Ascetic words (STSL 2008)

Essay by Rev. Isaac the Syrian's "Ascetic Words" is a collection of instructions, reflections and ascetic teachings addressed to monastics and everyone striving for spiritual perfection. The book is based on the author's personal experience, who spent years in solitude and prayer. The text consists of 91 “Words” (chapters), each of which is devoted to different aspects of spiritual life: prayer, repentance, struggle with passions, silence, humility and love of God. Main themes of the work: - the path of monastic feat. St. Isaac the Syrian reveals the essence of renunciation of the world, obedience, fasting and prayer as means of acquiring grace; - struggle with passions and thoughts. The author describes the beginning of passions, their manifestation and ways of overcoming through sobriety, humility and repentance; - prayer and silence (hesychia). Prayer is considered not just as a formal request, but as living communication with God, contributing to the transformation of a person. Particular attention is paid to inner prayer, smart work and the need for solitude; - humility and repentance. The author emphasizes that without true humility and constant repentance, spiritual growth is impossible; - love for God and neighbor. The highest level of spiritual life, according to the teachings of St. Isaac, there is perfect love that overcomes fear and makes a person like God; - mystical insights and Divine revelations. The author describes the experience of contemplating God and the state of blessed light. This publication presents the Russian translation of the works of St. Isaac the Syrian, published in 1854 by the Moscow Theological Academy and edited at the beginning of the 20th century. Professor S.I. Sobolevsky. The translation was not made from the Syriac language in which St. Petersburg wrote. Isaac, and from Greek. Information about St. Isaac the Syrian and his writings A whole thousand years after the death of St. Isaac the Syrian (January 28/February 10), namely, from the beginning of the 8th century. until the beginning of the 18th century, in Europe they knew nothing about him except his name and works. Scientists speculated about his identity. They took our author for the same person as Isaac, presbyter of Antioch, a famous polemicist and poet of the 5th century; other scientists considered him one and the same person with Isaac, who fled in Italy near the city of Spoleta, about whom St. Gregory the Dvoeslov speaks in the third book of his “Dialogues” 6. Greek and Slavic manuscripts with the writings of the Monk Isaac reported that he was “the bishop of Nineveh and a hermit.” This was the situation until 1719. In 1719, the first volume of “Bibliothecae orientalis clementino-vaticanaë de scriptoribus syris orthodoxis” was published in Rome, los. S. Assemani Suri Maronitae. Here, on pages 444–445, is a biography of St. Isaac compiled by an anonymous author and translated from Arabic. This biography, without speaking exactly about the time of the saint’s life and death, or the place of his birth and death, however, provides quite a lot of interesting information about his life. According to this biography, the Monk Isaac, together with his brother, entered the monastery of Mar-Matthew 7. When the brothers began to stand out among others for their learning and asceticism, Isaac's brother was given command of the monastery and management of the monks. And Isaac “after fulfilling the monastic order,” that is, having completely passed the test of community life, retired to a hermit’s cell, located not far from the monastery, where he devoted himself entirely to silence and solitude, excommunicating himself from human society. And although his brother insisted in frequent letters to him that he return to the monastery, the monk remained unshakable in his intention 8 . When the fame of his learning and holiness of life spread everywhere, he was elevated to the episcopal throne of the great city of Nineveh. But, seeing the rude morals of the inhabitants of this city and feeling unable to correct them, 9 and at the same time yearning for the silence and peace of the hermit’s cell, he renounced the bishopric and retired “to the holy hermitage,” where he lived until his death, having achieved the highest perfection in a godly life. This saint lived at the beginning of the seventh thousand years from the creation of the world. This is what Europe learned about Saint Isaac in 1719, and this is all it knew about him until 1886, when the French scientist Siriologist Abbot Chabot discovered and published the works of the 8th century Syrian historian Jezuden, Bishop of Basra 10 . In Jesudena’s work “de castitate” (de la Chastete), where the author, according to the Syrian writer Ebed-lesu, “collected the stories of all the saints and founders (of monasteries)”, it also talks about the saint “Map-Isaac, bishop of Nineveh, who renounced the episcopacy and wrote books about monastic life.” This is what Jezudena tells about this Isaac: “He was installed as bishop of Nineveh by Patriarch George at the monastery of Beth Abe. After ruling the diocese of Nineveh for five months, as successor to Bishop Moses, he renounced (the bishopric) for reasons God knows what, and retired to live on Mount... Matout, which surrounds the area of ​​Beit-Houzaye, and lived in solitude with the hermits who were there. Then he went to the Rabban Shabur monastery. He studied the sacred books very diligently, to such an extent that he lost his sight due to the ardor of his reading and his fasting 11 . Isaac was quite knowledgeable in the knowledge of Divine secrets: he compiled works on the spiritual life of monks. Isaac left his temporary life in old age and laid down his body in the Shabur monastery. He was from Beit-Kataraye." Without a doubt, Jezudena is talking about the same Saint Isaac the Syrian, about whom the anonymous author in Asseman also speaks, because it would be strange to think that there could be two Isaacs, both bishops of Nineveh, who for a short time renounced the throne, etc. But at the same time, these testimonies about the Monk Isaac contradict each other in some of their points, and even quite sharply. Let's compare them. Jezudena supplements Asseman's story by indicating the homeland and time of life of Saint Isaac. “He was,” says Jezudena, “from Beth-Qataray, which, according to Bedjan, is located on the shores of the Persian Gulf, “on this side of India” 12. Further, Jezudena says that Saint Isaac was made bishop of Nineveh by Patriarch George as successor to Moses, and Patriarch George and Bishop Moses of Nineveh lived in the second half of the 7th century. 13. This means that Saint Isaac lived in the second half of the 7th century, and most likely died in the first half of the 8th century. Jezuden says nothing about the monastery of St. Matthew. Both authors talk about episcopacy and the renunciation of it in the same way, but, according to Asseman, Saint Isaac retired after this to the “holy hermitage desert,” by which it is most natural to mean the Egyptian one, known by that name, and Jezudena says that Saint Isaac retired to live on Mount Matu, surrounding the area of ​​Beth-Guzaya (modern Khuzistan), which lies above the northern shore of the Persian Gulf. It is unknown where the monastery of Rabban Shabur was located, where, according to Jesudena, Saint Isaac retired at the end of his life. In the “studia syriaca” Rahmani there is evidence that Saint “Isaac was a monk and teacher in his homeland” 14. But it is difficult to decide whether this testimony refers to the time of the saint’s life before his episcopacy or to the time of his life after his episcopate 15. That's all that can be said about Saint Isaac. Perhaps in the near future, scientists who are now diligently engaged in the discovery and study of Syriac Christian literature will discover something that will complement or correct the legend of Jezuden, but for now we know nothing more about Saint Isaac. In the VI-VII centuries. in Syria, there was a “considerable passion for the ascetic ideal of life of the ancient Church” or elementary monasticism 16. This passion was reflected in Syrian literature; therefore, quite a lot of ascetic writings appeared in Syria during this time 17. The first place among them belongs, undoubtedly, to the writings of Saint Isaac. And now, even when as many as 12 centuries have passed since they were written, these works are full of fresh interest, remarkably original and deeply instructive. Saint Isaac is a great psychologist and philosopher, as can be seen, for example, from at least one of his teachings on knowledge and faith. He is an amazing expert on the Holy Scriptures of the New and Old Testaments and extensive ascetic literature, Greek and, in all likelihood, his native Syrian 18. He is, finally, a wise and experienced mentor and leader in the Christian spiritual life. “Having been tempted for a long time on the right side and on the back,” Saint Isaac himself writes, “having tested myself many times in these two ways, 19 having taken upon myself countless blows from the enemy and having been granted great help in secret, over the course of many years I have gained experience and by the grace of God I have experimentally learned the following” 20, which he offers “to excite and enlighten the souls” of his readers 21. Saint Isaac was, apparently, one of the most prolific writers. According to the testimony of a Syrian writer of the early 14th century. Ebed-lesu, “Saint Isaac of Nineveh compiled seven volumes on the guidance of the spirit, on the Divine mysteries, on courts and on deanery (politia)” 22. Daniel Tubanita, Bishop of Beth-Garme, according to the same Ebed-lesu, “wrote the resolution of the divine fifth volume of Saint Isaac of Nineveh” 23. What these “volumes” Ebed-lesu speaks about is unknown, and, apparently, not all of them have reached us. In 1909, the printed Syriac text of St. Isaac was published for the first time under the title: “Mar Isaacus Ninivita de perfection religiosa, quam edidit P. Bedjan.” Here, judging by the title, there are 107 words, or chapters, but the publisher says that this is only “the first part of the work of Saint Isaac 24, that he could publish the 2nd and 3rd volumes of this work, if only he could compare the manuscripts he has with others, parallel 25. And the publisher is very sorry that he cannot do this and publish these new volumes, he regrets it because there are “many beautiful pages.” In Arabic translation, 4 books of the works of Saint Isaac have reached us, and in the first book there are 28 words, in the second - 45 words, in the third - 44 words, in the fourth - 5 26, which means 122 words in total. In the Greek translation, only 86 words and 4 messages have reached us, and in the Latin even less. The Greek translation of the works of Saint Isaac known to us was published in 1770 in Leipzig by Hieromonk Nikephoros Theotokis, later Bishop of Astrakhan, on behalf of Patriarch Ephraim of Jerusalem. This translation was originally made by the monks of the Lavra of St. Sava, Abramius and Patrikey, probably in the 9th century. 27, and was not done satisfactorily in all respects. Besides the fact that it is not complete - since it lacks 41 words compared to the Arabic translation 28, and even more than 29 compared to the Syriac original - it also has other shortcomings. Chabot compares it with the Syriac manuscripts and this is what 30 says about it: “The first feature of the Greek translation is the omission of difficult passages, and since Isaac the Syrian is one of the most difficult Syrian writers, there are many such omissions; the second feature is that the translation often does not follow the meaning of the author, although the translation tries to be literal, according to Chabot, but the distortion of the meaning occurs partly from the inept choice of the meanings of Syriac words, partly from literalness itself: the Syriac language, like other oriental languages, being very different in its construction from European languages, does not lend itself to literal translation into them 31 . The Latin translation of the works of Saint Isaac 32, “de contemptu mundi”, placed by Migné in his patrolology 33, is not at all complete, its 53 chapters are equal to only 23 words of Greek 34. The translation language, according to Chabot, is darker than Greek, and the translator often confuses phrases. The printed Slavic translation belongs to the Monk Paisius Velichkovsky and was published with notes to it by Optina Pustyn in 1854 35 . It is an almost exact copy from the Greek edition, only some additions and word order are taken from one Greek manuscript and older Slavic translations 36 . The Russian translation of the works of Saint Isaac first appeared in Christian Reading in the twenties of the nineteenth century. It was made from the Greek edition of Nikephoros Theotokis, but only 30 words were translated. In 1854, a complete Russian translation from the Greek language, made by the Moscow Theological Academy 37, was published. The translation of 30 words in “Christian Reading” is quite successful and literary, but sometimes free; the translation from the Moscow Theological Academy is more literal, but darker. The creations of the Monk Isaac have always enjoyed and continue to enjoy enormous respect among Orthodox ascetics of faith and piety. St. Peter of Damascus, a writer of the 12th century, makes abundant use of the writings of St. Isaac the Syrian in his works and constantly refers to him 38. Venerable Nikephoros the Solitary, who escaped in the 14th century. on Athos, in his essay “On sobriety and guarding the heart,” he makes an excerpt from the works of St. Isaac the Syrian 39. The famous Russian saint, St. Nil of Sorsky, in his “Charter on Living in the Skete” constantly cites the thoughts of St. Isaac on various issues of spiritual Orthodox life 40 . Saint Theophan, the recluse of Vyshensky, even composed a prayer to the Monk Isaac the Syrian. Here it is: “Reverend Father Isaac! Pray to God for us and with your prayer illuminate our minds to understand the lofty contemplations with which your words are filled, and moreover, raise or introduce into the secret places of prayer, the production, degrees and strength of which are depicted in this way by your teachings, so that, inspired by it, we will be able to freely live by the commandments of the Lord, steadily, bypassing the obstacles encountered along the way, and overcoming the enemies who are arming themselves against us” 41 . This edition of the translation of the words of St. Isaac the Syrian is significantly modified in comparison with the previous ones. The translation was verified with the translation of the Venerable Elder Paisius Velichkovsky, and in many places where there were differences in meaning between them, or in general, where the Russian translation inspired suspicion, it was compared with the Greek text according to the edition of Nikephoros Theotokis (1770), and in several places also with the Greek manuscripts of the Moscow Synodal Library. But since the Greek text is also a translation, albeit an ancient one, from the Syriac language in which Saint Isaac wrote, we have found it useful to sometimes turn to the newest translations directly from Syriac, which are available in Western European literature. Unfortunately, only a few words have been translated from Syriac, namely: words 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 56, 57, 58, 74, 84 translated into German in the Bibliothek der Kirchenvater, issue 204–205 (Kempten, 1876); words 19, 82, 83, 85 and passages from others are translated into Latin in the book lohannes Baptists Chabot, De S. Isaaci Ninivitae vita, scrip-tis et doctrina (Lovanii, 1892). For the sake of brevity, we refer to these translations simply with the words “in the Syriac text.” When reviewing the previous translation, we found it necessary to change it in many places for various reasons: there were important typos that distorted the meaning, and an incorrect, in our opinion, understanding of the original, and awkward or too outdated Russian expressions. In many cases, due to the difficulty of understanding the sublime thoughts of St. Isaac, we have found it necessary to make explanatory notes to the text of the translation, partly (very few) our own, and mostly borrowed by us from the notes to the translation of Paisius in the printed edition of 1854 and from the notes in the Greek edition of Nikephoros Theotokis. In addition, for this edition, information about the life of Saint Isaac has been compiled again, two indexes have been added - places of Holy Scripture mentioned in words, and objects about which the holy father speaks. We consider it our duty to express deep gratitude to all the people who worked for this publication, namely: M. A. Novoselov and Fr. Simeon, the former rector of the Tambov Seminary, who compared the previous translation with the translation of Paisius, and the first, in addition, did the proofreading and compiled an index of subjects, and the second compiled an index of passages of Holy Scripture; as well as the priest Fr. I.N. Chetverukhin, who wrote information about the life of Saint Isaac, which was later reviewed by the Right Reverend Rector, Bishop Theodore. Undoubtedly, there are many shortcomings in this edition; but readers familiar with the Greek text, we hope, will forgive us oversights and errors, knowing how unclear this text is, the meaning of which sometimes has to be guessed rather than translated. Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Sergius Sobolevsky See about these guesses: Migne “Patrologiae cursus completus”, series graeca. T. LXXXV1, col. 799–802. "Map" means "lord"; this title was applied in the East to men of holy life or to bishops. The monastery of Mar-Matthew was located near Nineveh. Mar-Matthew is the founder of the monastery. Wed. Word 24 of this edition. Asseman tells us that soon after the consecration of Saint Isaac as bishop, two litigants came to him for trial. One of them demanded from the other immediate repayment of the debt, while the other asked for a delay. Saint Isaac began to persuade the lender to wait for the debt, to agree to a deferment, for the Holy Gospel teaches not to demand at all what was taken by another. This means that it is all the more necessary to wait until the debtor copes with his debt. But the lender rudely remarked: “Well, leave this about the Gospel!” - “If they don’t obey the Gospel, then what did I come here to do?” – Saint Isaac said sadly. "Le livre de la Chastete compose par lesudenah, eveque de Bacrah, publie et traduit par I. B. Chabot." Rome. 1896. On Jesuden and his writings, see Bibliotheca Orientals Assemani, III, p. 196, but for some reason Jezudena is called here the bishop not of Basra, but of Kosra. There is a legend that Saint Isaac, having gone blind, did not stop his literary studies, but resorted to the help of monastic scribes, to whom he dictated his works. Tradition says about the fast of Saint Isaac that the saint ate only three small loaves of bread a week with a small amount of grass, and did not touch boiled food. See "avant-propos" to ed. "Mar-lsaacus Ninivita de perfectione religiosa", P-Bedjan. Paris. 1909 IV p. Cit. avant-propos, p. III. Patriarch George occupied his throne in 660–680; see Assem. Biblioth. Orient. V. III, pars 2, pag. 615, 149–153. About Moses, Bishop of Nineveh, see ibid p. 767. Glad. 32. See above quoted avant-propos Bedjan'a, IV p. For some reason, Bedjan accepts this evidence in both senses (avant-propos, III and IV c), with which there are no sufficient grounds to agree. Brockelmann: “Die Syrische und die christlich-arabiche Litteratur.” Leipzig, 1907, 51 pp. Duval: “La litterature syriaque”, 3 “me” ed. Paris. 1907 217–235 pp. Saint Isaac, often citing other people's thoughts and words, sometimes indicates the names of the authors he quotes, but only the glorious, great fathers of the Universal Church, in other cases he only indicates that such and such a thought was said by “one of the saints,” or “one of those who love God,” or “one of the God-bearing men,” and the like. Probably, among these nameless authors there are Syrian ascetic writers, the predecessors of Saint Isaac. That is, by patient hermitage and fasting. 373 pp. Russian translation. Biblioth. Orient. Assem. v. III, p. 104. “Avant-propos” to the ed., VII p., cf. Bibl. Orient. Assem. v. 1, 460 s. Bibl. Orient. Assem. v. I, pp. 446–460. Asseman adds 13 more words from the Syrian manuscripts known to him to the 5 words of the 4th book, so that he lists 135 words in total. Chabot: “de s. Issac vita, scriptis et doctrina", Lovanii, 1892, 61 p. From the 1st book of the Arabic translation in Greek there are missing words: 1–12, 14–22, 24–26; from the 2nd book: 11, 18, 20, 22, 35, 39, 40–42, 44, 45; from the 3rd book: 43, 44; from the 4th: 1, 2, 3, 5. Comparing the Arabic translation with Chabot's Syriac list of works of Saint Isaac (Opcit. 36–53 pp.), the Arabic is missing 19, 21, 24, 37, 57, 59, 71, 74, (85–87, 89) words from Chabot's list. Another interesting review of the Greek translation of the works of Saint Isaac, belonging to Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow: “Probably the translator was not a scholar, that is, he did not know grammatical rules, and therefore mixed up the words and instead of the proper expression put incorrect and obscure words, and perhaps errors and improbabilities crept in from the copyists.” See the article by Archimandrite Nikodim in “Biographies of Russian Ascetics of Piety in the 18th and 19th Centuries.” September". M. 1909, 487 p. It is, in all likelihood, made from Greek, because it is even darker than the last one. See note at 365 pp. 2nd ed. Russian translation. T. LXXXVI, series graeca, col. 799–888, for other publications see here col. 801–802 p. It contains approximately only the following words according to the Greek translation: 2, 5, 10–11, 13–18, 21–24, 26–27, 29, 46, 56, 72, 73, 85 and one last thing, which does not seem to be in Greek. This translation was published even earlier, in 1812, by the Neamets Moldavian Monastery, but was not distributed, since it was prohibited by the censorship of that time. For an interesting history of this translation, see “The Wanderer,” 1906, vol. 1, part 2, 734 and 899 pp. Slavic copies of the works of Saint Isaac appeared for the first time no later than the 14th century, to which belong, for example, manuscripts with a Slavic translation of the “fasting words” of Saint Isaac, belonging to the Trinity Lavra of Sergius and the Moscow Theological Academy, as well as the Lavra of Saint Sava the Sanctified in Palestine, judging by the inscription on the image of Saint Isaac that has come down to us. The Moscow edition was repeated in 1893. See his creations in Russian, 3rd ed. Kyiv, 1905, p. 2, 50, 78, 122, 180, 206, etc. See “Philokalia” in Russian. lang., 5 vols., 2nd ed. 247 p. See the publication of this “Charter” St. Petersburg, 1864, p. 17, 24, 43, 47, 102, 103, 107, 108, 122, 124, 129, 144–147, 155, etc. Letters on the Christian Life, 2nd ed. M. 1899, 102 p. You might be interested in: