Message to Hieromonk Agathon, abbot of the Polyanovoronsk monastery

All-honorable sir, Hieroschemamonk Father Agathon, head of the holy Polyanovoronsk monastery, with all the brethren in Christ, save yourself in the Lord! The scripture of your shrine, together with the report of the holy fathers of your council against the hieromonk Theopemptos, a blasphemer of the paternal books of our reverend and God-bearing fathers, teaching mental work, that is, the Jesus Prayer, I joyfully received through our beloved brother in the Lord, our confessor Jakinthos. And, having understood everything written in them, he glorified God for the fact that even in these last, worthy times of crying and sobbing, in which the divine zeal and love for the books of the fathers, teaching the true practice of the Divine Gospel commandments and the sacred Jesus Prayer, performed with one mind in the heart, almost completely died out in the monks, according to Divine vision, you still have the mentioned zeal and love for books fathers and their soul-saving teaching about this prayer. Prompted by this divine jealousy, you, having gathered in the holy church, called on that blasphemer so that he would give an answer for his blasphemies. But, since he did not listen and did not want to come to church, you were forced to go to his cell and ask him why he calls you heretics. He, answering all of you, called all the books of the fathers chimeras, all of you - seduced, and the Jesus Prayer - heresy, which allegedly originated from the Moshensky mountains, and other blasphemous and deceitful, senseless and insane his fornication. And in response to the spiritual admonition of our confessor Iacinthos to stop blaspheming the teachings of the holy fathers and the sacred Jesus Prayer, he repeated the same blasphemies. You, your holiness, seeing his unrepentant disposition and incessant blasphemy, with the permission of the holy fathers and brothers, write to me, calling yourself orphans, and ask not to leave you in this matter. Although this matter does not apply to me, because your holy monastery does not depend on me, but for the sake of the love of God, seeing your faith and love for me, unworthy according to God, seeing your divine zeal for this all-holy prayer and the books of the fathers, and also condoling the grief and sadness inflicted on the souls by your blasphemy against such a shrine, I decided to tell you something about this blasphemy, where it comes from in our times beginning. When we just came from the Holy Mount Athos to this Orthodox, Christian and more than other lands, the hospitable and hospitable land of Moldova, then I, while still in the Dragomirna monastery, heard that from the Moshen mountains from a certain superstitious philosopher-monk the Jesus Prayer, holy and sacred, did not flow, which he blasphemes for his eternal (if he does not repent) condemnation and heresy calls, but a most disgusting, and all-abominable, and hitherto unheard of, unbearable blasphemy appeared to our ears against this all-holy and immaculate Jesus Prayer, performed with the mind in the heart, and against all the holy fathers, and against their holy books that teach about this holy prayer. With that blasphemy - for the devil spoke through his mouth - he damaged some of the feeble-minded monks so much that they dared to drown the books of their fathers, having tied bricks to them, in the Tyasmin River. Also, not content with uttering blasphemy with his foul tongue alone, he had the intention of using his hand, in writing, to blaspheme and refute this divine work, the prayers and books of the fathers teaching about it, but he immediately became blind, because God did not allow his evil intention to be realized in practice. But from that time even to this day, as we see, this blasphemy that came from this blasphemer has not yet been completely eradicated. May God turn him to true repentance, so that he does not perish forever with the damned heretic Barlaam of Calabria, the first blasphemer of this sacred Jesus Prayer, whom the Church of God collectively anathematized three times and still betrays every year on the Holy Sunday of Orthodoxy, and until the end of the world he will betray with these words: “To Barlaam, and Akindinos, and followers, and to their successors anathema (three times).” Just as Christ Himself, our true God, from the beginning of the Orthodox faith to the present time for unbelievers is “a stone of stumbling and a stone of offense” (1 Pet. 2:7; Rom. 9:33), and for believers – “salvation of souls” (1 Pet. 1:9), and also the saving gospel sermon itself “to the sheep,” according to the apostle, “stinks” mortal into death, but for the sheep - the stench of an animal into the belly" (2 Cor. 2:16), that % and this sacred prayer, although for some who did not believe and doubted it, was “a stone of stumbling and a stone of temptation” (as we see in the newly printed, by the Providence of God, Greek books of our reverend fathers Simeon the New Theologian and his disciple Nikita Stiphatus), however, until the time of the mentioned heretic, no one dared to openly, both in language and in writing, blaspheme the mental doing of this prayer and its practitioners. He showed himself to be the first blasphemer of this divine prayer. Like a serpent from the abyss, coming out of Calabria, the country of Italy, he came to the Greek land and first settled in Thessaloniki, where, while staying, he heard (since he was not far from the Holy Mount Athos) about the Svyatogorsk monks and about this sacred prayer. And, proud of his philosophical wisdom and knowledge of astronomy, he immediately opened his vile lips and began to emit a deadly poison of blasphemy - first against prayer performed with the mind, and against monks, blaspheming and calling them Euchites, umbilicals and Messalians, then he turned his blasphemy on the entire Church of God and on its dogmas, calling him an uncreated creature and the ever-present light of the Divinity of Christ, shining on Tabor from His most holy face to His holy disciples and apostles. In addition, this heretic, his disciple Akindinus and other followers and successors of theirs called creation and creation everything essential and natural in common, from the same being and nature of the Most Holy Trinity, like from the sun the rays, light and radiance that naturally and essentially occur, that is, action, power, grace, light and radiance, gifts and talents, and other things that are innumerable. And all Orthodox Christians, who profess that in God there is nothing created, but everything is uncreated and ever-present, dared to be called two-theists and polytheists, although they themselves were atheists. For this purpose - first against Varlaam, who did not listen to the repeated verbal and written admonitions of Saint Gregory Palamas and did not want to repent and stop his blasphemies - the Council of the Holy Fathers of Svyatogorsk gathered on Holy Mount Athos, who collectively anathematized him with all the blasphemies. Also against these heretics and their followers, at various times, four great Councils gathered in Constantinople in the great Church of the Wisdom of God. At two of them, Saint Gregory Palamas was still in the hieromonastic rank, and at the third he was already the Archbishop of Thessaloniki, while the fourth Council took place after the saint’s repose to the Lord. At all these Councils, irrefutable evidence was presented from the entire Divine Scripture, from the decrees of the holy Ecumenical Councils and the teachings of all the holy fathers, shepherds and teachers of the universe. And after the truth shone brighter than the sun, and these heretics, that is, Varlaam, Akindinus, the philosopher Gregory and all their followers and successors, did not want to repent and curse their heresies and blasphemies, but remained in stubbornness and obvious opposition to the Church of God, the Divine Church collectively anathematized them all three times. And thus, after their many years of attack on the Church, she found complete silence, having collectively declared the purity and innocence of the monks against all heretical blasphemies and slander against them. And the divine prayer of Jesus, performed not only with the lips, but also with the mind in the heart, the immaculate sun, remains the sun, not darkened by the darkness of heretical blasphemies and glorified by the entire Holy Church as a divine work. Therefore, I pray and ask your shrine, the entire council of your holy monastery: have Divine zeal and undoubted faith in the books of the Fathers and in the teaching found in them, that is, in the Divine Scripture, and in the mind of all the universal teachers and the entire Holy Church; be in agreement with them in everything without any doubt, since the same Holy Spirit acted both in the universal teachers and in the holy fathers, teachers and mentors of monastic life, and with both, for their perfect pleasing to God, he equally revealed the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the depth of Divine Scripture. And this teaching, found in the books of the fathers, is for monks who want to be saved a true instruction on the path of salvation, which, holding with all your soul, run and move away from the blasphemy of this blasphemer against the holy books and against our God-bearing fathers. For such a one and others - if those like him could be found - cannot at all have among the saints a single witness to their wickedness and blasphemies, but they have a foundation in the sand of their corrupt and ungodly mind (Matt. 7:26), for “they go astray from the belly and speak lies” (Ps. 57:4), by the father of lies - the devil (John 8:44) being instigated to blaspheme against the truth. But you, faithful and true sons of the Orthodox Church of God, adhering to the truth, are founded on the immovable stone of faith (Matthew 7:24) and have such a great multitude of witnesses about the true doing of the commandments of Christ and this all-sacred prayer of our reverend and God-bearing fathers, whose names I report with this message. Follow their holy teaching with all diligence, compelling your soul and body to do every good work pleasing to God according to your strength, with the assistance of God’s grace. With this blasphemer, if he does not want to repent, I ask and pray, do not have any communication and, if possible, remove him from yourself with love, so that your life may be quiet and peaceful, without any embarrassment, for the glory of God and for the salvation of your souls, which I earnestly desire for you, I remain your holiness and all your brethren in Christ, the most zealous desire for perfect prosperity in every good deed. and for me, a sinner, your favorable prayers to God. Elder and Archimandrite Paisius of the Holy and Honorable Monasteries of the Holy Ascension Nyametsky and Predtechev Sekulsky.