Ascetic creations

St. Mark the Ascetic (5th century) is one of the greatest Egyptian hermits. The circumstances of his life largely remain hidden to us, but St. Mark left precious evidence of spiritual achievement - his ascetic creations. The teachings of the Monk Mark the Ascetic are varied in genre and content: these are conversations with the brethren, and answers to questions asked by the philosopher, and lengthy teachings, and a heartfelt interpretation of individual biblical verses, which the Monk Mark always connects with ascetic work. The works of Saint Mark touch on complex theological issues and at the same time testify to a deep knowledge of the human soul, an understanding of its slightest movements. The wise instructions of St. Mark the Ascetic were included in the Philokalia; over the centuries, their importance as a reliable spiritual guide for monastics and laity has not diminished. In this edition, the ascetic works of St. Mark the Ascetic are distributed depending on their genre. In previous editions, all the works of the holy father were entitled “Words of Moral Asceticism.” Meanwhile, a number of the works of St. Mark, in composition and content, clearly cannot be called a “word” in the sense of a holistic teaching on any spiritual and moral topic. Therefore, in the proposed edition, we have combined the words of St. Mark into a group, which is entitled “Words of Moral Asceticism”; works that are not words in composition and content (“The Scholastic’s Debate with Abba Mark,” “Chapters on Temperance,” “Epistle to Monk Nicholas,” as well as a response to this epistle) are placed separately. In previous editions of the Holy Trinity Lavra of Sergius, the traditional order of the works of St. Mark the Ascetic was reproduced, known from the “Library” of St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (PG 103, 668–669), and from the manuscript tradition reflected in the critical edition of G.-M. Durand in the series “Sources Chrétiennes” (SC). However, the Russian pre-revolutionary edition included two works that are currently associated with the name of St. Macarius the Great: “On Spiritual Paradise and Law” and “Chapters on Sobriety.” In addition, the Russian edition did not include two words that Saint Photius names and which are given in the critical edition: “About Melchizedek” and “About the Incarnation.” Below is a table that shows the correspondence in the numbering of the works of St. Mark the Ascetic. For each of them, a number is given according to the 1911 edition of STSL, the list of St. Photius, SC and this edition. Creations not included in the group “Moral and Ascetic Words” are left in this edition without numbering. You might be interested in: