Word to Father Theodosius, Archimandrite of the Sofronieva Hermitage

About your love for him. And about not seeking honor and wealth. And what kind of fatherly love a rector should have. About a quiet and silent stay in the monastery. About having time to read fatherly books and pray in the cell. About the books of the Fathers, translated from Greek. And also about a certain detractor of mental prayer. The scripture of your shrine, sent to me, unworthy, through the honest fathers, the monks Clement and Ioannikis, I joyfully received and glorified God for your health and godly stay, and after careful reading I understood what was written to me. First of all, you tell me about your inexpressible suffering and sadness, which happened for the following reason: some, not heeding their salvation, with their strong false words, seemed to have so confused my soul and turned my heart against you, who have sincere love for me, that they completely broke the union of love on my part. And you tell me in detail what concern you had for the liberation of our brothers and what advice you gave them about this, which would truly help them obtain liberation if they followed it. But since they, believing their own opinion, rejected your care for them, that’s why they were imprisoned. Holy Father, believe me, not only this news of yours, but also your unceasing love for me confirms to me that you are by no means to blame for what happened to our brothers. And they in no way mention your shrine when they write their letters, but they cry and weep and with all their hearts and with all their souls they confess before God and before me that they themselves are to blame for everything that happened because of their disobedience to me. For to some extent they violated my will. For Athanasius, an elderly mother, and Theophan, an elderly father, wrote and tearfully prayed that they would bother to visit them and lead them to monastic life. The brothers, showing me their letters, with many tears, asked me for a long time for permission to go to their parents and actually fulfill their request. With many tears I exhorted them to abandon such an intention and entrust this matter to the almighty Providence of God. However, after some time, condescending to their diligent request, I allowed them to go, sending Brother Ambrose with them for spiritual guidance. Giving them a blessing on the way, I said with tears: “No longer, my beloved brothers, in this life we ​​will not see each other, unless Almighty God shows a miracle, so that I, the accursed one, will be honored to see you again in this short life.” And in fact, God allowed me to endure this for my unworthiness and to lose the sight of my most beloved spiritual children. And they, remembering this and crying, place the blame on themselves, and not on someone else, and with much humility, generosity and gratitude endure this temptation, which was allowed to them by the inscrutable destinies of God. One person told me in words about our brothers the same thing that you tell me about them in your letter: as if they complained to him that they suffered from you what they suffered. But since I did not find this in their letters, I did not believe this message of his at all and considered this message to be some kind of idle words. Therefore, I pray to your holiness: do not have such an opinion about me that I have completely broken the union of love with you - may the good God not allow me, the accursed one, to endure this. After all, although I by no means acquired love for God and neighbor through my negligence, I know and firmly believe that without love for God and neighbor it is absolutely impossible to be saved by Orthodox faith alone, for “faith without works,” according to Scripture, “is dead” (James 2:20 and 26). I must, if I want to have even the slightest hope of salvation, with God’s help, force myself to it at least partially and for no reason violate love for my neighbor, therefore, according to the commandment of God, I must have constant and never violated love for your shrine (see Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27). For the sake of greater assurance of your shrine, by the love of God I present to you the guarantee of my spiritual love, which I previously had for you and now have, which only God knows. When your shrine was still in the Tsybukan monastery, I had such a notification about you in my soul that in these last days God, by His grace, revealed such a man (that is, your shrine), who can guide those who want to be saved both in word and deed on the true path of salvation. When your shrine had the intention of moving to the Dolzheshti monastery and asked me for advice about this, I did not advise you to do this, fearing the complete destruction of your soul and body, and told you that if you do this, you will go to that monastery with indescribable joy, and from there you will come out with indescribable sorrow, which is what actually happened to you. After this, you had the intention of taking the Berzunets monastery, came to me at the Dragomirna monastery and diligently begged me to write a petition to the patrons so that they would give you that monastery. And according to your good will, according to your Christian conscience, your shrine made a vow before God and our Savior Jesus Christ, taking as witnesses our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, that in everything according to God you will consult with me and without my advice you will not begin or create anything, but will have spiritual unanimity and unanimity with me in governing your brothers and will follow the right mind in everything. Holy Scripture and the teachings of our holy fathers. I, the accursed one, having heard such a vow of your holiness, given voluntarily before Christ God, rejoiced with inexpressible joy, hoping that this vow of yours will remain forever inviolable. And at my diligent request from those persons, that monastery was given to you for permanent residence, into which your shrine and the brethren moved joyfully, and there for some time, according to your vow, you consulted with me. But after a short time you completely stopped having spiritual advice with me, breaking your promise before Christ God. And from that time on, it became as if natural in my soul about your shrine, such a conviction that even before my death your shrine would not accept spiritual advice from me and your life would not be governed by the will of God, since you began to follow your will and reasoning in everything, and not the teaching of the holy fathers, and from then on you began to govern the brethren with a strange and unusual government. In times of danger, you began to defend yourself with weapons, rather than turning to God’s all-powerful help. During the attack of the enemies, you did not come with the brethren and with all the movable property of the monastery to me in Dragomirna (where you would have stayed for a short time and would have returned with joy to your monastery), but without informing me either in words or in a letter, you left this land and suffered considerable spiritual and physical ruin. Then again, at my request, you were given the Snagov monastery in the Moldavian land for your permanent residence in it - having moved into it, you ruled the brethren in such a way that horror attacks me even at the very memory. For, instead of correcting sinners with paternal mercy, love, meekness, humility, patience, long-suffering and kindness, your shrine sought to correct them with severity, cruelty, merciless and inhuman beatings, bonds, prisons and other punishments appropriate to civil authority, and not to the monastic rank. You were tonsured to the monastic rank at an untimely rate and elevated to the diaconate and priestly ranks beyond your age - you did both of these contrary to the sacred rules of the Holy Church. And although our blessed and eternally worthy of memory elders and God’s spiritual fathers and mentors of our salvation, Basil and Michael, and other zealots and true followers of the word of God and the teachings of the books of the fathers all the days of their lives ran and avoided the evil gain, your shrine, on the contrary, with all your soul and with an insatiable desire rushes to the acquisition of silver and property. In all this, when you came from Snagov to me in Dragomirna, I spiritually denounced your shrine with all the boldness of my position, but I achieved nothing. For although your shrine, after my denunciation, called God as a witness, and promised to correct itself in everything, that promise was given out of mere pretense, and not according to the Christian truth itself. I did not believe this promise at all, but considered it a lie and not only secretly kept my disbelief in my soul, but also said to the face of your shrine that I did not believe such a promise of yours at all. And I was not mistaken in this. Because, truly, not only did no correction follow my loving reproof of your shrine, but you also succeeded in the worst. For after some time, a rumor reached me that your shrine is using all sorts of methods and turning to glorious and powerful persons in order to take the most famous and rich monastery of Tisman, which is the first in the Moldavian land. And this rumor struck my soul so much with an ulcer of sadness and regret for your shrine that, from the unbearable suffering and sadness of my heart, I began to think the following about you. Your shrine, through a frantic desire for vain glory and through an insatiable and money-loving passion for collecting money, no longer exploring either the reason of Divine Scripture or the teachings of the holy fathers, but, having darkened and closed the spiritual eye with the mentioned passions, without any reasoning, blindly plunges itself and those who follow you into the abyss of your and your brethren’s extreme and final spiritual and physical ruin. And you voluntarily inflict a storm of unbearable troubles and temptations, hatred and envy and rebellion on the part of everyone on yourself, without at all considering what end will follow this matter. And out of great regret for you, I and some brothers, unanimous with me, repeatedly said that the damned devil, jealous of the salvation of God’s servants, invented this intrigue to the detriment of Father Theodosius, with the help of which not only his soul, but also the residence of his entire cathedral would be completely ruined and, by God’s permission, he would inflict such terrible persecutions on him that even from these lands their residence would be completely destroyed. Which is actually what happened. Then some other reasons arose for the complete ruin of your residence, as you told me. The primary reason for the ruin of your residence in these countries is that you began such a great undertaking without advice. Because if at your shrine, for a blessed reason - because of the damage that you suffered in Snagov from the air - and the necessary need arose to ask for other monasteries for your residence, and you, knowing your limits, would look for monasteries similar to Snagov, then the Lord, the knower of the heart, seeing your need, would put it in the heart of the authorities to give you such a monastery for your stay with all joy. And since you, exceeding your measure, sought a superior abode, what followed followed. After your resettlement from here to your fatherland, in that monastery (which you liken to the Holy Mount Athos), which was given to you by God-governed authority, you and your brethren could truly spend your life in extreme silence, running and moving away from all the cares and rumors of this world, if your shrine had the true zeal of God for salvation. But at least now, does your shrine govern the brethren with meekness, humility and fatherly mercy, so that my damned soul, hearing this, could receive at least the slightest consolation and some kind of notification that your shrine governs the brethren according to the will of God and according to the reason of the Holy Gospel? But alas for me, alas for me! Truly, even now I am not worthy to hear at least partly this much-desired message, but I hear only everything opposite. Because many of your brothers, having left you, in good conscience tell me that because of your immeasurable cruelty they cannot live with you, for they do not deserve to love you as their most merciful father, but they fear and tremble as some terrible and cruel worldly ruler. They are also horrified by your punishments, not of the monastic rank, but of those befitting worldly authority: bonds, chains, dark locks, menacing and impudent reproaches that exceed the measure of patience, and other similar cruel punishments. Therefore, having escaped from you to freedom, they believe that they have escaped from some terrible captivity and enslavement, and they do not dare to return to you, although I exhort them a lot. After all, if you always ruled them with meekness, humility and fatherly mercy, then after they left you again with inexpressible joy they would return to you, as to their most beloved and child-loving father. And since they do not have the slightest hope of your merciful management of them, then, like sheep without a shepherd, they remain in a foreign country, not without spiritual sadness. Father Theodosius, if you, out of the true zeal of God, strived for silence, then you could, with the brethren in your monastery, with the help of the grace of God, practice perfect silence, removal from all the cares of this world, staying in your cell in sobriety and mental attention and in the unceasing calling of the Lord Jesus, that is, in sacred and God-creating prayer, performed with the mind in the heart, as if in a second paradise and desert Jordanian. You would have your food and clothing from the monastery parishes, from mills, apiaries and alms sent by the lovers of Christ according to God's Providence, so that you would not know any cares of this world. But where is your jealousy? Where is this attention to your salvation? Where is the true desire to practice unceasing prayer? Where is the zeal that comes from the whole soul to flee from the rumors and cares of this world and remain in extreme silence? I don’t see anything like that in your shrine. But I see what is happening, as I believe, due to the enemy’s delusion, everything is the opposite: rumor and care, the establishment of monasteries, or rather, farms, diligent care for the reproduction of various livestock, frequent, without any necessary reason and for a long time, your departures from the monastery and abandonment of the brethren, because of which, in the absence of the abbot, there is such devastation to the souls of the brothers that it is impossible to express. After all, if there were a true desire in your soul to force yourself with all your heart and soul to do the good deeds mentioned, then you would strive in the monastery and in the cell, as in a tomb, to remain hopelessly, day and night, constantly worrying about your own and your brothers’ salvation. And since the most beloved thing for your shrine is frequent and long-term exits from the monastery, associated with considerable destruction of your soul and the souls of your brothers, then why do you write to me in vain, as a small and senseless youth, about your zeal for silence, prayer and the books of the fathers? I, holy father, do not look at your words, but at your fruits, and from the fruits, according to the commandment of the Lord (see Matt. 7:20), I recognize that your words do not at all agree with the fruits, but in them there is only pretense, and not the most real, true, zeal of God that occurs from the inner disposition of the soul for the mentioned good deeds and for the books of the fathers. Everything that I have written up to this point to your shrine, I did not write with the purpose of condemning you, let it not be so. For I believe and confess that there is only one true and righteous Judge of the living and the dead (see Acts 10:42) - Christ our God, who will reward everyone according to his deeds (see Matt. 16:27; Rom. 2:6), and that he who condemns his neighbor appropriates the authority of Christ to himself. But I wrote this with that intention and, out of God’s love, with all the details, as in a mirror, your shrine, so that it would be clear that for the reason mentioned, it was not I who finally broke the union of love with your shrine on my part, but your shrine: you, as you write, completely broke the union of your sincere love for me from the time when the vow you voluntarily made before God to consult with me was completely trampled and rejected from your soul - and even until this day. My spiritual love, which I had for you by God when you were still in Tsybukany, I have the same love by the grace of God now, but only in its action it has changed. Then I loved you as a true servant of God and a follower of His soul-saving commandments, and I rejoiced in my soul and glorified God for your spiritual success in all good deeds. Now, after your rejection of your vow made before God, from the depths of my soul I sigh for your state of mind, and cry with my heart, and weep, and with all earnestness I pray to the most merciful God, so that He, who wants everyone to be saved and receive the knowledge of the truth (see 1 Tim. 2:4), would touch your soul with His grace, and give it complete correction in everything, and return by His omnipotent power into the first, and moreover, into an incomparably better state and spiritual success in all good deeds. Here, holy father, according to my conscience, I informed your shrine that I always have the same love for you according to God, but only in my action, as I said, changed. Therefore, I pray to your holiness: never have the slightest doubt about my love for you, but firmly believe that I always have the same love for you according to God. But since your shrine considers the sending of fatherly books to you for rewriting to be a clear sign of my reconciliation and love with you, then, consequently, the refusal to send you these books will, in your opinion, be a sign of my enmity with you and dislike for you. Therefore, I considered it necessary to announce this in detail to your shrine, so that, with the assistance of God’s grace, such an inappropriate opinion about me would disappear from your soul. After all, it is not because I have not reconciled with you and do not have love for you, as you imagine, that I have not yet sent you the books of my fathers at your request for rewriting. But I didn’t send it because my work, both in correcting and translating the books of the fathers, although it is truly long-suffering and great, and incomparably surpasses my much-infirm physical and mental strength, it is still lame and imperfect, for a blessed reason, which will be discussed below. For the sake of greater persuasiveness, I must tell your shrine in detail for what reason and with what thoughts and intentions this work was begun by me - so that one of the two will come true: either your shrine, having completely understood this matter from my story, will cease to bother me with this any more, or at least now will agree with my advice about the books of the fathers for the common benefit of the monastics. But I'll start from the very beginning. When I was still on the Holy Mount Athos with a small number of brothers, then, knowing reliably from the teachings and commandments of our God-bearing fathers, that it is not appropriate for one who has brothers under his leadership to instruct and teach them according to his own reason and reasoning, but should be instructed according to the true and right reason of the Divine Scripture, as taught by the divine fathers, universal teachers, as well as teachers and mentors of monastic life, enlightened by grace Holy Spirit; knowing also my own weakness, and fearing and trembling, lest, because of my inexperience, I myself fall like a blind man into the pit of destruction, according to the word of the Lord (see Lk. 6:39), and did not plunge those who followed me into it, I therefore laid the unshakable foundation of true, undelusional and not leading away from the true path of God’s instruction both for my poor soul and for the holy brethren - the Divine Scripture of the Old and New Testaments and its true interpretation by the grace of the Most Holy Spirit, that is, the teaching of our God-bearing fathers, ecumenical teachers, and holy fathers, teachers and mentors of monastic life, as well as the decrees of the holy Councils and all the apostolic, conciliar and patristic rules that the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church contains, all its commandments and statutes. All this, as I said, I offered as an instruction to myself and the holy brethren, so that both I and the brethren living with me, being instructed by this with the assistance of God’s admonishing grace, would not sin against the true and conciliar mind of the Holy Orthodox Church. And first of all, I began diligently, with God’s help, with considerable labor and expense, to acquire fatherly books teaching about obedience and sobriety, attention and prayer: I either copied them with my own hand, or even bought them with the money that we earned by the labor of our hands for our necessary needs. Many times, agreeing to endure poverty in food and clothing, we bought with this money the mentioned books in the Slavic language and revered them as a heavenly treasure, given to us by God. After reading them diligently for several years, in very many places I found incomprehensible ambiguities in them, and in many places I did not even gain the most grammatical meaning; and although I read it many times with indescribable difficulty and inquisitiveness, I still did not acquire the said meaning. God alone knows what sadness my soul was filled with, and, wondering what to do, I thought that the Slavic fatherly books could be at least slightly corrected using other Slavic books. And I began with four books to copy in my own hand the book of Saint Hesychius, the presbyter of Jerusalem, Saint Philotheus of Sinaiti and Saint Theodore of Edessa, so that, by comparing at least four with each other, I would be able to see the grammatical meaning. But all this work of mine was in vain, because even in those four books, when comparing them, I was not able to see that perfect meaning 1 . When I suffered so many times, then I realized that I was working in vain in the imaginary correction of Slavic books on Slavic ones, and I began to diligently investigate why there was such unintelligible obscurity and lack of grammatical meaning in Slavic books. And by comprehending my weak mind, I found that there were two reasons for this: the first was the lack of skill of the ancient translators of books from Hellenic into the Slavic language, the second was the lack of skill and negligence of inexperienced copyists. And then I completely despaired of seeing in the Slavic fatherly books the right and true meaning that is contained in the same Hellenistic books. After my many years of stay on the Holy Mountain, when I partially learned to speak Greek, I had a diligent intention with heart disease to look for Hellenic Greek paternal books in the hope of correcting the Slavic ones from them, and, having searched in many places and more than once, I could not find. Then I went to the Great Lavra monastery of St. Anna, and to Kapsokaliva, and to the Vatopedi monastery of St. Demetrius, and to other laurels and monasteries and, everywhere asking eminent persons, experienced and elderly confessors and honest monks about the books of the fathers by the names of their authors, nowhere was I able to find such, but from everyone I received such a unanimous answer: “Even to this day, we are not the only ones We don’t know the books, but we haven’t even heard the names of these saints.” Having received such an answer, God knows what bewilderment I fell into, reasoning that in this holy place, chosen by God for the quiet and silent stay of monks, where many great and perfect saints lived, I was not privileged not only to find the holy books that I so desired, but even to hear the names of those saints from anyone. And therefore I fell into considerable sadness about this, but I placed all my hope for acquiring such books on God and prayed to His ineffable mercy, so that “in the same way as the Almighty and Almighty” would grant me the ability to acquire such books. The Most Merciful God, not despising my zealous desire to acquire paternal books in Hellenic, granted me, through His ineffable Providence, to find such books and acquire some of them in the following way. Once I walked with two brothers from the Holy Great Lavra of St. Athanasius of Athos to the Great Lavra monastery of St. Anna and we came to the high hill of the holy prophet Elijah, which in height is equal to the third part of the great most exalted Holy Athos and under which, on a high place from the sea side, is the monastery of St. Basil the Great, created in recent times by monks who came from Caesarea Cappadocia, in a very harsh place, which has neither a stream nor a source of flowing water, which is why that monastery has neither vineyards, nor olive trees, nor figs, nor gardens, nor any other consolation of this world, but with rainwater alone it satisfies the necessary needs of the brethren. And we had a desire to go to that monastery, partly for the sake of worship, and partly in order to see a place that we had never been to before. When we came to that monastery and sat down near the holy church, one reverent monk saw us, who opened it to us, and after we bowed to the holy icons in that church and left it, he called us with love to his cell and went out to prepare food for us in order to give us peace from the labor of the journey. Looking at the table by the window, I saw an open book lying on it, from which he was copying another, for his trade was an eloquent writer. And when I looked into it, I saw that it was the book of St. Peter of Damascus; Having seen her, I cannot express what indescribable spiritual joy I was filled with, for it seemed to me that I was privileged to see a heavenly treasure on earth. When he returned to his cell, I began to ask him with great joy and inexpressible surprise, where did such a book come from at his shrine beyond my expectations? He told me that he also has another book of the same saint, which has twenty-four words according to the letters of the alphabet. When I asked him if they had other such books, he replied that they had the following: St. Anthony the Great, St. Gregory of Sinaite (but not all), St. Philotheus, St. Hesychius, St. Diadochos, St. Thalassius, St. Simeon the New Theologian “Tale of Prayer,” St. Nikephoros the monk “Tale of Prayer,” the book of St. Isaiah and other such books, but St. Nicetas Stiphatus only Twenty-two chapters, but a whole book, he said, they don’t have, unless the libraries of large monasteries have one. When I asked him why I, who had been looking for such books for such a long time with heart disease, did not find them and, diligently asking many honest people, was not even able to hear about them, he answered me: “The reason for this, in my opinion, is that these books were written in the purest Hellenistic language, which now, except for learned people, hardly any of the Greeks understand at least a little, and many do not know at all, and therefore these books came to all-perfect almost oblivion, because of which you were not worthy, asking about such books, to even hear about them. The monks living in this monastery, even when they were in their country, Caesarea of Cappadocia, heard a lot about such books, and after they came to the Holy Mountain, thanks to a lot of work, over a long time and at considerable expense, earning by their handicrafts, for a fee they learned from knowledgeable persons not only the simple, but also the Hellenic Greek language itself, and, with God’s help, finding in some monasteries such books, they are copied, they are read, they benefit, and by their strength they force themselves to do what these books teach.” Hearing this and extremely rejoicing with the inexpressible joy of finding such a heavenly treasure on earth, I began to diligently pray to this eloquent writer to copy such books for me for the love of God, promising to give him whatever price he wanted for his work. He, since he had a lot of copying work to do, refused and took me to another red-writer, who was in the same monastery and whom I also prayed with great zeal to copy the books of the fathers, promising to give him triple the price for the work. But he, seeing my considerable desire to purchase such books, did not want the triple price for the love of God and, despite the fact that he himself had a lot of work to do with rewriting, he promised me, for the usual price, as much as he could and as much strength as God would give his hand, to rewrite some of these books. So, a little over two years before our departure from the Holy Mountain, the red writer began to rewrite how much strength God had given to his hand, and he rewrote some of the books that I longed for. Having received them with all joy, as a gift of God sent to us from heaven, we left the Holy Mount Athos so that in these countries we would have greater convenience in taking care of the necessary needs of our cathedral. When we moved into the holy monastery of Dragomirna, I began to diligently think and worry about how I could either correct the Slavic books of my fathers, or even begin a new translation of them from Hellenic Greek 2, and I began this work as follows 3. I took for my guidance the translated books of the fathers in the Moldovan language, which were translated from Hellenic Greek, copied for me on the Holy Mountain, into their natural Moldovan language by our beloved brothers, hieromonks Macarius and Hilarion-Daskal 4, skilled in translating books and learned men. Brother Macarius translated some of them on Holy Mount Athos, and some in Dragomirna, and Father Hilarion also translated some of them in our cathedral. Considering that their translation, without any doubt, was correct in all respects, I began to correct the books I had, translated in ancient times into the Slavic language from Hellenic Greek, and to translate others again, diligently looking at those Hellenistic books that were copied for me on the Holy Mountain. And he translated again the books of the following saints: St. Anthony the Great, St. John Climacus, St. Hesychius, St. Philotheus, St. Nilus of Sinai “On Prayer,” St. Isaiah the Hermit’s chapter on prayer, and St. Thalassius. In ancient times, the translated books were corrected by the following: St. Diadochos, St. Macarius the second book, St. Isaac, St. Gregory the Sinaite, St. Simeon the New Theologian “A Sermon on Prayer and Attention,” St. Cassian the Roman “On Eight Thoughts” and “A Sermon on Reasoning” and others 5 . In 1774, a Greek monk named Constantius came from the Holy Mountain to us in Dragomirna, while we were still there. He brought with him a Hellenic book, copied in his own hand and containing many of his father’s works. Some works were discovered in it, which I had not yet seen in the Slavic language until that time, and which, through my diligent prayer, he copied for us in his own hand. But since he did not know grammatical teaching at all, because of his complete lack of skill in spelling, he introduced many and countless errors both into his book and from his into what was copied for us. And, truly, we found the gold of the words of the saints wallowing in the mud of irregular spelling, from which even among well-educated persons who can cleanse it without reliable Hellenistic originals? From these books rewritten by the aforementioned Constantius, I again translated the following: St. Mark the Faster, St. Theodore of Edessa and St. Nicetas Stiphatus “Three Hundred Chapters” 6 . These books, more than all those mentioned, not only for printing, but also for copying now in another monastery, are completely unsuitable until they are corrected according to reliable printed or even handwritten originals 7 . This is how in the mirror I showed your shrine what my work was like in correcting the Slavic books of my fathers according to Hellenic Greek or in a new translation of the latter into the Slavic language. For this work was beyond my strength, but it was also imperfect for the mentioned blessed reason, for which now these books are completely unsuitable not only for printing, but also for rewriting in another monastery until they are completely corrected according to the most reliable Hellenic Greek originals. Therefore, I could not in any way send such books to your shrine for rewriting or printing, fearing to violate my Christian and monastic conscience and fearing the eternal condemnation of my soul on the day of the Last Judgment of God for this lame and imperfect work. Your shrine, even if to this day it still has at least one unquenched spark of true love for me according to the commandment of Christ, should not consider my refusal to send you these books as a sign that I have not reconciled with you, or am at enmity with you, or as if I was jealous of the common benefit of those who want to be saved and benefit from such books - may Christ the Savior not allow me such madness! By the grace of God, I don’t see any other reason in my soul for refusing to send you such books than the one mentioned. Therefore, I pray to your holiness: after you understand my such clear assurance regarding the reasons for refusing to send you such books, destroy any inappropriate opinion about me because of this matter in your soul and do not bother me with this anymore, for no matter how much work you put into this, it will be in vain. After all, until these books are completely corrected according to the true Hellenistic originals, according to my spiritual vow they will not leave our cathedral. If your sanctity is truly of God, and not feigned zeal for the acquisition of these soul-saving books, it has in its soul, then it cannot assure my soul of this in any other way than by accepting my sound advice about the much-desired acquisition of such books for you. If at least now you listen to him with all your soul, I believe in the Lord and have no doubt that you will not be deceived in this long-term desire of yours, but with God’s help, without any doubt, you will be honored to see it actually come true. The Most Reverend Cyrus Macarius, the former Metropolitan of Corinth, from a young age acquired such an indescribable, by God’s action, love for the books of the fathers, teaching sobriety, attention of the mind, silence and mental prayer, that is, performed with the mind in the heart, that he devoted his entire life to diligently searching for them and copying them, as hardworking with his own hand (for he was skilled in secular sciences), and expensive - by the hands of red-letter writers. Arriving at the Holy Mount Athos, with indescribable zeal and great diligence, in all the libraries of the great holy monasteries, he found many paternal books that he had not yet had in his possession until that time. On top of all this, in the library of the glorious and great monastery of Vatopedi, he found a priceless treasure - a book about uniting the mind with God, collected by great zealots in ancient times from the teachings of all the saints, and other books about prayer, which we had not yet heard about. With the help of many skilled writers, having rewritten these books at considerable expense several years later, he himself diligently compared them with the originals, corrected them authentically, and placed the lives of all the holy authors of these books at the beginning of their works, after which he left the Holy Mount Athos with indescribable joy, as if he had found a heavenly treasure on earth. Having arrived in the glorious Asian city of Smyrna, he sent to Venice, with a considerable sum collected from the alms of Christ-lovers, thirty-six paternal books, among which was the book of St. Callistus the Second, which is testified by St. Simeon of Thessalonica, and in addition to this number, the great “Paterikon” of the Skete of Egypt, for publication with printed embossing. He intends to send to print in a short time the large book of St. Simeon the New Theologian, which is completely ready for this purpose. And after some time, as one person recently informed me about all this in writing, with God’s help the mentioned books will be published. This truly blessed Metropolitan Cyrus Macarius 8 from a long time had the desire to print such books with the intention that these holy books would not fall into complete oblivion and be destroyed from the face of the earth, which almost did not happen. For he himself actually knew what kind of work he had undertaken, and spent almost his entire life searching for those books, and, after having searched with indescribable diligence everywhere, and especially on Holy Mount Athos, diligently and in every way, he barely found such a spiritual treasure, buried, as if in the ground, in long-term oblivion and extreme ignorance - a treasure, more than anything, and even more than breath itself, I dare say, necessary ascetics of the monastic order to instruct them in mental warfare with invisible spirits, which is also necessary so that zealots can purchase these printed books with greater convenience and less expense than handwritten ones. I announced all this to your shrine in advance, little by little beginning to give you my advice on how your shrine and the brethren, and we with our cathedral, could be worthy of acquiring true, without any errors, Slavic paternal books. Your shrine knows that by God’s ineffable mercy in recent times, our Orthodox All-Russian Church was honored to receive from the Greek Orthodox Church the Holy Orthodox Faith and Holy Baptism. With holy faith she accepted the Divine Scriptures, and all the holy church books, and the books of the holy teachers, and the patristic books translated from Hellenic Greek, which are the sources of the Slavic books, for from them the Slavic ones received their beginning. Over time, the Divine Scripture and all church books, by God's grace, were corrected according to Hellenic texts, as according to their sources, but the patristic ones remained in their ancient translation and have not yet been corrected according to their Hellenic sources; moreover, due to the fault of inexperienced copyists, they acquired countless errors. Therefore, there is an urgent need for these books to be corrected according to their own sources. Therefore, father, as I often repeat, if you have in your soul truly true and not feigned zeal of God for the acquisition of such books, then listen to my sound advice in this, and such obedience will be a true sign of your sincere love for me and a true, not feigned desire to acquire fatherly books. I pray to you, holy father, for the Lord’s sake and advise you: with all your heart and with all your soul, try to acquire the mentioned sources, that is, the Hellenic Greek books of the Fathers, for there is an undoubted hope in God that the Slavic books of the Fathers, translated from them in ancient times, will be reliably corrected from them, and others will be translated again. And in order to acquire these books, do not spare not only perishable and insignificant, short-lived and transitory property, but also your very soul. And if God wills, and we will be alive, and there will be a time of peace, then next year in the spring, choosing from the cathedral your brother who deserves the most trust and giving him, from where God’s Providence will give you, no less than a thousand leva, send him to me. And I, having also chosen from the cathedral our brother similar to him, who knows a little Greek, will send him, at your full expense, with your brother to the Holy Mountain, where those books, after being published, will most likely be brought for sale. Without any difficulty, having easily bought at least two collections of such books there, or, if you wish, more, the brothers will return to us with God’s help. Having left one meeting with us as a sign of your true love for me according to God and for the sake of eternal memory of you and your salvation, they will happily return to you with another meeting. You, having received such holy books, will take them yourself to those God-chosen and inspired persons about whom you proclaim to me that they burn with God’s ineffable love for such books and have an inexpressible and great zeal to publish them in printed form. Having joyfully accepted these much-desired books from your hands, they, prompted by the action of the Holy Spirit, will command the teachers, who have completed all the secular teaching of the Hellenic Greek language to perfection and have not even touched theology itself, to translate them into the purest Slavic language, into which the Divine Scripture and all church books were translated, and those translated in antiquity - to truly and authentically correct them. After a new translation of those books or after a true and reliable correction of those translated in antiquity, they will fulfill their soul-saving desire if they take care with their blessing and support to print them for the common benefit of monastics (for it is most fitting for monks to study the books of the fathers), so that all monks, and especially those of them who are true ascetics in their inner man, not only from our Orthodox fatherland, but also from all Orthodox the Slavic language of the peoples: Serbs, Bulgarians and others - they were honored to receive benefits from reading them. Then not only would the long-term and long-standing desire of your shrine to acquire such books be fulfilled, since you would already be worthy of having them, but we ourselves, if we were worthy of receiving them, would put those we have for good preservation, and from reading those books, as trustworthy, we would receive benefit, glorifying God. This advice of mine to purchase such books will be valid if the news turns out to be all true (which seems to me reliable) that the mentioned books have definitely been sent to Venice for printing. Then, for the indicated amount, with all the expenses at both ends of the journey, it will be possible to buy two collections of such books. If, as God forbids, this news does not turn out to be true, there will be a need to rewrite these books on the Holy Mountain, which is completely impossible to do with the amount mentioned, but incomparably more money will be required. Because it will be necessary to give to the Svyatogorsk Cathedral of Kareya, that is, to all the holy Svyatogorsk monasteries, no less than a thousand leva of alms, so that everyone will react kindly to this matter and give a helping hand. After all, the whole world knows that all holy places, and with them the Holy Mountain, are supported most of all by the alms of Christ-lovers, especially in these difficult times, and without alms it is shameful and indecent, and even impossible, to begin such a great undertaking. Also, especially to the holy monasteries, three or four, in which such books are located, you need to give at least five hundred leva in alms, so that the rulers in them with all joy agree, having opened their libraries, to give out such books from them for copying. It is also appropriate to try to give the copyists not only the usual, but also an incomparably greater payment for copying, so that with all joy and diligent zeal they strive to copy those books correctly, without any errors, and after copying, compare them with the originals and correct them correctly. It is certainly appropriate to rewrite two collections of such books, so that one remains with us, and the other is attributed to you. Just for this rewriting itself you should spend at least two thousand leva. It will take about five hundred leva to feed the brothers sent to copy books on the Holy Mountain for one or even two years, as well as expenses for both ends of the journey. So, holy father, if the necessary need arises to rewrite the mentioned books, thanks to which the souls of those who want to be saved hope to find eternal benefit, then for your shrine, as having God’s zeal for this, is it not appropriate for such a large amount of money to be spent with all diligence on the acquisition of such a priceless spiritual treasure? And not only this, but if the need arises, is it not appropriate to lay down one’s soul for the acquisition of those books for the benefit of one’s neighbor? Truly fitting. And if you have incurred so many expenses on the creation of a stone hospice with an iron roof, then is it not appropriate to incur incomparably greater expenses on the acquisition of the mentioned books for the sake of the eternal benefit of yourself and your neighbor? But since I do not consider the news about the printing of the mentioned books to be untrue, but all-true, your shrine will also be freed from such great expenses for rewriting them, but you should only use the smaller amount mentioned for their purchase, as I wrote about this in detail. If in no way, even if you wanted with all your heart, it is impossible to make your shrine (either due to your extreme and final, perfect monastic, Christ-like poverty, or for some other blessed reasons, or due to the misfortune of the time), then the Lord will not condemn you, for you had the will to do it with all your zeal, but could not. And if this happens, then with all my zeal I beg you not to despise the Lord for the sake of at least this, my last piece of advice: convey the news that the fatherly books in Hellenic have been sent to Venice for printing, to those persons about whom you inform me. They, as God-inspired men and having an inexpressible zeal of God for such books, after their release from the press, can conveniently receive them, as persons possessing great power, and after the most true translation into the Slavic language, publish the translated books. And then your shrine, having gotten rid of the mentioned expenses, will be able, with God’s help, to acquire those books with greater convenience, and in this way your greatest desire to acquire them will actually be fulfilled. I pray to your holiness: my response letter to His Eminence, if God gives you strength, take it yourself. It is written about the reason for the refusal to send your shrine books, about the mentioned message regarding the sending of those books for printing and a petition to his Eminence, may he deign to exhort your shrine to listen to my advice written to you - and nothing else. Therefore, do not hesitate, take this letter yourself and hand it over to your Eminence, at whose holy feet I have fallen in thought, most humbly with all my congregation I bow and kiss the holy and blessing right hand. I inform your spiritual shrine that because of the printed edition of the books of the Fathers, both in Hellenic and Slavic languages, I am overcome with both joy and fear. Joy, since these books will no longer be consigned to complete oblivion and zealots will be able to acquire them with greater convenience; fear, because I am afraid and trembling, so that when they are offered not only to monks, but also to all Orthodox Christians in general, as a thing for sale, like other books, the consequence of this will not be the delusion of those who willfully, without the instruction of experienced ones, learn from them how to do mental prayer, and because of the delusion - the blasphemy of the vain-minded against this holy and immaculate, by many and great holy fathers certified matter. Which actually happened in our days. One monk, a vain-minded philosopher, staying in the Moshensky mountains, seeing that some zealots, however not according to reason, of this prayer fell into delusion because of their self-instruction and from the ignorant instructions of the unskillful teachers of this prayer, and without laying the blame on the arbitrariness and unskillful instruction, through the action of the devil he armed himself so strongly with blasphemy against this holy prayer that the ancient damned He incomparably surpassed the heretics, Varlaam and Akindinus, who blasphemed this prayer. For he, neither fearing God nor ashamed of people, directed such terrible, shameful and nasty blasphemies at this holy prayer, at its zealots and practitioners, that even for the ears of a chaste person they are intolerable. In addition, he instigated such great persecution against the zealots of this prayer that others, leaving everything, ran to this country and live in it in deserted places, pleasing to God. Others, being feeble-minded, became so mad from his depraved words that, as we heard, they drowned some of their fatherly books in the Tyasmin River, tying bricks to them. And his blasphemies gained such great power that some, under the threat of depriving him of his blessing, forbade reading his father’s books. When, not content with verbal blasphemy, he decided to write it down, then, by God’s punishment, he became blind in both eyes, and his godless intention was stopped. As I said above, I am afraid and trembling, lest the self-initiators fall into delusion, and that delusion is followed by blasphemy, and blasphemy is followed by doubt in the teaching of our God-bearing fathers, in which the fathers, after they themselves have learned this prayer by the grace of the Most Holy Spirit through work and experience, God-wise teach it to ascetics who are zealous with all humility to force themselves to it. doing. The books of the fathers, especially those that teach true obedience, sobriety of mind and silence, attention and mental prayer, that is, done with the mind in the heart, are suitable only for the monastic rank, and not in general for all Orthodox Christians. Therefore, the God-bearing fathers, who teach this prayer, call true obedience its beginning and unshakable foundation, from which true humility is born, and humility protects the one who strives in prayer from all delusion that arises among self-righteous people. And how will it be possible for worldly people, out of self-indulgence, followed by delusion, to force themselves to such a terrible and terrible task, that is, such prayer, without any instruction, and at the same time avoid the manifold and varied seductions of the enemy, who are subtly led to this prayer and its ascetics? For this matter is so terrible, that is, mental prayer, that true novices, who not only cut off their will and reasoning before their fathers, the true and most skillful mentors of doing this prayer, but also completely killed them, always remain in fear and trembling, fearing and trembling, lest they be subjected to this certain charm in prayer, although they are always protected by God from it for their true humility, which by the grace of God they acquired through their true obedience. This prayer by the saints is called the art of art, and who can learn it without an artist, that is, without a skilled mentor? This prayer is a spiritual sword, given to us by God to slay the enemy, but for those who act unskillfully, there is a danger - lest it turn him to slaughter himself. By this prayer I mean not just intelligent, that is, not simply performed with the mind and lips - for such prayer befits every Christian who wants to be saved - but artistically performed with the mind in the heart and invisibly piercing the enemy with the Divine name. This prayer, or rather, an act of the heart, shone like the sun only among the monks, especially in the countries of Egypt, also in the countries of Jerusalem, on the mountains of Sinai and Nitria, in Palestine and in many other places. And if it was performed somewhere and shone among the monks, then even there the doing of this prayer was kept as a great and ineffable secret, known only to God and its practitioners; The making of this prayer was completely unknown to the worldly people. Now, thanks to the printing of the patristic books, not only the monks, but also the entire Christian people will become aware of it. And therefore, as I said, I fear and tremble, lest for the reason mentioned, that is, because of the unauthorized, without a mentor, beginning of this prayer, such self-initiated people will not fall into some kind of delusion, from which may Christ the Savior deliver by His grace all who want to be saved. Having spiritually informed your shrine of all this, as if for the sake of warning, I remain in all the commandments of God, desiring your perfect success. May the God of love and peace be with you (see 2 Cor. 13:11). Amen. Further in the edition of the Optina Monastery: I corrected the Book of Saint Isaac the Syrian for six weeks, day and night, according to another similar book, which, according to the testimony of one person, is in everything similar to the Greek; but even this labor of mine was in vain, for over time I realized that my book, the best, had been spoiled by the worse. Further in the publication of Optina Pustyn: and met a great and inexpressible obstacle to this matter for some blessed reasons. First, a translator of books must be comprehensively educated and must not only perfectly know all grammatical teachings, spelling and have a complete knowledge of the properties of both languages, but also the highest teachings, I mean poetics, rhetoric, philosophy, as well as theology itself, without even touching it with a finger. Although in my youth I spent four years in the Kyiv schools, I learned there only partly the grammar of the Latin language, for the desire of monasticism did not allow me to touch the higher teachings. But even that small teaching over so many years almost fell into complete oblivion, so I was afraid and trembled before the beginning of such a great undertaking. The second is my lack of skill in spelling, that is, in spelling. He who is unskilled in spelling and dares to write holy books, in my opinion, believes with his heart for righteousness, confesses with his mouth for salvation (Rom. 10, 10), and with his hand, because of his lack of skill, he blasphemes against his eternal condemnation, although when he reads it he does not understand his blasphemy. And I was afraid of this, being then still inexperienced in spelling, and I was afraid to start this business. Third, for this task I had no dictionaries, except for one Varin, but he was almost always in the cell of Brother Macarius, since he was needed to translate books into Moldavian. And translating books without dictionaries is the same as translating a master without tools. Fourth, of the words of the Hellenic Greek language I knew only a certain part, and even the slightest, and was in almost complete ignorance of the entire language. Fifth - this Hellenic Greek language, which incomparably surpasses all the languages ​​of the entire universe in wisdom, beauty, depth, inexpressible abundance and richness of speech, and the depth of which even the natural Greeks themselves, well educated, can only partially comprehend, put considerable fear in me: how can I dare to begin my work of correcting or translating books from such a wise language? Sixth - and our most glorious Slavic language, which, as it seems to me, is incomparably superior to many languages ​​in its beauty, depth, abundance of sayings, and most of all in its closest similarity to the Hellenic Greek language, I knew barely a small part, and did not know an incomparably large part, and therefore was afraid to begin this work. Thinking about these and many other reasons, as well as the fact that I am not free from countless spiritual and physical concerns about the internal and external affairs of the monastery, I almost despaired of starting this work, as it was extremely difficult. But, seeing in our cathedral the famine of the word of God (see Am. 8:11), from which the souls of the brothers, together with my poor soul, completely melted away, I placed all my hope in the Lord, who makes wise the blind (Ps. 145:8), and through the prayers of the holy brothers I dared to begin this work, which completely exceeded my measure, with such intention and thought and in the following way. Knowing my limits, namely, that for the reasons mentioned, it will be completely impossible for me to complete the work of correction or new translation of the Slavic paternal books from Hellenic Greek, which I have begun, immediately in such perfection that my work would be worthy of immediately being transferred to the brothers staying in other monasteries for rewriting or printing and so that subsequently there would be no need for a second review and correction of them, and seeing as in a mirror that not once, but many times as I acquired dictionaries and improvements, albeit small, in the understanding of the Hellenic Greek language, as we learn the spelling of the Slavic language and observe the properties and skillful combination of the grammar of both languages, there will be a necessary need to correct them again with diligent consideration, either for myself, if God prolongs my life, or after my death for my brothers who are skilled in this matter, I therefore not out of envy, as some think, for the common benefit of all monks who want to be saved, but in the hope that they will, let and after a long time, these much-desired books were completely corrected, I laid in my soul, as an unshakable foundation, such a covenant: let this work of mine correcting or translating the books of my fathers, lame and imperfect in all respects, not proceed anywhere from our cathedral until, with the help of God, it is corrected and brought to the proper perfection. Further in the publication of Optina Pustyn: Seeing myself deprived of both dictionaries and the aforementioned knowledge necessary for this matter, I took for myself... Daskal (in Greek did£skaloj) – teacher, master. Further in the edition of Optina Pustyn: holding tightly, like a blind man to the tyn, to the mentioned translation, and corrected the listed books for the first time. Then, after a long time, when I had already begun to gradually achieve greater success in this matter, I saw in the books I corrected many errors due to my lack of skill and corrected some of them a second time. Then, after some more time, when many errors were again found in them, I corrected them for the third time, and some of them remained only in the first correction, since due to lack of time I could no longer correct them. But even these are still very far from true correction, because even in those Hellenistic books themselves, copied on the Holy Mountain, which, due to my inexperience, I considered to have no errors, errors in spelling were discovered in very many places. At a time when I did not yet have a single dictionary for this task, I re-translated from the same Hellenistic books the following books of the holy fathers: Anthony the Great, Isaiah the Hermit, Peter the Hermit, the second book, which, due to my greatest lack of skill at that time, have so many errors in translation that I am afraid to even imagine, but correcting them perfectly without reliable Hellenistic books is by no means impossible. Out of necessity, I translated the book of Saint Theodore the Studite from simple Greek at the same time, not even to this day being able to see it in Hellenic Greek, although I strongly wish; however, this translation, for the reasons mentioned, also has many errors. Also, I worked for a whole year on correcting the book of Saint Isaac the Syrian in the ancient Slavic translation, having been granted, by God’s incomprehensible Providence, beyond my expectation, to see it in real life printed in Hellenic Greek, and I read either from the Hellenic Greek or from the Moldavian book. But woe to my such great work, because this book, for the same reasons, is very far from perfect, and it is necessary for me, already half dead, if God, in His mercy, still prolongs my life, and grants enlightenment to my sight, although I am almost blind, I must again work diligently on correcting it, since I already have some dictionaries and have become somewhat more successful from frequent practice of this matter. It would be appropriate for me to undertake similar work on the secondary correction of the first book of St. Macarius the Great and the first book of St. Peter of Damascus, because they are also far from perfect. I did not even begin to correct the book of Saint Simeon the New Theologian, since even until now I have not been privileged to see it in Hellenic Greek. In the edition of the Optina Pustyn, this phrase is read differently: From these books that he copied for us at my request, due to the mentioned need, I again translated the following: St. Mark the Faster, St. Nicetas Stifates “Three Hundred Chapters.” And further: Some parts of the three hundred chapters were translated into the Slavic language in ancient times and we had them, but I have not seen this entire book, consisting of three hundred chapters in total, even to this day. And up until that time I did not have a single chapter of a Hellenistic book. I also translated from them the book of St. Theodore of Edessa. Further in the publication of Optina Pustyn: What can I say about the book of saints Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and his companion, the Monk Ignatius, Xanthopoulos, which is testified by the most blessed Simeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica, and which with an inexpressible desire I wanted to be vouchsafed to at least see before my death? When I began to completely despair of this, the almighty Providence of God arranged it so that I not only saw it, but also translated it into our Slavic language. However, I will tell the truth, although it has better spelling than others, in many places, as it turned out, it has such errors that even the most skillful translator of such books from Hellenic Greek into Moldova, Father Hilarion Daskal, did not at all find the real and true meaning in those places, but out of necessity he translated it as he suggested. I followed his opinion in my translation, therefore this book also has an obstacle to printing and rewriting in another place. What can we even say about the second book of Saint Callistus, called Kataphigiot, because of the countless spelling errors in it? Although I also translated it into our Slavic language, it has the same imperfection that prevents such a thing. The Life of Saint Gregory of Sinaite, written by his disciple, His Holiness Callistos, Patriarch of Constantinople, the honest father schemamonk Savva brought from the Holy Mountain to our common father and elder Vasily of blessed memory, from whom we took this book and copied it. Despite the fact that after a long time the life of this saint in Hellenic was brought to our cathedral from the Holy Mountain, it, in addition to having the usual spelling errors, turned out to be incomplete and contained only some of its parts, and there is no description of the blessed death of this saint. Although I translated this life into our Slavic language, it also has the same shortcomings. We have only one book of Saint Maximus the Confessor, “Four Hundred Chapters on Love,” from the Moscow press; there is also “The Word of Fasting in Questions and Answers” ​​by the same saint, which I rewrote in my youth in our fatherland with countless errors and omissions due to my ignorance; I have not been privileged to see the Hellenistic text to this day, although I strongly wish to. There is no Slavic book of His Beatitude Simeon of Thessalonica, except Hellenic Greek and Wallachian, in our cathedral at all. We also do not have the book of Saint Callistus, a disciple of Saint Gregory of Sinai. The book of St. Nile of Sora in the Hellenic language does not exist at all, it is only in Slavic, and in my youth I rewrote it, but with countless spelling errors, and until now I did not have time to correct them, in addition, I did not have a trustworthy book that could easily be found in our monasteries. "Macarius" translated from Greek means "blessed."