| On June 18, 2017, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the delegation of the monks of the Coptic Church at the Red Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Photo: http://mospat.ru The delegation will make a pilgrimage to the Orthodox monasteries of Russia in compliance with the decision of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and His Holiness Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Holy See of St. Mark. This is a return visit: a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church made a pilgrimage to the Christian holy sites in Egypt in November 2016. The programme of the pilgrimage of the representatives of the Coptic Church includes visits to the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius, the Danilov, Novospassky, Sretensky, Donskoy stavropegic and some other monasteries. On June 18 the delegation attended the Divine service at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The delegation consists of Bishop Daniel, Abbot of St. Paul monastery; Bishop Epiphanious , Abbot of St. Macarius monastery; Bishop Selwanis, Abbot of St. Pachomius monastery; Bishop Kyrillos, Abbot of St. Menas monastery; Bishop Youstos, Abbot of St. Antony monastery; Bishop Daniel of Maadi, auxiliary bishop of Patriarch Tawadros II; hieromonk Ashia Elbaramosy of St. Mary Baramos monastery; hieromonk Efraim Anba Bishoy of St. Bishoy monastery; hieromonk Sedrak El Syrian of St. Mary el Syrian monastery; hieromonk Sharobiem El Bakhomy of St. Pachomius monastery; and Dr. Anton Milad. Attending the meeting with Patriarch Kirill were Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad, chairman of the Synodal department for monasteries and monasticism; Bishop Paramon of Bronnitsy, administrator of the North and Northwestern vicariates of Moscow; and hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), secretary for inter-Christian relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill greeted members of the delegation, saying that their visit was a great joy. |
| Nevertheless, despite the linguistic difficulties in many Philokalic texts, more especially in the writings of St Maximos the Confessor and St Gregory Palamas, the editors leave no doubt concerning their purpose and their hopes. In his preface St Nikodimos affirms unambiguously that the book is addressed »to all of you who share the Orthodox calling, laity and monks aliké 5 . In particular, St Nikodimos maintains, the Pauline injunction, «Pray without ceasing» (1 Thessalonians 5:17), is intended not just for hermits in caves and on mountain-tops but for married Christians with responsibilities for a family, for farmers, merchants and lawyers, even for »kings and courtiers living in palaces " 6 . It is a universal command. The best belongs to everyone. St Nikodimos recognized that, in thus making Hesychast texts available to the general reader, he was exposing himself to possible misunderstanding and criticism. Thus he writes in the preface: Here someone might object that it is not right to publish certain of the texts included in this volume, since they will sound strange to the ears of most people, and may even prove harmful to them 7 . Indeed, is there not a risk that, if these texts are made readily accessible for all to read in a printed edition, certain people may go astray because they lack personal guidance from an experienced spiritual father? This was an objection to which St Nikodimos» contemporary, St Paissy Velichkovsky (1722–94), was keenly sensitive. For a long time he would not allow his Slavonic translation of the Philokalia to appear in print, precisely because he feared that the book might fall into the wrong hands; and it was only under pressure from Metropolitan Gabriel of St Petersburg that he eventually agreed to its publication 8 . St Makarios and St Nikodimos were in full agreement with St Paissy about the immense importance of obedience to a spiritual father. But at the same time they were prepared to take the risk of printing the Philokalia. |
| This supposed opposition engendered a false view on the hostility between the trends of Sts. Joseph and Nilus. In actuality, both trends legitimately coexisted within the Russian monastic Tradition, complementing each other. As is evidenced from the Rule of St Joseph, its basis was complete non-acquisitiveness, and renunciation of the very concepts of " yours-mine. " The years passed. The monastery flourished with construction work and the efforts of St Joseph. As he grew old, he prepared himself for eternal life. Before his end he received the Holy Mysteries, then summoned all the brethren. He gave them his peace and blessing, and peacefully fell asleep in the Lord on September 9, 1515. The funeral oration to St. Joseph was composed by his nephew and disciple, the monk Dositheus Toporkov. The first Life of the saint was written in the 1540’s by a disciple of St Joseph, Bishop Sava the Black of Krutitsa, with the blessing of Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia (+1564). It entered into the Great Menaion Readings compiled by Macarius. A second edition of the Life was written by the Russified Bulgarian writer, Lev the Philologue, with the assistance of St. Zenobius of Otensk (October 30). Local veneration of St. Joseph was established at the Volokolamsk monastery in December of 1578, on the hundred year anniversary of the founding of the monastery. On June 1, 1591, the church-wide celebration of his memory was established under Patriarch Job. St. Job, a disciple of the Volokolamsk saint, tonsured St. Germanus of Kazan, and was a great admirer of St. Joseph. He wrote the Service to St. Joseph, which was included in the Menaion. Another disciple of Sts. Germanus and Barsanuphius was also the companion and successor to Patriarch Job, Hieromartyr Patriarch Hermogenes (February 17), a spiritual leader of the Russian people in the struggle for liberation under the Polish incursion. The theological works of St Joseph comprise an undeniable contribution within the treasury of the Orthodox Tradition. As with all Church writings inspired by the grace of the Holy Spirit, they continue to be a source of spiritual life and knowledge, and they have their own theological significance and pertinence. |
| Maximus, St. Gregory Palamas emphasized the fulness of the human structure, in which an earthly body is united with the reasonable soul, as the preeminent title of man to be regarded as the «image of God,» Capita physica, theol. etc., 63, 66, 67, M.G. CL, col. 1147, 1152, 1165. 144 Cf. St. Gregory of Nyssa, Oratio cat., 35, ed. Srawley, p. 133; Eng. transl. p. 103; c. 8, p. 46, transl. p. 47; De mortuis, M.G. XLVI, col. 520, 529; Orat. fun. de Placid., XLVI, 876–877. St. Gregory here reechoes St. Methodius, the similarity is even in the terms used; see Srawley’s comparison in the introduction to his edition of the «Catechetical Oration,» p. xxv–xxviii. The analogy of refinement itself is taken from St. Methodius: see De resurr. 1.43.2–4, Bonwetsch (1917), p. 291; 42.3, p. 288–289; cf. Symp. ix.2, Bonw. 116. Methodius reproduces the tradition of Asia Minor. See in Theophilus of Antioch, ad Autolicum II.26, Otto s. 128 ss. Almost word for word St. Irenaeus, adv. haeres. III.23.6; 19.3, M.G. VII, 964, 941; 23–111; cf. frg. XII, c. 1233, 1236. The same in Hippolitus, adv. Graecos, 2, ap. Hell, TU XX.2, frg. 353, s. 140. St. Epiphanius includes large sections from Methodius in his Panarion, haeres. 64, cap. 22–29, ed. Holl II, 435–448. St. Basil also held the conception of death as a healing process, Quod Deus non est auctor malor., 7, M.G. XXXI, 345; also St. John Chrysostom, De resurr. mort. 7, M.G. L, c. 429. 145 St. Irenaeus, adv. haeres. III. 18.7: νωσεν ον τν νθρωπον τ Θε (lat.: haerere facit et adunavit), M.G. VII, c. 937; 19.2: non enim proteramus aliter incorruptelam et immortalitatem percipere, nisi adunati fuissemus incorruptelae et immortalitati, nisi prius incorruptela et immortalitas facta fuisset id quod et nos, ut absorberetur quod erat corruptibile ab incorruptela; c. 939; V.12.6: hoc autem et in semel totum sanum et integrum redintegravit hominem, perfectum eum sibi praeparans ad resurrectionem, c. 1155–1156. 146 St. Athanasius, De Incarnatione, 6–8; M.G. |
| Far more than a group of disparate texts bound together at random in a single volume, it is indeed what its editors St Makarios of Corinth and St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain claim it to be: «a mystical school of noetic prayer» 26 . Sometimes I am asked: in what order should the writings of the Philokalia be read? Should we start at the beginning, on page one, and read straight through to the end? Probably that is not the best method. To one who is unfamiliar with Hesychasm but who has a serious and deep longing to discover its true meaning, I sometimes suggest the following sequence of texts: i. St Kallistos and St Ignatios Xanthopoulos, Directions to Hesy-chasts (Philokalia IV, 197–295, English translation Kadloubovsky and Palmer, Writings from the Philokalia, 164–270) 27 . ii. St Hesychios the Priest, On Watchfulness and Holiness (Philokalia I, 141–73, English translation I, 162–98). iii. Evagrios the Solitary (alias Neilos the Ascetic: i.e. Evagrios of Pontus), On Prayer (Philokalia I, 176–89, English translation I, 55–71). iv. A Discourse on Abba Philimon (Philokalia II, 241–52, English translation II, 344–57). v. St Gregory of Sinai, On the Signs of Grace and Delusion; On Stillness; On Prayer (Philokalia IV, 66–88, English translation IV, 257–86) 28 . But here I strongly recommend readers not to attempt the physical technique mentioned by St Gregory, unless they are under the direct instruction of an experienced spiritual teacher. The Philokalia yesterday and today Such is the character of the Philokalia: what, then, has been its influence? In the Greek world the book had initially only a limited impact, in part perhaps because (as already noted) almost all the texts were given in the original Patristic or Byzantine Greek, not in a neo-Greek paraphrase. More than a century passed before a second Greek edition appeared in 1893; and it was not until 64 years later that another Greek edition commenced publication in 1957. Thus, during the first 175 years of its existence, the Greek Philokalia was printed only three times; it was not exactly a best seller! It is significant that a standard work of reference in the 1930 " s, the multi-volume Great Hellenic Encyclopedia, under the heading " Philokaliá mentions only the Philokalia of Origen, edited by St Basil the Great and St Gregory the Theologian, while making no reference at all to the Philokalia of St Makarios and St Nikodimos 29 . |
| The great spiritual abilities of the young monk were evidenced in the Church reading and singing. He was musically talented and possessed a voice that " in church singing and reading was like that of a swallow, wondrously harmonious, delighting the ears of those who heard him. " St. Paphnutius assigned Joseph as ecclesiarch. Joseph spent about seventeen years in the monastery of St. Paphnutius. The strict monastic obedience under the guidance of the experienced abbot was an excellent spiritual school for him, giving him the education needed to become an instructor and guide of monastic life. Towards the end of St Paphnutius’s life, Joseph was ordained hieromonk and, in accord with the final wishes of St Paphnutius, he was appointed Abbot of the Borov monastery. St Joseph decided to transform the monastic life along strictly coenobitic principles, following the example of the Kiev Caves, Holy Trinity-St. Sergius, and St. Cyril of White Lake monasteries. However, this intention was met with strong opposition from a majority of the brethren. Only seven pious monks were of one mind with the abbot. St. Joseph decided to visit Russian coenobitic monasteries in order to seek out the best arrangement for monastic life. He arrived together with the Elder Gerasimus at the St Cyril of White Lake monastery, which itself presented a model of strict asceticism on the principles of a coenobitic monastery rule. His acquaintance with the life of these monasteries strengthened St Joseph's views. But, after returning to Borov monastery at the wish of the prince, St Joseph again encountered the brethrens’ same staunch resistance to changing their customary rule. Thus, he resolved to found a new monastery with a strict coenobitic rule. He took seven like-minded monks to Volokolamsk, his native region, to a forest known to him since childhood. The prince of Volokolamsk at the time was Boris Vasilievich, the pious brother of Grand Prince Ivan III. Having heard about the virtuous life of the great ascetic Joseph, he gladly received him and allowed him to settle on the outskirts of his principality, at the confluence of the Rivers Struga and Sestra. The selection of this spot was accompanied by a remarkable occurrence: a storm blew down the trees before the eyes of the astonished travelers, as though clearing the place for the future monastery. Here, on June 1479, the ascetics set up a cross and built a wooden church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God, which was consecrated on August 15, 1479. This is historically the date of the founding of the monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, later named after its founder. |
| Finally, the Soviet victory over fascist Germany created conditions favorable for the return of the national treasures to Georgia. According to an agreement between Stalin and De Gaulle, the treasures and their faithful protector were loaded onto an American warplane and flown back to their motherland on April 11, 1945. When he finally stepped off the plane and set foot on Georgian soil, St. Ekvtime bowed deeply and kissed the earth where he stood. Georgia greeted its long-lost son with great honor. The people overwhelmed St. Ekvtime with attention and care, restored his university professorship, and recognized him as an active member of the Academy of Sciences. They healed the wounds that had been inflicted on his heart. Exhausted by the separation from his motherland and the woes of emigration, St. Ekvtime rejoined society with the last of his strength. But mankind’s enemy became envious of the victory of good over evil and rose up against St. Ekvtime’s unshakable spirit. In 1951 the Chekists arrested his stepdaughter, Lydia Poltoratskaya. St. Ekvtime, who by that time was seriously ill, was now left without his caregiver. In 1952, without any reasonable explanation, St. Ekvtime was forbidden to lecture at the university he himself had helped to found, and he was secretly placed under house arrest. The people who had reverently greeted him upon his return now trembled in fear of his persecution and imminent death. Many tried to visit and support St. Ekvtime, but they were forbidden. On February 21, 1953, St. Ekvtime died of a heart attack, and three days later a group of approximately forty mourners accompanied the virtuous prince to his eternal resting place. On February 10, 1963, the centennial of St. Ekvtime’s birth, his body was reburied at the Didube Pantheon in Tbilisi. When his grave was uncovered, it was revealed that not only his body, but even his clothing and footwear had remained incorrupt. St. Ekvtime’s relics were moved once again, to the Pantheon at the Church of St. Davit of Gareji on Mtatsminda, where they remain today. |
| –. «Nothingness in the Philosophy of Lao Tzu.» Philosophy East and West. Vol. 1, no. 3 (October 1951). Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago. Vol. 2. New York: Harper and Row, 1975. Sophrony (Sakharov), Archimandrite. His Life Is Mine. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977. -. Saint Silouan the Athonite. Essex, England: Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, 1991. –. We Shall See Him as He Is. Essex, England: Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, 1988. Stakhovich, Nun Maria, and Sergius Bolshakoff. Interior Silence: Elder Michael, the Last Great Mystic of Valaam. Platina, Calif.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1992. Staniloae, Dumitru. Orthodox Spirituality. South Canaan, Penn.: St. Tikhon " ». Seminary Press, 2002. –. Theology and the Church. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980. Symeon the New Theologian. The First-Created Man. Platina, Calif.: St. Herman Brotherhood, 1994. -. St. Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses. The Classics of Wester it Spirituality Series. New York: Paulist Press, 1980. Sze, Mai-mai. The Way of Chinese Painting. New York: Random House, 1956. Theophan the Recluse, St. The Path of Prayer: Four Sermons on Prayer. Newbury, Mass.: Praxis Institute Press, 1992. –. The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation. Platina, Calif.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996. –. The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It. Platina, Calif.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. Thompson, Laurence G. Chinese Religion: An Introduction. The Religious Life of Man Series. 2d edition. Encino, Calif.: Dickenson Publishing Co., 1975. –. The Chinese Way in Religion. The Religious Life of Man Series. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1973. Waley, Arthur., trans. The Book of Songs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1937. –. Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1939. Reprint. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1982. –. The Way and Its Power: A Study of the “Tao Te Ching» and Its Place in Chinese Thought. New York: Grove Press, 1958. |
| Merton, Thomas (1915–68): Roman Catholic Cistercian writer in the USA, author of The Sign of Jonas (London, 1953), Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (Image Books, New York, 1968), etc. New Clairvaux, Monk of: author of Don’t You Belong to Me? (Paulist Press, N.Y., 1979). Newman, John Henry Cardinal (1801–90): leader of the Anglican Tractarians; became a Roman Catholic in 1845; author of The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833) and other works on the Fathers. Suso, Henry (c. 1295–1366): German Dominican mystical writer. See The Life of Blessed Henry Suso by Himself, tr. T.F. Knox (London, 1913). Thompson, Francis (1859–1907): Roman Catholic poet. Traherne, Thomas (c. 1636–74): English mystical poet and spiritual writer; author of Centuries of Meditations. Tyrrell, George (1861–1909): Roman Catholic writer linked with the Modernist movement. Index AUTHORS AND SOURCES Abraham Yakov of Sadagora, 70 Agathon, Abba, 140, 151 Andrew of Crete, St, 180, 186 Antony of Egypt, St, 12, 54, 142, 143, 146, 186 Antony, Metropolitan of Kiev, 105, 186 Aphrahat, 42, 52, 186 Arsenius, Abba, 172 Athanasius of Alexandria, St, 27, 186 Augustine, St, 22, 59, 108, 186 Basil the Great, St, 27, 43, 71, 93,186 Liturgy of, 103, 109 Beausobre, lulia de, 86, 131, 186 Berdyaev, Nicolas, 73, 186 Betjeman, John, 9 Blake, William, 14–15, 158 Boehme, Jacob, 172, 194 Book of the Poor in Spirit, 83,194 Brianchaninov: see Ignatii Bulgakov, Sergius, 79,187 Cabasilas: see Nicolas Cabasilas Christmas, hymns for, 94, 98, 103,114 Chrysostom: see John Chrysostom Clement of Alexandria, St, 71, 169, 187 Clément, Olivier, 22, 86, 159, 187 Climacus: see John Climacus Cloud of Unknowing, 20, 194 Colliander, Tito, 48, 151, 172, 173, 187 Cyril of Alexandria, St, 103, 187 Cyril of Jerusalem, St, 182, 187 Desert Fathers: see Sayings of the Desert Fathers Diadochus of Photike, St, 175, 187 Dimitrii of Rostov, St, 21, 187 Dionysius the Areopagite, St, 31, 141, 169, 172,187 Dostoevsky, Feodor, 73, 81, 108, 127, 128, 187 Duns Scotus, 92 |
| The immediate influence of the Philokalia, or rather Dobrotlyubie, was most immediately felt in Russia, where it was read by St. Seraphim of Sarov and the monks of Optina Pustyn’, the monastery south of Moscow that became a center for the Slavophiles and other members of the Russian intelligentsia. It led to a revival of monasticism in Russia, in which stress was laid on the practice of private prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer, and the institution of spiritual fatherhood (starchestvo), echoes of which can be heard in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. It also inspired a revival of interest in the fathers, among whom the philokalic fathers formed a core. A work with a complex history, known in English as The Way of the Pilgrim, popularized the Jesus Prayer and (in its most common form) the institution of starchestvo, both in Russia and then through translations in the 20th century throughout the world. The Jesus Prayer, from being the preserve of primarily Athonite monks, came to gain a popularity that now reaches well beyond the bounds of Orthodoxy. in the 20th century there were translations into many European languages, mostly selections from the Greek Philokalia. in the English-speaking world the first translations were from the Russian of St. Theophan’s Dobrotolyubie, though there is a projected (not yet completed) translation of the whole Greek text of the original. Rather different is the Romanian translation, the work of the great Romanian theologian, Fr. Dumitru Staniloae. This version is much longer than the Greek original, and often includes a more comprehensive selection of the works of the fathers included, as well as supplementing the selection found in the Greek version by other philokalic fathers, frequently following the example of St. Theophan. it also includes a commentary, recognizing that a reader of a printed book now cannot be sure of the guidance of a spiritual father, a thing taken for granted by the original compilers. SEE ALSO: Elder (Starets); Hesychasm; Jesus Prayer; Pilgrim, Way of the; St. Gregory Palamas (1296–1359); St. Isaac the Syrian (7th c.); St. Maximos the Confessor (580–662); St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite (1749–1809); St. Paisy Velichovsky (1722–1794); St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833); St. Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022); St. Theophan (Govorov) the Recluse (1815–1894); Sts. Barsanuphius and John (6th c.); Staniloae, Dumitru (1903–1993) |
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