they will be the subject of a chapter in his next book on Mt. Athos.
The book is well printed, and there are sixteen illustrations, mostly icons of Athonite Saints.
The book has several defects stemming from the author's lack of acquaintance with the Russian sources on the Holy Mountain, which are quite extensive and important, and in fact are quite indispensable for any complete study of the Orthodox tradition and present state of Mt. Athos. Here we will point out several of these defects and their correction from the Russian sources.
1. The author has compiled, for the first time in English, a. "Menologium" or list by months of all the Saints of the Holy Mountain (pp. 146-153). Concerning his sources for this list he writes: "The most complete enumeration of the saints of the Mountain is contained in the revised akoluthia in honor of all the Athonite saints that was prepared and published there in 1941 by the hieromonk Daniel and the monk Nectarios... But even this work does not mention all the Hagiorite saints. I have found some additional ones" (pp. 60-61). But let us look at the standard Russian compilation of the Lives of Athonite Saints: Patericon of Mount Athos, Moscow, Seventh Edition, 1897, 2 volumes, 1058 pages. This compilation, of which there is apparently no equivalent in the Greek language, in addition to the names in Prof. Cavarnos' list (save for a few which it does not include), gives the Lives of 22 other Athonite Saints), Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Russian; and in his introduction the editor of this excellent work will only say that he has given the Lives of "some" of the Athonite Saints, not trusting that his list is complete – even though it does seem to be the most complete Athonite Menologium in any language. The additions to Prof. Cavarnos' Menologium will be given in a future issue of The Orthodox Word.
2. Relying on a Greek source, the author gives an entirely mistaken account of the "name-worshippers" who appeared in the Russian Skete of St. Andrew before the First World War. He writes concerning "the factions of the 'name-worshippers' and their critics. The former were monks who practiced the Jesus Prayer, while the latter were monks who either through misunderstanding or because of malice accused them of worshipping the name of Jesus instead of Jesus Himself" (p. 106). On the contrary, the "name-worshippers," as the plentiful Russian sources on this subject testify, wrote apologies for the clearly heretical doctrine that the name Jesus is Divine in itself, a part of God's Essence, and in their teaching on the Divine Names they resurrected the ancient heresy of Eunomius which had been refuted by St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and other Fathers. Thoroughly Patristic refutations of this heresy were made by the great Athonite hesychast, Elder Theodosius of Karoulia, Archbishop Nicon of Vologda, and others, and it was officially condemned by the Russian and Greek Churches.
3. Prof. Cavarnos notes that the icons in the Russian Skete of St. Andrew "are typical of modern Russian iconography, inspired by Italian Renaissance models" (p. 105); and of some recent icons in the Greek Monastery of Grigoriou he writes that they "follow modern Russo-Italian models and are essentially unrelated to the Orthodox spirit" (p. 110). Now, no one will deny the author's main point: that the "modern. Russian" icons he has seen on Mt. Athos do indeed constitute a deviation from the genuine Orthodox iconographic style which has largely been preserved on the Holy Mountain. Unfortunately, however, the author's words could easily lead the reader to the unfounded generalization that "modern Russian iconography" as a whole is nothing but a copy of Western naturalism, and that it is responsible for corrupting the iconographic style even in Greece. To remedy the possibility of such a mistaken generalization, we shall say a word here about the history of the revival of Byzantine iconography in Greece and Russia in recent times.
In Greece it was one man who restored Byzantine iconography: Photios Kontoglou. Prof. Cavarnos himself, in a biography of Kontoglou, has written: "There were no masters of this art in Greece at that hume the 1920's]; all the painters used Western prototypes and techniques. He had to become his own teacher, and learn the secrets of the great and venerable tradition of Byzantine art by reading old manuscripts and visiting the Byzantine monuments" (The Orthodox Word, Sept.-Oct., 1966, p. 135).
In Russia, on the other hand, the condition of Byzantine iconography was always much better. There, before the Revolution, icons in Western naturalistic style were in fashion, but the genuine iconographic tradition never died out, even at the height of Western influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. There were whole towns whose chief industry was the painting of Orthodox icons in traditional style, as, for example, in the province of Vladimir, the towns of Mstera (with 1300 iconographers) and Palech (with 400 iconographers and apprentices); and there were many other such towns. These iconographers painted thousands of new icons every year, restored old ones, and restored the frescoes of ancient churches. They continued their devotion to Byzantine iconography directly against the prevailing fashion of the times, and their influence began to be felt again especially after the middle of the 19th century.
In our own century, the most Orthodox of Tsars, Nicholas II, became the patron of the Byzantine iconographic style. He had collections made of old icons, and in 1901 he established an Imperial Commission for the dissemination of the traditional iconographic style, together with the opening of new schools in which to teach it, the publication of icon-painting manuals, etc. In 1903 this Commission began a special battle against the cheap icon reproductions in Western style which were then flooding Russia. In 1913 there was an exhibit of ancient icons on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the accession of the House of Romanov, and thereby such a wide sympathy was aroused in Russian society for the Byzantine style that there was every hope that it would come to be the dominant style once again in Russia. The Revolution, of course, upset all this. Today in the Russian Diaspora the revival of Byzantine iconography continues in an unbroken link with the past; there was never a need, as there was in Greece, to learn the traditional style from books, for every Russian iconographer has been taught by a living master. (Information from N. Talberg, History of the Russian Church (in Russian), Jordanville, N.Y., 1959, pp. 862-866.)
In view of these facts, one hopes that those who speak of "modern Russian iconography" will begin to distinguish between the true "Russian iconography" of today, which is strictly Byzantine and traditional in style, and the inferior "modern Russian" style, which, just like much of "modern Greek iconography," is not in the true Orthodox spirit.
4. In his brief chapter on St. Nilus of Sora (pp. 51-53), the author is dependent on unreliable English-language sources (Fedotov and Grunwald), and therefore he puts the great Russian hesychast in rather the wrong light. He writes that St. Nilus "was the first to bring to Russia the theory of mental prayer from Athos" (p. 52), thus showing that he is unacquainted with the earlier Athonite monks who brought this tradition to Russia, such as St. Sergius of Nurma († 1412), St. Arsenius of Konevits (1447), St. Sabbas of Vyshera (1460), and others who are missing from his Menologrum, and that he does not know the Lives of Russian Saints, where the hesychast tradition can be traced from the time of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius on down. He also views St. N;lus too much as a modern "intellectual": "Nilus saw the sketic form of the monastic life as the solution to the problem of the secularization of monasticism" (p. 53). In actual fact, according to the Russian sources of his life, there is no reason to assume that St. Nilus saw skete-life as a "solution" to any "problem" except the salvation of his soul and the souls of the few who joined him; and he blessed his disciple St. Innocent to found, not a skete, but a c;nobitic monastery for the salvation of others.
With the increasing publication of reliable material on Mt. Athos – which in Prof. Cavarnos' book, of course, far outweighs the defects we have pointed out – such mistakes and incorrect emphases will doubtless be corrected. Above all, it is greatly to be hoped that the cause of the dissemination of genuine Orthodoxy in the English language will be pursued in a balanced way, with the maximum use made of the best sources in all languages – the richest of which, to be sure, are Greek and Russian. Let all true Orthodox scholars join together to present undistorted in English the genuine tradition handed down by the Holy Fathers, which has been so well preserved by the best monks and monasteries of the Holy Mountain of Athos.
Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg
A new publication in English of Holy Trinity Monastery: THE LIFE AND MIRACLES OF
BLESSED XENIA OF ST. PETERSBURG
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The Orthodox Word No. 55
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