Golden-winged Phoenix

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 This book is not a hagiography, but an attempt, with God’s help, to gain at least some benefit from considering the actions of life, but especially the spiritual words of the great ascetic ascetic. May the Lord give us good attention, may he keep in our hearts what is useful for us, for our salvation; may we be able to perceive what is difficult to comprehend with a grounded soul! Monastic feat of Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II As we often meet in the lives of saints, Saint Ignatius was a child begged from the Lord by his parents. His father, a well-born nobleman and landowner Alexander Semenovich Bryanchaninov, and his mother, Sofia Afanasyevna (also from the Bryanchaninov family) were married at a very early age. Their first two babies died, and then a long period of childlessness ensued. The Brianchaninovs were pious people. Wanting to have children, they began to fervently pray to God about it and visit monasteries located in the same Vologda province where their estate was located. They spent several days in the monasteries of the northern Thebaid, the Holy Spiritual, Glushitsky, Lopotov, Prilutsky and other monasteries. The Lord heard them. On February 6, 1807, they had a son, who was named in honor of St. Demetrius of Prilutsky. And then he had brothers and sisters. Saint Ignatius spent his childhood in his native village of Pokrovskoye, located south of Vologda in Gryazovets district. Of course, the parents hired mentors and teachers, prepared the boy to enter one of the capital’s military schools, but he, easily and even willingly mastering the exact sciences and at the same time showing brilliant abilities, loved most of all lonely walks in the ancient park of the estate and the outskirts of the village. The meager nature of the Russian North did not seem poor to him. He listened lovingly to the rustle of leaves and bird voices, to the rustle of grass and the splash of the stream under the cliff. Sometimes he sat for a long time on a stone among the gravestones and crypts of the family cemetery near the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin. Everything around told him about the Creator. His soul rushed to God. Here, mysteriously, as if by themselves, those aspirations and qualities arose, which later grew and strengthened in the soul of the saint. Later, already as an archimandrite, he wrote: “As I remember from childhood, my bodily feelings were not receptive; the material world had a weak effect on me through them. I was incurious, cold towards everything... I was created to love human souls, to admire human souls!” “For the face and for everything material,” the saint wrote to one monk in 1847, “I am definitely without eyes. I just forget the facial features; the features of the soul, even the most subtle ones, remain imprinted in memory.” This quality is very significant and rare, as if it were a natural turning of all a person’s feelings towards the spiritual. He received such a gift from the Lord in his adolescence. The youth Demetrius visited monasteries with his parents. And here he, without peering into the “material,” plunged into the prayerful depths of the holy place. The spiritual became a reality for him, he saw real life in it. Being the eldest of the children, he was also the most capable among them. Patiently helping them in their studies, he at the same time attracted them to prayer and reading spiritual and moral books. He did this with love and humility, and all his brothers and sisters became zealous Orthodox Christians. At that time, seminary teachers who came from Vologda taught them. Saint Ignatius wrote about his adolescence: “My childhood was filled with sorrows. Here I see Your hand, my God! I had no one to open my heart to: I began to pour it out before my God, I began to read the Gospel and the lives of Thy saints. A veil, occasionally pierced, lay for me on the Gospel. But Your Pimens, Your Sisoi and Macarii made a wonderful impression on me. The thought that often soared to God through prayer and reading began little by little to bring peace and tranquility to my soul. When I was a fifteen-year-old youth, an indescribable silence breathed in my mind and heart, but I did not understand it, I believed that this was the ordinary state of all people.” The “sorrows” that the saint speaks about here consisted in the fact that the spiritual aspirations growing in him did not find a response in his relatives, who lived, although a pious, but purely worldly life. Parents prepared their sons for military service and their daughters for marriage. No deviations were allowed - everything was decided in advance. In 1822, Alexander Semenovich Bryanchaninov took his son to St. Petersburg to enroll in the Main Engineering School, but still asked the young man - already somewhere near the capital, where, if it were his will, he would like to enroll. Demetrius, who was first asked about his wish, was amazed by this and decided to tell the truth. Asking his father not to be angry if he didn’t like the answer, he said that he didn’t want to go to school, but “to become a monk.” The father, apparently amazed in turn, remained silent. And soon the future saint brilliantly passed the entrance exams in a competition of four people per place. Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, who was then inspector general of military engineers, was present at the exams and drew attention to the handsome and brilliantly prepared young man. Dimitri was invited to the Anichkov Palace, where Nikolai Pavlovich, the future Emperor, introduced him to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, who was amazed that the young man, raised in the provinces, knew so thoroughly not only science, but also Latin and Greek. At her request, he was enrolled as her pensioner. In St. Petersburg, Dimitri had relatives, rich people who led a social life. Through them, he entered the then famous literary and artistic salon of the President of the Academy of Arts and at the same time the Director of the Imperial Public Library, Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin, where musicians, artists, writers gathered, and visiting celebrities visited. Here the young man met famous writers - the translator of Homer Gnedich, the fabulist Krylov, and perhaps Pushkin. Olenin discovered excellent declamatory abilities in him and began to instruct him during meetings to read some of the new works of the circle members that were being discussed. Dimitry Brianchaninov himself then wrote something artistic, most likely poetry (he later expressed some of his thoughts and feelings in poetic form). Neither the authorities nor the comrades of the cadet Dimitry Brianchaninov suspected what was going on in the soul of this brilliant student, personable in appearance and always equal in his dealings with others. Later, he himself described his then state: “Almost two years passed... a strange emptiness was born and already grew in my soul, hunger appeared, an unbearable longing appeared - for God. I began to mourn my negligence, to mourn the oblivion to which I had betrayed faith, to mourn the sweet silence that I had lost... I remember: I am walking along the streets of St. Petersburg in a cadet’s uniform, and tears are pouring like hail from my eyes!..” This is how the soul, raised in the love of God, protested against the dominance of everything secular in life! Science alone could not nourish it. The lessons of the Law of God and the fast held once a year with confession and communion of Christ's Mysteries were not enough for her... Science, as St. Ignatius notes, “is for the earth; the need for them for a person ends with the end of earthly life.” “Science! - the young man seemed to cry. - Give me, if you can give, something eternal, positive, give me something inseparable and true, worthy of being called the property of a person! “The sciences were silent.” And so he plunged headlong into reading the writings of the Orthodox Holy Fathers - in St. Petersburg there were many opportunities to get these books. This was the air that only his soul could breathe. It was an amazing and enjoyable read. “What struck me first of all in the writings of the Fathers of the Orthodox Church? – wrote the saint. - This is their agreement, a wonderful, majestic agreement... When on a clear autumn night I look at the clear sky, dotted with countless stars of such different sizes, emitting a single light, then I say to myself: these are the writings of the Fathers. When on a summer day I look at the vast sea, covered with many different ships with their spread sails, like white swan wings, ships running under the same wind, towards one goal, towards one pier, then I say to myself: these are the writings of the Fathers... The only path to salvation is the unwavering adherence to the instructions of the Holy Fathers... This thought was for me the first refuge in the land of truth. Here my soul found rest from the excitement and winds. A good, saving thought! A thought is a priceless gift from the all-good God... She began to constantly illuminate for me the difficult and sorrowful narrow invisible path of mind and heart to God.” “This reading,” the saint wrote, “knew to me: I must develop, feel, see salvation in myself, without which faith in Christ is dead, and Christianity is a word and a name without its implementation! It taught me to look at eternity as an eternity, before which even a thousand-year earthly life is insignificant, not only ours, measured in some half-century. It taught me that earthly life should be spent in preparation for eternity.” He is seventeen years old. He writes to his sister Alexandra from St. Petersburg: “What is man on earth? - Traveler. -What is death? The era from which our real life begins. Wandering for a long time in this darkness of the night in the midst of weaknesses and temptations, guided by the light of true faith, we finally reach the line where light is separated from darkness. Happy is the man who has been a true Christian" (1824). When the sister asked Demetrius to pray for her, he answered with great humility: “My sinful prayer cannot even be called a prayer, for what is prayer? Prayer is a conversation between a person and God. Am I praying? No, I sin more than I pray; however, I hope in the All-Merciful Lord that he will one day help me taste the power of prayer.” At the school, Dimitry found a friend, classmate Mikhail Chikhachev, from the nobles of the Pskov province. Although he was of a completely different character than the future saint, a merry fellow and talker, his soul also strived for life in Christ. And so they, friends, secretly from their superiors, began to go to the Valaam courtyard, where they confessed and received communion. Then, on the advice of the Valaam monks, they began to visit the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Here they were lovingly received by the monks Aaron, Chariton and Ioannikiy, disciples of the elders Theodore and Leonid, followers of the Monk Paisius (Velichkovsky), archimandrite of the Moldavian Neametsky monastery. Fr. became the mentor of Dimitri and Mikhail. Afanasy, Lavra confessor. “Good monks,” says the life of St. Ignatius, “especially Fr. Ioannikiy and confessor Fr. Athanasius, shared with the monk-loving and wise-minded young men everything that was the property of their many years of spiritual experience. Dimitri Alexandrovich often surprised them with his questions, which concerned aspects of spiritual life that indicate a fairly mature spiritual age. Such close friendship with the monks had a corresponding effect. Dimitri Alexandrovich became a perfect ascetic by heart.” At this time, Saint Ignatius lived in a private apartment with his old servant Dormidont. This servant, a serf of the Brianchaninov family, diligently visited the young master and knew about his visit to the Lavra. And so he informed his parent about everything. He remembered his son’s expressed desire to become a monk and decided to stop it. At his request, the head of the school, Count Sievers, ordered Dmitry to move from a private apartment to a government apartment within the walls of the Mikhailovsky Engineering Castle and established supervision over him. Lavra's confessor, Fr. Afanasy at first received from the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Seraphim a prohibition from accepting the cadets Brianchaninov and Chikhachev to confession, but after the Metropolitan talked with the young people, he saw their sincerity and deep faith, and allowed Fr. Afanasy accept them. In the spring of 1826, Saint Ignatius, who had already graduated from college and became an officer, became seriously ill. The Emperor, having learned about this, sent his life physician with orders to inform him about the progress of the young officer’s illness. The illness took hold of Brianchaninov so dramatically that he already began to consider himself dying and began to prepare for the transition to eternity. However, this was only a test from the Lord. There is reason to think that during the crisis, Saint Ignatius made a vow to go to the monastery at any cost. Everything that follows confirms this. At his first appearance after recovery at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Dimitri Alexandrovich met Elder Leonid (Nagolkin), the future venerable Optina Elder, who came from the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery to visit his students. In a solitary conversation, to which there were no witnesses, the future saint revealed to the Elder everything that was in his heart. He found spiritual guidance in this Elder and decided to make every effort to leave the world and follow him to the monastery. Dimitri Alexandrovich spent the summer of 1826 in his native Pokrovsky, he was given leave to improve his health. Here he forced himself to reveal his intentions to his parents, this made them angry and no agreement was obtained. He left for St. Petersburg with deep sorrow; it hurt him that his parents did not understand the seriousness of his desire. In St. Petersburg, he submitted a request for dismissal from service. Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich found out about this and instructed his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, inspector general of military engineers, to dissuade Brianchaninov from his intention to go to the monastery. It was not possible to dissuade him, and then the Grand Duke announced to the young officer that the Emperor did not agree to his resignation. He was sent to Dinaburg (now Daugavpils in Latvia, on the Daugava River), where he was supposed to supervise the construction of the fortress. The place was damp, the disease returned. Brianchaninov did not leave the room for two or three weeks. His mental state was grave. But correspondence with Elder Leonid and Mikhail Chikhachev about monastic life supported his hopes. In the fall of 1827, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich visited Dinaburg and, seeing that Dimitri Brianchaninov was unable to fulfill his official duties for health reasons, finally agreed to his resignation. On November 6 it was given. Dismissed with the rank of lieutenant, Dimitri Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov immediately left for the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery. The heart has grown cold towards the world, towards its services, towards its greatness, towards its sweetness - wrote Saint Ignatius. “I decided to leave the world, to devote my earthly life to the knowledge of Christ, to assimilate Christ... My body itself cried out to me: “Where are you taking me? I am so weak and sickly. You have seen the monasteries, you have briefly become acquainted with them: life in them is unbearable for you, both because of my weakness, and because of your upbringing, and for all other reasons." Reason confirmed the arguments of the flesh. But there was a voice, a voice in the heart, I think, the voice of conscience, or, perhaps, the Guardian Angel, who told me the will of God... Without impulse, without fervor, like a slave, carried away by an irresistible feeling of the heart, some incomprehensible and inexplicable calling, I entered the monastery.” His parents, offended that he had violated their will, stopped corresponding with him and deprived him of financial assistance. Thus, he entered the monastery as a beggar, literally fulfilling the commandment of non-covetousness. His first obedience was at the kitchen, where he helped the cook, a former serf of his father. They sent him to the lake to set nets together with the monastic fishermen. Once in the fall he had to climb into the water and untangle the net, which is why he suffered from a severe cold. The novice Dimitri humbly endured all the difficulties of monastic life and was in obedience to Elder Leonid, who resolved all his questions and perplexities. The elder raised his spiritual child very strictly. The life of the saint describes an incident when Elder Leonid, who came to visit a servant of God in winter, entered the house. "When he came to me, the man recalled, I began to worry about the samovar and thought: the Elder was not the only one who had arrived, there was probably some kind of driver, - and I began to ask the Elder to allow him to come in as well. The Elder agreed. I called the stranger, and was quite surprised when a young, handsome man with all the signs of noble origin appeared before me. He humbly stopped at the threshold... “And what, Are you cold, nobleman? - the Elder turned to him and then said to me: “Do you know who this is? - This is Brianchaninov.” Then I bowed low to the driver.” Elder Leonid arrived at the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery from Valaam together with his mentor Fr. Theodore, a disciple of St. Paisius, in 1817. Father Theodore, a simple monk, but at the same time a gracious elder, died in 1822. Elder Leonid told novice Demetrius a lot about him, and in 1828 he blessed him to write the life of the ever-memorable ascetic. From his youth, Saint Ignatius had one peculiarity: loving monastic life and monasteries as established by God, sanctified by the Lord, he did not close his eyes to the shortcomings that arise from people, generated by their sinfulness. He developed the ideal of monastic life in connection with reading the lives and writings of the ancient Fathers of the East, the famous elders of the Patericon, starting with Anthony and Pachomius the Great. Not considering himself capable of such a life, forcing himself to humble himself and remain silent, he, nevertheless, sought a real monastic life and was very sad, seeing a lot of spiritual disorder around him. At the first steps of his monastic life, the novice Demetrius met several authoritative mentors, among them the already mentioned Elder Leonid, Archimandrite Theophan of Novoezersk, the Venerable Moses and Macarius of Optina, but none of them fully corresponded to his ideal. “In my youth,” wrote Saint Ignatius, “I did not find an elder who would satisfy me; but this can also be attributed to the fact that I did not search as I should, I did not know how to search... The most satisfactory person I had to meet was the monk Nikandr, prosphora student of the Babayevsky monastery, a gracious husband. I talked with him in 1847.” The first of the works of Saint Ignatius known to us is “The Life of Schemamonk Theodore,” written in 1828 in the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery. Paying tribute to the great ascetic and his commitment to “smart work” (without which “physical deeds are vain”), the saint, then novice Demetrius, did not miss the opportunity to benefit from considering the Elder’s shortcomings. Returning from Moldova to Russia, Fr. Theodore began to move from one monastery to another. In the White Beach, where Elder Leonid was then rector, he contributed to the revival of truly ancient, desert life. And, for example, the Paleostrovskaya monastery, where he was appointed as the boss, did not like him, since its builder was engaged in only one household. Father Theodore could not restrain himself and quarreled with him. For his unauthorized departure from the monastery, he was deprived by the church authorities of the right to wear a cassock and kamilavka and transferred to the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery. “And here there was food for a quarrel,” notes novice Dimitri. ABOUT. Theodore noticed unnecessary bows during services and vegetable oil at meals on inappropriate days. And so he, “striving to correct such simplifications,” writes the biography writer, violated the general peace and tranquility. How was the radiance of Christ’s commandments eclipsed in his heart?.. The whole monastery was seized with confusion, and the spiritual authorities, in order to stop the disorder, were forced to remove the schema-monk from the Valaam monastery to the Alexander-Svirsky monastery.” Actually, in general, novice Dimitri is on the side of Fr. Theodore, he does not condemn him; on the contrary, he follows his teaching, which is now expressed by Fr. Leonidas, but mourns the injudicious steps of the Elder. He does not forget that it was the disciples of St. Paisius, such as the monk Theodore, who partly brought and partly reminded Russian monks of the essential foundations of monastic work. They also brought copies from the manuscripts of St. Paisius, his translations from Greek into Church Slavonic of the Philokalia, the words of Saints Ephraim and Isaac the Syrian, the answers of Fathers Barsanuphius and John to the questions of his disciples, and many other works of Orthodox teachers of the Church. Already at the very beginning of his monastic path, Saint Ignatius showed great awareness of the intricacies of the “science of sciences and the art of arts” - monastic spiritual work. In “The Life of Schemamonk Theodore” he speaks of the “royal path”, which “in the monastic sense means prudent moderation in deeds and the mutual advice of two or three monks, silent together”, about “spiritual, mental obedience”, which means the ability to “think and feel not according to one’s own will, but according to the instructions of one’s neighbor”, which is called “spiritual martyrdom, the crucifixion of one’s will, the speediest, the most convenient, correct way to achieve the shrine, by following the Savior.” “From this obedience,” he writes, a painful heart feeling is born, called crying, and thought, gradually cooling towards everything temporary, begins to incessantly flow and fall towards God, which is the beginning of true mental activity.” In the same work, novice Demetrius especially notes the book “Ascetic Words” of Saint Isaac the Syrian, already well known to him, translated by Elder Paisius (later it will be published through the works of the monks of Optina Pustyn). “In it,” he says, “it is set out with particular clarity and detail how the soul is cleansed by Christ’s commandments, how the grace of God itself indwells pure souls and marks its indwelling with various actions, such as: unceasing prayer, constant tears, extraordinary joy... Most of the monks of the present time, not knowing that the science of monasticism has its own introduction, beginning, the middle and the end, immediately seek to reveal grace-filled actions within themselves (as if God is subordinate to the human will!), without first taking care to make the heart capable of receiving the Divine. From this wrong action, based on false concepts, two kinds of consequences are usually born: either sterility, or the growth of false fruits instead of true fruits.” Saint Ignatius outlined for himself here a difficult but definite path, from which he decided not to deviate a single step. He had not yet been tonsured, but he awaited this great mercy of God with trepidation. In April 1828, Fr. Leonid was finally released from the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery and, taking with him several of his closest disciples (probably also the novice Dimitri Brianchaninov), he went to Kyiv to venerate the honorable relics of the pioneers of Russian monasticism Anthony and Theodosius of the Pechersk, as well as a host of other ascetics in the Lavra, in the Near and Far “pechers”. On October 6, 1828, Elder Leonid arrived in the Bogoroditskaya Ploshchanskaya hermitage - in the Sevsky district of the Oryol province, generally intending to travel further to Optina. But he stayed in Ploshchanskaya for six months. Hieromonk Macarius, the future venerable elder of Optina, labored here for eighteen years. He became a student of Fr. Leonida, since his mentor Fr. died about three years ago. Athanasius, one of the disciples of St. Paisius. Dimitry Brianchaninov’s friend Mikhail Chikhachev also came here. Both novices were settled in a secluded house in the monastery garden. Some spiritual touch from this blissful time for lovers of silence and solitude was reflected in the artistic and philosophical sketch of St. Ignatius, written in 1843. “In 1829 I spent the winter in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage,” he wrote. – And to this day, there, in the garden, there is a secluded wooden cell in which I lived with my friend. In calm weather, on sunny, clear days, I would go out onto the porch, sit on a bench, and look at the vast garden. His nakedness was covered with a blanket of snow; Everything around is quiet, a kind of dead and majestic peace. I began to like this spectacle: thoughtful gazes involuntarily directed, riveted on it, as if looking for a secret in it. One day I was sitting and looking intently at the garden. Suddenly the veil fell from the eyes of my soul: the Book of Nature was opened before them. This Book, given to the primordial Adam to read, is a Book containing the words of the Spirit, like divine Scripture. What teaching did I read in the garden? “The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, a strong doctrine, a teaching depicting an action similar to the resurrection.” He was struck by something familiar to man, naked, dead-looking trees, not showing any signs of life... “I look at the naked branches of the trees,” the story goes on, and they tell me with conviction in their mysterious language: we will come to life, we will be covered with leaves, we will be fragrant, we will be adorned with flowers and fruits: will the dry bones of men really not come to life during their spring? They will come to life and take on flesh; in a new form they will enter a new life and a new world.” Saint Ignatius learned to read God's book of nature from the great teachers of the Church - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, who called to see the Creator and His works in creation, to see eternal beauty in earthly beauty. The Great Martyr Barbara, not yet knowing anything about the Holy Trinity, believed in Her, contemplating the starry sky at night in her solitude... The same thing happened with the holy martyr Christina. While still a novice, Saint Ignatius loved to read the poems of Gregory the Theologian, who wrote about nature: “Everything sings to God and glorifies Him with wordless voices. And through me, thanksgiving is given to God for everything. Thus, their song of praise becomes mine, and from them I take the occasion for hymn.” Later, Saint Ignatius could use a brief and vivid comparison to emphasize the spiritual state of man. “The word rainbow,” he wrote to one nun, “comes from joy - it is a joyful arc. Let your prayer be such an arc: let one end of it touch your heart, and the other end touch the sky.” Over the next two years, novice Dimitri visited several monasteries and experienced many temptations. Elder Leonid in April 1829 moved to Optina Pustyn, where he settled in the newly built Skete and soon became the confessor of both monks and many lay visitors. The novices Dimitri and Mikhail remained in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage, but the abbot ordered them to leave it. “The monastery brethren were saddened by the innocent expulsion of the well-behaved young novices, who had not annoyed anyone in any way, and saw them off with a feeling of deep regret and respect for their quiet and strict life, giving them five rubles collected by pool for their journey. It was difficult for two comrades to travel on an unknown side with a thin wallet, without a specific place in mind.” The young men first visited the Beloberezh St. John the Baptist Hermitage on the Snezheti River, in the Bryansk district, where the great local shrine was the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Three-Handed”. They were not allowed to stay there, and they headed to Optina Pustyn. And there was no place for them there, but thanks to the intercession of Elder Leonidas, Abbot Moses accepted them. However, the food prepared here at the meal soon affected the health of the novices. They tried to cook something themselves, begging for cereals and vegetables from the steward, but this did not help them. They both got sick. And at this time news came about the serious illness of Dimitri’s mother. His father sent a covered wagon for him, allowing him to bring Mikhail Chikhachev to Pokrovskoye. They settled in one of the separate wings of the manor's house, and while their health was improving, Alexander Semenovich Bryanchaninov tried to persuade his son to a worldly life - to get married and enter the public service. One temptation was more bitter for the young monk than the other; it was time to become despondent... But the future saint did not think of retreating. In February 1830, he and Mikhail Chikhachev went to the Kirillo-Novoezersky Monastery. There, Abbot Arkady and the famous elder Archimandrite Theophan received them with love, feeling in them the spirit of true monasticism. This monastery is located on an island in the middle of a large lake. Its walls literally stand on stilts driven into the bottom, so evaporation from the water makes the local climate too damp. Dimitri began to get sick again, but he struggled for a long time, about three months, until a fever sent him to bed and his legs began to swell. An old cold also took its toll... And on August 1, 1830, Dimitri Brianchaninov and Mikhail Chikhachev went home: the first to Vologda, where he settled with one of his relatives, the second also to his relatives, in Pskov. Having recovered from his illness, Dimitri Bryanchaninov did not go to his parents in Pokrovskoye, but with the blessing of Bishop Stefan of Vologda, he settled in the Semigorodnaya Assumption Hermitage, thirty miles from Vologda (in Kadnikovsky district), in the monastery of the “Most Pure Mother of God on the Seven Mountains,” founded by the Monk Dionysius Glushitsky. Here he found a quiet life and, not yet being tonsured as a monk, began an ascetic prayer life. From what he wrote here, several letters have been preserved, among them one to his sister, Alexandra Alexandrovna, who was then experiencing some difficulties, and a rather large essay called “The Lament of a Monk” (which he worked on later, already as a bishop, correcting and adding to it). The letter shows that the gift of spiritual guidance had already been given to him by the Lord. “No one is forgotten by God,” he writes, “and the watchful eye of God watches over everyone and builds everything for his benefit. So, rely on God and abandon the unnecessary desire that the enemy brings to you to confuse you. I know that it is difficult and very difficult for you. But what to do? There is no other remedy except patience and gratitude to God, who is looking intently at us... “Think,” says the Great Barsanuphius, that all earthly pursuits will pass, and the patience that you show during these pursuits will remain with you, will go beyond the grave and will justify or condemn you before God. Be careful not to waste this daily bread (i.e., patience), which you will need for the journey from earth to heaven.” You will definitely need it!.. Don’t forget the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” This prayer can be performed during all activities; moreover, it drives away bad thoughts and fills us with joy." The work, written by the novice Demetrius in the Seven-City Hermitage, has the following lengthy title: “The lament of a monk for his brother, who fell into sinful temptation. Composed by a friend for a friend and for a brother by a brother, for the mutual benefit of both the writer and the reader.” It consists of an “Introduction” and three chapters (called “articles” here). The note to the “Introduction” says that the author follows “the lament of Jeremiah” and even borrows the form of his work from him, dividing the “articles” into segments indicated by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. “The Lament of a Monk” is a thing that stands apart in the spiritual work of the saint; nowhere else does he encounter such intensity of speech, such a downright tragic intensity of feeling, in this case deeply repentant. “I am alone in my cell,” he writes. – Doors are locked; the window is covered with a thick curtain; a modest lamp in the corner of the cell glows in front of the holy icons, spreading a weak, languid light throughout the cell. I don’t need brighter lighting: I left all my studies. I sit on my bed in bewilderment, in vague silence. It’s as if my existence has been taken away from me. I can’t think about anything: sadness fills my soul; Tears, flowing down my cheeks and clothes, replace any other activity for me. Don't come in, don't come in to me! Don’t break my silence!..” And then there are laments about the sins of one’s own and one’s closest friend. “The area of ​​my crying is the area of ​​the spirit...” “I cry with tears of repentance and love. I am immersed in saving sadness...” “This cry is a reflection of eternal bliss...” “Sin is the parent of crying and tears; he is slandered, killed by his children - with weeping and tears...” It is impossible not to see how truly deeply and firmly the monastic consciousness was established in the soul of the novice Demetrius. He was a monk in the image of the ancients, a virgin, called by God from adolescence to serve Him. “I fled from the world early,” he writes in “Lamentation...”. “I fled from the world, having just learned from the Holy Scriptures and from church teachers about the dangers that life in the middle of the world is filled with; I retired to the monastery fence, not tasting any vain and sinful pleasure; I have brought the firstfruits of my days and all my abilities to God.” Life in the Seven-City Hermitage was not easy. “There is never fresh fish and fish soup in the meal,” he writes to Mikhail Chikhachev, who expressed his intention to come here; tea and sugar are not given to anyone at all; and on Sundays the abbot calls the brethren to him, gives four cups of tea to the monks, and two cups of tea to the novices. The clothes are very scanty." In the book of memoirs of the former rector of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery, Archimandrite Pimen, published in Moscow in 1877, there is an episode associated with the future Saint Ignatius. Pimen, a novice of the Spaso-Kamenny Monastery, on some occasion visited the Semigorodnaya Hermitage and here he met the novice Dimitri and talked with him for a long time. “Our conversation began, perhaps, at the first or second hour of the day,” he writes, “and continued until the morning struck. Despite the fact that Brianchaninov was still young, it was clear that he read a lot of fatherly books, knew very well John Climacus, Ephraim the Syrian, the Philokalia and the writings of other ascetics, and therefore his conversation, edifying and fascinating, was extremely enjoyable. This long conversation between him and me confirmed me even more in my intention to retire from the world and enter monasticism.” On February 20, 1831, Dimitri Brianchaninov, at his request, was transferred to an even more secluded monastery - Glushitsky Dionisiev, which was located seventy miles from Vologda and twenty from the Semigorodnaya monastery. It was necessary to go there almost off-road, sometimes right across a field, and in some places along brushwood roads laid through swamps. The ancient Glushitsy, also called the Intercession Lavra, was empty due to the proximity of a large and noisy village. The brethren were located four miles from here in the Sosnovets monastery, which belonged to the Glushitsy. Arriving at the Lavra, Dimitri climbed the bell tower to survey the surroundings. He saw a vast expanse of unique Russian beauty: fields, copses, blue forests in the distance, here and there villages, villages with churches... It was difficult to tear himself away from this picture, which deeply touched the soul. It was winter. The sun was shining and the whole area shone with extraordinary purity... Turning once again to the notes of Archimandrite Pimen, we will see what the future saint looked like then. “As I see him now,” it says, “tall, slender and stately, fair-haired, curly, with beautiful dark brown eyes; he was wearing a sheepskin sheepskin coat, covered with a pea coat, and on his head was a novice cap.” From the Glushitsky monastery, Dimitri writes to one of his friends in Vologda that he “decided to take monastic vows,” that Bishop Stefan of Vologda is only waiting for a response from the Synod to a request to nominate novice Dimitri Bryanchaninov for the mantle. The Bishop was already planning to soon ordain him to the priesthood and make him rector of one of the hermitages of the diocese. “I am very happy about this event,” wrote Demetrius, which can bring me a piece of bread without burdening my parents and other neighbors.” Bishop Stefan summoned the novice Dimitri Brianchaninov from the Glushitsky monastery and on June 28, 1831 performed the rite of tonsure on him into the minor schema with the name Ignatius, in honor of the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer, and also in memory of the Venerable Ignatius, the Vologda wonderworker, in the world of Prince John of Uglitsky, whose relics rest in Spaso-Prilutsky Dimitriev Monastery near Vologda. On July 4 of the same year, the monk Ignatius was ordained a hierodeacon, and on the 25th - a hieromonk. While awaiting appointment to the monastery, Hieromonk Ignatius lived in Vologda with his godfather Dimitri Ivanovich Samarin. The future saint had many relatives in the city. These people reacted differently to the news of his tonsure and ordination. The parents remained displeased. But many admired the educated, handsome-looking monk and invited him to their place. They talked about him in the living rooms and constantly disturbed his peace. Weary of this noise and longing for the solitude of the monastery, Hieromonk Ignatius asked the Bishop to let him go to Glushitsy, but he was in no hurry. The following year, on January 6, Hieromonk Ignatius was appointed builder (“to build” in the sense of “to manage”) of the Lopotov Gregory-Pelshem Monastery, which is seven miles from the district town of Kadnikova, on the Pelshema River. At the same time, a legguard was placed on him. “It’s finished! – he wrote to P.P. Yakovlev. – I have been tonsured and ordained as a hieromonk. When they tonsured me, it seemed to me that I had died; when they dedicated it, it seemed that he had risen... During every mass I feel that I have reached the end of my desires... I tell everyone about myself what others know and cannot say about me: I am happy!” He writes to the same Yakovlev about the Lopotova Monastery: “Our monastery seems like some kind of hermitage, in the manner of the southern deserts. Quiet! Silently! Ingenuous! Lovingly! Joyful! The publican's word! Let's not have tea and don't despair! Blessed is he who can say: Let us flow and comprehend. God is with us! Understand and repent, Gentiles! Are we lying down? - God is with us! Strong to lift us up! I'll calm down; I rest: for Thou, Lord, hast instilled me in the hope of repentance! Although I must say: my heart is troubled when I think about the multitude of my sins.” In the next letter: “I am busy around my monastery and little by little I try to bring it into good condition; I could hope to live more peacefully by the fall, for by this time the construction cells should be finished; and now I’m quite cramped, and it’s fortunate that I managed to build an outbuilding with seven cells, of which I live in one, although it’s not spacious, but with warmth. I am sick very often... My brethren, by the grace of God, are extremely humble, and I try to be as merciful as possible with them and remember this Gospel word: “The Son of Man did not come and let them serve Him, but ye served” (December 2, 1832). In the Lopotov Monastery, Saint Ignatius wrote the life of Elder Theophan of Novoezersk, one of the great ascetics of the spirit of his time, who died on December 3, 1832 at the 82nd year of his life. Another “disciple of the disciples” of St. Paisius (Velichkovsky) left; at one time he labored in the Vvedenskaya Ostrovskaya hermitage near the city of Intercession under the leadership of Fr. Cleopas. Sending this life to Yakovlev, obviously for the purpose of printing it, Fr. Ignatius writes that he added the moral teaching of the Elder at the end and that “this moral teaching, together with the description of his morality and death, makes up the whole beauty of this biography. The fence, the sacristy, and so on are the least interesting objects in the life of a person, famous for his sublime morality, humility and contempt for all vanity!” However, monastic life was so dear to Fr. Ignatius, that, as we have already seen in his relation to Elder Theodore, he saw and noticed, as a lesson to himself, the weaknesses and shortcomings of the ascetics next to their exploits. He recalled about Father Feofan Novoyezersk in 1861: “In 1829, during the life of Elder Feofan, I came to Novoyezersk, having lived in Optina and Ploshchanskaya: the Novoyezersk monks seemed to me to be laymen, despite the excellent improvement of the monastery and the order of worship... I asked the monks: do they go to the Elder for advice and revelation of thoughts. They answered: “No one goes, with the exception of Komarovsky, and mostly the Goritsky nuns and a large number of lay people turn to the Elder for advice.” I talked several times with the Elder: he directly rejected mental activity, as very convenient for the transition to delusion, and expressed very little erudition. He lived a fasted life, went to services regularly, got up an hour before matins and read the rule in his cell. He had an athletic build and was small in height. In accordance with his own direction, he also led others: both the Novoyezersk brotherhood and the Goritskys are alien to spiritual work, all their attention is focused on the plausibility of outward behavior and physical feat... All people are weak: why is it impossible for weaknesses not to manifest themselves in those who are engaged in spiritual feat.” A friend of St. Ignatius, Mikhail Chikhachev, came here to the Lopotov Monastery. He had a good voice and had already been a leader in church choirs. The choir he composed began to attract more and more pilgrims to the monastery. Soon the rector Fr. Ignatius clothed him in a ryasophore. Thanks to their efforts, the monastery from poor and dilapidated became strong and serviceable. On May 28, 1833, Bishop Stefan, Bishop of Vologda, elevated Fr. Ignatius to the rank of abbot. However, the swampy area had a bad effect on his already impaired health. He endured and endured, but finally went to bed. Chikhachev proposed to him his plan: to go to the Pskov province and look for a suitable monastery there, and then turn to Countess Anna Alekseevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, a famous philanthropist close to the Court and church authorities. Chikhachev, shortly before his arrival in Lopotov, visited the Novgorod Yuriev Monastery, where in the cells of the abbot, Archimandrite Photius, he met the countess (she was the restorer of this monastery and subsequently found her final resting place there). They started talking. And when Chikhachev went to Lopotov, she gave him 800 rubles of money and several expensive liturgical books. According to Mikhail Chikhachev, Countess Anna Alekseevna told Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich about the ascetic life of Abbot Ignatius Bryanchaninov, and he remembered, of course, that this was a former military engineer, his ward. And now Chikhachev is back in St. Petersburg. The Countess advised him to contact Moscow Metropolitan Philaret, who then came to the northern capital and stopped at the Trinity Metochion. During a conversation with Chikhachev, the Right Reverend said: “I am not unaware of the life and qualities of Abbot Ignatius.” He asked to convey to Abbot Ignatius that he was ready to give him the position of abbot in the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery. “I will make a proposal about this to the Synod,” he added, “and I hope that they will not refuse me.” The very next day, a decree of the Synod was sent to Vologda to move the abbot of the Lopotov Monastery to Nikolo-Ugreshsky. But Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich, having learned about this, ordered Abbot Ignatius to be summoned not to Moscow, but to St. Petersburg. He added that if he liked Ignatius as much as he did before, he would leave him in St. Petersburg. On November 27, 1833, Abbot Ignatius surrendered the Lopotov Monastery, and on the 30th, together with his cell attendant, novice Ioann Malyshev, he left for St. Petersburg. At the appointed hour he was presented to the Emperor in the Winter Palace. “After some explanations,” wrote Chikhachev, “the Emperor deigned to say: “I like you, as before!” You are in my debt for the education I gave you and for my love for you. You did not want to serve me where I intended to place you, you chose the path of your own free will, and on it you will pay me your debt. I give you the Sergius hermitage. I want you to live in it and make it a monastery, which in the eyes of the capital would be a model of monasteries.” Then he led the abbot halfway to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Entering her, he asked her: does she recognize this monk? In response to a negative answer, he called the abbot by his last name. The Empress treated her former pensioner very kindly and forced him to bless all her children. The Emperor immediately deigned to send for the chief prosecutor of the Synod, Nechaev, who reported to His Majesty that Sergius Hermitage has a special purpose, it was given to the suffragan bishop of the St. Petersburg Metropolitan and the bishop uses its income in return for maintenance from the spiritual administration. Then the Tsar ordered to find out how large the amount of income received by the vicar bishop from the monastery was, and in this amount to issue him the amount from the office, and to hand over the monastery to the full management of the abbot appointed by him. The Chief Prosecutor declared his highest will to the Holy Synod.” On January 1, 1834, Abbot Ignatius was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, which took place in the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In the capital they started talking about the young and educated archimandrite-nobleman. One of the secular ladies recalled that he “was a spiritual person: he knew how to behave in any society, but at the same time he also knew how to make any conversation beneficial to the soul. Briefly familiar with the teachings of the patrists, he imparted to his conversations and judgments the spirit of this teaching. Many people were surprised at that time. Ignatius: how he, an ascetic and man of prayer, did not shy away from society, was a pleasant conversationalist with secular people, knew how to arouse their trust in him and act on them for the good of their souls... which imperceptibly inclined them to piety.” The Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, founded by Archimandrite Varlaam of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, is located 19 versts from St. Petersburg, near Strelna, on the elevated shore of the Gulf of Finland. Later, the poet K.R. (Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov) was inspired by the truly Russian beautiful nature of the local surroundings. The monastery had seven churches, among them a grandiose cathedral in the name of the Holy Trinity, built under Catherine the Great and consecrated in her presence. Archimandrite Ignatius arrived at the monastery on January 5, when everything around was covered with snow and drifting snow was drifting across the ice of the bay. A sled road led across the ice from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt. The Emperor did not send his favorite here for an easy life; the monastery was in decline. It was almost impossible to serve in churches. The abbot's building required a lot of repairs and was not heated... There were thirteen brethren, eight of them monks. The abbot and all the brethren were allocated two rooms in the nursing home at the monastery. One can imagine what worries fell on Archimandrite Ignatius. Saint Ignatius described the first years of his stay in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage in the essay “My Lament,” written at the end of 1846 - beginning of 1847: “By the incomprehensible destinies of Providence, I was placed in that monastery neighboring the northern capital, which, when I lived in the capital, I did not even want to see, considering it in every way inconsistent with my spiritual goals. In 1838 I was summoned to Sergius Hermitage and made its rector. The monastery of Sergius Hermitage received me inhospitably. In the first year after arriving in it, I was struck by a serious illness, the next year by another, the third by a third: they took away the remnants of my meager health and strength, made me exhausted, constantly suffering. Here envy, slander, and slander rose and hissed; here I was subjected to severe, lengthy, humiliating punishments without trial, without the slightest investigation...; here the merciful Lord vouchsafed me to know the joy and peace of the soul inexpressible in words; here he vouchsafed me to taste spiritual love and sweetness while I met my enemy who was looking for my head, and the face of this enemy became in my eyes like the face of a bright Angel. I learned through experience the mysterious meaning of Christ’s silence before Pilate and the Jewish bishops. What a joy it is to be a victim like Jesus! Or not! What a joy it is to be crucified near the Savior, as the blessed thief was once crucified... I am a sinner, worthy of executions, both temporary and eternal, but the lot of no man is enviable for me... You will want to know, is there really no desire lurking in my soul? I can satisfy your curiosity. I am a sinner: I thirst for repentance... I thirst for repentance! Merciful Lord, quench my unquenchable, consuming thirst: grant me repentance!” Despite frequent bouts of ill health, Archimandrite Ignatius began to act, and soon, thanks to the contributions of wealthy well-wishers and the Emperor himself, the monastery acquired an impressive and well-appointed appearance. Archimandrite Ignatius was greatly burdened by these troubles, but it was impossible not to give God’s house a worthy appearance. The main thing for him was to instill spiritual well-being among the brethren. Here he was truly in his element... Having achieved external things, including decent meals and clothing for the monks, he began to delve into the cell life of each of them. This life began to be imbued with the spirit of true monasticism. The doors of his cell were open to everyone, both holy monks and novices entered to him, here repentance was brought and revelation of thoughts was made. Books of the Holy Fathers appeared in the cells of the monks. The spiritual unity of the brethren grew, and after three years there were already more than forty people. There was considerable interference. Near the monastery there were many dachas of noble persons, the palace town of Strelna, and Peterhof not far away. Nearby, in Krasnoe Selo, there are military camps of the guards regiments. Vacationing aristocrats, generals and officers, and major officials constantly visited the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, which in part became a monastery for the spiritual nourishment of the noble class. The Emperor and Empress, as well as the Grand Dukes, appeared here, often with their families. The Emperor always emphasized his favor towards Archimandrite Ignatius in front of everyone. This gave rise to envy, which soon began to act against the “Sovereign’s Favorite,” giving him many opportunities to strengthen himself in his feat of bearing the cross. “A lot of slander fell on Fr. Ignatius in the capital,” the memoirist writes, “something was not said about him in vain, and one only had to be surprised at the calmness with which he endured worldly gossip.” The ideal for St. Ignatius was, it would seem, the ancient desert monasticism, unattainable in spiritual height, the elders, ascetics of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, beloved by him since adolescence... He found features of this ideal in Tikhon of Zadonsk, and in the recluse George (Mashurin), and, albeit not as numerous as in ancient times, rare, but true Russian ascetics. It was dear to him. He never tired of thanking the Lord for calling him out of the world onto the narrow monastic path. His inner world was inseparably devoted to God, no business or distraction led him astray from this path. A meeting with a person, a letter - were for him a reason to talk about spiritual things. Since 1836, the saint's letters have become increasingly warm and irresistible in their wisdom and sincerity preaching life in Christ. His word is never cold, not formal, it breathes with love and disposes the hearts of those reading it to accept it. Already at thirty years old he is a teacher and an old man, a father. Let's see what Archimandrite Ignatius writes from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and to whom. As soon as he settled in the dilapidated monastery, he fell ill and, leaving no work that could not be abandoned, was ill almost all summer. In the fall, having learned about the illness of Stefan Dmitrievich Nechaev, chief prosecutor of the Synod (which he was until June 1836), Archimandrite Ignatius writes to him: “Tightening within the limits of human judgment, I thought that you were very needed here; but different is the judgment of God and different is the judgment of man. I would like to see you again in your house, surrounded by your family, joyful, contented. But the Lord, who confirms our love for Him through misadventures, allowed you to scatter in different directions, like grains of wheat. Remember, my most venerable benefactor, that our Lawmaker endured the Cross, and foretold to His followers and servants: “You will be in a world of sorrow!” – Why “sorrows”? Because “the world will hate you,” and “My Father will cut off every rod that produces fruit, so that he may bear abundant fruit.” So, be complacent in the midst of excitement, surrender yourself to the will of God, endure illness with joy and gratitude, knowing that the soul is healed by bodily illnesses. Repeat this prayer often: Lord, Thy will be done! – It is short, but contains a broad meaning and has a very strong effect on calming a person who is in sadness. I learned this partly from my own experience.” In March 1835, the Synod decided to publish cheap books for the people - the lives of saints. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich approved this intention. The writing of the Lives was entrusted to Archimandrite Ignatius. By the summer of that year, he had compiled several lives, among them the life of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. Stefan Dmitrievich Nechaev was looking through the proof sheets. After one of the visits of Chief Prosecutor Fr. Ignatius wrote: “When I was with you, we talked a lot about the Cross of the Lord, which truly is a good yoke and a light burden. Arriving at the monastery, I received a gift: on the 14th (August), before Matins, I had a dream: as if I wanted to give alms to the poor, and for this I took a wallet out of my pocket, from which a brightly glowing golden cross suddenly jumped out into my palm. That same day I fell ill, and on the 16th I went to bed; a fever occurred; I did not take any food for seven days... Since the time I was in St. Petersburg, I have not spent my days with such pleasure as these days of illness. Exactly - the Cross of the Lord is a good yoke and a light burden, and with Jesus there is paradise on Calvary.” The cross of Saint Ignatius was still very heavy, and his illness became more and more complicated over time. But the Lord knew to whom he was giving such a cross. The sick person endures the illness “with pleasure,” that is, in communion with the Lord, and consoles another sick person, finding the most necessary words. He is sick, but, “exhausted by illness and labor,” he exclaims in one of his letters: “I thank the Lord, I am quite happy, very happy, happy not because of my sins! The first condition for this is that I am a Christian and a monk, albeit an insufficient one.” Having experienced many grave temptations, in particular from the church authorities, being even at one time forbidden to leave the monastery, accused by ill-wishers of the spiritual “delusion” into which he allegedly fell, Archimandrite Ignatius instructs others not to lose heart from temptations: “When we become very depressed from temptations and grumble about them, then the danger lies ahead so as not to become God-fighters, one Holy Father said, as clearly arming ourselves against the allowances of God’s Providence, for our great benefit and the healing of those who allow us to be tempted,” writes Fr. Ignatius to Abbot Ilarius, abbot of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery on June 4, 1837. One of the temptations was for Fr. Ignatius proposal to appoint him censor of spiritual books at the Synod. “I find the position of censor very burdensome for myself both in soul and body,” he wrote to Metropolitan Philaret. – To my liking: I decided to accept the monastic life not for the purpose of earthly ambition, lower for the purpose of tonsure; on the contrary, I had to, not without a strong spiritual struggle, abandon the ambitious views and ghosts that appeared to me in all their splendor in my worldly life. If I add to this the love of my parents, then I can say: how many valuable donations I have made in order to inherit a solitary cell, then the village in which priceless beads are hidden! For ten years I have been secluded - more or less - in my cell and, distracting my mind from the diversity and multiplicity of objects, already feeling that many memories have frozen in me, I cannot, without obvious mental distress, plunge into the sea of ​​external worries, judgments, debates, trips, into the life of a traveler.” He consoles his sister Alexandra Alexandrovna (who was widowed and later became a nun) in her sorrows: “Be patient and you will see the mercy of God! Throughout your entire life, from your very infancy, you were allowed sorrows. This is a sign, as the Holy Fathers affirm, of the special Providence of God. God wants to make you a participant in eternal bliss and gives you the cup of saving sorrows” (May 10, 1838). To her: “We should not consider it strange, seeing ourselves in sorrow, we should not give in to despondency; on the contrary, we must thank God for sorrows, as a sign of election to a blessed eternity. Thanks to thanksgiving not only dulls the fierce sting of sorrow, but also infuses heavenly, spiritual consolation into the heart of the one giving thanks... Christ completed His earthly course in unceasing suffering. As soon as He was born, people rushed to kill Him. He invites His disciples to suffer, and to those who do not want to suffer, He says: “Whoever does not accept his cross and comes after Me is not worthy of Me.” Consider the lives of all the Apostles: they all spent their lives and ended in suffering. Consider the lives of the martyrs: they bought Heaven for themselves with blood and countless torments. Consider the lives of the saints: wasn’t their whole life a long, invisible martyrdom? “Wandering in the deserts, in the dens and abysses of the earth, deprivation, sorrow, embitterment,” according to the Apostle, “with many bloods and deaths,” in the words of the Trebnik, they inherited a blissful eternity. “No one ascends to heaven weak,” says the great saint Isaac of Syria, “on the contrary, a person who is under the special Providence of God is aware of this when incessant sorrows are sent to him.” So, give thanks, humble yourself, believe, surrender to the will of God.” In August 1839, the Optina monk Porfiry (in the world Peter Grigorov) sent Fr. Ignatius is a collection of letters collected and published by him from Georgy Mashurin, the recluse of Zadonsk (Stratsnik in monasticism), who died in 1836. Answering Fr. Porfiry, Fr. Ignatius wrote that “having read the book sent, I saw its spirituality and wished that such a soul-saving book would be known to my dear brotherhood...”. In the future, Fr. Ignatius recommends for spiritual enlightenment reading not only the great Fathers of the Church, but also Russian ascetics, among them Saints Demetrius of Rostov, Tikhon of Voronezh and George the Recluse. On April 20, 1840, he asked in a letter to S. D. Nechaev: “Did you have in your hands a book of letters from the Zadonsk recluse Georgy? Here is a spiritual writer who is far removed from all the spiritual writers of our time. A nobleman, a warrior, he laid down his material weapons in order to enter the field of spiritual warfare, spent seventeen years in seclusion and died in the year 36, being 47 years old, having replaced many years with spiritual success. He wrote letters to many persons favored by him, which after his death were collected, as many as could be collected, and printed. Streams of grace flow from his pen... This book has become one of my desk books.” This book is about. Ignatius also recommends it to his brother Pyotr Alexandrovich for reading. Saint Ignatius saw in the recluse George a soul close to himself, happy in the most severe monastic feat, bearing the cross and bodily ailments. In letters to Fr. Ignatius persistently calls to accept sorrows as from the hand of the Lord. Here he writes to Abbot Varlaam in Optina Pustyn in February 1840: “The saints always see their work as insufficient, and, as one of them said, they consider themselves not performers, but desecrators of the most holy commandments of the Lord; For this reason, when temptation comes, they rejoice, as the insufficiency of their deeds is replenished with involuntary sorrow, and their vestments are whitened for shameless entry into a spiritual marriage through the door of death. We have cared enough, enough about earthly things, we have lost enough time, we will use this day, the eleventh hour, to prepare for eternity.” The verbal and written preaching of Saint Ignatius grows as if by itself, or rather, according to God’s will. So, he writes, for example, to his sister Maria Alexandrovna in April 1840 in response to a request for spiritual guidance: “I cannot refuse a word about spiritual benefit; such a word is alms, which a monk must certainly give - not only for the spiritual benefit of his neighbor, but also for his own.” Despite the illnesses and troubles of the rector, Fr. Ignatius continues to work on spiritual works; these are his most important works for the benefit of his neighbor. On November 30, 1840, he informed Abbot Bartholomew that he was translating the spiritual instructions of St. who were not in Russian. Isaiah, the hermit of the monastery: “I greatly delight in the spiritually gracious sayings of this holy Father,” he writes. – If the Lord pleases, I intend to publish this (book), because I have never seen it in the Slavic and Russian languages, and its benefits should be extraordinary. Most Mourning Father! He is contemporary with Macarius of Egypt... I also hope to receive the book of St. Cassian the Roman in Latin, the language in which he wrote, and, if the Lord pleases, then begin to translate it.” Around the same time, Fr. Ignatius’s article “The Order of Self-Attention for Those Living in the Middle of the World.” He had a large correspondence with the laity, but he taught them not something special, adapted for the world, but the same rudiments of “attention to oneself” that are necessary for a monk. The main thing here is the desire for constant remembrance of God, in constant walking before Him. “Our heart,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - conveniently indulges in negligence and forgetfulness, from which is born a gloomy ignorance, so disastrous in the cause of God, in the cause of human salvation... He who pays attention to himself must abandon all daydreaming in general... Daydreaming is the wandering of the mind outside the truth, in the land of non-existent ghosts... Consequences of daydreaming: loss of attention to oneself, absent-mindedness of the mind and hardness of the heart during prayer; hence the mental disorder.” This is ascetic work, which is commanded to everyone who wants to be saved. What follows “attention” is said by another short essay, very expressive in words. The meeting with the King of kings takes place in the heart of a person, but it is not so easy and simple. “A mind clothed in prayer,” writes Fr. Ignatius, laying down the burden of earthly thoughts, descends to the heart cell. The cage doors are closed: there is darkness everywhere, impenetrable darkness. And the mind, in bewilderment, begins to knock with prayer on the door of the heart... It leaves the door sort of sad and seeks consolation in bitter weeping. He was not allowed to appear before the King of kings in the sanctuary of the inner cage.” The meeting was prevented by sin. But there is repentance... “I will wash myself in tears, I will cleanse myself by confessing my sins, I will not give my body food and sleep, the abundance of which causes fatness to the soul; fully clothed in the cry of repentance, I will go down to the door of my heart. There I will stand or sit like a blind man in the gospel, I will endure the burden and boredom of darkness, I will cry out to the One who is able to have mercy: “Have mercy on me!” Here, ascetic prayer work is almost artistically depicted. In one of his writings, Saint Ignatius reminds us that insufficient faith, unbelief, is the cause of spiritual failures, confusion, and falls. Faith is kindled by humility and complacent patience with sorrows. “With the abundant action of faith, writes Fr. Ignatius, a person’s entire being is immersed in the most comforting spiritual enjoyment of the sacred world of Christ, as if saturated and made insensitive to the arrows of confusion. The Fathers rightly said that “faith is humility”, that “to believe means to be in humility and goodness.” This concept of faith and humility is provided by the holy experiences of correct monastic life.” It is impossible not to see that these teachings do not come from knowledge alone, they are also from one’s own monastic experience. This was seen by the inhabitants of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage and those spiritual children who visited Fr. Ignatius in the monastery. The price of such teachings is great! If he spoke about. Ignatius about “monastic work”, then he did exactly that. One can talk about the same thing in monastic spiritual work many times, and we will do this by touching on different stages of the saint’s life. If we talk about his letters, those people to whom he addressed his spiritual words were happy. And his works, subsequently collected and published, are addressed to us, since Saint Ignatius cared about those Christians who would live fifty, a hundred or more years after him. We too should be happy, having such a dear heritage, such wonderful spiritual guidance. In the memory of the brethren who inhabited the Trinity Hermitage of St. Sergius, Saint Ignatius, their abbot and mentor, was preserved as a depressed, but active and strict father. His cell attendant, named Ignatius in monasticism and therefore called Ignatius the Little, recalled how he came to tea, always late due to many things to do: “he came when everyone had already heated it, and in the kettle there was not tea, but, as they put it, “ah.” And Little Ignatius would pour himself a cup of such and such tea, and at that moment the archimandrite would come in, take him by the collar and chase him out of the room by the neck, saying: “Oh, you damned sensualist! Did you then come to the monastery to drink tea? Out he goes." And the novice goes to his place... Lessons of this kind took place every day... He taught and educated each student according to his strengths and abilities.” The harsh upbringing led to the fact that around Fr. Ignatius formed a circle of disciples, monks and monks devoted to him. But there were also brothers in the desert “who could not in any way be grafted onto their father, and these were mostly those who received their initial education in other monasteries; It was they who constituted the “opposite party,” not wanting to live according to the rules of their fathers, and were at enmity against those who went to confession and revelation of thoughts.” Saint Ignatius, however, did not divide the brethren into parties, but sought the key to the soul of every dissenting monk. It was not easy for them, because they often came from monasteries where the work was only physical, albeit ascetic. Care had to be taken not to push them away. Gradually the “opposite party” diminished. About the attention with which Fr. Ignatius to his critics, says his written response to a letter from one monk: “Having placed my trust in the help of God and in His power, which is accomplished in the weak,” the abbot writes in response to his brother’s reproaches, “I have decided to respond to your written statement in writing also. And this is more so that my mind does not get distracted during a personal conversation and does not become exhausted under the noise of words... I stand before His face and, illuminated by His light, I look at my soul and compare it with what I see in your reproof. What do I see? I see ulcers in my soul, I see its many illnesses, I see infirmities... I stand before my Lord and I see His Holy Providence, and I am amazed at His long-suffering, how merciful He is to those errors into which I fell from self-will and self-thinking... From my falls I run not into seclusion, not into the desert, but into self-reproach, into confession of my sins, into repentance... You, looking at the appearance of my behavior, saw much fewer shortcomings than how many there are in the thing itself... All that remains for this is to ask with tears your forgiveness and holy prayers for my correction... Word-justification does not belong to Christian living and is not prescribed anywhere in the teaching of Christ.” However, the letter does not end with humility and repentance. Most of the answer to the monk is instruction. “Even though, due to my unworthiness, it is fitting for me to heed only my own shortcomings, yet, as an abbot and spiritual father, I must tell you what my sinful eyes see: it is your proud passion that is attacking you. Recognition of practical information and considerations in oneself is the essence of its justification, with which it covers itself. Coolness towards me, towards those around me, are its fruits: for the humiliation of one’s neighbor is followed by the drying up of love. And the drying up of love is a sign of accepting demonic thoughts, while the sign of accepting the seeds of grace is an increase in love for one’s neighbor.” Archimandrite Ignatius had a large correspondence with monastics and those wishing to lead a spiritual life in the world. Some Lipas have received support and guidance from her for decades, mostly in writing, rarely in meetings. Thus, he carried on spiritual correspondence with one nun from the early 1840s almost until the end of his life. It will be very instructive for us to look into some of the pages of these letters, truly inspired by the Holy Spirit. “Not only do I not reject you,” writes Fr. Ignatius to this nun, - but I also call: “Come, children, listen to Me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord,” not because I am content on my own to teach anyone anything, but because my teaching is not mine, but borrowed from the Holy Fathers, whose pen was led by the Holy Spirit... You are talking about habits acquired over a long time. To this the Climacus responds: "The true monks will spit on everyone! Let them reject everyone!" (that is, addictions). Although this cannot be done suddenly, it can be done gradually... Read the book of St. Abba Dorotheus and, if your will to walk along the path of cutting off your will does not cease, but flares up even stronger, and the flame of heavenly desires embraces your soul, then deign to come in order to hear more extensively the teaching about this path and accept some rules that, like high and solid walls, will protect your soul. Do you want to become my daughter? I am delighted in spirit, looking at the host of my spiritual children, whom I am not worthy to be called father, but slave.” The spiritual father reveals to his child the indescribable beauty of monastic life. “Marvel and worship the Truth,” he writes, “which heals the incessant changeability of man with the commandment of unceasing repentance... For a monk, consolation on earth is weeping and tenderness. What's the crying? This is the effect of grace given at baptism... Do you want to find tenderness in your cell, without which, like a boat without an anchor, a thought, carried away by a fierce wind, is carried along the waves of dreams and plunged into the depths of despondency? Do you want to see Light from Light? Do you want to taste the love that comes from Love and leads into Love? Take your thought and throw it at the feet of your brothers and sisters, not distinguishing the bad from the good; tell your thought and repeat as often as possible, so that a feeling is born from the thought: “These are the Angels of God, and I alone am like the devil in sin and darkness... You are destined to find relief for your soul at the feet of the brethren; the publican’s prayer is determined for you, and not Jesus’... You, as the weakest, must incessantly cry out to the Lord: “Have mercy on me, for I am weak!” There is very serious spiritual work going on. In the Trinity-Sergius Monastery in the early 1840s, under the leadership of Archimandrite Ignatius, one of the main ascetic books adopted for the guidance of monastics was translated from Church Slavonic into Russian - the book of questions and answers of the Monks Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet. In one of his letters, he invites the same nun to copy this book as soon as the translation is completed. “I invite you with me,” writes Fr. Ignatius, with our understanding and heartfelt sensations let us descend into nothingness, so that Christ may be magnified in us. Let us put ourselves to death: a dead man is without life and without action. Let us put ourselves to death so that Christ may live and act in us. Be lenient with your soul in its weaknesses; excessive severity distracts from repentance, leads to despondency and despair.” In another letter: “George the Recluse very well compares our life with the stay of prisoners in prison, of which one or the other is required for trial and the final verdict... The righteous will present their righteousness as a fat sacrifice before the throne of the Judge; and we, sinners, will bring there at least repentance and tears!” “Reproach yourself, reproach your weak will,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - because the power of will produces great things even in the weak. You will find solace in blaming yourself. Blame yourself and condemn yourself, and God will justify you and have mercy on you.” “It is impossible to be Christ’s without the cross, which, as they say when taking monastic vows, is always ready to endure any sorrow that the Provider allows us,” writes Fr. Ignatius. And in another letter: “By faith you are carried through the waves of the monastic sea: its waves are manifold sorrows, allowed by God’s Providence for our salvation, raised by our own infirmities and our enemy the devil.” And as one of the main results of this long-term correspondence: “You must base your life on constant self-reproach.” Meetings of Saint Ignatius with those spiritual children who did not live in his monastery were rare: once every six months, a year, or even two. “We haven’t seen each other for a long time,” he writes to one monk, “but we talk face to face, we write to each other not often, but we are getting closer and closer! This is the fruit of Christ’s teaching.” “How comfortingly many souls call to me in the midst of the mysterious night of this world from their various countries! - says Fr. Ignatius in another letter. - One from a sickbed, another from exile, another from the bank of the Volkhov, another from the bank of the Dvina, another from the Borodino field, another from a hut, another from the Tsar’s palace. The soul, wherever it is placed, if it is not killed by insensibility, everywhere feels the need for the word of God, everywhere the fall oppresses it, crushes it.” Some of his children, Fr. Ignatius also sends the works he wrote - deep spiritual instructions that are now available to all of us (accessible for the most part, although not by execution, but only by reading). In 1844 his “Sermon on the Fear of God and the Love of God” appeared. Here he persistently points out states of the soul that are displeasing to the Lord, mistaking carnal (“blood”) feelings for spiritual ones. Of course, this is addressed to people who have already passed a certain part of the spiritual path and more so to monastics, but theoretically the essence of this Word is completely clear. “Man’s service to God, ordained by God, is clear and simple,” writes Fr. Ignatius. “But we have become so complex and crafty, so alien to the spiritual mind, that we need the most careful guidance and instruction for the correct and pleasing service of God.” support your thoughts with the judgments of the Holy Fathers. So in this Word we see quotations from St. Scriptures, from the works of Saints Isaac the Syrian (especially valued by him), Nilus of Sora, Cassian the Roman, Abba Dorotheus, Macarius the Great and other Egyptian ascetics, George the Recluse, Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos and from the Philokalia. The liveliness and warmth of this article (as well as his other works) do not suffer at all from the abundance of quotes: it is easy to read. The difficulty arises in something else: in the execution of what is indicated. At the pinnacle of spiritual activity is one who has the fear of God and love for God. “God,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - demands love from a person, but true, spiritual, holy love, and not dreamy, carnal, defiled by pride and voluptuousness. It is impossible to love God otherwise than with a heart purified and sanctified by Divine grace. Love for God is a gift of God: it is poured into the souls of true servants of God through the action of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, that love, which also belongs to the number of our natural properties, is found in sinful damage that embraces the entire human race, the entire being of every person... Let us strive in vain to serve God, to unite with God with this love!.. A premature desire to develop in ourselves a feeling of love for God is already self-delusion. It immediately removes one from correct service to God, immediately leads into various errors, and ends in damage and destruction of the soul.” The state of “charm” and self-delusion of demons. This is “love” from a person. And God's? “The only true sign of the achievement of love,” writes St. Ignatius, “given to us by the Holy Spirit Himself, is the clear presence of the Holy Spirit in us. He who has not become the temple of the Holy Spirit, let him not flatter himself, let him not deceive himself: he cannot be the abode of love, he is alien to it... In whom the Holy Spirit descends, His attribute is love. “Whoever acquires love, at the same time puts on God Himself,” said Saint Isaac of Syria. Perhaps they will object to this: “We are Christians, we are renewed by holy baptism...” ... So! But the grace-filled state of renewal... needs to be supported by living according to the Gospel commandments... He who does not maintain the acquisitions granted by holy baptism, by living according to the commandments, loses what he has acquired.” What is the path to love? How to prepare a place in your heart to accept it? - By repentance. By acquiring a spiritual gift - the fear of God. Saint Ignatius continues: “Fear purifies a person, prepares him for love; we become slaves in order to legally become children. As we cleanse ourselves through repentance, we begin to feel the presence of God; from the feeling of the presence of God is a holier feeling of fear... High and desirable is the feeling of the fear of God! When it acts, the mind often dulls its eyes, ceases to utter words, to produce thoughts: with a reverent silence that surpasses words, it expresses the consciousness of its insignificance.” “Whoever does the will of God out of fear of torment,” it goes on, “is... still a beginner. Another fulfills the will of God because of the very love of God... he is afraid of falling away, he is afraid of losing it... Fulfilling the commandments of the Savior is the only sign of love for God accepted by the Savior.” “In repentance all the commandments of God are combined. By repentance a Christian is led first into the fear of God, then into Divine love.” Saint Ignatius quotes the words of Isaac the Syrian: “Repentance is the second grace.” And repentance combines self-reproach, patience, deposition of one’s self, hatred of sin - everything that makes a monk a monk (also a layman, as if a monk in the world). Activities of Fr. Ignatius as an abbot and mentor does not weaken, but his illnesses are becoming more and more serious. “My health is becoming very weak,” he wrote to his sister Elizaveta Alexandrovna in January 1846. “I’ve been sick almost constantly this winter. The St. Petersburg climate, especially the sea winds, act on my nerves very strongly and harmfully; It’s time to get away to some quiet corner, where the climate is more conducive to our monastic life... With increased illness, I became very quiet and undemanding, and therefore the position of chief is not according to my character.” “I would consider it happiness if the Lord allowed me to end my life somewhere in a humble valley between spruce and pines - I do not give up oaks and other trees - paying attention to my own and the salvation of those loved ones who are with me in love for God’s sake,” he writes to her. Throughout almost the entire winter of 1845–46, Fr. Ignatius did not leave his cell; he was tormented by fever with sweat, headaches, swelling and pain in his legs. At the slightest carelessness he caught a cold. His cell had triple frames, the stove was often heated, and at the same time he put on a thick cassock and felt boots. But all this winter, struggling and thanking the Lord, he wrote, using every free minute for this. He wrote in a very neat and beautiful handwriting in notebooks, stacking them on a bookcase near the desk at which he sat in an old leather chair... That winter he compiled a book called “My Gift to My Friends.” Later he wrote to his spiritual daughter Sofia Ivanovna Snessoreva, a writer, sending her one of the articles in this collection, “The Chalice of Christ,” that in these works “the image of presentation, the outer form, the very syllable, may be news in spiritual Russian literature... I want my book to be a friend, always comforting, never burdensome. The reader will find a beginning everywhere and an end everywhere. I want the book to be accessible to everyone, like a friend, and for the proud mind to be humbled by the height of truths and the depth of feelings!” Indeed, we did not yet have such spiritual prose. Here are excerpts from Holy Scripture and St. Fathers, reinforcing the theological and ascetic thought of the author, are, as it were, embedded in a spiritual-lyrical frame of almost poetic sound, this gives the speech a special persuasiveness and sincerity. However, Saint Ignatius did not invent this genre. True to himself in following the Holy Fathers in everything, here too he follows the experience of St. Gregory the Theologian, whose poems, translated in our country only in prose, amaze precisely by the combination of wise asceticism with sincerity, and, in addition, by the unusualness and beauty of turns of speech. They are not worn out by imitations (too difficult to imitate them) and breathe freshness and novelty, although this is antiquity - the 4th century! Saint Ignatius, a disciple of Gregory the Theologian, although not in “measured speech,” that is, not in poetry, but in prose, continued the work of the great teacher of the Church. Anyone who knows the works of Gregory the Theologian published in Russian will understand what is going on here. In this spirit, Saint Ignatius wrote the magnificent miniatures “Garden during Winter”, “Dumation on the Seashore”, “Cemetery”, “Dew”, “The Sea of ​​Life”, “Conscience”, “Conference of the Soul with the Mind”, “The Wanderer”, as well as larger works - “A Visit to the Valaam Monastery”, “Joseph”, “The Monk’s Lament” and “My Lament”. This, however, does not mean that the features of spiritual poetry were not reflected in the numerous words and teachings of St. Ignatius, addressed mainly to monks. “The Chalice of Christ” is like a spiritual poem about sorrows and suffering. They are this Chalice, “which provides the participants on earth with their participation in the gracious kingdom of Christ, preparing for them thrones of eternal glory in Heaven. We are all unresponsive before the Chalice of Christ; no one can complain about it, refuse it, because He who commanded its consumption Himself drank it first of all... The Cup is bitter; with one glance at her, all human considerations are lost. Replace considerations with faith and drink courageously the bitter Cup: the All-Good and All-Wise Father gives it to you.” This is the Cup of salvation, a gift from God. “If the Cup seems unbearable and deadly to you,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - with this she convicts you: although you are called Christ’s, you are not Christ’s.” This small, but very meaningful thing ends with a thought that may be unexpected for someone: the Cup of Christ (that is, sorrow for salvation) is actually not sorrow, but joy. But real sorrow for a person is different, this is this: “Alienation from God, eternal torment in hell, eternal communication with devils and devil-like people, fire, cold, darkness of Gehenna - this is what is worthy of being called sorrow! This is for sure - great, terrible, unbearable sorrow. Earthly pleasures lead to great eternal sorrow. The Cup of Christ protects and saves from this sorrow, when the drinker drinks it with gratitude to God, with the praise of the all-good God, who gives man His boundless, eternal mercy in the bitter Cup of temporary sorrows.” It is difficult for a person who lacks faith in God or has little faith to imagine this: suffering is good, joy, if you humble yourself and accept it for the sake of salvation in Christ. That is why the path to true faith is so difficult not only for the laity, but also for monks. In the spring of 1846, Archimandrite Ignatius was forced to take six months off for treatment and rest and went to Pokrovskoye. Meanwhile, he submitted a petition to the Synod for permission to leave his position as abbot and retire to one of the quiet monasteries. “I have always desired deep solitude, I was afraid of it, recognizing myself as immature for it; I was afraid to enter into it on my own. But when it is indicated by the Providence of God, then bless me, who comes in the name of the Lord! – he wrote to the Synod. He first thought about Optina Pustyn, then settled on the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, located on the Volga in the Kostroma province. The Emperor did not agree to this request - to retire completely, but only allowed to give Archimandrite Ignatius, after six months, another eleven months of leave with accommodation in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. At the beginning of the summer of next year, Fr. Ignatius returned to the Trinity-Sergius hermitage to organize pre-departure affairs; he was not only the abbot of the monastery, but also the dean of the monasteries of St. Petersburg and Novgorod. In July he visits the Yuriev Monastery, magnificently restored almost from ruins by Archimandrite Photius at the expense of Countess Orlova-Chesmenskaya. “From the bell tower I looked at Novgorod and its surroundings,” Fr. wrote from this monastery. Ignatius July 12. – It’s quiet here, the soul and body rest... Today is Saturday; soon a loud and sonorous bell will ring for the all-night vigil; I’m thinking of participating in the Divine Service this evening and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon I’ll set off on my further journey.” On July 21, he writes from Moscow that he visited “the Ugresh monastery, which, despite its proximity to Moscow, is visited very little by pilgrims and is therefore very secluded. With spiritual consolation, I saw some monastics there, living an attentive life in the fear of God. They are very guarded from the monastics of the city of Moscow, not despising them, but avoiding mental disorder, which no one can so quickly communicate, like a brother living carelessly... Vice, when it is in a brother, is much more contagious and sticky than when it is in a stranger. This is because people allow themselves much more boldness and freedom before their brethren than before strangers, before whom they try to hide their vice.” In Moscow about. Ignatius visited Chudov, Novospassky, Simonov and Donskoy monasteries. “You can’t imagine,” he wrote to a friend, “how disgusting Moscow singing with its figures and variations seemed to me. We need majestic, reverent simplicity and a deep pious feeling; with these two qualities our singing becomes higher than the singing of Moscow monasteries.” In another letter, he again mentions “figure variations, which are in such use in Moscow and which are so unsuited to monastic singing.” Was. Ignatius and in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, visited the Theological Academy. “The word of Christ is coming true! - he writes. – In the last times, will the Son of God find faith on earth! There are sciences, there are Academies, there are Candidates, Masters, Doctors of Theology (right - laughter, and that’s all); these degrees are given to people... What a misfortune befalls this “Theologian” - and it turns out that he doesn’t even have faith, not only theology. I have met such people: a doctor of theology, but he doubts whether Christ was on earth, is this not an invention, is it not a mythological reality! What kind of light can one expect from this darkness! " Several times Father Ignatius visited Metropolitan Philaret in Moscow, who organized a ceremony in honor of guest dinner, inviting many honorable persons from the Moscow clergy. From Moscow, Fr. Ignatius traveled to the Spaso-Borodinsky Convent. The nun Elizaveta Shakhova, who later became his spiritual daughter during her residence in the Old Ladoga St. Nicholas Monastery (she was a spiritual writer who wrote poetry and prose), spoke in detail about this visit in one of her books. “On the porch of the house, illuminated as on holidays,” she wrote, “Abbess Maria was waiting for him and, seeing him, bowed to the ground and fell at his feet. Such a humble image of a touching, hermit-like welcome from the highly eminent old lady abbess deeply touched the visitor, and he expressed his sincere pleasure to her, thanking the Lord for deigning him to be warmly received in this holy monastery. The next day, after the Liturgy, every single sister accepted his blessing when he left the church, going with the abbess to the house... “You, mother and sister, have an enviable place! - he told them. Very capable of arousing attention! All vain things are removed from you. Nothing entertains you. From your cells you see only heaven and earth: the first for hope, the second for humility." This day was dedicated to the guest for a private conversation with Abbess Maria, to view the monastery and the famous field with its glorious monument. On August 1, at the end of the ceremony of consecration of water on the Holy Pond of the monastery, the abbess again accompanied the guest to her chambers. It was wonderful to see and hear how both of them gave each other honor and advantage and subordinated themselves to mutual obedience... After a long conversation in private, as the day before, Mother Maria asked him for his blessing to allow the sisters to hear his conversation. Having found the need to talk with some especially, for their greater spiritual benefit, the visitor asked the abbess to give him this trust. Mother Mary not only did not forbid him to be completely free in her monastery and to act as his spiritual experience would inspire him, but she also especially introduced to him some of the newly received sisters for guidance, and those who were in some kind of spiritual temptation... The afternoon hours, at the earnest request of the abbess, were devoted to reading about internal spiritual work with an explanation of some of the patristic writings on this subject. The scientist-loving Maria hung on every word with love, raising questions and expressing bewilderments. After Vespers, a general meeting was scheduled; therefore, for the most convenient placement, they chose a place on the balcony - or terrace - of the house, overlooking a wide lawn... Two armchairs were placed in the door of the living room, for the visitor and the abbess, and on the sides of the balcony there were two rows of chairs for the sisters; the rest sat down on the steps of the terrace, and then, converging in large numbers, like verbal sheep hungry for spiritual pasture, they sat on the grass, in the curtains and along the paths closest to the house. Touched by such an ancient desert spectacle, the spiritual man, as inspired from above, chose the Sermon on the Mount of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Beatitudes as the subject of teaching. Having opened her cell Gospel given to him by Mother Mary, he began to explain Christ’s sermon in relation to monastic life. The conversation lasted long after sunset, and only the darkness and freshness of the approaching night forced the meeting to be disbanded.” At the beginning of August 1847, Fr. Ignatius arrived at the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery and settled in four rooms on the mezzanine above the abbot’s cells. “No matter how much I traveled,” he writes, “I didn’t like it anywhere. The Ugreshsky Monastery is lovely and secluded, but my heart was alien to it. What I like best about Babaevsky is: the nature is extraordinary, somehow luxurious, majestic; the air and waters are healthy.” Babayki (as this monastery was briefly called) liked him more and more over time. “A few words about the Babaevskaya monastery,” writes Fr. Ignatius to the abbot of the Ugreshsky monastery. “I’m very pleased with her.” Brethren up to ninety people; among them there are several remarkable ascetics. The monastery is communal. The service is very simple, orderly, and reverent. Singing on Sundays and holidays is court singing, on other days it is chanting. Two churches: cold and warm, spacious; two others: above the Holy Gates and a small hospital... Outside the monastery there is a large hotel for visitors. The entire structure is stone. The monastery stands on the slope of a sloping hill, with its main façade facing the west, towards the Volga and the Solonitsa River flowing into it. The air is wonderful; the soil of the earth is sand and “cartilage”, which makes it unusually dry. The local monks say: in the rainiest autumn there is no mud... Near the monastery itself there is a magnificent grove with luxurious oak trees. And these giants, these elders, have been standing here, of course, for centuries. The oak grove is intersected half a mile from the monastery by bushes; behind them is a grove of dark green spruce trees. Next to the groves, a lovely clearing stretches from the monastery along the shore of Solonitsa. In spring, it is covered with the waters of the wide-spread Volga... It produces a lot of beautiful hay. When I arrived here, the hay had already been harvested, the monastery herd was grazing in the clearing... This lovely clearing is my walk. I walk under the shadow, which in the morning the grove spreads far across the clearing; my eyes wander freely and unconsciously everywhere, enjoying nature, which is especially sweet and gentle here... I love to look at the water, at the vast expanse of water, to draw inexplicable inspiration from there... From the windows of my cell I look at the majestic Volga. It is no more than a hundred fathoms from the monastery. As soon as you begin to approach the Volga, the whole neighborhood rejoices and laughs. It is clear that this region is prosperous. The Volga itself is unusually pretty: it is the queen between the rivers! Its streams are somehow meek, gentle, rolling smoothly, but in a huge mass... If you look at the Volga, you can see that its purpose is to feed, enrich people, spread contentment, life, fun... Some villages are visible twenty and thirty versts away. The mountains, the further from the Volga, the higher. One mountain peeks out from behind another; one village peeks out from behind another. There, far, far away, where forests, mountains and villages merge into one blue stripe, bordering the sky, there are still visible white spots on the blue stripe: these are churches. And the opposite bank of the Solonitsa River is so cute! What nice oval twists! Every day a shepherd drives his flock out of neighboring villages... Opposite the Holy Gate of the monastery, thousands of springs boil from a mountain of coarse sand and gravel. The water in them is clear as crystal, cold as ice, tasty, light, a treasure for the ascetic, who, with such excellent water, can conveniently refuse all other drinks. Saint Gregory the Theologian, describing his solitude, favorably mentions spring water, which was his chosen only drink." In another letter, which also describes the surroundings of the monastery, Fr. Ignatius notes the main thing: “I open the book of the ascetic writer, read it, I see that here you can actually implement its advice, whereas in St. Petersburg you can fulfill them only in imagination and desire. In a word: for my earthly wandering at this moment I would not wish for another, better shelter.” With the onset of cold weather, Fr.’s illnesses worsened. Ignatius. He had to not leave his cell for months. While enduring these sorrows, he still undertook some kind of treatment. He was prescribed medications. He also used homeopathic remedies. “Around the 20th of December,” he wrote to his sister in 1847, “I experienced the most severe crisis: for many days I lay not only unable to do anything, not even able to think. Since December 25, it has become easier for me: for an hour or two a day I am so free that I can read and write.” In February 1848, she said: “I still haven’t left my rooms and I see that I must remain locked in them throughout Lent.” What kind of illnesses are these - oh. Ignatius once explained to his fellow man and spiritual child, inhabitant of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, Hieromonk Ignatius. “All my illnesses began with the fact,” he wrote to him in December 1847, “that when I was still a cadet, I severely caught a cold in my legs and their extremities; from various medical benefits I felt temporary relief, but the extremities of my legs were never cured, year after year they became worse and finally brought me into a state of pain that you know as an eyewitness. Now, by the grace of God, it seems that I will be radically cured. But there is a strong upheaval in everything, some kind of overhaul, a degeneration of everything, which is why I spend most of my time in bed, in a daze, not doing anything.” Living almost in seclusion, experiencing bodily suffering, Saint Ignatius still found time of day to write spiritual works. He considered himself living, as it were, in the desert - in the image of St. Paul of Thebes or Onuphrius the Great. “It is appropriate for the soul and body to become thinner like a cobweb, to pass through the fire of sorrows and the purifying water of repentance, and to enter into spiritual rest - into the spiritual mind or peace of Christ, which is the same thing,” he wrote. “I have an urgent need to think about the future life and the imminent resettlement into it, promised by my premature old age and weakness caused by long-term illnesses.” U o. Ignatius undergoes continuous spiritual work, not distracted by anything. Much more than about physical illnesses, he thinks about mental illnesses - about sin. “I, a sinner, a gloomy sinner,” he writes from Babayek to the rector of the Nikolo-Ugreshskaya monastery, “no matter how I look into myself, I always see the mixture of good and evil brought to the human race by its forefather, who boldly and sinfully ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I seem to people to be merciful, but, having accurately checked myself, examined myself, I find in myself one stupid mask of mercy. Vanity is merciful in me, passion is merciful in me, selfishness is merciful in me, flesh is merciful in me, blood is merciful in me, but for the pure, holy commandment of Christ to move me to mercy, I do not find this in myself. When I, a gloomy sinner, come to my senses for a brief moment and wish to be merciful in accordance with the commandment of Christ, I see that I must inflict terrible violence on my heart... My heart agrees to be merciful according to the movement of the blood, but to be merciful according to the commandment of Christ for it is a crucifixion... Natural mercy, as a product of flesh and blood, cannot be a godly virtue. That's not enough! It is hostile to the commandments of the Gospel!” O. Ignatius does not slander himself. In relation to himself, there can only be too strong expressions here. But in essence, he is no exception to the general rule: there is no person without sin. The more the Lord gives spiritual understanding, the more terrible the emerging picture of a sin-stricken soul becomes. This disease is immeasurably more terrible than any bodily one. About this about. Ignatius never tires of proclaiming to every soul that comes close to him. Much was revealed to him. “There is nothing wonderful, extraordinary, that we fall into errors, that sin operates in us! – writes Fr. Ignatius. – Only the inexperienced are surprised by this, and only the inexperienced are embarrassed by this. We are all in decline; We are already conceived in lawlessness, we are already born in sins. One must bear with patience and longsuffering “the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar,” that is, the action of sin within oneself, and with mercy towards oneself, purify oneself through repentance, laying down one’s weakness before God, constantly showing it to Him. Every violation of the law is cleansed by repentance; a wrong deed receives rightness when it is straightened out according to the Gospel commandments.” Numerous letters from Fr. Ignatius to the monk Leonid, who lived in the Nikolo-Ugreshskaya monastery, who, after meeting him, asked to be included in the “flock” of his spiritual children, are distinguished by their particular liveliness and depth. Everything that is said there is urgently necessary for us today. If the world changes and much in it becomes obsolete, then there is no change in the spiritual activity of a person who wants to live according to the commandments of Christ. The correspondence begins with one of the most important issues: fidelity to Christ. "Strange! – writes Fr. Ignatius. “As soon as my heart wants to start a conversation with you, the feeling of prayer flows into it and carries me away into that darkness that serves as a veil for God, a light for His rational creatures. Get there too! It’s good to forget the person in God; because God remembers him. It is good to be dead for a person in God: this is true life, life by the Spirit. The spirit both deadens and gives life. Let the one who understands understand, but from the unworthy, let the spiritual word be hidden in its light, unapproachable to the carnal mind. From here, from the darkness or from the sky, whatever you want to call it, I’m looking at you.” “Plant and cultivate in yourself deadness towards me,” Fr. writes to this child of his. Ignatius. And further: “People, coming to life madly for each other, coming to life with stupid spiritual affection, die for God, and from the ashes of blissful death, which - for the sake of God, arises, like a golden-winged phoenix, spiritual love.” And here are a number of excerpts from these letters about the same thing: “Only one who kills himself for people can blame himself. Whoever allows himself the slightest attachment to a person will not be able to remain in self-condemnation, and therefore in the world. We must give all people to God. The Church teaches us this too; she says: “Let us commit ourselves, and each other, and our whole life to Christ our God.” He who surrenders himself and everyone to God can remain dead to everyone; Without this deadness, spiritual revival cannot shine in the soul... Carnal people cannot form any idea about this.” “I wrote to you, testified by the work and teaching of the Holy Fathers, that whoever wants to move from the carnal class to the spiritual must die for all people.” “If you do not die for people, if you allow your heart to be carried away, to be captivated by empty attachments, you will grovel on the earth all your life, you will not be rewarded with anything spiritual: your bones will fall outside the promised land.” “May the spiritual love of your neighbors reward you a hundredfold for the mortification of blood love... Union with special love with someone - I say in a spiritual sense - fornication. After renewal, true love for neighbors appears, holy, spiritual: it is all in God; she is a spiritual vision. It is worth shedding blood when the immeasurable treasure of the Spirit is given for it. Upon receiving the Spirit, a person will see clearly: blood is a godless, stinking abomination.” Even among the monks in his time, not many followed the work that Saint Ignatius preached. “I am looking for a person who would decide to reject his own will,” he exclaims, “and, naked of all will, wholly wanted to follow Christ, to fulfill His will, and I do not meet such a person. My eyes yearn between the multitude, as if in a deserted desert, they do not find a sight on which to dwell with consolation!.. We have all loved our empty and stupid desires, we have loved the corruptible, temporary, the flesh and blood that lives in them - eternal death!.. The path is narrow, the path of self-sacrifice; cramped and on the wide path - self-indulgence! We are crowded, we are in a hurry, we are pushing each other into the already full, already satiated abyss of hell!” As for the feat of silence, Fr. Ignatius writes to the monk Leonid the following: “Do not think that to teach silence a seclusion or a deep desert is necessary. No! It is much better to learn it between people through spiritual achievement. The very falls, invisible to your neighbors, visible and known to God and conscience, falls of the mind and heart, will serve to your advantage, making you skilled in the fight against sin, revealing to you all the weaknesses of man. An ascetic, brought up among people by the power of invisible inner feat, is strong, rich in knowledge and spiritual experience, filled with humility... He is like a tree that grew on an open hill and was exposed to gusty winds and all other bad weather: such trees take root deep into the ground, are especially juicy, full of life and strength. On the contrary, the pet of the seclusion and the solitary desert is like a flower and a tree, nurtured and cherished in a greenhouse. He is characterized by destructive effeminacy: at the slightest bad weather he already suffers; the bad weather is a little stronger - he dies. Complete solitude, according to the rules of spiritual law, is allowed only to those whose feat, as St. John Climacus, the gracious dew of the Holy Spirit has descended.” In the winter of 1847, Fr. Ignatius sent the monk Leonid a copy of his work “My Lamentation,” written in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage before leaving. It contains a lot of instructive things for a novice monk, and the entire difficult path of the author to understanding Holy Scripture and the instructions of the Orthodox Holy Fathers, and concisely and vividly described struggles of the soul - with oneself, with the world, and the exposure of the (secular) sciences, this worldly wisdom. These few pages are truly precious - everything that they contain is necessary for us to know today. One of the most important themes in “Lamentation...” is the spiritual work of monks. What is the exercise of monks, for which monasticism itself, as it were, asks Fr. Ignatius. – “It consists in studying all the commandments, all the words of the Redeemer, in assimilating them to the mind and heart. The monk becomes a spectator of two human natures: the damaged, sinful nature, which he sees in himself, and the renewed, holy nature, which he sees in the Gospel... The monk must, in the light of the Gospel, enter into a struggle with himself, with his thoughts, with his heartfelt feelings, with the sensations and desires of the body, with a world hostile to the Gospel, with the rulers of the world trying to keep a person in their power and captivity... The perfection of Christianity is achieved in monasticism, and monks serve as a light for their brethren, living in the middle of the world, busy, distracted by its cares and ministries, unable either to delve deeply into the Gospel or to revive it in themselves in the proper development and completeness. Only he can easily or with contempt think about monasticism who, while calling himself a Christian, has the most superficial, dead concept of Christianity. In order for the gospel qualities to strengthen and mature in a monk, sorrows and temptations are certainly necessary. His meekness must be tested; his humility must be tested; patience and faith are tested.” At the end of December 1847, in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, St. Ignatius wrote: “The 47th year has quickly flown by, and the 48th year will also fly by just as quickly; Many years will soon pass... And we will unnoticed fly through the space of life on the wings of time, unnoticed we will fly to the very gates of eternity!.. As I get older, it seems to me that time has become faster! He's in a hurry, he's in a hurry!.. Stop! Let us take a closer look at ourselves, and learn more about the will of God, and prepare ourselves for eternity! Does not heed the inexorable! He doesn’t deign to honor those who beg him - look down! It's flying!.. People! God commanded you: “Watch!”; God told you about time: “The days are evil.” In his letter to the brethren of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, Ignatius paints a spiritual picture: “I am immersed in contemplation of the field of Christ. How many seeds have been sown on it, how many ears have grown! How beautifully they turn green, make a comforting and delightful noise, stirred by the wind! The time of maturity, the time of harvest, comes for these ears of corn; they leave the field in which they were born and raised, are gathered to the threshing floor, dried, threshed, and winnowed. This is exactly how our life is. How many different revolutions are needed for a person to see all the vanity of the world, all its insignificance, and finally reach, like a threshing floor, the depths of the holy monastery. The heavy, fruitful grain, no matter how it is winnowed, always falls on the threshing floor, and the tares and grains, powerless, empty, light, are carried away from the threshing floor by the wind; At first they appear as a cloud, as something meaningful; then they thin out, thin out, get lost from sight, disappear. The sorrows encountered in society cannot be an excuse for cowardice. A sorrowless life and place on earth is an impossible dream sought by minds and hearts that are alien to Divine enlightenment and deceived by demons. We are commanded to seek peace of mind in the mutual bearing of infirmities... A place and a sorrowless life are in heaven... Earth is a place of sighing, and blessed are those who sigh on it: they will be comforted in heaven. A place and life without sorrow - when the heart acquires humility and through humility enters into patience. All this, everything that is good and saving, is taught to us by the Word of God. And therefore the Lord Himself commands, all the Prophets and Apostles, all the Holy Fathers exhort, command, and beg to remain constantly in the Word of God, which is the source of all good things, which is life, which is light on earth, in this vale of weeping, famine, darkness, death. “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it” (John 1:5). Guided by the ray of this light, the earthly wanderer goes out into saving, spiritual pasture, and from here he begins eternal life. Accept, brothers, my words, which are nothing more than an echo of the teachings of all the Saints.” It's been a difficult year, especially winter. It seemed that Fr. was losing his last strength in the fight against disease. Ignatius. But the Lord did not leave him. It is amazing how much spiritual and written work he achieved during this time. In 1847, his book “A Visit to the Valaam Monastery” was published in St. Petersburg; this monastery about. Ignatius visited during a trip to the monasteries of the Russian northwest in the fall of 1846. A masterfully written work in literary and artistic terms, filled with love for monasticism, for every feature of monastic life. Archimandrite Ignatius sailed on a steamboat from the Konevsky Monastery along Lake Ladoga. “A magnificent storm on Lake Ladoga,” he wrote, “when, in a clear sky, with the sun shining, a gusty wind moves wet hills across the surface of a deep, wide lake. This vast surface is all dotted with azure-colored hills with snow-white silvery ridges. The lake, disturbed by a storm, appears to be animated.” The steamer approaches the island: “You see steep, high naked rocks, proudly emerging from the abyss: they stand like giants... The hermit went out with a waterpot in his hand to draw water and, placing the waterpot on the ground, looked at the vast lake, listened to the talk of the waves, fed his soul with spiritual contemplation. You see bays fenced from everywhere by granite native walls, in which clear, mirror-like waters calmly slumber while a terrible storm rages in the lake... Before you is a vast monastery on a high, long granite rock, like a light burden on the shoulders of a giant. The rock was previously covered with whitish moss. The monks cleared the moss; now the granite is free... A granite staircase has been built along the steep slope of the mountain; along it you ascend to the monastery standing on the top of the mountain.” Next, the author unfolds the picture of the monastery with its churches and then turns to the history of its origin. He writes about the Sarov elder Nazarius, a great ascetic who was summoned to Valaam by the spiritual authorities to restore the monastery. Then both communal living and monasteries appeared here. Father Ignatius described in great detail all monastic obediences - from the abbot to the last monk. He writes with special attention about Divine services. He did not ignore the clothes of the monks, nor their meals, nor, of course, the library. The road to the monastery is beautifully depicted: “The path to it is both by water and by the shore. You need to go down from the monastery along the granite stairs to the harbor. Here you board a boat and, using the same bay that you used to arrive at the monastery, sail further into the depths of the island... Finally, you enter a large oval surrounded by sloping banks on which many birch trees, rowan trees, and maples grow; the rocks are almost hidden from you... Green meadows, dotted and fragrant with countless wild flowers, comfort the eye... You climb a sloping meadow along a radiating path, enter the thicket of the forest: in front of you, suddenly, is a secluded monastery.” The quiet life of the silent monks in the monastery so touched the soul of Fr. Ignatius, that he began to think about living here in retirement. The farewell arranged by Fr. was touching. Ignatius by the inhabitants of Valaam. “When the light monastery boat,” he wrote, “with a favorable favorable wind, carried me away from Valaam, I was sick... Silently I looked at Valaam from the boat... The border of the granite cliff on which the monastery stands, surrounded by a lattice, was humiliated by the brethren. There were mature men, strengthened by battles with themselves, and young men who had just entered the monastery, for whom the struggle still awaits, and decrepit old men, covered with gray hair, whose hearts and thoughts are already calm, for whom a crown was woven and a grave was dug... The majestic ringing of the monastery bells was heard, and the gorges of the stone mountains echoed it from different sides with a polyphonic echo.” What love for monasticism the concluding lines of this remarkable essay in all respects sound like! “Spiritual army! - writes the saint. - Blessed inhabitants of the sacred island! May the blessing of heaven come upon you because you have loved heaven!.. Brothers! You have chosen the good part! Do not look back, do not be attracted again to the world by some vain, temporary pleasures of the world! Everything in him is so shaky, so fickle, so momentary, so perishable!.. Do not let good zeal cool down in your souls; renew it, support it by reading the holy books of the Fathers, run into these books with your mind and heart, isolate yourself in them with your thoughts and feelings, and Valaam, on which you see granite ledges and high mountains, will become for you a step to heaven, that spiritual height from which it is convenient to transition to the abode of paradise.” In 1847 Fr. Ignatius wrote so many letters and spiritual works that, perhaps, even a healthy person would not have been able to do it. He used every minute of relative cheerfulness to express his spiritual thoughts for those rushing onto the path of salvation, putting them into various forms. I would like to use his phrase in relation to his own works: “Run into these books with your mind and heart!” Here we will look only at a few of their pages and write down at least a few thoughts. Fr. has Ignatius has a wonderful sketch, written in connection with his study of the Jesus Prayer, “The Wanderer.” The wanderer here is the Lord, visiting the hearts of those who labor spiritually. And writes about. Ignatius is here about such things about which, of course, nothing can be said in human words. Here, judge for yourself: “Where are you coming from? Where is your usual village? Where have you been before? Why has it hitherto left me alone, in orphanhood, in poverty, in terrible death?.. Don’t leave me! I can't be without you! If you leave me, I’m again at the doors of hell, “again in the abyss, again in unbearable and inexpressible misery. You come - I do not see the image of Your procession... Unexpectedly You appear in the soul, Invisible and Incomprehensible! You appear with indescribable quietness and subtlety, along with the power and strength of the Creator, because you change the whole person: you change, transform, recreate, renew the mind, heart, and body!.. What shall I call You? How can I tell my brothers about You? How will I convey to them the name of the Wanderer, who strayed under the roof of my soul, under a roof that has become dilapidated... What did You find in my heart, to which various sinful thoughts came alternately, entered it unhindered, found in it, as in a manger, as in a pig trough, delicious food for various passionate feelings?.. But You are present! Your immeasurable goodness led You to the vile sinner, so that the sinner, having recognized the dignity and purpose of man..., would leave the paths of iniquity.” And then - a very subtle image of the almost indescribable. Here the Divine Wanderer comes to the doer of the Jesus Prayer: “He has no image, no form, there is nothing sensual in Him. It is completely insubstantial, invisible, extremely subtle: suddenly, unexpectedly, with unspeakable quietness it appears in the mind, in the heart, gradually pours into the whole soul, into the whole body, takes possession of them, removes everything sinful from them, stops the action of flesh and blood, unites the dissected parts of a person together, reveals our whole nature, which crumbled from a terrible fall, just as a meager vessel crumbles from a fall... Divine action is immaterial: not seen, not heard, not expected, unimaginable, inexplicable by any comparison... I saw nothing, heard nothing, but I see myself changed.” It is impossible not to mention one small work called “The Fates of God.” Truly it is worth many books. Father Ignatius in this article, written as is his custom, vividly and at the same time with theological precision, reveals the theme of the governance of the universe by its Creator. “What are God's destinies? – writes Fr. Ignatius. – These are actions or allowances of the will of God, on which the arbitrariness of man has no influence... The ruler of the universe, the initial cause of everything that happens in human society and with each person in particular, an arbitrary, intentional sinner recognizes either human reason or blind, senseless chance. This sinner becomes... in an attitude hostile to the Lord, hostile to His Holy Gospel... God governs the universe; He controls the life of every person in all its details... My life and death are hourly in Your hands! You participate in all my affairs, in all my circumstances... Your right hand constantly directs me on Your path! Without the assistance of this right hand, I would have been hopelessly lost long, long ago, I would have perished irrevocably.” Next - concise, carefully thought out answers to such major questions of existence as the existence of evil in the world; the impossibility of accurately determining what a person is and how soul, mind and body coexist in him; the benefit of a person's sincere awareness of his extreme sinfulness; about the meaning of the words “servant of God” and about the meaning of suffering sent to man by the Lord. The most complex theological and ascetic concepts of Fr. Ignatius makes it clear, he writes for everyone, knowing that those who thirst for truth will not be able to find much or will find a word that is too sophisticated and inaccessible to the inexperienced mind. Of the conclusions, we note here one - about slavery: “Man, having confessed himself to be a slave and a creation of God, having surrendered entirely to the will of God, immediately enters with his whole being into the realm of holy Truth. Truth brings the right mood to the spirit and life. He who has entered the realm of Truth, who has submitted to the Truth, receives moral and spiritual freedom, receives moral and spiritual happiness.” Conscious of being a sinner, a person becomes happy, feeling the caring hand of the Lord on himself. “I see,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - a decisive disorder of my own will, disobedience to its reason, and in reason I see a loss of the ability to guide the will correctly; loss of ability to act correctly. In a distracted life, this state is little noticed, but in solitude, when solitude is sanctified by the light of the Gospel, the state of disorder of mental powers appears in a vast, gloomy, terrible picture. And it serves as evidence to me that I am a fallen being. I am a servant of my God, but a slave who has angered God, a rejected slave, a slave punished by the hand of God. This is how Divine Revelation declares me to be. My condition is a condition common to all people.” About suffering: “Suffering ones! know that you suffer according to the will of God; be convinced that without the will of God, without God’s permission, no sorrow would touch you. The Lord looked mercifully upon you, took pleasure in you, recognized your heart and life as pleasing to Himself, and therefore extended a helping hand to you in His destinies. He sent or allowed you sorrows for your purification, for your protection, as a means to achieve perfection... God has established a narrow and sorrowful path from earthly life to Heaven: the march along this path under the cross is commanded; along this path, under the burden of His Cross, passed the Leader of the Christian tribe, God incarnate. The cross is patience in the Lord of all sorrows and misfortunes that will be allowed by the Providence of God. Such is the judgment of God... All the saints, all without exception, have participated in the sorrowful path.” In the word “On Tears”: “Tears are natural to fallen human nature. Before the fall, it did not know tears; it knew only the purest pleasure of heavenly bliss... A wonderful thing! Those who, by natural inclination, shed streams of effortless, meaningless and fruitless tears, as well as those who shed them for sinful motives, when they want to cry in a godly manner, suddenly see extraordinary dryness in themselves and cannot get a single tear drop from their eyes. From this we learn that tears of fear of God and repentance are the gift of God, that in order to receive them we must first take care of acquiring their cause. The reason for tears is sight and awareness of one’s sinfulness... He who has acquired the sight of his sinfulness, who has acquired the fear of God, who has acquired the feeling of repentance and crying, must ask God for the gift of tears through diligent prayer.” For this, another great gift is needed, for which St. Ephraim the Syrian prays to the Lord in the Lenten prayer: “Grant me to see my sins!..” St. Ignatius addresses the consideration of this gift in the article “Seeing my sin.” There, in particular, he writes: “Whoever accomplishes a great deed - establishes enmity with sin, forcibly tearing away the mind, heart and body from it, God will give him a great gift: sight of his sin. Blessed is the soul that has seen the sin nesting within itself! Blessed is the soul that has seen within itself the fall of its forefathers, the decay of the old Adam! Such a vision of one’s sin is a spiritual vision, a vision of a mind healed of blindness by Divine grace. With fasting and kneeling, the Holy Eastern Church teaches us to ask God to see our sin.” And further: “The sight of one’s sin and the repentance generated by it are actions that have no end on earth: the sight of sin arouses repentance; repentance brings purification; The gradually purified eye of the mind begins to see such shortcomings and damage in the entire human being, which it previously, in its darkness, did not notice at all. Despite all the sinfulness of man, he is the image of God. “Man is the image and likeness of God,” says St. Ignatius in another word. - God, unapproachable in His greatness, God, surpassing every image, was depicted in man... This is how the sun is depicted in a humble drop of water. The essence of man, his supreme power, by which he differs from all earthly animals, by which he is equal to the Angels, his spirit, is the image of the being of God... Man! understand your dignity. Look at the meadows and fields, at the vast rivers, at the boundless seas, at the high mountains, at the luxurious trees... Look at the stars, at the moon, at the sun, at the sky: this is all for you, everything is assigned to your service. In addition to the world we see, there is also a world invisible with bodily eyes, incomparably superior to the visible. And the invisible world is for man. How the Lord honored His image! What a high destiny has been destined for him! God the Trinity was depicted in man. Saint Ignatius, from the similarities between man and God that lie on the surface, goes deeper into this comparison, or rather, this kinship: “The three persons in the trinity of man are the three powers of his spirit, by which the existence of the spirit is manifested. Our thoughts and spiritual sensations reveal the existence of a mind, which, while manifesting itself with all evidence, remains completely invisible and incomprehensible... Our mind is the image of the Father; our word (we usually call the unspoken word a thought) is the image of the Son; spirit is the image of the Holy Spirit. Just as in the Trinity-God the three Persons unfused and inseparably constitute one Divine Being, so in the Trinity-Man the three Persons constitute one being, without mixing with each other, without merging into one person, without dividing into three beings.” A person, frustrating this divine agreement of three persons in himself, brings himself unspeakable internal torment... And it takes a lot of sobriety and attention in order to find damage and distortion in oneself step by step and restore what was destroyed! Non-believers also experience these mental anguish, but they do not understand its origin, they call it boredom, melancholy, melancholy, despair... “Brothers! “As long as we wander on earth,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - while we are on the threshold of eternity - in this visible world - we will try to correct the features of the image of God, imprinted by God on our souls, to give the shades and colors of the likeness beauty, liveliness, freshness, and God, in a terrible test, recognizes us as capable of entering His eternal, blessed Palace, on His eternal day, on His eternal holiday and triumph. In “A Sermon on Salvation and Christian Perfection,” St. Ignatius writes: “Many talk about salvation, many want to be saved, but if you ask them what salvation consists of, the answer becomes very difficult for them... To know what our salvation consists of, we must know in advance what our destruction consists of: because salvation is needed only for the lost. He who seeks salvation thereby necessarily recognizes himself as lost: otherwise why would he seek salvation? Our destruction was accomplished through the destruction of our communication with God and through entering into communication with fallen and rejected spirits. Our salvation lies in breaking off fellowship with Satan and restoring fellowship with God.” And then, on about thirty pages of concise, succinct text, a brief outline of the paths to salvation is presented, as the conciliar mind of our Church understands them, not excluding the private experience of the author of the article himself. In a series of works in 1847, Fr. Ignatius has a treatise entitled “A Discourse on the Various States of Human Nature in Relation to Good and Evil.” In the collection of his works, it occupies fifty pages and gives the impression of a thorough book, since it contains many thoughts, problems, references to Holy Scripture and the works of the Holy Fathers. Saint Ignatius, vividly, as always, accessible to everyone who wants to understand the matter, sets out the doctrine of “human nature” in its three states: after creation, after the fall and after redemption. People who think little about their moral state, who perhaps do not do any major and obvious evil, should be shocked by the picture that Fr. Ignatius: “The poison penetrated into all members of the body, into all the powers and properties of the soul... The mind was sound before the fall; after the fall of all people, without exception, it became false and in order to be saved it must be rejected... From the sinful infection everything in man became disordered; everything works wrong; everything operates under the influence of lies and self-delusion. This is how his will acts, this is how all his heartfelt feelings act, this is how all his thoughts act... From his very birth, a person does not have a single deed, not a single word, not a single thought, not a single feeling, even for the shortest minute, in which there would be good without a greater or lesser admixture of evil. This is attested to by the Holy Scriptures." And further about. Ignatius deeply and in a variety of cases, from the patristic and his own experience, shows the struggle, sometimes exquisitely subtle, that monks, led by their mentors, wage against evil. He also shows “the wondrous spectacle that the saints of God represent: they, being vessels of the Holy Spirit, together saw, recognized, confessed themselves to be the greatest sinners, worthy of temporal and eternal executions. They thoroughly knew and studied their fallen nature, in which there is nothing undefiled, and therefore all the good that was accomplished through them by the Divine grace infused into them, they attributed to Her with full conviction, and constantly trembled so that no thought or feeling would arise from their fallen nature that would be offensive to the Holy Spirit.” In his interpretation of the first psalm (“Blessed is the man...”) Fr. Ignatius calls: “Whoever wants to bear spiritual fruit, let him persevere in a long war, filled with various upheavals and troubles, against sin. Only he can see the fruit of the Spirit on the tree of his soul who cherishes this fruit, holy, tender, with much and courageous patience!” In this war, the main weapon is prayer. Speaking about it in the “Mysterious Explanation of Psalm 99,” Saint Ignatius expresses his personal experience: “Into the prayer of the one praying with pure prayer, spiritual sweetness flows from the feeling of God’s goodness, plunging the human spirit into the abyss of humility, together lifting it from earth to heaven. Such a man of prayer is also the most solitary man of silence. This silent person remains unceasingly with God according to the action of God in him, outside the world, outside thoughts about the transitory, outside of sympathy for the transitory. The heart, revived by its feeling for God and for everything that belongs to God, dies for the world, dies for everything that is hostile to God and that is alien to God. In this death there is life, and in this destruction there is salvation.” Some letters of Saint Ignatius reveal the difficulties with which he constantly struggled. In January 1848, he wrote to S.D. Nechaev from the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery: “I am still being treated for an old cold with slow, but already significant success. All foreign medicines either did not help at all or did not help very much. The simplest remedies worked with excellent results: a bath with salt and rubbing with pure tar, now I know from experience that compared to domestic tar, overseas opolds mean nothing. This is the second year that my treatment has been going on - and I admit that the condition of someone being treated for a chronic illness is more difficult than the condition of someone who is sick: it takes up all the time, the effect of medications puts the body in an unnatural position, takes away physical and mental abilities, takes away the possibility of mental activities, keeps me in a state of incessant fatigue, some kind of numbness and sleepiness. Man is like grass!.. The impoverishment of bodily strength is a temptation, and when the body is exhausted, the soul involuntarily faints.” At the same time, he writes to his sister A.A. Gendre on January 8 of the same 1848: “I heard about your illness. What to do? It is impossible to find consolation in anything else than in patience, which is born from humility. Humility consists in recognizing ourselves as worthy of the sorrow allowed to us by God’s Providence.” Recommended to others. Ignatius performs it himself. It seems that he spends all his time on treatment, but he carries out the feat of prayer and does not let go of the pen. Not only that! He seems to dream of more complete solitude, and not even near St. Petersburg or in the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery, but somewhere far away, where no one knows him. At the end of 1847 - beginning of 1848, he looked at a map of Siberia. On February 23, he writes to his sister E. A. Parensova and her husband D. T. Parensov: “With gratitude I return the plans of Pechora to Dimitry Tikhonovich. Must be a great place! But it seems to me that I am destined to spend most of my life in St. Petersburg.” In another letter to her: “Ah! I wouldn’t want to go to noisy, intriguing St. Petersburg, where stage piety dominates, seeking only to produce an effect in front of people... To have an effect, it’s enough to be, you almost certainly have to be a Jesuit.” A year later, in one of the letters to E. A. Parensova, Fr. Ignatius remarked very frankly: “I was completely disgusted with life in the noisy Sergius Hermitage, in this aristocratic cemetery. In the Babaevsky Monastery I became very cheerful, but here this carefree and light state left my soul.” It's not often that Fr. Ignatius to speak with the oral church word, but the Lord gifted him, like few others, with the written word. “The banner of the Cross flutters over my letter,” he writes. - My word always comes out under this banner! My word is both a proclamation of peace and a proclamation of war: the mysterious army of Israel calls to courage, victory, the conquest of the world - the thoughts and feelings of a Christian.” “One kind of service to one’s neighbor,” he continues in another letter, which I like and like, is service with a word pleasing to God and useful, guiding to salvation. Therefore, desert and solitude are desired by me. With their help, I would like to purify my mind and heart, purify them so that they become living tablets of the living word of God, so that it is depicted on them clearly, brightly, so that abundant salvation flows from the living word of God, pours into my soul and into the souls of my beloved in the Lord.” “I spend my time in idleness,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - this is the reason for the method of treatment I use... I delve into myself: I find that I am formed by illnesses and circumstances for solitude... I find myself incapable of public positions, more capable of solitude, to which I became accustomed, spending many years due to my illness almost hopelessly in my cell. In solitude I can freely indulge in wandering in the regions of the spiritual world where my thought and heart have migrated from earth. I am not able to return them to earth... Everything on earth is hostile to man, and he himself is in a constant struggle with himself. The land is the vale of exile." The saint talks a lot about the benefits of solitude, which a monk so often lacks, but this is his rightful destiny. “I thank the merciful Lord,” he writes, “who brought me to rest in solitude from the rumors of the capital. The feelings that visit a person in solitude are no longer unfamiliar to me. That is why the desert of solitude lured me so conveniently from the noisy Sergius Hermitage. Solitude strengthens the soul, breathes into it some kind of courage, some kind of contempt for the world, which is impossible to feel in contact with the world... In the silence of silence, the soul floats as if in some immense space, looks at the past, at the present, at earth, at heaven, at time, at eternity. “Eternity!..,” he seems to pick up his thought in another letter. “All the times that preceded us flowed there; in this abyss all the millions of people who took turns on the face of the earth disappeared; before her, before her eyes, the world was born, humanity multiplied, tribes, peoples, kingdoms were formed; before her eyes, many flourishing kingdoms have already turned into deserts... And the hermit looks at eternity, gazes in silence, in the silence of his solitude. Instructed by this spectacle, he recognizes and calls everything temporary, as Holy Scripture teaches us to call it, vanity; he is convinced that man’s purpose is not for earth, but for Heaven. And Heaven revealed to us in the Gospel what the inhabitants of heaven should be like.” “Recently I was thinking about the brevity of human life on earth,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - Suddenly life seemed so short to me that the rest of my earthly life seemed to me to have already passed. If I still live, what will I see on earth? Nothing: the same virtues and the same passions that have hitherto appeared before me in various costumes and actions will continue to appear; in the same way, virtue will quietly make its way among people, unnoticed, persecuted by them; in the same way, vice, hiding behind countless guises, will deceive people and dominate among them. A two-year life and a hundred-year life are equally small, insignificant before eternity. Usually people only think of the future as continuous; the past seems to them so short, instantaneous, like a dream from last night. Solitude, combined with attention to oneself, makes the future tense short. Short past, short future! What about earthly life? – The path to eternity, which must be used, but on which one does not need to look to the side. This path must be completed with the mind and heart, not in the number of days and years. The mind, illuminated by the teaching of truth, can keep the heart in peace, meekness, kindness, patience... For this - the desert, and silence, and monasteries! Blessed is he who is worthy of living in a monastery! “Some are called to this holy life from the holy life that preceded it in the midst of the world, others are called to it from the crossroads, from the haluga, from the darkness and abyss of lawlessness. No matter where anyone is called from, be obedient to the Caller, follow the calling voice! Blessed is everyone who comes in the Name of the Lord, called by the Lord!” And if in the world, then here too there is a path to salvation, not much different from the path followed by monastics. “Turn away from the broad path along which almost everyone walks! - calls on Fr. Ignatius, - Choose for yourself the sorrows sent to you by the Providence of God! Love the narrows along which the wise Providence, the Providence of God that saves you, has paved the path for your earthly wandering!.. It is time to begin living a truly Christian life, associated with the crucification of all sensations, desires, thoughts on the cross of the commandments and teachings of Christ. Soon, soon, earthly life will fly by!” Mentions Fr. many, many times. Ignatius “wonderful coolness towards everything earthly,” in which meekness and humility are hidden. He regrets that it is so difficult to find books here, without which it is almost impossible for a monk to be educated. “The works of Western writers, written in a state of self-delusion,” he writes, “find numerous readers, are translated into Russian more than once, loud praises are published: what is filled with deadly poison is approved and approved. The writings of the Holy Fathers have been forgotten!” These “Western works” are in great circulation not only in the world, but also among monks. This is where “stage” religiosity, acting, and falsehoods come from. “Heated, often frenzied daydreaming replaces for them (Western writers) everything spiritual, about which they have no idea. This dreaminess is recognized by them as grace." Many were warned then by Fr. Ignatius from his fascination with the book of Thomas a à Kempis, “On the Imitation of Christ,” written, as the saint said, “in demonic delusion.” “The Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church,” says Fr. Ignatius is already talking about Orthodox authors - they lead their reader not into the arms of love, not to the heights of visions - they lead him to consider his sin, his fall, to confess the Redeemer, to cry for himself before the mercy of the Creator. They first teach us to curb the impure aspirations of our body, to make it light and capable of spiritual activity; then they turn to the mind, straighten its way of thinking, its mind, clearing it of the thoughts that we acquired after our fall, replacing them with thoughts of the renewed human nature, vividly depicted in the Gospel. With the correction of the mind, the Holy Fathers take care of the correction of the heart, of changing its habits and sensations. It is more difficult to cleanse the heart than to cleanse the mind: the mind, having become convinced of the validity of a new thought, easily discards the old one and easily assimilates a new one; but to replace a skill with a skill, a property with a property, a feeling with another feeling, an opposite feeling, this is work, this is intensive long-term work, this is an incredible struggle. The Fathers express the ferocity of this struggle this way: “give blood and receive spirit.” In one of the letters from Fr. Ignatius offers advice on reading the works of the Holy Fathers. He divides readers into three categories. “A Christian living in the middle of the world,” he writes, must read the works of the great saints who wrote for the people, teaching worldly Christian virtues, for those who spend their lives among material pursuits. Another reading is for cenobitic monks: they should read the Holy Fathers who wrote instructions for this kind of life. And another reading for the silent and hermits." Most often, of course, both in his writings and in letters to Fr. Ignatius writes about the Gospel. “The great and all-holy book is the Gospel! - he exclaims - It depicts a new, god-like man, and what the properties of the new man should be - these are revealed by Christ’s commandments. In them, Christ revealed to us His properties, His way of thinking and acting. Peering into the Gospel, looking at ourselves in this mirror, we can little by little recognize our shortcomings, little by little throw out the concepts and properties of our old age, replace them with the thoughts and properties of the Gospel, Christ. This is the task, the lesson that a Christian must resolve and fulfill during earthly life. We must depict a portrait of Christ on the soul, convey to it the resemblance to its prototype... Let us begin spiritual painting! Let us pay attention to the image of God, thrown down, covered with dirt, scratches and dust, inscribed on us and entrusted to us by God! The painter is Christ; His brush is the Holy Spirit. Let us prepare the soul for this painting so that the soul, like a clean new canvas, is able to take on everything - the finest features, the most delicate colors and shades. For such preparation, one needs to cleanse oneself with repentance and wash oneself with tears. And in order to arouse in oneself a feeling of repentance, saving sadness and crying, one must, while abstaining from all passions, often read the Gospel, compare one’s life with its most holy commandments, force oneself to fulfill these commandments, contrary to the aspirations and impulses of the sin-loving will.” Happy were the people, contemporaries of Saint Ignatius, who received such letters from him! To another person who asked whether it is impossible to directly turn to Holy Scripture without the Holy Fathers, Saint Ignatius answers: “How do you want to arbitrarily understand the spiritual word, which was not pronounced arbitrarily, but according to the inspiration of the Spirit, and itself prohibits arbitrary interpretation of itself. The Spirit spoke the Scriptures, only the Spirit can interpret them. Men inspired by God, the Holy Fathers, interpreted it. Therefore, anyone who wants to acquire true knowledge of the Holy Scriptures needs to read the Holy Fathers. If you limit yourself to reading one Holy Scripture, then of necessity you must understand and explain it arbitrarily. Due to the same necessity, it will be impossible for you to avoid errors... The holy ascetics were initially educated by the writings of the fathers, only then did they move on to reading primarily the Holy Scriptures, when they had already achieved special spiritual success. “Deep is the sea of ​​Scripture,” said St. John Climacus, - and the mind of the silent man does not rush through him without trouble: it is dangerous to swim in clothes and touch theology to a passionate one” (Homily 27e). This danger, this disaster, obviously lies in an arbitrary interpretation, in a false concept of Scripture, which is why many monks have fallen into disastrous error.” Saint Ignatius in his letters constantly returns to the most important questions in monastic life. These are gifts from the Lord: love in Christ, obedience, repentance. “The merciful Lord, who gives everything to His servants at the time known to Him,” he writes, “may he grant me, a wanderer, a haven of repentance. May He grant me this precious gift! And I will share the treasures brought by repentance with my friends in the Lord. The gift of repentance is the guarantee of eternal bliss... My soul sighs, longs for deep, inviolable silence, outside of which it is impossible to find abundant, complete repentance. I surrender to the will of God! May God’s will be done over me and over all of us!” In another letter: “Seeing one’s sins is not as easy as it may seem outwardly, at the first superficial glance. To acquire this vision, you need a lot of preliminary information. A detailed knowledge of the Law of God is needed, without which it is impossible to know positively which deeds, words, thoughts, sensations belong to truth and which belong to sin. Sin often takes the form of truth. You need to know in detail the properties of a person in order to know what the sinful ulcers of the mind are, what the ulcers of the heart are, and what the ulcers of the body are. Need to know what is the fall of man? You need to know what properties the descendants of the new Adam should have in order to see what and what our shortcomings are. So much preliminary information is required to obtain detailed information and a clear view of one’s sins! True silence leads to such vision. It gives the soul a dispensation similar to pure mirror waters; in them a person sees his own condition and, in proportion to his success, the condition of his neighbors... Every good deed, no matter how great, can be expected from the immeasurable goodness of God. I believe, and my whole being is immersed in quiet, delightful joy.” “On the path of repentance,” continues Fr. Ignatius, - you will not find contentment with yourself. Looking within yourself, you will not find anything that flatters your pride: on the contrary, you will find much worthy of lamentation and sighing, worthy of bitter and prolonged tears. You will be consoled by your crying... “The feat of repentance can never be over. The perfection of the most perfect is truly imperfect, which is why repentance cannot be determined either by time or by the number of deeds before death” (Isaac of Syria)... The most sublime deeds are vain, fruitless, and often harmful to the soul, when they are not dissolved by a feeling of repentance... The fact that God has opened the path of repentance to you shows the special mercy of God towards you, the special providence of God for you. Separate yourself from the earth with your mind and heart! Meanwhile, the vacation came to an end. It was necessary to return to the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage. In June 1848, having said a warm and touching goodbye to the brethren of the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery, Archimandrite Ignatius went to his homeland, to the village of Pokrovskoye, to see his relatives, visit familiar monasteries, and from there set off for his unloved Petersburg. And here he is again in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, where he must endure many temptations in his abbot post. He is a monk, an ascetic, a mentor to monks, but the course of monastic life is often disrupted by the arrival of various significant persons from the capital - spiritual and secular. They all go to the abbot’s cell, have dinner, talk there as long as they need, and stay overnight. Willy-nilly, it was necessary to maintain decorum, that is, to furnish the cells appropriately. Once visited Fr. Ignatius, a friend of his monastic youth, Archimandrite Zephaniah (future Archbishop of Turkestan and Tashkent). There is a story from a witness to this meeting. “Hearing many stories about the supposedly luxurious life of Father Ignatius and seeing the truly rich furnishings of his cell, Archimandrite Zephaniah asked his friend: “What, Father Ignatius? Where are our dreams of the desert, of strict exploits and hardships? Archimandrite Ignatius silently led him to one of the remote rooms of his abbot's house. And what did the questioner see there? - Bare walls, one poor icon with an unquenchable lamp in front of it, a wretched matting on the floor, and that’s all! Archimandrite Zephaniah understood this silent answer from his friend: all the luxury, all the splendor of Fr. Ignatius were external, but in reality he was an ascetic in the true meaning of the word. Thus, the true servants of God, guided by the spirit of humility, know how to hide their exploits from the eyes of people!” His spiritual friend, Hieromonk Mikhail (Mikhail Chikhachev), who in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage was very happy about his return, was also very happy about the church choir - he sang himself, he had a bass octave of rare beauty. Father Ignatius helped him and sometimes went to great expense for the sake of the splendor of the monastic service. He gathered monks capable of singing from various monasteries of his deanery; bought from the St. Petersburg manufacturer Zhukov his serf, Archdeacon Gideon. A good regent was also found. For five or six years, the choir of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage was led by the famous spiritual composer Archpriest Pyotr Ivanovich Turchaninov, who lived nearby in Strelna, and even wrote a number of works for this choir. The famous Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, who knew Fr. Ignatius, he, like the director of the court chapel A.F. Lvov, took some part in the work to improve singing in the desert. As a result, the monastery choir received all-Russian fame. In the very first months of his stay in the capital’s monastery after Babayek, Fr. Ignatius experienced many temptations. Unfortunately for him, he was in fashion among the nobility; as soon as he arrived after his vacation, invitations to St. Petersburg houses began, requests for service, conversations, confession... “And with me,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - extraordinary paroxysms occurred, during which the perspiration flowed like a river, and I was only able to lie down. The anger was so strong that they tried to accuse me before the Highest Family, but they, knowing that I had been slandered before them many times in vain, did not pay attention to the new slander, but were so merciful that they listened to my explanation. This should not be surprising: everyone who wants to be saved is subjected to various temptations - and blessed is he if he thanks God for his sorrows.” Those who thought that Fr. Ignatius neglects them and tells the sick on purpose, so as not to do what they ask, they easily exchange mercy for anger and spread false rumors about him, complain to the Metropolitan, to the Synod and to the Tsar himself... “For monastic life, peace is needed,” writes Fr. Ignatius to his sister, “and with notorious swindlers it is impossible to maintain peace otherwise than by fleeing from them, or by removing themselves from office, in which they interfere cunningly and maliciously.” Father Ignatius began efforts to resign, to retire. Meanwhile, despite the unfavorable situation, he continues his ascetic life and preaching the ascetic life for the sake of Christ. Every Orthodox Christian has his own abuse. Back in May 1848, Fr. Ignatius wrote to his spiritual daughter, the writer Sofya Ivanovna Snessoreva: “Each of us is destined to take our Jerusalem and our Constantinople from the foreigners... Do not desire, before a decisive victory, neither peace nor rest. Fight! If you feel exhausted, if you are defeated in thought, then encourage yourself again, try not to actually be defeated and learn over time to win when only thoughts collide.” To his sister, A. A. Gendre, Fr. Ignatius advises: “Grantedly endure the furious waves, generously endure the pressure of the fierce winds, endure with the power of faith - and Christ will lead you in due time to his peace. For the many illnesses that visit you in this temporary life, great consolations await you in eternal life. Do not be disturbed by rebellious passions, try as much as possible to resist them: a person, while on earth and clothed in a mortal body, is still subject to change - sometimes he feels peace and tranquility of the heart, not disturbed by any passion, sometimes he is overwhelmed by passions. Such changeability teaches us self-knowledge, humility; teaches us to constantly resort to God’s help, which only leaves us even for one minute, then we fall and commit iniquities.” Fr. Ignatius often returns in his letters to the concept of love. How should you love your neighbor? How to love your enemy? He has precise answers to such questions. “I understand only that love,” he writes in 1849, “which acts according to the sacred commands of the Gospel, in its light, which itself is light. I don’t understand any other love, I don’t recognize it. Love, extolled by the world, recognized by people as their property, sealed by the fall, is not worthy to be called love: it is a distortion of love. That is why it is so hostile to holy, true love. True, holy love for God and neighbor is clearly depicted in the Gospel commandments; its correct, immaculate action is in the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. “Whoever loves Me,” said the Lord, “keeps My commandments.” In such love there can be neither daydreaming nor carnal fervor, because the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments is carried out by beginners with violence against themselves, with such violence that it is called crucifixion, and by those who have succeeded and felt the blessed overshadowing - with an abundant feeling of the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ is a certain subtle spiritual coolness: when it spills into the soul, it remains in high silence, in sacred deadness... Spiritual love is constant, impartial, all in God, embraces all neighbors, loves everyone equally, but also with great differences. “Love your enemies,” says the Gospel, “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who attack you and drive you out” (Matthew 5:44). It clearly and definitely depicts what love for enemies should consist of: in forgiveness of the insults they have caused, in prayer for them, in blessing them, i.e. in good words about them and thanking God for the misfortunes they cause... But the same Gospel commands us to be careful with our enemies, not to trust ourselves to them... The Gospel commands us to love our enemies not blindly, not recklessly, but sanctified by spiritual reasoning. Love is light, blind love is not love. the neighbor was loved as a creation of God. Because of this love in God and for God’s sake, the holy saints of God had equal love for everyone and loved especially those who led a pious life.” Saint Ignatius, who knew well the Russian literature of his time, which had a significant influence on the life of society, was very worried that heroes popular among readers like Onegin and Pechorin had a strong effect on young souls. These are heroes, without a doubt, of a negative, demonic quality, devoid of any feeling of love - both earthly and heavenly. He did not generally reject artistry in verbal creativity, but firmly insisted on one thing: it must lead to God. He has a number of prose miniatures, designed in a literary manner, but the main thing in them is ascetic preaching. And so he decided to write a whole story in the same spirit based on a plot from the biblical Book of Genesis about St. Joseph the Beautiful. He drew attention to the fact that at Matins on Tuesday of Holy Week the legend of St. Ephraim the Syrian about Joseph, presented in a vivid literary form. Father Ignatius conceived the idea of ​​creating a more extensive legend on this topic, but not for church reading, but for everyone and at any time. Here is one of the rare ones for Fr. Ignatius pages, he describes the moment when the idea for the story “Joseph” appeared to him. The idea did not come from thoughts about immoral literary heroes, but from pure inspiration. “An irresistible force is taking me somewhere! - he writes to the monk Leonid. – I’m rushing!.., I’m rushing!.. And now - I have been placed far away and forty centuries away... I am standing in a vast, magnificent palace, in seemingly biblical times. I don’t have time to examine the architecture of the palace in detail, I will only say: it is massive, majestic, luxurious. All my attention is drawn to the action taking place in the palace. A powerful, beautiful ruler is depicted on a hill. His long, shining cloak spread out carelessly and picturesquely; some ends of the cloak lie on a raised platform, others hang down the steps. In vain, in the black, clear eyes of the ruler, with severity and anger, goodness, compassion, love are strengthened to close! At them, at the ruler and the young man, the eyes of all those present bulged comically, burning with curiosity, but unable to understand what was going on... I looked at these curious, searching, not finding any sense - I smiled... and just began to guess that I was in Egypt, that I saw Joseph, sold there as a slave, who became a ruler, that before him was Benjamin, returned from the road as the thief of a precious magical bowls... A charming picture rose up and disappeared! “Joseph” was written in the summer of 1849 and already in August O. I. Senkovsky published it in his “Library for Reading”, accompanied by his note: “We considered it necessary to stop the printing of the story that had already begun here in order to quickly give place to the wonderful work of one of the most gifted teachers of piety in Rus', who has decorated this publication more than once with the creations of his pen. His name, so well known, was always hidden on these pages, but his voice probably resonated each time in the souls of readers with the spiritual tenderness that he arouses in listeners in another, more holy place. A few lines of introduction will explain both the purpose of the venerable author and the reason for placing here a story of a completely new type in belles-lettres. The reason can be stated very briefly. The story is of sacred content; but the presentation of this sacred story is entirely literary, and its language is fascinating, artistic, and adapted to the reading beloved of modern secular imaginations. The Monk Ephraim of Sira, a famous writer of the 4th century, compiled the Tale of the Beautiful Joseph in the literary form of that time. This Legend or this Word is read according to the instructions of the church charter at Matins, on Tuesday, during Holy Week. Why shouldn’t such a Legend be in a literary form that is contemporary to us? This story preserves the strictest historical accuracy, as required by both the subject matter borrowed from Holy Scripture and the education of our language. The explanation of the transformations is drawn from the Holy Fathers. The rarity of such works, so savingly and so unexpectedly transporting us from vanity and its fleeting pleasures to the eternal world of spirit and heavenly virtue, is already a very sufficient reason to prefer such a work here to any other.” Then the preface of Fr. himself was not published with this story. Ignatius, but it contains thoughts that - in relation to literature and literary heroes - were important then, and perhaps even more important today. “Pushkin’s Onegin and Lermontov’s Pechorin depict an egoist contemporary to each of the two poets,” he writes. – Did those who looked into this mirror and recognized themselves in it feel remorse? Has the thought of reform been planted in their soul, like a blessed seed? Doubtful. It was fun for the author of Pechorin, as he himself says, to draw a modern person: why isn’t it fun for a modern person to see himself drawn? Why shouldn’t a modern person complete in himself, according to the artist’s drawing, what was missing? Self-love admires itself, rejoices in its successes. When it takes possession of a person, it begins to quickly strive for perfection and strives for it until it develops a demon out of the person. Of course, many young people, before entering the world or having just entered it, read Onegin, especially Pechorin, with all the fervor, with all the sensitivity of youth: did this reading produce in them a disgust from selfishness? Doubtful, doubtful! This is not the fate of human nature, even if it has not yet been spoiled by the experiences of life. Most of the young readers must have been infected with the poison of selfishness! The thought certainly flashed in many: “This is the sure way to keep up in the world!” and - forward, in the footsteps of Grigory Alexandrovich. We don’t think long, especially in our youth, when deciding our fate: the deceitful promise of the seducer “you will be like a god” retains to this day all its power over people. The above thought of young men is far from being solid, but it must certainly be born in an inexperienced soul when reading “A Hero of Our Time”: after all, he gets away with everything, every enterprise succeeds! What more do you need? And the writer’s masterful hand left on the image of an immoral person, alien to religion and truth, a kind of gloomy beauty, the alluring beauty of an outcast angel. Grigory Aleksandrovich seduces not only when reading his exploits, he seduces with a strong impression that remains and lives for a long time after reading the novel. The author of Pechorin did not decide for himself whether his book was useful or harmful. Pechorin dies during a stupid trip to Persia. During his lifetime he was dead to society, in particular to his neighbors; Moreover, he infected anyone with a mortal disease whoever came into contact with him. And that's not enough! Despite his moral loneliness, his alienation from people, Pechorin left behind a numerous descendant of followers, whom he leads to the same place he himself reached. According to the examples of vice, a person becomes corrupted, but according to the examples of virtue, a person is corrected. For this purpose, a story is proposed here, in all its beginnings the opposite of the two above-mentioned stories, opposite both in impression and consequences. It is not fiction - a presentation of a true event while maintaining all historical accuracy. The impression from it should be positive, significant, true, strong, not dreamy, it should act with truth, and not with passion and seduction. Unbelief is the source of selfishness; faith in God is the source of correct love for oneself and one’s neighbor. Actions flowing from a right belief in God are radically opposed to actions flowing from faith in oneself or in some vague fatalism. Everyone, of necessity, must be convinced that good is mixed with evil in a person: does satisfying only vicious aspirations mean loving oneself? Rather, it means to hate. And this is how egoists love themselves. That is why they are enemies to themselves and everyone. Correct self-love lies in suppressing evil in oneself, in the possible development of good. A sound mind, of necessity, must recognize this love as true. This is how it is recognized by God: God’s commandment points to it as the measure of love for one’s neighbor. The very consequences justify it; a person is brought into agreement with himself, with society, with circumstances, whatever they may be; all his actions bear the stamp of high virtue; the consequences of these actions are constantly and always beneficial. He who believes in God with living faith and is guided in his actions by the Law of God endures with firmness and courage the disasters of earthly wandering; does not abuse the weakness of his neighbors; does not take revenge on enemies - does good to them; controls the feelings of the heart for a well-intentioned purpose, not for the purpose of criminally fulfilling his deeply vicious plans; arranges state and family welfare; knows how to be wisely and beneficently strict to correct people who have strayed from the path of truth; his moral strength, the strength of virtue, has a happy and lasting influence on his posterity; the virtue innate in his heart gives him a gentle and at the same time strong pleasure: it is heard in his soul... Joseph serves as historical, true proof of all this. We wish that his offspring would be numerous, that many of Pechorin’s followers would turn into Joseph’s followers; We want this for the good of the general, for the good of the private, for the true and eternal good.” Unfortunately, our literature has not taken advantage of the literary experience of St. Ignatius. She was simply not ready (as she still is not ready), with the exception of Gogol, to take this path. Of course, Saint Ignatius did not exchange the words of a preacher for the pen of a writer, but, in addition to prosaic miniatures and “Joseph,” he left one poetic work: “The Christian Shepherd and the Christian Artist” (“artist” here in the broad sense of creativity, when a painter, writer, musician is called that way...). This is a conversation between the Shepherd and the Artist. Here are the fundamental statements from the Shepherd's answers. He says: “God alone is an object that can satisfy the spiritual aspirations of man. This is how we are created and created for this. It is given to man to look at his Creator and see Him through all of nature, as if through glass; it is given to man to look at Him and see Him in himself, as if in a mirror. When a person looks at God through nature, he recognizes His immeasurable power and wisdom; The more a person accustoms himself to such vision, the more God appears majestic to him, and nature loses its splendor before him, as a conductor of - and only - wonderful vision... Most of the talents sought to depict human passions in luxury. Evil is depicted by singers, depicted by painters, depicted by music in all possible variety. Human talent, in all its strength and unfortunate beauty, developed in the depiction of evil; in depicting goodness he is generally weak, pale, strained... When the talent has mastered the Gospel character, and this is associated with labor and internal struggle, then the artist is illuminated with inspiration from above, only then can he speak holy, sing holy, paint holy. In order to think, feel and express spiritually, one must bring spirituality to the mind, the heart, and the body itself. It is not enough to imagine goodness or to have the correct concept of goodness: you must infuse it into yourself, be imbued with it... The Lord who became man has already blessed them to approach Him and offer themselves to Him as a verbal sacrifice. His blessing is quite enough for you... Stop wandering, as in a wild desert, among animals, in a carnal state, among various passions! Enter the Court of Christ through the gates - through repentance and weeping. This cry will in due time give birth to joy, although on earth, but not earthly. Spiritual joy is a sign of the triumph of the soul over sin. Sing your cry, and may the Lord grant you to sing also your joy.” This ideal of the artist in our culture is embodied more or less only in individual works of literature, painting, and music. But in general, our culture took the high road and became smaller. Her path coincides with the spiritual paths followed by the Russian intelligentsia, or more precisely, the entire educated society: all the paths to sophisticated egoism, to atheism (we repeat that there were quite a few exceptions). There is still no talk here of the so-called “mass culture”, but isn’t it really that which finds infinitely varied colors in the depiction of evil? Saint Ignatius in due time will appear as the only one of the critics who clearly and unequivocally pointed out this vice of culture. There are very interesting thoughts about sinful - heretical literature - in the treatise of St. Ignatius “The Concept of Heresy and Schism.” He, of course, speaks here more about books on heretical “dogmatics”, about “ascetic” books, but his assessments can quite rightly apply to works of art, where heresy is often much more effective than in theoretical works. “Novels, comedies and other works that are clearly sinful, filled with sensuality,” the saint writes, “are also the fruits of heresy... Reading all these books is extremely harmful, although for inexperienced eyes the poison is noticeable in some of them, while in others it is very hidden. The inconspicuousness of the poison does not diminish its potency; on the contrary, refined poisons act with particular destructiveness. Reading a “dogmatic”, especially “ascetic” heretical book often arouses lustful thoughts, and reading novels arouses thoughts of unbelief, various bewilderments and doubts about faith. Sins, like unclean spirits, have an affinity with each other... People devoted to voluptuousness read heretical books about Christian asceticism and perfection with particular eagerness, and are alienated and disgusted by the moral books of the Orthodox Church. What is the reason for this? - Similarity in mood. These people find pleasure in reading a book written out of dreaminess and self-reflection, seasoned with refined voluptuousness, vanity, arrogance, which seem to be grace to minds and hearts not purified by the true teaching of Christ. Orthodox books call for repentance and abandonment of a sinful life, for self-sacrifice, for self-condemnation and humility, which is precisely what the son of the world does not desire.” Before the eyes of Saint Ignatius, the spirit of worldliness continued to penetrate into icon painting and church music. “Western enlightenment,” he writes, “has poured into Russia so strongly that it has invaded the Church and has violated its Eastern Orthodox character, although it has violated it on subjects that have nothing to do with the essence of Christianity... These violations are so trivial that they can be eliminated very quickly. Russia no longer obeys or blindly imitates Europe; it subjects Western education to prudent criticism... The Russians realized that Italian paintings cannot be holy icons. Meanwhile, Italian painting has entered almost all Orthodox Russian churches since the transformation of Russia into the European way... All movements, all poses, all physiognomies in Italian paintings or in general in paintings painted by Western heretics and depicting sacred objects are sensual, passionate, feigned, theatrical; there is nothing sacred or spiritual in them; it is clear that the painters were completely carnal people who did not have the slightest idea about the spiritual state... Having no idea what expression the facial features of a holy man, deep in his prayer, take, what expression his eyes, his lips, his hands, his whole body take, they compose in their ignorant imagination an arbitrary, ignorant dream... The students of the Russian Academy of Arts received education according to Western models and filled the churches with icons, completely unworthy of the name of icons... The image of a saint should be alien to an exquisite pose, movement, depicting enthusiasm, a romantic, sentimental facial expression, with an open mouth, with the head thrown up or with eyes strongly directed upward. The last position, which is usually resorted to to depict the state of prayer, is precisely what the Holy Fathers forbid to have during prayer... Many are also beginning to understand that Italian singing is not suitable for Orthodox worship... Court singing (here I am referring more to mass; however, “Lord, have mercy,” sung at the Liturgy, is already sung at all church services), which has now come into general use in Orthodox churches, is unusually cold, lifeless... The works of the newest composers express the mood of their spirit, Western, earthly, spiritual, passionate or cold mood, alien to the feeling of the spiritual... Despite the correctness of the translation, the canon of Easter has lost its character of solemn joy and acquired a sad character: this is no longer the delight produced by the resurrection of the entire human race in Christ, it is a funeral lament. In some of the transcriptions, those who worked on them introduced their own character, destroying the completely church character: military music is heard in them, as, for example, in “Bless the Lord, my soul...” with which the all-night vigil begins. Why is this so? Because the arrangement was carried out under the leadership of a military man, completely secular, who formed his taste in anti-church music.” From everything that Saint Ignatius said, it is clear in how diverse ways and how cunningly heresy makes its way into the spiritual culture of Russia, into the life of the Church. The saint wrote and spoke a lot about prayer and in particular about the Jesus Prayer. Here he writes to one nun: “Saint Isaac says in the 40th Word: “Love bowing in prayer rather than practicing poetry,” that is, in the singing of psalms and canons. Let the number of bows be determined by the satisfaction of their purpose. Their goal is to warm the body, and the spirit also gets hot. At the same time, it is good to remember the words of St. Demetrius, spoken by him from experience and belonging to his cell stay: “It is better to have a short and frequent prayer than a long one with long intervals.” Are you asking what bodily prayer means? This is generally the prayer of beginners, especially choir singing, and especially notated singing, where all attention is paid to the voice. From this prayer, accompanied by strong outward jealousy, also carnal, a person moves to heartfelt and mental attention... You write that at the beginning of the exercise in the Jesus Prayer, you were overcome only by despondency and its products: despair, bewilderment, sleep, etc. This is a good sign: “The benefits of prayer,” said St. John Climacus, “can be noticed from the demonic obstacles that arise during the meeting, that is, prayer.” You, of course, remember that I instructed you to listen with your mind to the tongue quietly pronouncing the prayer, without at all allowing yourself to delve into the art described in the “Philokalia”... From the art of the nostrils Avoid breathing!” '3 In the early 1850s, St. Ignatius published a number of writings on prayer that could form a book on the subject. The short treatise “The Spirit of Novice Prayer” consists of an introduction, forty paragraphs and a conclusion. Here every phrase is thought out and there is not a single extra word. They are often aphoristic. For example: “True prayer is the voice of true repentance”; “Even if someone stands at the very height of virtues, if he does not pray as a sinner, his prayer is rejected by God”; “The virtue of prayer lies solely in quality, and not in quantity.” On a few pages there are many thoughts, and all of them are supported by references to the works of saints Isaac the Syrian, John Climacus, Gregory the Sinaite, Mark the Ascetic and others. This article introduces, as a kind of preface, all issues related to prayer. Adjacent to it are short, 56-page words: “On the cell prayer rule” and “On church prayer.” “Rule! – writes Saint Ignatius. – What an exact name, borrowed from the very effect produced on a person by prayers called the rule! The rule of prayer guides the soul correctly and holy, teaches it to worship God in Spirit and Truth, while the soul, left to itself, could not follow the correct path of prayer.” Saint Ignatius in these articles gives monks precious advice from his own prayer experience. Using these works as a textbook (in fact, under the guidance of the author himself), a beginner can enter into the essence of one of the most complex ascetic matters. But this is just the beginning. This is followed by: “A Word on Oral and Public Prayer”; “A word about the teaching or memory of God...”; “A Word about mental, heartfelt and spiritual prayer”; the extensive “Sermon on the Jesus Prayer” (80 pages) and the treatise “On the Jesus Prayer” (92 pages). To this we must add the many teachings on prayer scattered in the letters of St. Ignatius. When the book “The Life and Writings of the Moldavian Elder Paisius (Velichkovsky)” published by Optina Pustyn came out of print, Elder Macarius sent several copies to Archimandrite Ignatius, as well as to many other abbots of Russian monasteries. Here, as Fr. wrote. Ignatius, “with particular clarity, a teaching is presented that is very appropriate for our time, the teaching about the Jesus Prayer, about which today, for the most part, they have the most obscure, confused concept. Others, who consider themselves gifted with spiritual reasoning and are revered by many as such, “fear” this prayer as if it were some kind of infection, citing “charm” as the reason - as if it were an indispensable companion to the exercise of the Jesus Prayer, they themselves move away from it and teach others to move away. The inventor of such a teaching, in my opinion, is the devil, who hates the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it destroys all his power: he trembles at this omnipotent Name, and therefore slandered Him before many Christians... The reason for delusion is not prayer, not psalms, not canons and akathists, not the Jesus Prayer - no! God save everyone from such blasphemy! Pride and lies are the cause of charm! Pride and lies, the culprit of which is the devil. And he, in order to shift the blame from himself, impudently and blasphemously slandered the Jesus Prayer - he himself stood aside, as if guilty of nothing. Nowadays, many are anxious, wary, and warn others against the Jesus Prayer, claiming that they should avoid it as something that causes delusion, but not a word is said about the devil, the real culprit of delusion, and they have completely forgotten. Oh! What an obvious trick of the devil! How skillfully he hides!” Saint Ignatius himself was a doer of the Jesus Prayer; his great experience in this spiritual work allowed him to destroy the devil's lies. His writings on the Jesus Prayer included the experience of all ascetics of the spirit - from the Apostles and Egyptian hermits to Russian elders, such as Nil Sorsky, Paisius (Velichkovsky) and Seraphim of Sarov, whom he even then called a saint. Having summarized their experience, he did not leave a single question related to the Jesus Prayer without a detailed explanation. “Under the name of teaching or the memory of God,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - the Holy Fathers mean some kind of short prayer or even some short spiritual thought, which they were accustomed to and which they tried to assimilate to the mind and memory instead of any thought. Is it possible to replace all other thoughts with one short spiritual thought about God? - Can. The Holy Apostle Paul says: “For I judge not the things that are in you, but rather Jesus Christ, and Him crucified...”. The teaching or remembrance of God is a Divine institution... “Be vigilant at all times when you pray,” the Lord once bequeathed to His disciples who stood before Him. He bequeaths this to us too.” “Exercise in unceasing prayer,” continues Fr. Ignatius, - accustoming oneself to it is necessary for every monk who wants to achieve Christian perfection. Practicing unceasing prayer and accustoming oneself to it is the duty of every monk, entrusted to him by the commandment of God and monastic vows.” “Why is unceasing prayer or unceasing remembrance of God called “teaching”? - continues Fr. Ignatius. – Because the ascetics, upon whose work the dew of Divine grace descended, found in the short prayer they repeated a spiritual, deepest, inexhaustible meaning, which constantly attracted and aggravated their attention with its spiritual novelty. And for them the short verse became the most extensive science, the science of sciences, and their study became, in the precise sense, teaching.” “Called by heartfelt prayer, Christ sends down into the heart a spiritual power called the peace of Christ, incomprehensible to the mind, inexpressible in words, incomprehensibly comprehended by one blissful experience.” “If you are fed up, you will especially get drunk,” develops the last thought of Fr. Ignatius, the holy world will cease to act in you. If you get angry, its effect will cease for a long time. If you allow yourself to be insolent, he will stop acting. If you love something earthly, become infected with an addiction to a thing, to some kind of handicraft, or a special disposition towards a person, the holy world will certainly retreat from you. If you allow yourself the pleasure of lustful thoughts, he will leave you for a long, very long time, as one who cannot tolerate any stench of sin, especially that of lust and vainglory. You will look for it and you will not find it. You will mourn over his loss, but he will not pay any attention to your crying, so that you learn to give the gift of God its due price and preserve it with due care and reverence.” “Praying the Jesus Prayer,” writes Saint Ignatius, “is a Divine institution. It was established not through the medium of a prophet, not through the medium of an Apostle, not through the medium of an Angel, but was established by the Son of God and God Himself. After the Last Supper, among other sublime, final commandments and testaments, the Lord Jesus Christ established prayer in His name, gave this method of prayer as a new, unusual gift, a gift of immeasurable price... How can we, insignificant, mortal, sinners, accept the gift? Neither our hands, nor our minds, nor our hearts are capable of this. Teach us to know, to the best of our ability, the greatness of the gift, and its meaning, and the method of acceptance, the method of use, so that we do not approach the gift in error.” And so a person decides to begin to fulfill this sacred covenant of the Lord. “The power of Satan,” writes Fr. Ignatius, who dwells in a person during his absent-minded life, unnoticed and incomprehensible, when he hears the name of the Lord Jesus called upon by the one praying, he becomes confused. It stirs up all the passions in a person, through them it brings the whole person into terrible oscillation, producing various strange diseases in the body. In this sense, the Monk John the Prophet said: “We who are weak can only resort to the name of Jesus: for the passions, as it is said, are demons - and come from calling on this name” (Response 301). This means: the action of passions and demons is cumulative... Let us not become despondent and bewildered by this. On the contrary, let us take heart and prepare for heroism.” “Staying with your mind and heart in heaven and in God,” continues Fr. Ignatius, - this is the main fruit, this is the goal of prayer; repelling and trampling on enemies who oppose the achievement of the goal is a secondary matter: it should not attract all attention to itself, so that through the consciousness and contemplation of victory it does not allow arrogance and conceit to enter into oneself.” Saint Ignatius cites statements about the Jesus Prayer by Saints Anthony the Great, Macarius of Egypt, Saints Basil the Great and John Chrysostom, mentions the great workers of prayer, Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, Martyr Callistratus of Carthage, Saints Pachomius and Isaiah, natives of Upper Egypt, Nitrian and hermitage monks of Lower Egypt; ascetics of Mount Sinai. “From this it is clear,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - that prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus was universal, commonly used in the Universal Church. In addition to the mentioned Fathers, the following wrote about the Jesus Prayer: St. Hesychius, a Jerusalem presbyter, a disciple of St. Gregory the Theologian, a writer of the 5th century, already complaining about the abandonment by monks of the exercise of the Jesus Prayer and sobriety; Reverends Philotheus of Sinaite, Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory of Sinaite, Theoliptus of Philadelphia, Gregory Palamas, Caudistos and Ignatius Xanthopoulos and many others... From the Russian Fathers there are writings about her by the Venerable Nilus of Sorsky, the holy monk Dorotheus, Archimandrite Paisius (Velichkovsky), Schemamonk Vasily (Polyanomerulsky) and hieromonk Seraphim of Sarov. All the mentioned writings of the Fathers are worthy of deep respect for the abundance of grace and spiritual intelligence living in them and breathing from them; but the writings of the Russian Fathers, due to their particular clarity and simplicity of presentation, due to their great proximity to us in relation to time, are more accessible to us than the writings of Greek lamps. In particular, the writings of Elder Basil can and should be recognized as the first book to which in our time anyone who wants to successfully engage in the Jesus Prayer must turn.” “The book of St. Nile of Sora is excellent... The books of the Fathers constitute the only source to which a soul tormented by hunger and thirst can turn to acquire essential knowledge in spiritual deeds. These books are the dearest legacy left by the Holy Fathers to their monastic offspring, to us, the poor. These books are crumbs that have fallen to us and constitute our share, crumbs from the spiritual meal of the Fathers, rich in spiritual gifts.” Later, Russian preachers, in their teachings about the Jesus Prayer, will also point to the writings of St. Ignatius. He himself, lamenting the impoverishment of spiritual guidance, writes that “our only guide should be the Fatherly Scriptures and prayerful lamentation before God.” And further about. Ignatius gives a most detailed and extensive presentation of the teaching of the holy Orthodox Fathers about the Jesus Prayer, all its foundations and shades. He does not exclude the laity from the number of possible practitioners of the Jesus Prayer, but still often points out that only monks can truly do this work. Many Holy Fathers who wrote about prayer thought so. And for monks, doing smart things is becoming more and more difficult. Even in monasteries it is difficult to find a place of unentertained solitude, much less a long silent life. Father Ignatius writes: “Perfect silence in our time is very inconvenient, almost impossible: Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius of Nikiforov, Nikandr of Babaevsky - monks who were very successful in mental prayer, remained at times either in silence or in the company of monks.” It happens like that. “St. Simeon the New Theologian says that, at the inspiration of demons, monks who lead a hypocritical life envy the true ascetics of piety, and use all measures to upset them or expel them from the monastery. Even well-meaning monks, who lead an outward life and have no idea about spiritual life, are seduced by spiritual workers, find their behavior strange, condemn and slander them, and make various insults and oppressions against them. The great practitioner of the Jesus Prayer, the blessed elder Seraphim of Sarov, suffered many troubles from ignorance and a carnal view of the monasticism of his brothers, because those who read the Law of God physically believe to fulfill it only by external deeds, without mental achievement.” What a huge number of obstacles lie in the way of the practitioner of the Jesus Prayer! And yet Fr. Ignatius calls for approaching it with simplicity and openness: “Let us engage in the Jesus Prayer unselfishly, with simplicity and directness of intention, with the goal of repentance, with faith in God, with complete devotion to the will of God, with hope in the wisdom, goodness, omnipotence of this holy will... We are sinners, unworthy of spiritual pleasures and visions... Let us stand mentally before our Lord By Jesus Christ in the face of the lepers, the blind, the deaf, the paralytic, the raving, let us begin before Him from the poverty of our spirit, from a heart crushed by illness about our sinfulness, a lamentable cry of prayer. Let this cry be unlimited in abundance!” In another article about. Ignatius reminds us that in spiritual work there is a danger of overstraining one’s strength: “One should not burden the mind with excessive reading of prayers and Scripture, and one should also not miss one’s duties for immoderate exercise in prayer and reading. Just as excessive consumption of food upsets and weakens the stomach, so excessive consumption of spiritual food weakens the mind, produces in it an aversion to pious exercises, and makes it despondent.” Every person has his own measure. By repeatedly and carefully re-reading the writings of Saint Ignatius - on prayer and in general on spiritual life - the reader can build for himself that chain of mentoring recommendations that the saint himself seemed to have built for him. Attempts to leave the position of rector and retire Fr. Ignatius did not succeed. Neither the Synod nor the Emperor agreed to let him go. He wrote to his sister Elizaveta Alexandrovna on February 19, 1853: “It is not for nothing that one great Father said: “The beginning of evil is absent-mindedness.” How I would like, with my advanced years and poor health, to take refuge in some secluded place unknown to the world. But I still don’t see any means for this.” “Our monastery is noisy,” he wrote to his sister in another letter, “but there is nothing to do: you live not the way and where you would like, but where and how the incomprehensible Providence of God leads... Humility consists, among other things, in recognizing ourselves as worthy of the position in which we find ourselves... In our time, God grants salvation more through humility than feat: now, with increased infirmities, feat is especially dangerous, as it is strongly denigrated condemnation, moreover, requiring an experienced leader; and humility is always unfallen.” To his brother, Pyotr Alexandrovich, Fr. Ignatius writes about his same desire: “No matter how much I prayed to God to grant me a solitary life, I still remain in the Sergius Hermitage, exposed to various kinds of entertainment.” These entertainments are the essence of sorrow, and one had to have great spiritual experience in order to endure them with humility. In one of the letters of 1853, Fr. Ignatius says that the sorrows of Christians at different times had their own characteristics. “At first there was an obvious persecution of Christians,” he writes. – All twelve main Apostles of Christ, with the exception of John the Theologian, ended their earthly wanderings with violent death. Subsequently, this obvious persecution was transformed into a more subtle one... they began to demand not the renunciation of Christ, but the acceptance of heresy, as soul-destructive as renunciation... Further, the persecution became even more subtle: faith in Christ was left to its own devices, and living according to the commandments of Christ was rejected: a life opposite to them was accepted, which is why faith cannot in any way move from introductory to active, much less to living, that is, spiritual... In this state of confusion and darkness, we see at the present time many who consider themselves Christians and even teachers of the Church of Christ, some of them do not believe the miracles of Christ, counted in the Gospel, another believes one part of the teachings of Christ, and rejects the other; others do not believe in the existence of demons; again, another thinks, not being able to distinguish works of faith from works of nature, that everyone will be saved for their good deeds... For this reason, it is very rare to hear the true Word of God from human lips, although one can often hear a counterfeit one. The hunger of hearing the Word of God is a disaster, incomparably grave, a disaster of all the disasters that have ever been unleashed on Christians.” During this “famine” - what a gratifying phenomenon was the activity of Optina Pustyn in publishing the ascetic writings of the Orthodox Fathers! It became possible under the patronage of St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. His authority in the Church was so high that the Synod, of which he was a member, could not reproach him for allegedly allowing a violation of Peter’s “Spiritual Regulations,” which indicated that the printing of spiritual books is the work of only the Holy Synod. The trouble was that the publications of the Synod, although very valuable, were rare; over many years a limited range of books were published. Almost all asceticism remained in handwritten form. There was a famine! The same hunger motivated Fr. Ignatius was engaged in the translation of teaching books, which were then copied by monks, and sometimes by laymen. Each publication by Optina is an invaluable gift to monasticism. Since the publication of “The Life and Writings of the Moldavian Elder Paisius Velichkovsky,” Elder Macarius sent each successive book to Archimandrite Ignatius in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage. “I would like to thank you for a copy of the newly published book by St. Theodore the Studite,” writes Fr. Ignatius to St. Macarius in April 1853. – In accordance with how you deign to write, His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow deigned to write to me that he wants the book of St. Isaac of Syria to be published. All monasticism owes gratitude to this archpastor for the publication of the Fatherly books by Optina Hermitage... I completely agree with you that for monasticism, which lives according to the books of the Holy Fathers, an accurate translation from the originals by a person who fully knows monastic life is necessary. Such a person, without a doubt, was Elder Paisios” (at the conclusion of the letter, Father Ignatius asks to send him twelve copies of Theodore the Studite and Simeon the New Theologian “with an indication of the price for them.” In another letter to Elder Macarius, Fr. Ignatius writes: “All Russian monasticism owes special gratitude to Optina Pustyn for the publication of many of the works of the Holy Fathers, the translation of Elder Paisius, which so accurately conveyed the thoughts of the fathers. And the translation into Russian of Russian monastic writings, according to knowledge of monastic life, is much more satisfactorily accomplished by the brethren of your Abode than their translation by people alien to this life.” U o. Ignatius had an idea - if allowed to retire, he would settle on Valaam or in the monastery of Optina Pustyn. In 1855 or 1856, he wrote to Elder Macarius: “I ask for your holy prayers, so that the merciful Lord will grant me also to escape from the jaws of the world and join your God-saved flock, if this is His holy will. As for me, the very answer and my wretched judgment constantly convince me of the greatest benefit and even the necessity of moving away from this noisy place, which, in moral terms, is like a village along the way. Everything monastic is destroyed here by absent-mindedness, all crops are trampled by those passing by.” November 25, 1855 Fr. Ignatius writes to Archimandrite Damascene, abbot of the Valaam Transfiguration Monastery: “I would like to spend the rest of my days in the Valaam monastery; Only if it is impossible to fit in it, I mean Optina Pustyn. The latter represents more benefits in material terms: there the climate is much more favorable, vegetables and fruits are very strong and in large quantities, but Valaam has the invaluable benefit of deep solitude. Moreover, dry and warm cells (since I leave my cell only on good summer days, and in spring, autumn and winter I almost never go out at all) can materially make my stay on Valaam Island a lot easier... Living in a monastery would be more familiar and comfortable for me. The very silence of the monastery, into which the female sex is forever prohibited, completely corresponds to the requirements of my health and spiritual mood. The monastery is protected from everywhere by drains from the winds: this would give me the opportunity to work even on summer days.” Further, noting that the monastery charter on Valaam is too strict regarding food, and especially for the current weak monks, Fr. Ignatius suggests: “Would you please introduce into the Valaam monastery the regulations of the Optina monastery, the solidity of which and reasonable compliance with the weakness of the present generation is proven by the fact that the Optina monastery abounds in the most chosen brotherhood, which greatly contributes to the flourishing well-being of the monastery and the monastery itself. This select fraternity consists of several retired superiors and several persons of educated secular circle. Being weaker in physique than common people, they are incapable of strong physical labor and feats, but they are more capable of spiritual feats and activities that require mental development... All this I propose, beloved father, for your consideration, so that you may be moved to forbearance of my weakness and those like me with weakness... At first, even in the Optina monastery, the zeal of its founders was directed towards a particularly strict fast, but seeing that with such strictness the monastery should be left without brethren, she softened and gave rules for food that were more accessible, however, still much more strict than the rules on food laid down by the church for the schema-monk living at the monastery. However, despite such mitigation, there were few, very few hunters from the numerous brotherhood of Optina Pustyn to live in the monastery. When the elder hieromonk Leonid arrived there with several of his disciples and the abbot handed over the monastery to him for spiritual management, then the monastery began to be populated, and populated mainly by people of weak constitution who were looking for peace in solitude. All this, i.e., the state of the monastery before the arrival of Fr. Leonidas and his condition upon the arrival of the elder, I was an eyewitness... therefore I am telling you in such detail about the Optina monastery that its flourishing condition and the improvement of the monastery itself that resulted from it are facts, and facts constitute the most reliable evidence. As for the hostel itself, that is, the Valaam monastery itself, I find its present structure to be the first in Russia, far superior to the famous hostels of Beloberezh, Ploshansky, Sofronievsky, even Optina and Sarov, because in these monasteries, much closer to the world, the monks have incomparably more means of communicating with the world, making connections with it... When I retire from office and move to the solitude of your monastery, perhaps by the special grace of God I will be given time to repent and I will last for several years. In this case, the Valaam monastery can be populated by monks who are close to me, just as Optin was populated when Fr. Leonida." However, Abbot Damascene did not agree to change the monastery charter. In 1856, Fr. Ignatius went to Optina... “This spring,” he writes to Abbot Bartholomew in December of this year, “I spent four weeks in Optina Hermitage. God will save Father Macarius! The brothers and visitors live and breathe it! In terms of its external structure, the monastery became very open, the forest was cleared, and there were many visitors. The sulfur spring there brought me significant benefit.” After this trip Fr. Ignatius writes to his brother Pyotr Alexandrovich in Stavropol: “I wanted to see with my own eyes the Optina Pustyn, which at present is undoubtedly the best monastery in Russia in moral terms, especially the skete, located a hundred fathoms from the desert itself, fenced on all sides by centuries-old pine trees, on sandy soil, inaccessible to the female sex, can satisfy the pious desires of a hermit in our century. Many nobles live in it, engaged in spiritual literature, but the treasure there is their confessor or elder, in whose hands is the moral leadership of the monastery brethren and most of the monastic brethren, that is, all well-intentioned and successful in virtue, He is one of the nobles, 68 years old; with me on the most friendly terms. Considering the needs of my soul and my body, I chose the monastery as a place to end my days in silence and, in order to give this undertaking some strength, I am buying a body of wooden cells. During this matter, I mentioned you to the chief monks here who were talking with me. The cells require amendment, even restructuring: they will be suitable for residence only by the summer of 1858.” However, by August of the same year, 1856, the Optina dream was frustrated: “Despite my desire to stay in Optina Pustyn,” writes Fr. Ignatius, - I did not get along with its rector, and therefore the time for my removal from Sergievskaya was postponed for an unlimited time. I surrender to the will of God... According to human judgment, the society of the Optina monastery and the confessor - Father Macarius - are the best that could be desired in the present state of Christianity and monasticism in Russia, but the Providence of God, guiding our fate, is wiser than human judgment.” All this could not but sometimes disturb the peace in the soul of even such a seasoned ascetic as Fr. Ignatius. In one of his letters to his brother, consoling him in his confusion, he says about himself: “St. Macarius the Great said: “In each of us there are changes like in the air: sometimes the weather is clear, sometimes it rains, the wind rustles and there is bad weather...” Another saint, Rev. Isaac, citing and explaining these words to St. Macaria, says: “Note the word: in everyone. It was not set without a purpose, but was used for the purpose of showing that all people, without exception, not only sinners, but also saints, are at times overwhelmed by passions. There is no permanent infallibility and permanent state of mind on earth. Immutability is the property of the future century.” Therefore, one must look at one’s spiritual changes with prudence, as if showing and revealing to God one’s sinfulness.” “My health is bad,” writes Fr. Ignatius to my brother, - it’s so bad that I serve with the greatest difficulty and effort; the doctors admit that the local climate is the cause of my illness. Again: God’s will be done” (30.IX.57). During the 1850s there were several attempts to nominate Archimandrite Ignatius to the episcopal see, but the opposition to this was so strong that he was confident that such a thing would be impossible. And yet it happened: by the Highest permission, on October 23, 1857, at the Synod, Archimandrite Ignatius was named Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea. On the 27th he was consecrated in the St. Petersburg Kazan Cathedral. Participating in this event were: Metropolitan of St. Petersburg Gregory (Postnikov), Archbishop Athanasius of Kazan, Archbishop Nil of Yaroslavl, Archbishop Innocent of Kamchatka, Bishop Agafangel of Revel, Bishop Philotheus of Tver and Bishop Kirill of Melitopol. In his speech at his ordination, Saint Ignatius said: “I liked and like monasticism in itself. But I did not at all think about serving the Church in any kind of priesthood. To be the bishop of my heart and to sacrifice to Christ thoughts and feelings sanctified by the Spirit - this is the height to which my eyes were drawn... How can I explain to myself the calling with which you, the most sacred Fathers, are now calling me? What have you found in me, and what can I present to you, besides my many shortcomings? The rank of bishop is terrible for me at the thought of my weakness... Bound by your election and the command of the Most August Anointed of God, with humility and trembling I bow my head under a burden that can crush the unworthy.” On October 28, Bishop Ignatius celebrated the Liturgy in the Cross Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On November 3, he said goodbye to the brethren in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage and moved to the Lavra. On November 4, the new ruler was received in Tsarskoye Selo by the Dowager Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who presented him with a panagia with diamonds and rubies - “in memory of the late Emperor.” On the 10th he is here again, but already with the Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich. On November 17, Saint Ignatius participated in the consecration of the rector of the Solovetsky Monastery, Archimandrite Alexander, as Bishop of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory. At the same service, the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, Hieromonk Ignatius (former cell attendant of Archimandrite Ignatius) was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and, at the request of the brethren and the recommendation of Bishop Ignatius, was appointed rector of the hermitage. For twenty-four years Saint Ignatius ruled the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage and the fruits of this management were partly visible: three new magnificent churches. Sixteen abbots of various monasteries emerged from the saint’s pupils, of whom ten archimandrites, five abbots and one builder. “Bishop Ignatius,” says his first biography, compiled with the participation of his brother Peter Alexandrovich, “during such a long abbotship in the Sergius Hermitage not only did not accumulate any capital for himself, but reached such a lack of money that upon his departure he did not even have his own funds for a long journey. He was always extremely generous in alms; I didn’t refuse anyone if I had something to give. When there was no money, he gave them things, so the cell attendants tried to give those asking for money as much as possible, warning the requests for excellent relations with the archimandrite. Therefore, when it was necessary to leave St. Petersburg, the saint was forced to resort for financial assistance to a person close to him in spiritual relationships, who provided him with an allowance of a thousand rubles. On November 25th he left St. Petersburg and on the 26th arrived in Moscow, from where he went to the Sergius Lavra. After staying in Moscow for a week, he went to Kharkov and Rostov-on-Don, stayed in provincial cities with diocesan bishops, at their invitation he celebrated liturgy in Kursk and Kharkov, stopped at the Svyatogorsk Monastery and on the morning of December 24 left Bakhmut along the dry summer road. On Christmas night he was caught in the steppe by a terrible snowstorm, which put his life in great danger. Only at seven o’clock in the morning on December 25 did he somehow reach his home, in a sleigh in which the clergy of the nearest village went to look for him, notified by the coachmen, who left the carriage in the steppe and galloped on horseback to the ringing of bells to seek help.” On January 4, 1858, Saint Ignatius arrived at the place of his ministry, in Stavropol. From there he writes to his sister Elizaveta Alexandrovna that his journey was “very difficult,” but that “despite this, as I moved away from St. Petersburg, where I was completely destroyed, I began to feel better and better. But to feel the change, in its essence, you need to rest, and an hour after my arrival I began to listen to the All-Night Vigil, on the 5th I celebrated mass; On the 6th also, and went out for the blessing of water; I also serve on the 7th due to a service day. I was received very cordially; I liked the place so much that I have never seen it more beautiful; The spring waters are excellent, the likes of which I have not drank for a long, long time. The city is on a huge mountain and all in gardens. Spring waters boil in abundance from the mountain. I left St. Petersburg as that fruit falls from the tree, which can no longer borrow juice from it. My removal was so natural and logical. It should be calmer for me here.” In the next letter to her: “I am very pleased with this place: the place is quiet and calm, I am getting accustomed to the climate and water, but I feel much better than in St. Petersburg. Here you need to start almost everything, starting with the room itself; however, I like this very small room much more than my high rooms in the Sergius Hermitage, which from here seem to me like some kind of terrible glacier. My Stavropol house is like the cells in which I lived in the Babayevsky Monastery, but much larger. Near the church itself!.. They stand, like the church, among a vast orchard.” And in the third letter: “Three months have passed without five days since I finished the course of mineral waters, and their effect continues to a strong degree... The weakness is extraordinary. I can only study in the morning until 12 o’clock.” Despite his weakness and ill health, Saint Ignatius travels around his diocese and quickly gets into the swing of things. For example, he writes to his brother Pyotr Alexandrovich from Mozdok: “Mozdok is currently the only point from which one can act successfully... In Mozdok there is an Apostle for the mountaineers, incomparable to any missionaries: the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, to which even Mohammedan mountaineers flock in large numbers. At the church in which the Icon resides, there are 800 male souls of Ossetian Christians and 700 souls of Circassian Christians. The church where the Icon is is very small and ancient. Several thousand money was raised to build a new one; if you add a small amount from the treasury to them, you can build a beautiful church that will delight the Ossetians and Circassians. It is necessary to establish religious processions with the Icon for the Terek. It would be very good to establish a communal monastery near the church and the Icon: monks are the best missionaries; Moreover, Ossetians and Circassians could join the monastery as a brotherhood, which they are inclined to do. In Mozdok there is a theological school in the poorest condition: it needs to be put in order, and it must be given the opportunity to educate Circassian and Ossetian children with the aim of preparing them as clerics. Having now been in Mozdok, I ordered four boys to be taken to the school, and one smart 15-year-old young man came to me in Stavropol to prepare for the priesthood... At the local Seminary, I proposed to strengthen the teaching of the Ossetian language; it would be necessary to introduce and develop in the Seminary the teaching of other local languages ​​and dialects precisely for the church benefit of the region, but here they wanted to destroy the teaching of the Ossetian language, and develop the teaching of French and German, if you please see the direction! A friend of his youth, a long-time companion of the schemamonk Mikhail (Chikhachev), often writes to Saint Ignatius from the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage. The saint left him sick. In July 1859, Fr. Mikhail writes that he thinks a lot about death. Saint Ignatius encourages him to accept grief as a fatherly punishment from God. “I have spent my whole life in illness and sorrow, as you know,” he writes. - But now, if there are no sorrows, there is nothing to save yourself with. There are no exploits, no true monasticism, no leaders: only sorrows replace everything. The feat is associated with vanity: vanity is difficult to notice in oneself, much less to cleanse oneself of it; grief is alien to vanity, and therefore gives a person an involuntary feat, which is sent by our Provider in accordance with will... Everything will come in its own way into the darkness of the grave of oblivion: only service to God and repentance before Him will have an eternal price... The general weakening in faith is very noticeable.” “Get sick, father, with patience and self-reproach; illness is a teacher of many good things; Moreover, she is God’s message in return and replenishment of our insufficient exploits.” “Your illness is a God-given penance. May the merciful Lord grant you to endure with thanksgiving to God.” These are thoughts about one’s own illnesses. The relief that had appeared soon passed. An old illness has returned. Scrofula attacked my eyes... I had chicken pox... The thought of retiring appeared again. “I am so weak from both illness and treatment,” he writes Fr. Mikhail from Stavropol - that he should retire to some monastery, that is, with the management of the monastery. Send me a book where Russian monasteries are described, and collect what information you can about the Zadonsk and Kolyazin monasteries. The latter would be more convenient, as it is less visited by the nobility. However, these are human thoughts, and God knows what he does with his creatures.” In November 1860, Saint Ignatius received news from Archimandrite Moses, abbot of Optina Pustyn, about the death of Elder Macarius. “Optina lost her soul,” wrote Bishop Fr. Mikhail. At the same time, he remembered his correspondence with the elder. It was impossible, remembering the mentor of the monks, not to talk about monasticism and its decline. But in correspondence with His Grace Leonid (Krasnopevkov), Bishop of Dmitrov, Saint Ignatius also speaks about the decline of Christianity in Russian society. “Moscow magazines,” he writes on January 24, 1860, have opened a war against monasticism. They call it an anachronism. We should speak frankly and say that Christianity is becoming an anachronism. Looking at modern progress, one cannot help but admit that in all its principles it contradicts Christianity and enters into the most hostile relationship with it.” “Lord save you,” writes the saint, “for your love for monasticism. Many people now complain about him, seeing or finding various shortcomings in him; but monasticism is a barometer which, standing in a secluded room, closed on all sides, accurately shows the state of the weather outside. Old buildings must be repaired with great care and knowledge of the matter: otherwise the correction may turn into destruction. God’s will be done!” Saint Ignatius greatly mourned the decline of monasteries, where care for spiritual work, which for the most part is replaced by bodily work, does not find its proper place. “In many monasteries,” he writes to Bishop Leonid, “various buildings of considerable size are being erected, which give the monastery the appearance of prosperity. But this is a deception for a superficial glance. Monasticism itself is quickly being destroyed. The spiritual feat is almost universally rejected... This is not enough! In many monasteries, morality is completely lost. I say this, having before my eyes the saddest sight - the Black Sea desert, a monastery with very significant funds, located in a very secluded place. There are two women’s monasteries in the local diocese: morality is good in them, but physical labor and much concern for material development destroy spiritual development.” In the essay “On Monasticism. Conversation between Orthodox Christians, a layman and a monk,” St. Ignatius expressed many of his thoughts and concerns about monasticism. This was followed by a second, much larger work: “An Offering to Modern Monasticism,” a whole volume, also written in Stavropol. The purpose of the first essay is expressed in one of the initial remarks of a participant in the dialogue - a layman: “In the society I visit, there is often talk about monasticism, and various modern opinions about it are expressed. My acquaintances almost always address me as someone who is in contact with many clergy, expressing a desire for me to express my opinion. I want to deliver accurate information to my neighbors, and therefore I ask you to tell me it.” Another interlocutor, a monk, answering questions, paints a detailed picture of the history of monasticism. This is a short, but very capacious and rich in facts story, which in itself, without judgment, speaks of the Divine establishment of monasticism, that it was not established by man. Everything else follows from here. Many lay people consider celibacy and a chaste life to be an unnatural state for a person. The monk answers this important question very thoroughly: “Renewal of nature,” he says, “is the gift of the Redeemer. For this reason, every gospel virtue is chosen by good will, but is given by Christ to the one who produces it as a gift. Volition is proven by forcing oneself to virtue, and virtue is asked from God through diligent and patient prayer. All the gospel virtues are not characteristic of fallen nature: the ascetic must force himself to do everything, must ask God for everything through humble prayer, combined with heartfelt weeping. Like other gospel virtues, celibate life is chosen by choice: the fight against the aspirations of fallen nature, the curbing of the body through exploits proves the sincerity of the will; the gift of purity is asked from God by the consciousness of the incapacity of fallen nature for purity and the warmest prayer, filled with tenderness; the gift is sent down by the overshadowing of Divine grace, changing and renewing nature... Consider the lives of the saints, which describe their feat against fallen nature: you will see that all the saints moved from the ordinary state in which a person is incapable of a celibate life, into a state in which celibacy is characteristic, after an intense struggle against the wishes and attractions of fallen nature; you will see that their main weapons were prayers and crying; you will see that not only virgins have eliminated themselves from the need for marriage, widowers from repeating it, but also the most depraved people, filled with passions, stained with crimes, entangled and bound, as if by chains, with sinful habits, have risen and flown towards imperishable purity and holiness. I repeat to you: in the New Testament Church, thousands of thousands of virgins and virgins, blameless widowers and widowers, adulterers and harlots, transformed into vessels of chastity and grace, irrefutably prove that the feat of chastity is not only not impossible, but also not as difficult as it seems to theorists, who talk about it without experienced knowledge, without the knowledge that comes from the moral tradition of the Church, the theorists who reason and conclude - I will say frankly out of my depravity, out of blind and stubborn prejudice, out of hatred of monasticism and Orthodox Christianity in general.” When asked why monasticism has weakened, the monk answers because Christianity has weakened among the laity. “Nowadays,” he said, “weak Christianity prepares and delivers, according to its condition, weak monks. Nowadays the entry of a virgin into a monastery is the greatest rarity! Nowadays, the entry of a person who has not acquired vicious skills is a rarity!.. The weakest, those damaged in body and soul, enter most; they enter having filled their memory and imagination with reading novels... They enter with inveterate vicious habits, with a dulled conscience, mortified by the previous way of life, in which all lawlessness and all deceptions were allowed to cover up lawlessness. For these individuals, the struggle with themselves is very difficult... They entered the monastery, took off their worldly clothes, put on black monastic clothes, but the skills and mood acquired in worldly life remained with them, and, being dissatisfied, acquired new strength... Not only does the sick person, unable to resist temptation face to face, encounter it out of necessity as soon as he leaves the monastery gates, but temptation itself forcibly and violently invades the monastery, causing moral devastation and atrocities. The spirit of hatred for monasticism recognizes the introduction of temptation into the monastery as a triumph for itself. Success arouses loud laughter and applause, as if from a famous victory, while sin and disaster are common.” So, the world supplies sinners to the monastery... “Often,” the monk continues his answer to the layman, the greatest sinners were transformed into the greatest righteous people. The monastery is a place of repentance. It is impossible to refuse repentance to someone who desires and seeks repentance... Saint John of the Climacus, who lived in the 6th century after the Nativity of Christ, calculating the motivating reasons for entering the silent life, points much more to the desire to avoid sin and remove one’s weakness from temptations that it cannot resist, than to the desire for Christian perfection, which was guided by a few. Nowadays, when temptations and sins have multiplied in the world..., the majority of those who enter the monastery enter to remove the sinful burden from themselves, to help their weakness, to curb themselves... Is it really possible to refuse help to humanity, to humanity suffering from moral ailments?.. Those who judge monasteries on the basis of their erroneous views demand that flourishing health prevail in these hospitals, so that there is not a trace of pain here. Seek successful healing here, then your demand will be fairer.” In this article, Bishop Ignatius expresses his hard-won thoughts, and not general statements. The fact that the monk-interlocutor here is not a conventional person is also evidenced by the biographical points he expressed here. For example, about his stay in Optina Pustyn in 1828 and 1856. One of the most cherished thoughts of Bishop Ignatius is the great benefit of reading Scripture and the works of the Holy Fathers. In this he agrees with the Monk Nil of Sorsky. “I suggest you pay attention to the “Tradition or Rule” of the Monk Nilus of Sorsky, our compatriot who lived in the 15th century... This work is deep, spiritual. It was published in 1852 by order of St. Synod and sent to the monasteries... The work of St. Neil is precious for us especially because it is most applicable to modern monasticism, which, due to the impoverishment of spiritual mentors, cannot undergo the unconditional obedience that the ancient monks underwent. The Monk Neil, instead of unconditional obedience to a spirit-bearing mentor, offers the guidance of the monk of modern times the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, with the advice of successful brethren, with careful and prudent verification of this advice by Scripture. Having studied the true monastic feat, the Monk Neil cast his humble voice against the deviation from direct monastic direction into which Russian monasticism of that time had fallen due to its simplicity and ignorance. No attention was paid to this voice. The hobby became a custom and, having become common, acquired irresistible force: it served as the reason for the shock of the monasteries in the 18th century. The hobby consisted of the desire to acquire property on a large scale.” From Nile of Sorsky, Saint Ignatius passes to the elders of Optina Pustyn. “Their memory,” he writes, “was richly decorated with the thoughts of saints. They never gave advice on their own: they always presented the sayings of Scripture or the Fathers to the council. This gave the councils their strength: those who would like to object to the word of man listened with reverence to the Word of God, and found it fair to submit their thinking to it... “The Divine Scripture and the words of the Holy Fathers,” writes the Monk Nile in his “Tradition...”, are countless, like the sand of the sea; exploring them without laziness, we inform those who come to us and need guidance. More correctly, it is not we who say that we are unworthy, but the blessed holy Fathers from the Divine Scriptures.” All the holy ascetic writers of the last centuries of Christianity affirm that, given the general impoverishment of God-inspired mentors, the study of the Holy Scriptures, mainly the New Testament and the writings of the Fathers, their careful and steady guidance in the way of life and in the instruction of others is the only path to spiritual success, given by God to later monasticism.” On April 20, 1861, as indicated at the end of the manuscript, St. Ignatius’s large work, “An Offering to Modern Monasticism,” was completed in Stavropol, a book that in our times is perhaps worthy of being a monk’s desk-table. “Approaching the end of my earthly journey,” writes Saint Ignatius in his “Preface,” “I considered it my duty to make a spiritual will for the spiritual benefits with which the right hand of my God has rewarded me. I call a soul-saving word a testament: the executors of this word come into possession of spiritual benefits. I present my testament as a gift to my beloved fathers and brothers, to modern monks. I call monasticism a spiritual good that embraces and combines other blessings, to which I have been called since childhood by a wonderful calling and ineffable grace... With all justice, I can call this work my mysterious confession... The teaching I propose is completely borrowed from the holy teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, both theoretically and experimentally familiarized with the teaching of the Gospel... The shocks that I experienced were bitter, and heavy, and cruel, and stubbornly, painfully prolonged. Shocks in the external situation, in the judgment of my conscience, mean nothing in comparison with the shocks to which the soul was subjected. The waves of the sea of ​​life are fierce; it is dominated by darkness and darkness; storms are constantly raised on it by fierce winds - rejected spirits; the ships are deprived of pilots; reliable harbors turned into whirlpools, into disastrous abysses.” This wonderful creation of St. Ignatius is priceless. Its two parts (introductory: Rules of outward behavior for novice monks; and main: Advice on spiritual monastic work) contain a guide compiled according to Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers for those who have begun monastic life, “the science of the sciences and the art of the arts.” Loving and revering monasticism above all else, Saint Ignatius peered at it very vigilantly and with “heart trouble,” noting not only its existing shortcomings, but also foreseeing its future paths. When reading the “Offering...” one often sees the saint’s concern for future monks, for whom, as one involuntarily seems, this book, rich in the abundance of precious material, was written. There are specific instructions for monks, advice, and various verbal illustrations from the ancient Patericon, from one’s own life, a whole system of extracts from the works of St. Macarius the Great, Mark the Ascetic, John Climacus, Abba Dorotheus, Isaiah the Hermit. The book is written in excellent Russian language, vividly, and truly fascinating for those interested in the subject. Often the author makes the reader, striving for a monastic ascetic life, stop in thought over one of the pages... And all this holy creation is filled with the aroma of great faith, faith, this gift from the Lord, this priceless bead, Saint Ignatius preserved more than his life until the end of his days. In the summer of 1859, Bishop Ignatius traveled around the western part of his diocese, visiting parishes and monasteries in the Black Sea region. Lived in Taman for two months. In the fall, he was busy looking for new premises for the Stavropol Seminary. In addition, with his help, several cases that had been dragging on for a long time were resolved regarding clashes and misunderstandings between civil and church authorities. In winter, he was seriously ill with smallpox and his strength once again declined. He submitted a report to the Synod and wrote the following letter to the Emperor: “August Monarch, Most Gracious Sovereign! Feeling exhausted from illness that lasted about 40 years, and constantly nurturing in my soul the desire to end my days in solitude, I submitted a report to the Holy Synod in which, reporting on the state of my health, I ask to be dismissed from the management of the diocese and to be given the management of the cenobitic Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery, on the Volga, in the Kostroma diocese, according to the model as it was done for many bishops dismissed from diocesan affairs. The gracious attention that Your Most August Parents honored me with, calling me their pupil, allows me to turn to Your Imperial Majesty with the most submissive and most convincing request. Without taking into account any merit or dignity - which I do not have, in memory of your deceased Parents, show me mercy, order me to satisfy my request, grant me the requested shelter in which I could end my days in peace, offering unworthy and wretched prayers to God for the well-being of you and your entire August House, for the peace and eternal bliss of your ever-memorable Parents. I have the happiness of being with loyal feelings of the most reverent respect and the most complete devotion...” (signature and date: July 24, 1861). Saint Ignatius writes in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage about. To Mikhail: “I, seeing that my days were slipping away like a shadow, and my strength was extremely weakening, moreover, having a long-standing desire to end my days in solitude, I submitted a petition to the Holy Synod to dismiss me from the management of the diocese and to give me the management of the Babayevsky monastery of the Kostroma diocese. Having done this, I felt in my soul a special feeling of calm and even quiet joy, as if I had fulfilled my duty. It is not in my direction to live in prominent places and occupy prominent positions. And now - and not with my strength and health... Babayki is a secluded place, little visited, especially not visited at all in winter, dry and healthy.” On September 30, 1861, Saint Ignatius arrived in Moscow and settled with a group of like-minded people who had come with him with his friend, the Right Reverend Leonid (Krasnopevkov), Bishop of Dmitrov, Vicar of Moscow. Hegumen Justin and Hieromonk Kallist (former novices from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, spiritual children of the saint), Hieromonk Theophan (former confessor of the bishop's metochion - St. Andrew's Church - in Stavropol), as well as several novices, went to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery with Bishop Ignatius. After staying in Moscow for about two weeks, Saint Ignatius went to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, where he arrived on October 13. For the monastery, his arrival was truly saving. The rector was no longer here; long before the bishop’s arrival he was transferred to the Nadeevsk Hermitage. There were only 60 rubles in the monastery's cash register. There was no bread or firewood stored for the winter. Saint Ignatius appointed abbot Justin as rector (his deputy), appointed hieromonk Callistus as dean, and hieromonk Theophanes became the second confessor. Thanks to those who came from the Caucasus, life in Babayki, both spiritual and material, was renewed and strengthened. “It’s eleven o’clock! - the bishop writes to his brother. – The field of repentance can be closed by death in a short time. There’s no time to look at the sides.” “I made the journey with difficulty due to the weakness of my body, exhausted by illness,” he writes Fr. Mikhail on October 18, and in Moscow he fell seriously ill. He left Moscow sick and came here sick, despite the fact that 120 leeches were applied to his sick leg in Moscow. The Babaevsky Monastery is superfluous... There are 36 monastic vacancies, but there are only 18 monks... Never in my life have I been as pleased with my position as I am now.” Two weeks later the saint writes to Fr. To Mikhail: “I can’t get enough of my current situation. After much suffering amid the stormy sea of ​​life, God brought me to a quiet refuge... Even before my arrival, the local abbot had applied for another abbot’s position, and therefore it was natural that Justin took his place to the general pleasure of the brotherhood, of which there are more than 80 people. The monastery is especially convenient for monastic life in all respects!” “Babaevsky Monastery is like a separate world,” the Bishop writes to his brother. “This dignity is given to him by his extraordinary solitude.” “The monastery has almost no visitors... Commoners visit the monastery in significant numbers, but they come to the Divine service and after it go to their villages or to a hotel, without bothering the brethren with whimsical demands.” In May, Saint Ignatius visited the Right Reverends - Plato in Kostroma, Nil in Yaroslavl, Irenaeus in the Tolga Monastery. This trip was the only one. Then, only in clear summer weather, Bishop Ignatius sometimes walked in a carriage in the immediate vicinity of the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery. “At seven o’clock in the morning he drank tea,” says his biography, “which he recognized as a necessity, as a means of warming the blood, and used to say: “This is what old age means: without drinking tea, you are unable to pray to God.” From 9 o'clock he got down to business, or went out to the Liturgy, or inspected the work being done; received visitors, mostly sick peasants, who used medicines (homeopathy) from the ruler. A lot of such patients flocked: one of the cell attendants wrote down their names in a book, the age and type of illness, and the bishop noted which medicine to give to whom, the number of doses and diet... The treatment was successful, but after three years it was stopped due to the crowded gathering of patients who violated the solitude of the saint. At the end of the 12th hour of the day, Vladyka had lunch. His table was simple and he ate very moderately. At 3 o'clock he drank tea, to which he always called one of the brethren and ended the meal with a soul-saving conversation. After Vespers, until 8 o’clock, he received all monks and novices who had a spiritual need for him, as well as outside visitors. From 8 o'clock in the evening the Bishop locked himself in his cells; He usually slept without undressing, and at night he put on felt boots because of his foot illness.” “The Babaevsky Monastery,” writes the Bishop to Abbot Anthony (Bochkov), abbot of the Cheremenets Monastery, “is much more secluded than both Konevets and Valaam. Silence begins to have a beneficial effect on me, distracting the eyes of the mind from seeing what is happening in the world and directing them to the contemplation of my sinfulness and the impending judgment of God... The prayer of the holy three Youths in the cave of Babylon is very instructive. Let the will of God be done!” Here Saint Ignatius continued his work on spiritual writings. He corrected and improved those written earlier, worked on the extensive “Word on Death”, which had begun several years earlier, and compiled the voluminous “Fatherism”, which contained in its pages all the best from the ancient Patericons of the East. “Here, in solitude,” wrote Bishop Fr. Michael, - looking back at my past life and strengthened by repentance to weaken the power of my sins, I bring repentance in the compositions I have compiled, recognizing them as sinners before God, and their words unworthy of the subject. With all this, and for many monks, famous for their ascetic life, for example, for the Optina ones, my mood remains very unclear, for their mood was formed from an active physical life, so visible to the world and glorified by it, and mine from a retreat forced by illness and other circumstances and the spiritual activity and feat associated with it, invisible and incomprehensible to the world. It is this mood that manifests itself everywhere in my writings, no matter how insufficient they may be, and makes them unique. Their character matches the writings of ancient ascetics.” In the summer of 1862, Bishop Ignatius’s brother, Pyotr Aleksandrovich Bryanchaninov, left the post of Stavropol civil governor and settled in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, intending to prepare to take monastic vows. However, his brother offered him a slightly different activity, to be a ktitor, that is, to remain a layman and, while living in the monastery, take care of the restoration and construction of churches and other buildings of the monastery. The life of Peter Alexandrovich followed this path (however, shortly before his death, he took monastic vows with the name Paul). In addition, he took upon himself the responsibility for publishing the collected works of St. Ignatius, which was conceived and then executed by Ivan Ilyich Glazunov, a publisher and bookseller who had already published the bishop’s spiritual books and deeply respected him. Glazunov assumed all costs. An excellent proofreader was also found - the writer and spiritual daughter of St. Ignatius Sofya Ivanovna Snessoreva. As a result of their common work, two volumes of “Ascetic Experiences” were published in 1864, and in 1867, while the bishop was still alive, “Ascetic Sermon” and “Offering to Modern Monasticism.” "Fatherland" was published by Glazunov in 1868. The writings of Saint Ignatius were a new, unusual word; not everyone could understand what kind of his teaching. To a large extent, the doubts were based on a misunderstanding; they thought that the bishop spoke too much on his own. Let's see what the saint himself writes on this subject: “About my writings. It is not without the Providence of God that their publication, which had hitherto encountered difficulties, was arranged. We recently spoke with Fr. Justin that the ancient patristic books for monks cannot in any way be fully applied to modern Russian monasticism. The most applicable book is that of St. Nilus of Sora, but even that was written specifically for the silent. What did I recently see when reviewing what I wrote for correspondence with Father Moses? I saw that my sinful writings contain an adaptation of the teachings of St. Nilus to modern monasticism, namely, “Ascetic Experiences” can satisfy this goal. Fr. rewrites them. Moses". In another letter in the fall of 1862: “The Experiences would never have turned out the way they are now if they had not been the fruit of solitude. The modern need for the Experiences will be clearly seen by everyone who understands practical Christian, especially monastic life.” “It’s a strange thing!” he continues. “When my self-view is seen written, then they like it. Why? Because it also attracts to self-view”... “Today it’s over.” correspondence “A Word about the Fear of God and the Love of God.” The correction gives the articles, written at different times and long ago, and a very long time ago, the character of maturity and the character of the whole. As I entered this work not spontaneously, but was somehow introduced by a coincidence of circumstances, and I see that something special is coming out, then I allow myself to believe that what is happening is not happening without the Providence of God... This book can be very useful for all monks, even lay people who want to be Christians in reality, practically. No matter how meager the book is in comparison with the works of spirit-bearing men, it is borrowed from them, and this weak borrowing was bought by me at the cost of my life” (November 21, 1862). “Ascetic experiences” and “Ascetic preaching,” writes St. Ignatius, “should constitute reading extremely useful for modern true Christians, extremely necessary for them in the spirit and moods of today. We must repent, pray and be protected from delusion, because in this idea, the majority of those who want to live piously and think about themselves that they live piously, are heated by material excitement and are in more or less self-delusion" (November 17, 1863). "I hear that my writings, borrowed from the study of the Fathers, met with criticism and some persecution: this is a good sign... If only the work was done not for the sake of man-pleasing and not for vanity, but for the glory of God and for the benefit of Christianity, many have been offended: let them be healed, by the grace of God, with an edifying word. your salvation and mine.” “The Word about Death,” published first in V. Askochensky’s magazine “Home Conversation” and then as a separate book, caused unfair attacks from reviewers. A certain priest Matveevsky spoke out especially sharply in the magazine “Strannik”. Saint Ignatius called this review a “pamphlet” and was surprised that it was “published without hindrance, despite the fact that it rejects the teaching taught in Orthodox Theology, generally accepted in theological educational institutions.” “Matveevsky,” wrote the bishop, “although he had the intention of undermining the opinion of the “Word” in the reading public, he served to publicize and improve the “Word,” which, in addition to the dignity of the ascetic, received the dignity of a Theological work, the first on this subject in the Russian language, as Matveevsky says in his review. The providence of God arranged the publication of the “Tale of Death” and “Experiments” in the same way as it arranged the writing of them. I do not recognize these works as belonging to me. They flowed from the Fatherly Scriptures and from the mercy of God, and it was granted to me to write them for the benefit of many souls, therefore, for the benefit of my soul.” How the work of publishing the works of St. Ignatius progressed can be seen partly from his letters to S.I. Snessoreva, who came to Babayki for manuscripts that she was preparing for publication. “I admit that I am indebted to you,” Vladyka wrote to her on April 18, 1863, and to many. I haven't told you as much about faith as I should have. I am thinking of paying off this debt by publishing my writings, and I will try to carefully revise, correct and expand what I have written since 1840. From that time I began to write about spiritual subjects, but more since 1844... You know that I have always especially loved you... You, re-reading my works, borrow from them all the thoughts and feelings into your property - as I understand it - you unite with me in one direction, in one spirit. I borrowed the direction entirely from the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Eastern Church. I am heartily glad that Ivan Ilyich (Glazunov) had the good idea to publish my works on his own credit. I dare to think that he will do a benefit to the entire domestic Christian society by providing spiritual reading not from the education that will be given by school, which conveys only knowledge by letter, but which is acquired by monastic life... If my works could be recognized by spiritual grace, then I dare to think that Ivan Ilyich, by publishing them, will do not so much a commercial work as a matter of Christian piety... If I am not mistaken, then we have almost no spiritual ones of this kind essays. Ivan Ilyich will also do spiritual good to me and my brother, because he will save us from the material hassle of printing, and will give us the opportunity to devote ourselves entirely to our spiritual pursuits.” “I believe,” he continues, “that a thorough revision of the “Essays” will have a beneficial effect on your soul, which is already accustomed to entering into communion with the souls of the holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church... Based on your devotion to me, based on the sympathy that you have for my poor writings, based on your knowledge and skill in this matter, I cannot point to anyone else who would serve in the general benefit of Christianity with such zeal and such service as you... You are well acquainted with Glazunov and can, more than anyone else, manage his printing house.” After S.I.’s arrival in Babayki in the summer of 1864, the bishop writes: “You saw me changed a lot, approaching the end of my earthly wandering. And you have moved along this path. The afterlife is no longer a journey, but in the full sense an unchanging life, either in eternal bliss or in eternal disaster... I sincerely thank you for the brochures you sent about Daryushka: such simple Christian souls as Daryushka are very close to God, between them and God there are no those screens, that stone wall that is provided by education and the customs of this world. I am very pleased with your work in proofreading the “Ascetic Experiments”... By proofreading the “Experiences”, you are working both for the general benefit and for your own. I dare to think that God’s Providence has brought this work to you: so that your spirit is torn away from the spirit of this world and assimilated to the spirit of God, which is the essence of salvation.” “I sincerely thank you for your efforts in proofreading the “Experiments.” I rejoice that you are reading and re-reading my book: by doing this you are removing the burden from my conscience, which reproached me for not communicating enough spiritual knowledge to you” (August 18). "The late hieroschemamonk of the Sergius Hermitage Stefan," writes Bishop Snessoreva, "before his death he constantly read the "Tale of Death" and more than once repeated to me the following words: "It was not you who wrote: it was God who gave you to write." Very true! I must say the same thing in general about all my wretched works. I hear such a review from the most profound people about "Ascetic Experiences". It is God's will. Now I see that the last two volumes serve addition to the first two. I am sure that when you read them, you will see this too. I acknowledge your participation in this matter for God’s mercy." Saint Ignatius wrote to the book publisher Ivan Ilyich Glazunov in 1864: “God was pleased to instill in you the disposition to join my wretched work by publishing the Ascetic Experiences I compiled. This book in the proper sense does not belong to me: it is entirely borrowed from the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church. My work consists in the fact that throughout my entire life I have been studying the Fatherly Scriptures and have made such an extract from them that can only be done through a long-term study of these quests. The teachings belonging to the Holy Fathers should bring significant benefits to modern Christians who want to lead a pious and godly life, but who do not have the opportunity to thoroughly and thoroughly study the Fathers’ writings. What I say is proven by experience: many who read the manuscript instructions on repentance, prayer, and the shortness of earthly life, which are in my book, felt the strong effect of reading, which contributed to their spiritual success. That's how it should be! Ascetic experiences - a practical book. She is the only one, because since the introduction of education in Russia, no one has yet written of this kind. The Holy Fathers said that alms given to the soul is as much higher than alms given to the body as the soul is higher than the body. I considered the book “Ascetic Experiences” to be such almsgiving. By the providence of God it was given to me, for the salvation of my soul, to prepare this alms: by the same divine providence it is given to you, for the salvation of your soul, to pass on this spiritual alms to Christians who need it. The work of God, Ivan Ilyich, must be done with care, so that the work given for salvation is not damaged by negligence and does not serve as a condemnation... Many pious souls thirst for this spiritual food and want to have a book to guide their lives precisely for the reason that it is a collection of the teachings of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church about the main Christian virtues and about spiritual achievement.” “Experiments, being a purely spiritual book,” writes Saint Ignatius to his brother, “should be useful to the Fatherland in a civil sense. The book makes a strong impression on many, an impression completely separate from the impression made by modern spiritual writings. It places the attentive reader in the category of true Orthodox Christians and gives him a decisive, one-sided, saving direction. The energy of our people and the independence of their spirit depend on the development of the ideas of Orthodoxy and on firmness in Orthodoxy” (25.V.1864). He asks everyone, in particular S.I. Snessoreva, for comments on the style and language of his works and willingly agrees with useful and necessary ones. So, he writes to his brother on January 6, 1865: “I largely agree with S.I.’s comments. I look for comments that come from true disposition and knowledge, like treasures. I would like to review the last two volumes most and almost solely for the sake of style... I have always recognized strict criticism, careful revision and merciless purification as the best means for achieving perfection in works. In general, “conversations” such as “About the Jesus Prayer”, “About humility” and “About monasticism” are not sufficiently revised and purified. Their style is different and should be different from that of poetic works, such as “Lamentation”, “Blessed is the Man”, “The Cup”, “Seeing Your Sin”. Again, theological articles have a different style (for example, “On the Gospel Commandments”), and articles belonging to Christian morality and philosophy have a different style, for example. "On true and false humility." “Ascetic Sermon” has its own separate syllable, but in general this “Sermon” has not been sufficiently revised and cleaned up. I find variety of syllable inevitable; being natural, it constitutes one of the merits of the collected works. Health has a great syllable: a patient has a sick syllable.” In the word “Reflections on Death,” St. Ignatius writes: “In order to remember death, one must lead a life in accordance with the commandments of Christ. The commandments of Christ cleanse the mind and heart, mortify them for the world, and revive them for Christ: the mind, detached from earthly attachments, often begins to turn its gaze to its mysterious transition to eternity - to death; the purified heart begins to anticipate it. The mind and heart, detached from the world, strive for eternity. Having loved Christ, they tirelessly long to appear before Him, although they tremble at the hour of death... Death seems to them both a terrible feat and a longed-for deliverance from earthly captivity. If we are not able to desire death because of our coldness towards Christ and out of love for corruption, then at least we will use the memory of death as a bitter medicine against our sinfulness, because mortal memory - as the Holy Fathers call this memory - having been internalized by the soul, cuts off its friendship with sin.” Saint Ignatius often speaks about this in his letters and teaches mortal remembrance. However, this is a high task and is not easy even for a diligent seeker. In “Offering to Modern Monasticism” there is a chapter (28th) - “On the Remembrance of Death.” “A monk,” it says there, “must remember daily, and several times a day, about the inevitable death that awaits him, and in due time achieve unceasing remembrance of death. Our mind is so darkened by the fall that, if we do not force ourselves to remember death, we can completely forget about it. When we forget about death, then we begin to live on earth as if immortal... Then, with determination and fearlessness, we trample on the commandments of Christ... Forgetting about human death, we die a spiritual death... Do not waste the time given for repentance! Do not look at the earth on which you are a momentary worker, on which you are an exile, on which by the mercy of God it is left to you to come to your senses... Those who recognize themselves as worthy of earthly and heavenly rewards! Hell is more dangerous for you than for obvious sinners, because the gravest sin among sins is pride, conceit... The greatest of the reverend Fathers practiced remembering and thinking about death. The writer of his life says about Pachomius the Great that he “kept himself constantly in the fear of God by the recollection of eternal torments and diseases that have no end, that is, by the recollection of an unquenchable fire and that worm that never dies.” By this means Pachomius restrained himself from evil and aroused himself to the better.” By the early 1860s, a long-standing article, on which St. Ignatius began working in the late 1840s, had grown as a result of revisions to the size of a book, it was “The Word on Death,” published in 1864 by Glazunov (and before that published in “Home Conversation”) and which caused controversy in church periodicals. It was even noted by opponents that “not a single eschatology or part of Theology that considers the consequences of an event concerning the world and man has ever entered into such a detailed solution to these issues as was done in the “Sermon on Death”... The “Sermon on Death” was at first received unfavorably by many, but the most thorough persons from the clergy are on its side, and in the Academies, where the libraries are very satisfactory, they will probably engage in a careful processing of this part of the Theology and will present it in the usual system.” “Death,” the bishop writes in this book, “is a great sacrament. She is the birth of a person from earthly temporary life into eternity. When performing the mortal sacrament, we lay aside our gross shell - the body, and as a spiritual being, subtle, ethereal, we pass into another world, into the abode of creatures similar to the soul. This world is inaccessible to the gross organs of the body, through which, during our stay on earth, feelings operate, which, however, belong to the soul itself. The soul that has left the body is invisible and inaccessible to us, like other objects of the invisible world... What happened and is happening to the soul that has left the body? This remains unknown to us, given our own means of knowledge.” However, this uncertainty is not as hopeless as it seems at first glance. Saint Ignatius examined numerous Orthodox sources - Holy Scripture, liturgical texts, lives of saints, writings of the Holy Fathers. There was a lot there related to the topic of death, material that had not been collected by anyone or brought into the system. The book, in fact, looks almost like a collection of extracts, but it is easy to read, with great interest, since all the questions there are such that cannot but excite the soul of an Orthodox person. “What does death do to us? – the ruler asks. – What awaits the soul beyond the limits of materiality? Is there really no reward for the good and evil committed by man on earth voluntarily and involuntarily?.. The Word of God reveals to us that our souls, after being separated from their bodies, will join - according to the good or evil qualities they acquired in earthly life - to the Angels of light or to the fallen angels. With angels, they constitute, by their nature, the same category of beings... Souls are creatures in every way similar to angels. This is obvious from the words of the Lord, who said that righteous people, after the resurrection, are similar and equal to Angels.” And further: “Saint Macarius the Great says that Angels have an image and appearance, just as the soul has its own image and appearance, and that this image, the outer appearance of both the Angel and the soul, is the image and appearance of the external person in his body. The same saint of God teaches that Angels and souls, although very subtle in their essence, however, for all their subtlety, are bodies. They are subtle, ethereal bodies, since, on the contrary, our earthly bodies are very material and gross. The gross human body serves as clothing for the subtle body - the soul. The eyes, ears, hands, and feet, which belong to the soul, are covered with similar members of the body. When the soul is separated from the body through death, it takes off it, as if it were clothing. Saint Macarius says that the most perfect of Christians, purified and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, see the image of the soul, but it is very rare among saints to achieve such perfection and vision.” The human soul is “an ethereal, very subtle, flying body that has the whole appearance of our gross body, all its members, even hair, the character of the face... Not only the powers of the mind and heart were with the soul, but all the senses were with it: sight, hearing, touch; her whole life was with her... Angels are like a soul: they have members, a head, eyes, mouth, breasts, arms, legs, hair... The beauty of virtue and God's grace shine on the faces of the holy Angels; this character is imprinted on the faces of the most virtuous Christians. Desperate malice constitutes the character of the fallen angels; their faces are like the ugly faces of villains and criminals among people. This is what those who have seen the angels of light and the angels of darkness will tell. The angel and the soul are called incorporeal as they do not have our flesh... In the proper, precise sense, there is one God - Spirit... There is no being one-natural to God! “In our earthly life after the fall of Adam and Eve, we are oppressed in everything. It seems to us that we have vision and we clearly see everything around... Is it true? We see neither heaven nor hell with our sensual eyes, but what do we see with them? - asks Saint Ignatius. - What do we see with them - I don’t say in the world of spirits - what do we see in this very sensory world, which we call with such confidence the “visible” world? We see in it only the smallest part of objects, nothing in comparison with the whole. Both the telescope and the microscope convict us of this, our sense of smell and touch convict us, which sense gases invisible to the eye, and thereby reveal their existence, hidden from sight; space incriminates us, limiting and obstructing our gaze with a narrow, constantly changing horizon; exposes the impenetrability of the earth and many other objects on its surface; What exposes us is our limitations, the extreme limitations of our vision, which cannot see a single object in its present form... What do we see from visible nature? - the tiniest part of it!.. And we consider our habit of the limitations of our vision to be complete and satisfactory vision.” The saint writes about the paradise planted by the Lord in the East, about the “third heaven,” about the saints who were caught up into heaven and saw the indescribable there. These were the Apostle Paul, St. Anthony the Great, Blessed Andrew the Fool for Fool, St. Theodora and other saints. He writes about exactly how nature - the flora and fauna - on earth was damaged after the Fall; writes about hell, located in the interior of the earth (which is proven especially by liturgical texts). Divinely revealed words about death and resurrection are spoken on the pages of the book of St. Ignatius by saints Mark the Ascetic, John Cassian the Roman, John Chrysostom, John of Carpathia, Hesychius of Jerusalem, Isaac the Syrian, John the Merciful, Theodore the Studite, John Climacus, Simeon the New Theologian, Abba Dorotheus, Gregory Palamas. We also find here instructive episodes from the lives of saints, in particular about how they met the moment of the soul’s exodus from the body, such as the martyr-warrior Taxiot of Carthage, Saints Agathon of Egypt, Sisoes the Great, Stephen of Sinai, Theodosius of Pechersk... “Prisoners in the prison of earthly wisdom! - Saint Ignatius addresses us. – Let us hear those who have acquired spiritual freedom in the Lord and have been illuminated by spiritual intelligence! Born blind! Let us hear those who have received their sight from the touch of the finger of God to their eyes... The Word of God and the Spirit who promotes the word reveal to us, through their chosen vessels, that the space between heaven and earth, the entire azure abyss visible to us, the air, the heavenly regions, serves as a dwelling for the fallen angels cast out from heaven... In the Book of Job, the fallen angel is already seen wandering in immeasurable space heavenly; he wandered in it, quickly flew through it, tormented by insatiable malice towards the human race. The Holy Apostle Paul calls the fallen angels the spirits of wickedness in high places, and their head the prince of the power of the air. Fallen angels are scattered in multitudes throughout the transparent abyss that we see above us. They do not cease to outrage all human societies and each individual individually; there is no atrocity, there is no crime in which they would not be the instigators and participants... When the soul of a Christian, leaving its earthly church, begins to strive through the air space to the mountainous fatherland, demons stop it, try to find in it an affinity with themselves, their sinfulness, their fall and bring it down to hell, prepared for the devil and his angels... To torture souls passing through the airspace, the dark authorities have established separate courts and guards in a certain order. Along the layers of heaven, from the earth to the sky itself, there are guard regiments of fallen spirits. Each department is in charge of a special type of sin... The aerial demonic guards and courts of justice are called “ordeals” in the patristic writings, and the spirits serving in them are “publicans”... They resort to inventions and deceptions, combining slander with shamelessness and arrogance, in order to snatch the soul from the hands of the angels and multiply with it the countless number of hellish prisoners. The teaching about ordeals is the teaching of the Church.” Saint Ignatius writes that one must prepare for these ordeals on earth: “A person must fight against the aerial authorities in the land of the mind. Here he is destined to win or be defeated; here he gains freedom from the tax collectors or submits to them, here his eternal fate is decided; he arbitrarily chooses either eternal life, given to him by the Creator, returned by the Redeemer, or eternal death.” “The constant remembrance of death is a wondrous grace, the lot of the saints of God, the advantage of those who have given themselves up to paid repentance in indestructible silence,” continues the Bishop. – Only in silence do the most sublime virtues ripen and flourish, like the rarest and most precious plants in greenhouses! But we, weak and passionate, also need to force ourselves to remember death, to acquire in our hearts the skill of thinking about it, although such thinking is extremely disgusting to a sin-loving and peace-loving heart. For such training... it is useful to set aside a certain hour each day. free from care, and dedicate it to the saving memory of a terrible, inevitable death. No matter how true this event is for every person, at first with the greatest difficulty one can force oneself even to the cold memory of death, which serves as one of the countless proofs of the fall of our nature placed in it itself. The constant distraction of thoughts, which we have become accustomed to, and gloomy oblivion constantly steal the thought of death from those who begin to work on remembering it often.” And finally: “Having realized the brevity of our earthly life and the vanity of all earthly acquisitions, having realized the terrible future awaiting those who, having neglected the Redeemer and redemption, sacrificed themselves entirely to sin and corruption, let us turn our mental eyes away from gazing at the deceptive and enchanting beauty of the world, which conveniently traps the weak human heart in self-love and self-service; let us turn them to the terrible but saving spectacle, to the death awaiting us. Let us pay ourselves in good time; Let us wash and cleanse our sins, written in the books of the ruler of the world, with tears and confession. Let us acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit - this seal, this sign of election and salvation: it is necessary for free movement through the air and for obtaining the right to enter the heavenly gates and abodes... Exiles from Paradise! We are not on earth for fun, not for celebration, not for games, but in order to kill the death that killed us by faith, repentance and the cross and regain our lost paradise.” To the “Sermon on Death” Saint Ignatius added an equally thorough “Sermon on the sensual and on the spiritual vision of spirits,” which has the addition of an accusatory character against Western teachings. The article on the vision of spirits complements the “Word on Death,” which also talks about angels—saints and fallen ones. Both works are included in volume 3 of the Collected Works of the saint. In the first part of the article “On the sensory vision of spirits”, again, as in the “Word on Death”, it is said about our blindness. “The holy spirits,” writes the Bishop, “have avoided communicating with people as unworthy of such communication; the fallen spirits, who carried us into their fall, mixed with us and, in order to more conveniently keep us in captivity, try to make themselves and their chains invisible to us. If they open themselves, they open them in order to strengthen their dominion over us. All of us who are in slavery to sin need to know that communication with the holy Angels is not characteristic of us due to our alienation from them by the fall; that it is common for us, for the same reason, to communicate with rejected spirits, to the category of which we belong in soul; that the spirits that sensually appear to people who are in sinfulness and fall are demons, and not holy Angels. “A defiled soul,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “does not enter the pure Kingdom and is not united with the spirits of saints.” Holy Angels appear only to holy people who have restored communion with God and with them through a holy life.” Who sees demons sensually, that is, in reality? “The Magi, who renounced God and recognized Satan as God,” answers Saint Ignatius, “people who gave themselves over to passions..., exhausted by drunkenness and a depraved life; ascetics who have fallen into conceit and pride... Many allow themselves to enter into communication with fallen spirits through magnetism, and fallen spirits usually appear in the form of bright angels, seduce and deceive..., always causing extreme mental and even mental disorder.” “The general rule for all people,” writes the Bishop, “is not to trust spirits in any way when they appear in a sensual way, not to enter into conversation with them, not to pay any attention to them, to recognize their appearance as the greatest and most dangerous temptation... The desire to see spirits, curiosity to learn something about them and from them is a sign of the greatest recklessness and complete ignorance of the moral and active traditions of the Orthodox Church.” Saint Ignatius expounds in detail the teaching about the “spirits of evil” of St. Anthony the Great, who had visions of spirits many times. The great ascetics of the Christian East were much tempted by demons who appeared to them in various guises. This is reported in the lives of saints and the ancient Patericon. No matter how hard fallen spirits try to be invisible, no matter how hard they try to convince people that they do not exist, the number of their phenomena, reliably described, is so great that their work is in vain. Fallen spirits - “desperate, constant, incorrigible villains - act evil, most often taking the form of holy angels, prophets, martyrs, apostles, Christ Himself. They try to conform to the circumstances, to the person’s way of thinking, to his inclinations... To some ascetics they present piles of gold and silver, as well as other items of luxury and earthly splendor, in order to find an echo of the dream in the spiritual passion of greed and covetousness, if it is hidden in the soul; Other ascetics are presented with meals for the same purpose..., others appear in the form of women... When fallen angels want to overthrow someone with fear, then they appear in the form of animals, in the form of executioners, in the form of prison and city guards. .. They tried to seduce others with singing, as if angelic, with harmonious music, as if heavenly. They tried to mislead others with voices and prophecies, as if divine..., they tried to convince them that they were human souls, whose fate had not yet been decided.” Another thing is spiritual vision. “The gate to spiritual vision is humility,” says St. Ignatius. “The first spiritual vision,” he writes, “is the vision of his sins... The ascetic experimentally moves from the consciousness of his sins to the knowledge of his sinfulness... Then the world of fallen spirits gradually opens up to him; he studies them in his passions, in the struggle with them, in the thoughts, dreams and sensations brought by spirits. The seductive and deceptive view of earthly life, which hitherto seemed endless to him, will be taken away from him.” To see spirits with spiritual eyes means to no longer be on the lowest rung of the spiritual ladder. “Spiritual vision of spirits is accomplished with the mind and heart,” writes the saint. – The heart reproves the evil spirits; the mind is not sufficient for this: it cannot distinguish by its own forces the images of truth from the images of lies covered by images of truth.” In the “Conclusion” to this article, St. Ignatius writes: “Called by the mercy of God to monastic life, let us use all diligence to acquire knowledge and spiritual states that are essential for our salvation... Let us try to gain poverty of spirit, crying, meekness, hunger for heavenly truth. Let us beg God to reveal our sins to us and grant us true repentance! Let us ask God to reveal our passions to us and grant us healing from them! Let us ask God to grant us a spiritual vision of spirits, through which we could discern them in the thoughts and dreams they bring to us, break off communication with them in our spirit, throw off their yoke, and get rid of captivity! In communication with fallen spirits and in enslavement to them lies our destruction... With humility and reverence let us follow the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the tradition of the Orthodox Church!.. In due time, appointed by the one God and known to the one God, we will certainly enter the world of spirits. This time is not far from each of us! May the All-Good God grant us to spend our earthly life in such a way that, even during it, we break off communion with fallen spirits and enter into communion with holy spirits, so that on this basis, having stripped off our bodies, we are numbered among the holy spirits, and not among the rejected spirits. Then, in inexpressible joy, we will see both the ranks of holy Angels and the ranks of holy men in their wonderful abodes not made by hands, at their eternal spiritual holiday.” Saint Ignatius struggled with illness and grew old quickly. Over the past few years, his appearance has changed very much. Even in Stavropol, he was an impressive-looking and strong-built bishop (illnesses did not affect his appearance for a long time), and in Babayki, his acquaintances who came here were inwardly horrified when they met a bent, emaciated, gray-haired old man, who, as it involuntarily seemed, was standing on the edge of the grave... Nevertheless, he labored in an ascetic life, occasionally served, and received confession and revelation of thoughts brethren The first thing I saw in him was extraordinary humility and kindness. In his letters, he often complains not about illness, but about the decline of faith in all layers of the people, especially in the higher, so-called educated society. Cases of unbelief and apostasy cause pain to his soul... But - “devotion to the will of God is necessary in the very permission of God,” he writes. It is obvious that Christianity - this mysterious spiritual gift of God to people - is being removed in an inconspicuous way (for those who do not pay attention to their salvation) from human society that has neglected this gift. One must see this so as not to be deceived by actors and the acting of piety. Having seen this, we must turn our gaze away from the sad sight, so as not to be subjected to the vice of condemning our neighbors, we must turn our gaze to ourselves, take care of our own salvation, since the mercy of God still grants the opportunity to be saved to those who deign to be saved” (May 26, 1864). “Over the destinies of the world and every person,” writes the Bishop, “the Providence of Almighty God is vigilantly vigilant. - and everything that happens happens either by the will or by the permission of God. We must turn our minds to ourselves and beg the Lord to keep us faithful to the Orthodox Church, to reveal to us His all-holy will and the stumbling-free path to Himself, the source of true life and salvation. The salvation of men is God’s gift to men, by no means their own invention and acquisition, and therefore it cannot be worked out otherwise than under the guidance of God, His mercy and grace.” “The Fathers foretold,” the saint continues, “that in the last times those who are being saved will hide from the eyes of men and will follow a humble path of action, being careful to condemn apostates, committing everything to the will of God and the judgment of God, reverent before the very permission of God... God’s merciful patience prolongs time and delays the decisive denouement for the small remnant of those being saved, while the rotting and almost rotten reaches the fullness of corruption.” The weakening of faith in society forced the saint to speak such strong words: “The Holy Spirit was the founder and educator of Christianity! The Holy Spirit founded the Church! The Holy Spirit supported the Church through chosen men who served the Spirit only as instruments! People rejected this supernatural Power, which they considered foolishness, unworthy of them, and want to act with the forces and means of their fallen nature. But fallen nature is infected with enmity towards God: how can it act in favor of the cause of God? The more diligently the Bishop acted as a spiritual writer, precisely “in favor of the cause of God.” For example, he greatly valued his correspondence with Abbot Anthony (Bochkov), also a spiritual writer. “The gift of speech,” writes Saint Ignatius to Abbot Anthony, “undoubtedly belongs to the greatest gifts. They make man like God, who has His Word. The human Word is like the Word of God, constantly abiding with its father and in its fire - the mind, being one with it and at the same time separating from it inseparably. The human word is known only to the mind, from which it is constantly born and thereby expresses the existence of the mind. We cannot imagine the existence of mind without words and words without mind... With a thorough look at the human word, the reason for the strict sentence of the Lord is understood, which determined and announced that people will give an account of every idle word. The divine purpose of the word in writers, in all teachers, and especially in shepherds is the instruction and salvation of people. What a terrible answer will be given by those who have turned the means of edification and salvation into a means of corruption and destruction! Saint Gregory the Theologian wrote in verse with a sublime, deeply pious purpose: to provide Christian youth with reading and examples in poetry, to make it unnecessary for them to study pagan poets who breathe voluptuousness and other passions, who breathe blasphemy.” In the next letter to Abbot Anthony, Saint Ignatius praises his poems for “a feeling that is not found in any secular writer who has written about spiritual subjects, despite the distinctness of their verse. They constantly fall into their sensual and transform the holy spiritual into their sensual. The soul does not find satisfaction in them.” But the Bishop recognized the “distinctness of verse” as necessary for real spiritual poetry. Therefore, he cited Abbot Anthony Pushkin as an example: “I really liked Pushkin’s method,” he writes on December 16, 1864, “in relation to his works. He subjected them to the strictest criticism of his own, willingly taking advantage of the comments of other writers. Then he mercilessly erased unnecessary words and expressions from his writings, as well as words and expressions that were somewhat strained, heavy, or unnatural. From such purification and elaboration, his works received extraordinary purity of style and clarity of meaning. How easy they are to read!.. You need this work... I dare say that I, too, try to adhere to this rule.” At the end of 1865 - beginning of 1866, Saint Ignatius, who kept the drafts of his letters, selected from them thoughts and instructions suitable for monastic remembrance. There were one hundred and fifteen of them. He briefly called this short work “Sayings.” They cover almost all aspects of monastic life. It would be in vain to look for something unusual or unheard of in them. The saint did not want to show off his intelligence, but to remind him of what was known, but mostly forgotten. The saint always shunned everything “special” and unprecedented in spiritual matters, and believed that a Christian has no “special” path, but only the one indicated by the Lord for all people. He also knew how difficult it is to remember, and even more so to carry out “simple” things, what depth and saving power lies in the generally known, the texts of Holy Scripture and the works of the Holy Fathers. “The Sayings of Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Extracted from His Letters to the Monks” expresses his rich mentoring experience in a condensed form. Here are some sayings. “Make yourself dead for everyone,” the saint writes, “in order to come to life for Christ: without such mortification it is impossible to acquire within yourself life in God, which is Christ” (3). “Do not look at your temptations: they are fleeting and will not remain forever. And whoever looks at it, his head will go spinning, and he can very easily fall - of course, into despondency or exhaustion” (6). “Elder Seraphim of Sarov, a great ascetic, said: we must endure our shortcomings in the same way as we tolerate the shortcomings of others and be forgiving of our soul in its weaknesses and imperfections. At the same time, one should not indulge in negligence: one should take diligent care to correct and improve oneself” (7). “It is impossible for someone who has given some course to his passions not to suffer grief when taming them: they received the right to self-will through the indulgence allowed, they are not suddenly tamed, they do not suddenly part with the freedom they received; on the contrary, they try to keep a person in their enslavement and therefore confuse him in every possible way. We must patiently wait for the time of confusion until it passes, wait in trust in God’s mercy and help; So farmers wait for bad weather to interfere with their work, in the hope that the bad weather will be replaced by a bucket” (13). “Repentance is a general act, higher than private acts; and if you chase after private actions, then repentance can easily slip from your mind and from your heart” (22). “Get your soul, not being afraid of the many sorrows that come upon it. Surrender to the will of God. If it pleases this holy will to send you death, accept this: the Lord knows what he is doing. He accepts will as if it were fulfillment itself. If He wants to prolong your life in the midst of sorrows, then accept this continuation of life, this daily mortification” (29). “Perfect purity cannot be demanded of oneself, although one must strive for it through prayer and weeping and compelling the heart to fulfill the commandments of Christ: perfect purity is a gift of God, sent down to the one who sees his own uncleanness and mourns it: Christ is with you! “I have endured the Lord and listened to me” (35). “We must endure, endure, and endure, and endure again: because only he who endures to the end will be saved. Impatience makes temptations worse. Stop the bleeding and know that God’s Providence controls everything. Faith,” said the great Pimen, “consists in remaining in humility” (45). “Monks of the last times are destined to be saved by sorrows. There are no skilled elders. Divinely inspired monastic rules and life are shocked by the institutions of the carnal human mind; The spiritual success of only one person is dangerous, because it certainly leads the one who has it to exaltation and humiliation of his neighbor. For these reasons, it remains to work out salvation through the cross alone. This is the lot of those who are now being saved, and among them is yours” (47). “From the fall we have become so complex that we must certainly observe our will in everything - is it not deceitful? And doesn’t he secretly join his enemies, betraying his spiritual voice into their power? It is not for nothing that the Holy Fathers said that without great attention it is impossible to be saved” (48). “Beginners who have somewhat tasted prayer tend to feel more war and be subject to bodily infirmities, because the body cannot withstand the touch of the spiritual and, so to speak, is shaken and melts from it, and the soul, having tasted God’s sweetness, becomes more sensitive to the bitterness of passions. Nevertheless, this is allowed by the all-wise Providence, so that humility, which is so inconsistent with the spirit of the age and alien to modern people, will take root in us. Only on the basis of humility can a person safely erect the edifice of spiritual work. Without humility, doing leads to only arrogance” (57). “It is better not to see the battle from inattention to it and from attention to prayer, than, abandoning attention to prayer and prayer, go into consideration of the battle, which exceeds our strength, and from this imaginary consideration become arrogant... It is enough for you to be convinced that fallen man is the treasury of all sins; Some of the sins are revealed by their action, while others live as if inactive, and thus mislead the ascetic about their non-existence. Be before God as one whole ulcer, and pray for healing and salvation, not paying much attention to the battles and not being surprised at their coming, as if taking place out of order” (62). “Reverend Nilus of Sora, referring to the Venerable Peel of Sinai, says that “mental prayer is a paradise that must not only be cultivated, but also preserved. Having prayed as you should, expect what you shouldn’t.” In particular, the enemy, after prayer, fights with two passions: anger, which is directly opposed to prayer, and fornication, which is its carnal and satanic likeness in action, therefore destroying its action. The Apostle said: “If you cleave to the Lord, there will be one spirit with the Lord, but if you cleave to a harlot, even if only in thoughts, there will be one flesh with the harlot.” May God grant you to overcome battles with patience and to go through prayer, if possible, without any material benefits. Amen" (65). “Those three Youths thrown into the Babylonian furnace, despite the fact that an Angel watered them, and the kindled furnace did not produce any influence on them, sang: “We have sinned, we have sinned, we have sinned in all... All the great things you have done to us, and all the great things you have brought upon us, you have created true judgment.” It should be noted that in this song, in which the holy Youths recognize themselves as worthy of everything brought upon them, they recognize the tormentor Nebuchadnezzar as “more wicked than all the earth.” - So, although Nebuchadnezzar was more crafty than all the earth, his state of mind did not prevent the Youths from having holy humility. Truth and humility do not disagree with each other: for both come from Christ” (66). “Surrender yourself to the will of God, trying to be pleasing to God: for no matter how long our earthly journey may be, the transition is near; do what is within your power, and God will do His” (78). “I advise you, if possible, to learn to remain silent and to open your mouth to speak only in the most necessary cases” (89). “Believe that it was not without the Providence of God that temptation befell you, so that you may die to the world and its glory and its justification. Pray for everyone who brings you sorrow, so that your heart may be completely healed of malice and become capable of receiving Divine grace. As soon as a memory of someone who has offended you comes to your mind, immediately pray for it. Beyond God’s permission, no power or human power can touch you” (101). “Do not make your cell known with condemnation, gossip and murmuring; announce it with thanksgiving and glorification, and with the voices of groaning for sins, and with the voices of your prayers” (105). “According to the Holy Fathers, there is no price for a moderate and constant rule. And therefore, in your life, maintain prudent proportionality, without binding yourself by quantity” (109). “The Lord sends many trials to those who believe in Him, so that through these trials they will be more confirmed in their faith and in how close the Lord is to all who call on Him. Protect yourself from imputing yourself into something” (115). Meanwhile, the first two volumes of the works of St. Ignatius, published by Glazunov, were distributed throughout Russia. They were received very well, especially in the monasteries. “The information I received about how the “Experiences...” are received by individuals seeking salvation greatly consoles me,” writes the Bishop. - “Ascetic Sermon” and “Advice” (Meaning “Offering to Modern Monasticism” (comp.)) supplement the edifying reading, giving readers a decidedly Orthodox direction. It becomes clear that these books will be distributed and installed among the mentioned individuals. From Bezhetsk they write: “Experiments” were received with great love, this book replaces the “Philokalia” for us, being much more understandable than “The Philokalia” and containing everything that is said in the “Philokalia.” This view is very correct, and on it I base my opinion that the book will be read and re-read for nourishment, verification and support of one’s asceticism. Now the printing of the 3rd and 4th volumes, which explain asceticism even more satisfactorily, turns out to be very important.” “From M.D.’s letter you will see,” St. Ignatius writes to his brother, “how “Ask. experiments" in the Sarov desert and what significance is given to them there. This shows the importance that volumes 3 and 4 should have. The 4th volume depicts monastic life with certainty, and the first three volumes serve as a kind of shading of the picture. The Finger of God acts here, benefiting everyone who participates in both the publication and reading of the “Experiments.” When the 3rd and 4th volumes were published, Saint Ignatius sent a copy of them to Metropolitan Isidore of St. Petersburg, accompanied by a detailed letter in which he especially clearly explains the necessity of his writings for monasticism. “Given the present situation of monasticism in Russia and together with the state of society in spiritual and moral terms,” wrote St. Ignatius, “the closest acquaintance of both monasticism and society with the correct way of asceticism turns out to be especially necessary and useful. The respect for bodily achievement when left only to itself, the respect paid in times of simplicity, has passed away. It passed for the very natural reason that monks, engaged exclusively in physical feats, cannot give a proper account of monastic life either to themselves or to their brethren living in the middle of the world. Moreover, the practice of physical feats, to the extent that the ancient monks were engaged in them, has now become very, very weakened due to the general decline in strength and health in man. This activity no longer reproduces athletes who would surprise themselves by discovering something supernatural. Spiritual feat forms true, conscious monks, and it is this that modern education evokes, so to speak, in the field of activity. He, he alone, can introduce into monasteries and maintain strict moral order in monasteries, providing the brotherhood with precise, correct, deep concepts of Christianity, providing the brotherhood with reasonable freedom, combined with reasonable spiritual submission, forming spiritual strength and connection in the brotherhood. He, he alone, can fully equip a monk to renounce modern teachings hostile to the Church, imparting to the monk a sense of harmony between the Gospel teaching and the properties of the human soul. He introduces the monk to correct self-view and the consciousness of his fall and the need for a Redeemer that flows from this self-view. The most physical feat, brought to its normal meaning by a spiritual feat, acts in the ascetic with a special beneficence, to which he is alien when he acts alone.” The Metropolitan sent a letter of gratitude. The works of Saint Ignatius gained fame, monasticism thanked the mentor of the monks - letters came from Optina Pustyn, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, from Holy Mount Athos, from other monasteries... Many church hierarchs recognized the works of Bishop Ignatius as one of the best guides in spiritual life. Cell attendant Vasily (Pavlov), later a hieromonk, after the death of Saint Ignatius, remembered him, lovingly noting various details of his life, how the saint stood in prayer at the lectern, often with his hands raised to the sky, with tears; how he sat in contemplation of God, fixing his gaze on the icon of the Savior or bowing his head in his hands; how he walked around the room in thought, how he read or wrote something... “I studied at Babayki with the boys,” the cell attendant wrote, “taught them reading the Holy Scripture, arithmetic, grammar, penmanship, and one day, getting excited, I hit one. Then, of course, feeling that this was sinful, I went and told the bishop. To this he told me: “Hit me.” I replied that I could not do this; then he said to me: “And if you can’t hit me, how did you hit a boy who was also created in the image of God?” On August 14, 1866, the Heir Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich visited the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery with his brother, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. The saint presented them with icons - the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky and Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir the Holy. Handing the first one to the Heir, he said: “Almighty God, who in difficult times of Russia overshadowed the blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky with heavenly blessing and heavenly help, may he overshadow with this blessing and this help Your Imperial Highness in the great service ahead of you to God and humanity.” When presented, the second said the following: “Your Imperial Highness! In ancient times, two great princes - Equal to the Apostles and Monomakh - bore the name of Vladimir. Their lives were marked by piety, wisdom, and courage. And now the Grand Duke, who bears the name coveted for Russia, may he rejoice Russia with these qualities, so beneficial for the peoples, when the peoples are illuminated by them from the sanctuary of the Royal House.” The conversation between the distinguished guests and the Bishop in his cells concerned the current state of the monasteries. “Monasteries are hospitals,” said the Right Reverend. - This is a shelter for people who, realizing their powerlessness to preserve themselves, their souls while living in the world, go to this refuge and bring into it their understandings, their habits, their vices, their passions, developed by the education that they received in the world, therefore the moral state of the monasteries is completely dependent on the moral mood of the people. The people are corrupted and the monasteries are also corrupted. A lot of reprehensible things have crept into them, a lot of bad things, but for all that they retain the character of their refuge for those wishing to be preserved from final destruction. They are hospitals for the souls of the hopelessly ill, they are a shelter of loyalty to the Orthodox Church and the Throne... Monasticism and monasteries are especially persecuted by evil parties because they are devoted to the Faith and the Throne and support these feelings in those who draw close to them and submit to their spiritual direction... I already have one foot in the grave and am not looking for anything for myself, and I have nothing to look for, but I report to Your Highness the real truth; For the sake of truth, I beg Your Highness - support the monasteries for the good that their existence brings.” All the saint’s thoughts were turned to monasticism. On those days when it seemed that he had no strength, he continued to write his instructions. Among the last of them were such important ones as the word “On Purity,” a real weapon for a monk (and partly a layman). He writes here about fornication, fornication and the struggle with the attacks of the prodigal demon. He has written about this before, but this Word gives in a condensed form everything you need to know on this subject. “Some argue,” writes the Bishop, “that falling into prodigal sin with the body and falling into it with the mind and heart is a crime of equal gravity and significance. They base this opinion on the words of the Savior: “Everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Unfair opinion! This is said in addition to the Old Testament commandment, this is said to those who recognized one bodily fornication as a sin, not understanding that evil thoughts, which include fornication thoughts, come from the heart, defile a person (Matthew 15:20), separate him from God (Thessalonians 1:3), and take away purity - a means of seeing God. Delight in lustful thoughts and sensations is fornication of the heart and defilement of a person, making him incapable of communicating with God, and fornication of the body is a change in the entire human being from mixing with another body (1 Cor. 6:16), there is a complete alienation from God, there is death, there is destruction. To get out of the first state, one must become sober; to get out of the second, one must be resurrected, one must be born again through repentance.” The monk’s struggle for purity continues throughout his life, and if it is especially difficult at a young age, then old age, even the deepest, is not exempt from it. The personal, personal feat of a monk is necessary, but not sufficient. “Victory and change of nature belong to one God,” writes the Bishop. “Where nature is overcome,” says Saint John of the Climacus, “there the coming of the One who is above nature is recognized” (Homily 15, ch. 8). God changes the natural attraction in the one who, by all means depending on him, proves his sincere desire for this attraction to change: then the Spirit of God touches the human spirit, which, having felt the touch of the Spirit of God, all, with all thoughts and sensations, rushes to God, having lost sympathy for the objects of carnal desire (St. Isaac the Syrian. Words 43 and 38). Then the words of the Apostle come true: “Cling to the Lord, there is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). Then the body itself is drawn to where the spirit strives. Due to their own will, experimentally proven and attested, many who did not know wives remained in this blissful state until the end of their lives... others, after married life, retain immaculate widowhood; others moved from a depraved life to a chaste and holy life... All of them not only refrained from falling into fornication in the body, but also entered into a struggle with passionate thoughts and sensations, resisted them, defeated them, received from God the freedom of purity, which is completely alien to communication with sin, even if it did not cease from attacks... Beloved brothers, monks! Let us not be faint-hearted and discouraged. Let us not pay attention to the demons who make us mistrust the path we have chosen; Let us not pay attention to human judgments and advice, uttered out of ignorance or depravity and malicious intent: let us believe the Lord our God, who promised to hear us and help us if we remain faithful to Him. Let us testify to this fidelity by constant striving for Him and constant repentance for our deviations from this striving... The fathers, knowing the ease of man, did not trust either his holiness, or his old age and his inability to sin... When the Monk Sisoes the Great became very outdated, then his disciple, Abba Abraham, suggested that he take up residence closer to the population. To this the ninety-year-old old man answered: “We will place ourselves where there are no wives.” The student objected: “Where is a place in which there would be no wives, except the desert?” The elder said: “Place me in the desert, child.” Lustful thoughts arise not only from looking at wives and other strong reasons, but also from less significant ones. “Some fast,” writes Saint Ignatius, “live alone and uncovetously, beg God to curb the lusts of their nature, but at the same time they allow themselves to slander, reproach, condemn their neighbors, mock them, and God’s help retreats from them; they are left to themselves and do not find the strength to resist the sinful impulses of fallen nature.” How to fight these urges? “The Holy Fathers command to “keep the head of the serpent” (Gen. 3:15), that is, to discern the very beginning of a sinful thought and reject it. This applies to all sinful thoughts, but most of all to the prodigal one, which is facilitated by the fallen nature, which, for this reason, has a special influence on us... When we are alone, then, when attacked by prodigal thoughts and dreams, with an unusual kindling of the body, we should fall on our knees and on our face before the holy icons, imitating the work of the great Mary of Egypt, and with tears or weeping, beg God for pardon. Experiments will not slow down to prove the closeness of God to us and His power over our nature: this will give us living faith, and living faith will inspire us with extraordinary strength and will give us constant victories. We will not be surprised if, even after a long struggle... fierce abuse arises again and obscene desires and movements revive in the body. Our enemy is shameless, he does not stop directing his arrows against the greatest saints of God: experiences have proven to him that an attempt is sometimes successful, overthrowing and crushing even the vessels of the Spirit... Our flesh is an unfaithful friend... The Venerable Pimen the Great said: “As the Tsar’s squire is always ready for him, so the soul must always be ready against the prodigal demon.” From the biographies of the holy saints of God, we see that some of them endured a very strong and prolonged struggle with prodigal thoughts and sensations, moving from a passionate to a dispassionate state. This was subjected to not only such ascetics who had previously led a depraved life, such as the Venerable Moses Murin and Mary of Egypt, but also virgins - Simeon the Fool for Christ's sake, John the Long-Suffering Pechersk and others. The ferocity of the struggle elevated them to intensified, supernatural feats... One can and should imitate, if possible, the strength of will, determination, faith, and self-sacrifice of these saints of God, but their feat itself remains inimitable.” Humility and lamentation are more effective than excessive achievement. Therefore, with moderate struggle and great hope in the mercy of God, more can be achieved. “The Venerable Cassian the Roman notes,” writes Saint Ignatius, “that “the passion of lust necessarily struggles with the soul until the soul recognizes that this struggle is beyond its strength, until it realizes that it is impossible for it to gain victory through its own labor and effort unless there is help and protection from the Lord.” This holy father spent considerable time among the monastery Fathers and was imbued with their teaching. When talking about purity, we find it essential to address the wretched word to the ignorance of our time, which is so proud of knowledge, and to give a helping hand to those who are drowning and praying in confusion, despondency and sadness due to their ignorance. Quite a lot of people who want to lead a godly life are completely bewildered when thoughts and feelings of carnal lust arise in them. They look at this as something strange, something that should not exist, they become mentally relaxed and upset from this, and often decide to leave a godly life, recognizing themselves as incapable of it. The most erroneous view of yourself! Our nature is in a state of decline. In a state of fall, carnal lusts are natural to him and cannot help but arise from him. So, one should not be surprised or bewildered when thoughts, dreams, and feelings of lust appear: this is a natural necessity. Every person is subordinate to her; all the holy people were subordinate to her... All the saints of God were subjected to torture and the labor of this struggle, went through the fire of passions and the water of tears and ascended into the peace of dispassion... Many of the saints, already after they were renewed by the Holy Spirit and upon achieving blissful dispassion in the refuge, were suddenly subjected to obscene impulses and attractions of nature, the invasion of unclean thoughts and dreams, as it happened with Saints Macarius of Alexandria, Ioannikios the Great and others. That is why the Holy Fathers said that one can trust one’s flesh only when it lies in the grave... Let us not indulge in confusion, despondency, cowardice, and relaxation when fierce waves of lust arise within us and thoughts attack us like strong winds! Let us resist sin: through this struggle we will develop a living faith in God and a living knowledge of God.” So, cleanliness is God’s work. And here is an example when from the height of holiness one can see the terrible depth of the abyss. “Many Holy Fathers who lived a virgin life,” St. Ignatius writes at the end of his work, “called themselves filthy and adulterers; that's not enough! Some of them, being slandered for the sin of prodigal sin, did not bring any justification, although it was very convenient for them, and subjected themselves to punishment and sorrow, as if they were truly guilty. Such behavior, with a superficial glance at it, may seem strange: it is explained by the property of the feat by which holy purity is developed. This feat so clearly reveals the fall of nature, so tangibly proves to the ascetic his inevitable submission to the demands of fallen nature, that if the right hand of God had not snatched him from the realm of nature, he cannot help but recognize himself as an adulterer. His purity is the work of God in him, and is by no means a property of nature and not the fruit of his efforts... It can be stated with certainty that the saints of God admit that they are defiled by fornication incomparably more than those who, living a carnal life, constantly drown in fornication. From such a self-view, Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, a man filled with the Holy Spirit, uttered the following saying about himself; “I have not known a wife, and I am not a virgin.” What a deep feeling of crying can be heard from this saying! If spiritual work, as the ascetics put it, is “the science of sciences, the art of arts,” then this is especially evident in the example of the complex struggle with the prodigal demon that is crushing the world. But he cannot destroy Orthodoxy, because Christ is in it. Saint Ignatius wanted to be a true Orthodox monk. His ideal for this was Egyptian monasticism. The ideal is very high. Not considering himself capable of living like the monks of the ancient deserts and their successors, such as Nil Sorsky in Russia, lived, he constantly read the Patericon and Lives, and did much of what was forgotten and abandoned later. His work was complicated by his noble upbringing and serious illnesses, but he did everything he could, and even when he was the rector of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, he slept on the floor. Everywhere and always he expressed his love for the ancient ascetics - all those blessed Sisoi, Pimen and Pachomius; cited their words and examples from their lives. In addition, for many years he collected his “Fatherland,” which was not a simple compilation, not a collection of sayings and short stories from various Patericons, but a second, perhaps even more profound and instructive “Offering to modern monasticism.” In this "Fatherland" many sayings and various incidents from the life of the elders are accompanied by spiritual comments by St. Ignatius. These comments, varying in size - from one line to one and a half pages - are not only explanatory in nature, but rather edifying and teacher. There are many of them, in the “Fatherland” they form, as it were, a special book, written by an active student of the ancient Fathers, a true ascetic, who did not want this ideal to be forgotten in his time and classified as a thing of the past, although he emphasized that in ancient times people were stronger. Saint Ignatius was always amazed at how much the elder, wise by the Holy Spirit, could contain in one or two phrases, sometimes in several words. A truly spiritual relationship with the Word! And so the monk saint, the ascetic saint Ignatius gives the monks, as a farewell, dying gift, a truly monastic book, in which all spiritual work is contained. Doing without discounts and concessions. “This is what monasticism should be like,” he seems to be saying, “and not what I see in monasteries today. Do what you can, but remember this.” The Fatherland reflects all the thoughts, advice and themes that were ever present in the writings of St. Ignatius. His Words, articles and treatises on ascetic issues, studies on spirits and death, on the fight against the demon of fornication and much more received, as it were, a summary, a condensed expression. This is without a doubt a classic book, a reference book for a monastic cell. “Fatherland” has two parts – sayings and stories. In the “Conclusion” to the sayings, the bishop writes: “The Fathers retired to the desert in order to remove themselves from the infectious impressions of the world. The Fathers withdrew into the desert, from there they saw more clearly the self-delusion and blindness of the world, which the sons of the world do not see, moving among it and being deceived by it... The spirit of life according to the Gospel commandments is repentance. When repentance takes root in the depths of the heart, then it turns into crying. This cry is the cry of the spirit. This crying and prayer are together. The mind prays in words; the heart prays by crying... Such crying is heard in the sayings of the desert Fathers, arouses sympathy in the attentive reader, arouses both prayer and crying. Let us leave all vain things in order to inherit the weeping and prayer of the mind, the companion of weeping, so that through weeping and prayer we may find the consolation promised by the Savior. The path to crying - Gospel commandments. The fruit of the commandments is prayerful crying. He will embrace the monk throughout his life, a careful worker of the Gospel commandments, will introduce him, even during his earthly journey, into the Kingdom of Heaven, hidden within us, and at the end of his earthly journey - into the mountainous land of eternal bliss. This country is primarily called the Kingdom of Heaven: in it they are completely blessed with unearthly bliss, they are blissful with both secret bliss, internal, which is different for everyone, and general bliss, external, according to the influence of the situation, completely holy, constantly arousing and constantly nourishing perfect bliss, never disturbed by anything. This country is the inheritance of those who will discover within themselves the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven during their earthly life.” In the second “Conclusion,” which concludes the entire book, Saint Ignatius addresses his contemporaries (and all future readers of the Fatherland): “What should we say about ourselves? How should we live, how should we act? We find the answer to these questions from the ancient monks: they foreshadowed our situation. “In the last time,” said one of them, “those who will truly work for God will wisely hide themselves from people and will not perform signs and wonders in the midst of them, as at the present time. They will follow the path of action, dissolved in humility, and in the Kingdom of Heaven they will find themselves greater than the Fathers, glorified by signs.” What profound instruction, what consolation for us in these prophetic words... Due to the drying up of grace-filled leaders, due to the multiplication of false teachers, deceived by demonic charm and dragging the whole world into this deception, a life dissolved in humility is necessary, the most precise living according to the Gospel commandments is necessary, it is necessary to combine prayer with weeping for oneself and for all humanity... Save yourself! Blessed if you find one faithful collaborator in the matter of salvation: this is a great and rare gift of God in our time... Get acquainted with the spirit of the time, study it, so as to avoid its influence if possible... Do not condemn your neighbors, leaving judgment over them to God, and your heart will be cleansed of hypocrisy.” Saint Ignatius separated his comments from the general text as something official, secondary, presenting it in a smaller typeface. But we find here many sayings of Elder Ignatius, Bishop of Stavropol, disciple of the ancient ascetics and the silent man Nilus of Sorsky. Here are just a few of them. “Those who want to act in the work of God with the strength and means of their fallen nature are mistaken, gravely mistaken,” he writes. Fallen nature is infected with enmity towards God, is in communion and affinity with fallen spirits, how can it act in favor of the cause of God? This is unnatural for him! This is impossible for him! Experiments have consistently shown that people who decided to act on their own in favor of the cause of God acted to its detriment, in favor of the cause of demons.” “The depth of humility is at the same time the height of prosperity. Descending into the abyss of humility, we ascend to heaven. Those who attempt to ascend to heaven without humility are cast into the abyss of conceit and destruction.” “When a monk has mastered his work and has become an essential necessity, then he does not have the opportunity to move on to another work, even if this other work has its own spiritual dignity. Abandoning what you have learned is like abandoning life.” “From many monuments of monasticism in the first centuries, it is clear that the monks stood in prayer in the solitude of their cells with their hands raised in grief. This is how Saints Pachomius the Great and Sisoes the Great prayed; Probably quite a lot of people prayed this way; This is how Saint John Climacus advises praying when there is a special influx of sinful thoughts. This position of the body helps the soul to come to a similar position: to strive for grief. At the same time, it is necessary to beware of excessive stretching of the arms and strong direction of them upward, so as not to fall into a state of fervor and enthusiasm, from which one step leads to self-seduction and demonic charm. One must raise one's hands moderately so that the spirit is preserved in silence, humility, and tenderness; should give the body the position of hanging on a cross, and not flying to heaven. Let your head be bowed down, even if your hands are raised in grief.” “The initial direction that a monk receives when he enters a monastery remains with him, to a greater or lesser extent, for the rest of his life.” “The ancient silent monks, preserving the silence of the soul with all possible care, were extremely protected from curiosity, from any unnecessary knowledge that could break the silence of the heart and interrupt its mysterious conversation with God. We, the monks of recent times, should imitate this to the best of our ability, in order to gain the opportunity to at least somewhat concentrate within ourselves for mental prayer.” “The practitioner of mental prayer loses the ability to engage in material things due to the loss of heartfelt sympathy for them and due to an unusually developed sympathy for the spiritual world, the entrance to which is self-conception.” “Have mercy on me - This is an expression of crying that has penetrated into the soul. Crying, when it reaches its development, cannot be clothed in much thought and verbosity: it is content to express an immense spiritual feeling with the shortest prayer.” “Opressed by temptations, a silent man in distress in the waves of thought, constantly resorting to God’s mercy, acquires the conviction that all the hope of his salvation lies solely in the mercy of God, in the Redeemer, and acquires a heartfelt pledge of mercy towards his neighbors. He learns that his duty is to sympathize with the brethren who are subjected to various sins, and not to condemn them. There are other ministries for judging human sins; the service of the silent is lamentation before God and intercession for one’s sins and weaknesses, for the sins and weaknesses of all mankind. Until the heart of the silent person is freed from the condemnation of his neighbors, until he is immersed in goodness and clothed with it, until then it will not be able to free himself from bitterness and remain in tenderness, which overcomes all demonic thoughts.” “Death follows a person invisibly. There she comprehends him, where he completely expected her; then it befalls him when he did not expect; comprehends in a way he never imagined. Always be what you want to be when you die. Think about this, pay attention to yourself, and you will not want honor, glory, wealth, or any other advantages and pleasures of the world.” "So! Passions are in us. This needs to be known and known. When we go into the desert, we take passions there with us. In the desert, not finding food, tortured and pacified by feat, they act weaker, but become more refined. At the slightest carelessness, when temptation appears, they act with special force and with special cunning... The most terrible, most monstrous change can suddenly occur in our hearts. Temptations do not cease to chill even those lying on their deathbeds; they recede when the soul leaves the body.” “Invisible enemies prefer the night for intensified invisible warfare. In such cases, light from a lamp or, even better, from candles is very useful. Due to the action of vision and the entertainment this action provides, the soul is freed from the exclusive, concentrated influence of demonic thoughts and dreams on it, the effect of which is naturally weakened by entertainment.” “One should not be carried away by the virtues that are offered by demons, no matter how sublime and brilliant these virtues may be. Everything offered by demons must be rejected without any exception; arbitrary obedience to demons, even if it was done at their invitation and insistence, subjugates a person to demons, deprives a person of spiritual freedom, and makes him their instrument. It is a great disaster to be enslaved to demons and become their tool! A disaster that embraces the world and is not understood by the world.” “Temptation, unknown to people who are entertained, is known to monks who lead an attentive life. It is especially known to ascetics who engage in mental prayer. An insignificant word, an insignificant object from an area of ​​the world hostile to God, is sharply imprinted on pure souls; often neither streams of tears, nor intense feat, nor extensive knowledge of theology, nor a long time can erase the impressions of the dirty and harmful. All monks should protect themselves carefully, especially hermits and hermits.” On the day of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, April 16, 1867, Saint Ignatius celebrated the Liturgy, but he was so tired that the cell attendants had difficulty leading him to his cell. On this day, he announced that after Vespers he would no longer receive anyone, since the need had arisen for him to prepare for death. The next day, the 17th, on the birthday of Sovereign Alexander Nikolaevich, the bishop stood at the altar, but then went out to the thanksgiving prayer service and read the final prayer with an unusually strong expression; those present involuntarily drew attention to this. This was the last prayer of Saint Ignatius in the church. On April 21, a box containing copies of the last two parts of the saint’s book was delivered from Yaroslavl. When the books were presented to the bishop, he crossed himself and said: “Glory to God! This yoke has been taken off me!” But he did not look through the books or give them to people, saying that he was leaving this until the arrival of his brother, who was away on business. The saint wrote to him: “Glory to God! Thank you to all of you who worked on this matter! My strength is visibly diminishing; My chest and back hurt so much that I can no longer do my writing. And it’s time to leave written works in order to completely devote ourselves to the task of preparing ourselves for the transition to eternity.” On Friday, April 27, the Eminence asked one of his close disciples to rub his feet with pine oil and after that he said: “Thank you for working for me. This is the last time." - “Why the last one? – he was surprised. “Don’t you like it, sir?” - “No, not because, but because my days are numbered.” He told Archimandrite Justin that he had lost all sympathy for everything earthly, especially for food... “I won’t last long,” he added. The bishop wrote to Archimandrite Pimen, rector of the Nikolo-Ugreshskaya monastery: “Yesterday I lay there all day, waiting for death, and today I’m wandering around again.” Two days before his death, after lunch the saint lay down to rest, but soon got up and ordered the cell attendant Vasily to serve tea. He, noticing the extraordinary redness in the bishop’s face, asked about the reason for this. The Bishop replied that he had suffered a small blow, although it did not particularly harm him, but foreshadowed death. The young monk was horrified and exclaimed: “How can I live without you, Vladyka? After all, it’s very difficult these days!” He answered: “Yes, father, it is very, very difficult, so difficult that you cannot even imagine... I thought about you and betrayed both myself and you to the will of God.” The senior cell attendant, Hierodeacon Nikandr, offered to send for a doctor, but the bishop refused. He had said and asked before that while he was dying, so that they would not call doctors and not distract the dying man’s attention, would not confuse him with empty hopes, and would let a Christian die as he should... The ruler endured two or three more small blows while remaining on his feet. His face expressed increasing tenderness, sometimes directly glowing with joy, which amazed everyone around him. On the last day before his death, in the evening, cell attendant Vasily, saying goodbye to him for the night, bowed to the ground with the words: “Forgive me, Vladyka, who have sinned!” And suddenly the saint knelt down and bowed to him with the words: “Forgive me too, Vasenka...” On April 30, the week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, at 7 o’clock in the morning, cell attendant Vasily entered the bishop’s room (it was his office, and also his bedroom) and saw that an eagle was lying in front of the icons. And the bishop always removed it himself after prayer. Vladyka washed himself, drank Epiphany water and went into the next room, it was the dining room and reception room, to drink tea. After tea, he returned to the office, as always, ordering not to disturb him until late mass, until 9 o’clock - he always read and wrote at this time. When the gospel sounded, the cell attendant entered with prayer to the bishop and found him lying on the bed on his left side, facing the wall. As reported in the biography: “After standing for a while, Vasily repeated the prayer, but there was no answer. Peering more closely, he noticed that he was getting closer and became convinced that the bishop had already died. His head, lying on the pillow, was slightly tilted forward, the palm of his left hand was raised upward, as if in prayer; the right hand, lowered along the body on the bed to the side of the wall, lay near the open canon. In general, the decent position of the body was the reason that the cell attendant could not soon decide to recognize him as having already passed into eternity. Death, having come to the saint of Christ, found his mind occupied with prayer: having begun it on earth, he was called to the endless praise of God in heaven... The face of the deceased bishop, upon transferring the body to the table, shone with bright, unearthly joy.” Saint Ignatius died on the same day as the Monk Nilus of Sorsky, his spiritual teacher, mentor of holy silence - on the week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. For three days the body of Saint Ignatius stood in his cell; the inhabitants of the monastery came here to say goodbye to him. In the cell everything was as they were used to seeing, a table on which unsent letters and an unfinished manuscript still lay, a bookcase where notebooks with works copied out completely were lying in a stack, tall cabinets with spiritual books, a case with images and a burning lamp and an icon of the Mother of God above the bed of the holy monk, his favorite image, which he always saw when waking up... An old leather chair, in where he was sitting... It was hard to believe that the good father and mentor left here at the call of the Lord. For another three days the body of Saint Ignatius stood in the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and almost continuous funeral services were held there. A lot of Vladyka’s acquaintances, his spiritual children, and his admirers came. There was no odor from the saint’s body. He lay in the white vestment in which he performed the Divine Liturgy for the last time on Easter Sunday. On May 5, 1867, His Grace Jonathan, Bishop of Kineshma (vicar of Kostroma) performed the funeral Liturgy and funeral service. He ordered that the funeral service be held according to the Easter rite. After the funeral oration and farewell, the body of the late saint in an open coffin was surrounded around the church, and then lowered into the crypt in the hospital church of St. John Chrysostom and St. Sergius. Cell attendant Vasily wrote after the death of the bishop: “I believe in your prayers, my lord, because I have seen your immaculate ways. You have never cared so much about anything, you have not strived for anything so much as to please the Lord; both day and night you only thought, only thought about how to cleave closer to the Lord, how to pray more warmly to Him, how to cry more before Him. This attraction to the Lord has become unbearable for you. You have never found such consolation and peace in anything as in prayer and crying. After that, your face always showed something unearthly. It happened that I would come up to you on some matter and start talking, but you don’t see or hear me: something unearthly shines from your eyes, it seems that your mind is not here, but somewhere far away. You look and don’t see me. And for a long time I happened to stand in front of you and reverently admire this state; some kind of inexplicable silence wafted from you, and the sinful thought that I came to confess to you went far, far away from me.” Hegumen Anthony (Bochkov) wrote on May 9, 1867 to the treasurer of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, Hieromonk Nektary: “On May 1, they notified me by telegraph about the death of the Right Reverend Ignatius. And the day before I thanked him with a letter for sending me the last volumes of his works: my letter found him in his grave. He served two masses for the newly deceased himself and two memorial services at the cathedral... After St. Nilus of Sora, the Right Reverend Ignatius was the second and, perhaps, the last monastic teacher and writer, and in terms of the power of his words and the clarity of presentation of his ascetic teaching, he was the first and only. None of his contemporaries could equal him in knowledge of the Fatherly Scriptures. It was a living library of the Fathers... The entire week of the Myrrh-Bearers, according to the Gospel of John, was, as it were, dedicated to the departed, and the entire Ecumenical Church involuntarily gave this honor to the newly departed. The doctrine of the Bread of Life, which the Right Reverend explained so convincingly, was read in the text over his still unburied relics. I believe that all this happened according to Heavenly order.” Of the posthumous apparitions of Saint Ignatius, the most impressive is that recorded by Hieromonk Mikhail (Chikhachev) from the niece of Bishop A.V. Zhandre. “Severe grief,” it says there, “suppressed my entire being from the moment the news of the lord’s death reached me. This grief was not inferior to prayer: prayer itself was dissolved in grief, unbearable, bitter. Neither day nor night the feeling of spiritual orphanhood did not leave my heart. Both soul and body were exhausted to the point of illness. Thus time passed until the twentieth day after the death of the ruler. On this day, I was preparing to partake of the Holy Mysteries in one of the women's monasteries in Moscow. The feeling of sadness was so strong that even during the sacrament of confession it did not leave me, and it did not leave me during the Liturgy. But at that moment, when the Lord vouchsafed me to receive the Holy Mysteries, suddenly a wonderful silence descended into my soul and prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, alive, was felt in my heart. Just as suddenly, incomprehensibly to me, the sadness about the death of the bishop disappeared. Several minutes passed, during which I moved a few steps away from the Royal Doors, and, without leaving the solea, stood, at the direction of the mother abbess, on the left choir directly opposite the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God. There was a prayer in my heart, a thought descended in silence into my heart, and suddenly, before my inner eyes, as if also in my heart, but right opposite me at the icon of the Assumption, near the bed on which the Queen of Heaven reclines, the face of the deceased saint was depicted - beauty, glory, indescribable light! The light illuminated the entire face from above, especially concentrating on the top of the head. And inside me, again in the heart, but together and from the face, I heard a voice, a thought, a story - a ray of light, a feeling of joy that penetrated my entire being, which without words, but somehow wonderfully conveyed to my inner man the following words: “You see how good you are today, and therefore you should not grieve for me.” I saw and heard this so clearly, so distinctly, as if I had been privileged to see the Bishop, to hear from him face to face. An unspeakable joy took hold of my entire soul and was reflected in a living imprint on my face so that those around me noticed. At the end of the Liturgy, they began to serve a memorial service. And what a funeral service it was! In the ordinary sad funeral hymns I heard a wondrous song of spiritual triumph, unspeakable joy, endless bliss and life. It was a song of churching of the warrior of Christ who had again passed from the earthly, militant Church into the heavenly Church of the righteous triumphant in the eternal glory. It seemed to me that it was Christ’s day, everything around me was rejoicing on such a holiday and such a prayer was happening in my heart. That evening I went to bed: there was no sleep. Around midnight, in the silence of the night, from somewhere far away the sounds of a wondrous harmony of a thousand voices reached my ears. The sounds were getting closer and closer: the notes of church singing began to separate clearly, and finally the words began to be distinctly and distinctly expressed... And this singing was so full of harmony that all attention, all life was involuntarily riveted to it... The thick bass hummed rhythmically, like the ringing of all Moscow bells on Easter night, and this hum smoothly merged with the soft, velvety tenors, with the silver scattered altos, and the whole choir seemed to be one voice - there was so much harmony in it. And the words stood out more and more clearly. I clearly heard: “The divinely inspired adornment of the bishops, glory and praise to the monastics...” And at the same time, an inexplicable announcement to me, without words, but completely clearly and understandably, told my inner being that with this singing they were greeting Bishop Ignatius in the world of heavenly spirits. An involuntary fear seized me, and it also came to mind that Vladyka taught not to listen to such visions and hearings, so as not to be subjected to delusion. I tried hard not to hear or listen, concentrating all my attention on the words of the Jesus Prayer, but the singing continued besides me, so the thought came to me whether they were actually singing somewhere in the surrounding area. I got out of bed, went to the window, opened it: everything was quiet, dawn was breaking in the east. In the morning, when I woke up, to my surprise, I remembered not only the chant I heard at night, but also the words themselves. The whole day, despite the many everyday activities that happened, I was under the extraordinary impression of what I heard. Words were recalled in fragments and inconsistently, although their general connection slipped from memory. In the evening I was at the all-night vigil, it was Saturday - the eve of the last Sunday of the six weeks of Easter, the canon of Easter. But neither these chants nor the harmonious choir of the Chudov singers reminded me of what I had heard the day before: no comparison could be made between the one and the other. Returning home tired, tired, I went to bed, but again there was no sleep, and again, just as the city noise began to subside, around midnight, familiar sounds again touched my ears, only this time they were closer, clearer, and the words were engraved in my memory with amazing consistency. An invisible choir sang slowly and sonorously: “A champion of Orthodoxy, a great worker and teacher of repentance and prayer, a divinely inspired adornment to the bishops, glory and praise to the monastics: with your writings you have made us all chaste.” Spiritual tsevnitsa, new Chrysostom: pray to the Word of Christ God, Whom you bore in your heart, to grant us repentance before the end!” This time, despite the fact that I was intensely saying the Jesus Prayer, the singing did not dissipate my attention, and somehow, in an inexplicable way, my heartfelt prayer merged into the general harmony of the chant I heard, and my heart vividly felt and knew that it was a solemn song with which the inhabitants of heaven joyfully greeted the earthly and heavenly man, Bishop Ignatius, who had passed from earth to heaven. On the third night, from May 21 to 22, the same thing happened again, with the same sensations. This threefold repetition confirmed faith and did not leave any confusion, imprinting in the memory both the words of the troparion and the melody to which it was sung, as if a long-familiar prayer. The melody was similar to the chanting of the kontakions in the akathists. Later, when I showed in my voice what kind of melody I heard, they told me that it was the eighth voice.” Bishop Ignatius was canonized by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra (June 9, 1988) for the holiness of life, which was reflected in his works, created in the spirit of patristic tradition. Saint Ignatius, pray to God for us!