Житие преподобного Исаакия, затворника Печерского

It is impossible for a person to avoid temptations; if the tempter dared to approach the Lord Himself in the desert (Matthew 4:3), then all the more does he dare to tempt the servant of the Lord; but just as gold, purified by fire, shines before people like the sun, so a person tempted by the misfortunes of an enemy consigned to eternal fire will be enlightened before God by his good deeds, like a bright daylight. This truth clearly affected our venerable father Isaac, the recluse of Pechersk. This reverend father in the world was a rich merchant of Toropetsk 1383; Having decided to become a monk, he distributed all his property to the needy and to monasteries, came to the cave to the Monk Anthony and asked him to accept him as a monk. The Monk Anthony, foreseeing that this man would strive in virtues like the Angels and would himself become like the Angels, fulfilled his desire. Having become a monk, the Monk Isaac fell in love with a harsh life: he not only put on a hair shirt, but also ordered to buy himself a goat and skin it; From this skin, still damp and wet, he made himself a robe and wore it over his hair shirt, so that the skin dried on his body. Then Isaac shut himself up in one cramped cave, which was only about four cubits in size 1384, and there he prayed to God with tears; Only prosphora served as food for him, but he ate even that every other day; he quenched his thirst with water, and then only in small quantities. The Monk Anthony brought him food and drink and served it through a window so narrow that only one hand could fit in it; In addition, the Monk Isaac never lay down on his bed, but while sitting he strengthened himself with short-term sleep. So, amid great feats, he spent seven years without leaving his cramped cell. One day, when evening came, he, according to his custom, began to kneel, chanting psalms until midnight; when he was tired, he extinguished the candle and sat down in his place. Suddenly the cave was illuminated by a great light, bright as the sun, and two demons approached the monk, in the form of beautiful young men; their faces shone like the sun; they said to the saint: - Isaac! We are Angels, but Christ is coming to you with heavenly powers. Rising, Isaac saw many demons; their faces shone like the sun; one among them shone more than all, and rays emanated from his face; then the demons said to Isaac: - Isaac! Here is Christ; fall down before Him and worship Him. Not understanding the demonic trick and forgetting to mark himself with the sign of the cross, the monk bowed to that demon as if he were Christ. Immediately the demons raised a great cry, proclaiming: – Isaac – you are ours now! Having seated him, they themselves sat down around him; the entire cell and the cave street near that cell were filled with demons. Then one of the demons, the imaginary Christ, said: “Take snuffles, harps and tambourines and play them, and let Isaac dance in front of us.” Immediately the demons began to strike the nozzles, tambourines and harps; Having grabbed Isaac, they began to jump with him and dance for a long time; Having tired the monk and leaving him barely alive and thus abusing him, the demons disappeared. The next day, at the time when Isaac usually ate his food, the Monk Anthony approached the window, according to his custom, and said: - Bless, Father Isaac. There was no answer to this; Amazed, Anthony thought, had Saint Isaac died? Then he sent to the monastery for the Monk Theodosius and the other brethren. Having arrived, the brethren dug up a cave and carried out Isaac, thinking that he had died, and laid him in front of the cave; but then they noticed that Isaac was still alive. Then the abbot, the Monk Theodosius, said: “Truly, what happened to him is a demonic thing.” Then Isaac was laid on the bed, and Saint Anthony himself looked after him. At that time, by chance, Prince Izyaslav of Kiev was returning to Kyiv from Poland; Prince Izyaslav began to be angry with the Monk Anthony because of Vseslav, Prince of Polotsk, who during the life of the monk occupied the Kiev throne for some time. Then the Prince of Chernigov Svyatoslav sent at night from Chernigov for Saint Anthony; the latter, having come to Chernigov, fell in love with a place called Mount Boldynskaya; Having dug a cave, the monk settled where the monastery still stands today. Having learned that Saint Anthony had gone to Chernigov, the venerable abbot Theodosius, taking Isaac, carried him to his cell and looked after him - but Isaac was weakened in mind and body, so that he could neither sit, nor stand, nor even turn over to the other side, but lay only on one side, so that worms often appeared under him. The Monk Theodosius himself washed and straightened him with his own hands and served him in this way for two whole years, while Isaac lay. The amazing thing is that for two years Isaac did not eat bread, water, vegetables or any other food, but still remained alive, lying on his bed, dumb and deaf. The Monk Theodosius prayed over him, day and night, until in the third year Isaac began to speak; then he began to ask to be put on his feet and began to walk like a child; but he did not want to go to church, so they brought him there by force, and then he himself began to come to church. He then began to attend meals, where he was seated separately from the brethren; bread was placed in front of him, but he did not want to touch it; the brethren began to put bread into his hands, but the Monk Theodosius said: “Place the bread in front of him, but do not put it in his hands so that he can eat.” So for a whole week he did not allow the brethren to put bread into the hands of Isaac; the latter, looking at others, began to eat the bread himself and thus learned to eat. Thus, the Monk Theodosius delivered him from the wiles and seduction of the devil. When the Monk Theodosius reposed and Blessed Stephen became abbot in his place, Isaac again began to lead a harsh life, saying to the tempter: “You deceived me, devil, when I was in solitude in a cave, but now I will not shut myself away, but will try, with God’s help, to defeat you by working in the monastery.” Then Isaac again put on a hair shirt, over the hair shirt he put on a thick retinue 1385 and began to help the cooks, worked for the brethren, entered the church for Matins before everyone else and stood motionless in his place in the church. When winter came, he stood in the church, despite the severe frost, in badly torn shoes, so that his feet often froze to the stone, but he did not move his feet until the service was over. After Matins, he, first of all, went to the kitchen, prepared fire, wood and water; only then did other monks come, on whom this obedience was entrusted. One day one of these monks, also named Isaac, said, laughing, to the blessed one: - Isaac! Here sits a raven, go and catch him. Having bowed to the ground, the humble monk came up and took the raven and brought it to the monks’ kitchen. Everyone was surprised at such a thing and told the abbot and the brethren about it; and the brothers began to respect him from then on. But not wanting glory from people, the blessed one took on foolishness and began to insult first the abbot, then the brethren, then the laity, so that many even beat him. Having become a holy fool, he again moved into the place where he had been before - in the cave of the Monk Anthony, who had already reposed. Gathering the children to him, he placed black clothing on them. For this he accepted punishment from the then abbot, Blessed Nikon, and sometimes received beatings from the parents of those children; but he endured it all with joy, enduring beatings, nakedness, and cold. One night, blessed Isaac lit the stove in the cave; the stove was thin, and when the fire flared up, the flames began to rise upward through the cracks; not having anything to cover these wells, Isaac stood barefoot on the flame and stood until the stove burned out; then he came down without experiencing any damage. Isaac did many other amazing things. He finally received such power over the demons that he was not afraid of them and was not afraid of their threats and obsessions; and the demons often annoyed him and said: “You are ours, Isaac, because you worshiped our prince.” - Your demonic prince is Beelzebub; I fear him like an idol of flies (this is how his name is interpreted) 1386; I am not afraid of you his servants; if you deceived me before, because I did not know your wiles and your cunning, now by the power of my Lord Jesus Christ and the prayers of the venerable fathers Anthony and Theodosius, I will defeat you. At the same time, he marked himself with the sign of the cross and thus drove them away. Sometimes the demons tried to terrify the blessed one by coming to him at night, in a large crowd, with hoes 1387 and spades, and saying: “We will dig up your cave and bury you under the ruins.” Others of them said to him: - Come out, Isaac: they want to sleep you in a cave. To this the blessed one answered them: – If you were people, you would walk during the day; but you are the sons of darkness, therefore you walk in darkness. At the same time, he made the sign of the cross, as with all obsessions, and the demons immediately disappeared. Sometimes, wanting to frighten him, they appeared in the form of bears or lions and other fierce animals, then they crawled to him in the form of snakes, toads, mice and other reptiles, but without having time to do anything, they finally said: - Isaac, you defeated us! – And you once defeated me, appearing in the image of Jesus Christ and the Angels, not being worthy of such an image; now you appear in your true form, in the form of beasts and cattle, snakes and reptiles, since such are you yourself. And from then on, the demons could not cause any harm to the saint; he fought with them for three years since he himself moved into the cave for the second time, according to his own testimony. After this, he began to lead an even more severe life, showed even greater abstinence, and began to fast and labor more intensely. In the midst of such exploits, the time of his death came; he became very ill in his cave. The brothers carried the sick man to the monastery; here he was ill for up to eight days and went to the Lord in good confession 1388. Abbot John and all the brethren, having hidden the body of the saint, buried him honestly in a cave, where other holy fathers were also located. So this good warrior of Christ, defeated at first by the enemy, later defeated the devil himself and was deemed worthy to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Through his holy prayers may we also, having defeated the enemies of our souls, be worthy to reign with the conqueror of hell, Jesus, the King of glory, to whom all glory, honor and worship is due, together with His beginningless Father and the Most Holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto endless ages, amen. Toropets is a district town in the Pskov province. A cubit or lacot is a measure of length equal to 10.5 vershoks. A retinue or scroll is a simple, rough outer garment. Beelzebub is the idol of Ekron in Palestine, the ruler of granaries and food supplies, who drove away flies and other reptiles. In Matthew 12:24 and Luke 11:15) he is called the prince of demons. Hoe – pick, spade, iron shovel. The Monk Isaac reposed in the 12th century. His relics rest openly in the caves of the Venerable Anthony, and part of them was transferred from Kiev to Toropets by the abbot of the Kudin Monastery in 1711. You might be interested in: