Venerable Silouan of Athos (1866–1938)
In 1866, in the Tambov province of the Lebedinsky district of the Shov volost in the village of Shovskoye, a boy was born into the pious family of the peasant Ivan Antonov; at holy baptism the child received the name Simeon. The large and friendly family lived poorly, but the father, like many Russian peasants, loved to show hospitality to strangers. The father talked with them about God and Christian life, and these conversations made a strong impression on the receptive soul of the youth.
From childhood, Simeon worked together with his elders, helping his father in the field and his brothers with construction work on the landowner’s estate to the best of his ability. The life of the Antonov family is inextricably linked with the church, a visit to which instilled in Simeon from infancy a sense of reverence for the word of God, and raised him in the spirit of Christian humility and other virtues. A few years later, the young man began to ask his parents to let him go to the monastery; he wanted to take monastic vows at the Pechersk Lavra. The father insisted that his son first enter military service and only after completing it decide who he should be.
Simeon did his military service in St. Petersburg. In the army, the gift of his wise advice manifested itself with particular force, following which many found peace of mind and well-being. Having left for service with living faith and a deep feeling of repentance, Simeon never forgot about God. By that time, the place of his future monastic exploits had been miraculously determined - Holy Mount Athos. He often thought about monastic life and, wanting to somehow help the inhabitants of the monastery, several times sent the accumulated money to Athos. Shortly before the end of his military service, Simeon decides to ask for the prayers and blessings of Father John of Kronstadt - Holy Righteous John. Not finding him, he leaves a note with the words: “Father, I want to become a monk; pray that the world does not delay me.”
Many years later, the ascetic would write: “O great Father John, our prayer book! I thank you, good and holy shepherd, for for the sake of your prayers I parted with the world and came to Mount Athos, where I saw great mercy from God.”
Simeon stayed at home for only one week. Having collected gifts for the monastery and what was necessary for the journey, he said goodbye to everyone and went to Athos. In the fall of 1892, the young man arrived at the Holy Mountain and was accepted as a novice into the Russian monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon.
The life of the elder in the monastery was simple, accessible and outwardly unremarkable: at first his obedience was hard work at the mill, which was replaced by the busy work of a housekeeper, managing workshops, a food warehouse, and in his declining years - a trading store.
Having gone through the initial monastic trials, in 1896 he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Silouan, and in 1911 into the schema, leaving his previous name.
He did not have his own disciples and was not in obedience to any particular elder. “It is difficult to live without an elder,” he said later. “An inexperienced soul does not understand the will of God, and it will endure many sorrows before it learns humility.” He himself, like most monks, was brought up in the atmosphere of the spiritual tradition common to the monks of Athos, spending, as required by the centuries-old way of life in the monastery, days in the incessant Jesus Prayer, long services in the church, fasting and vigils, frequent confession and Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, reading spiritual books and work.
Having lived for forty-six years in a monastery with a communal charter, the ascetic never sought to go into seclusion or retire to the desert, believing that without the favor of God they in themselves are only auxiliary means, and not the goal of Christian life. While among people, the elder kept his mind and heart from extraneous thoughts, cleansed them of passions to stand before God in prayer, claiming that this was the shortest path to salvation. He prayed a lot and earnestly, resorting mainly to the Jesus Prayer, which soon entered his heart and began to be performed in him incessantly. This gift was received by Elder Silouan from the Most Holy Theotokos after fervent prayer before Her image.
The novice Simeon continued the feat of vigil, fasting and heartfelt prayer, but the spiritual struggle with new temptations - vanity and pride - did not leave him.
The appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ brought the novice the joy of Easter, the Resurrection, a feeling of transition from the darkness of spiritual death to the inexplicable light of life. Once having cognized Divine love by the Holy Spirit, he begins to experience the loss of grace incomparably deeper and more acutely: "Whoever has lost it tirelessly seeks it day and night and is drawn to it. It is lost by us for pride and vanity, for hostility towards a brother, for condemning a brother, for envy, it leaves us for a lustful thought, for addiction to earthly things, for all this grace leaves, and the devastated and sad soul then misses God, just as our father Adam missed his expulsion from paradise.”
Elder Silouan wrote: “The soul that has known God cannot be satisfied with anything on earth, but everything strives for the Lord and cries out like a little child who has lost its mother: my soul misses You, and I am tearfully seeking You.”
Constantly being in asceticism, he abstained from everything and anything that could interfere with the acquisition of grace: he slept little, in fits and starts, up to two hours a day, sitting on a stool, did not make concessions in fasting and limited himself in food, advising those who turned to him to “eat so much that after eating you want to pray”; cut off his will, believing that this brings “great benefit” to the soul. She yearns, prays, cries, being in a struggle to retain grace, but the Divine light, if it returns, does not last long, and then, as before, again leaves the novice. "We suffer for this reason," the elder explained, "because we do not have humility. The Holy Spirit lives in a humble soul, and He gives the soul freedom, peace, love, bliss." Acquiring a humble spirit “is a great science that you will not quickly overcome.”
15 years have passed since the Lord appeared to Elder Silouan. His mind is again darkened by spiritual warfare, “attacks” at night. The ascetic later spoke about the mental pain he had to endure: “If the Lord had not first given me to know how much He loves a person, then I would not have endured even one such night, and I had many of them.”
On one of these nights, with contrition in his heart, he cried out:
- God. You see that I want to pray to You with a pure mind, but the demons do not let me. Teach me what I should do so that they don’t bother me?
“The proud always suffer from demons,” was the answer.
- Lord, teach me what should I do to humble my soul?
And again God’s answer sounded in my heart: “Keep your mind in hell and do not despair.”
According to the elder, the Lord took pity on him and Himself taught him how the soul should humble itself and become unapproachable to enemies: when sinful thoughts approach, it recognizes itself as worthy of eternal torment and descends into hell in order to burn out in itself the effect of every passion with the power of hellish flame and turn to the Lord with pure prayer, trusting in the saving action of the love of Christ and thereby avoiding despair.
This revelation given by the Lord was not only an extremely important practical instruction for the monk Silouan, but also marked the beginning of a new stage in his spiritual life. Gradually, the ascetic’s prayer begins to be dominated by sorrow for a world that does not know God. As the elder explained, people have forgotten the Lord who created them and are looking for their freedom, not realizing that outside the true Source of life it does not and cannot exist. Freedom is only in the Lord, who, by His mercy, gives those who resort to Him the grace of the Holy Spirit. In Him, the Holy Spirit, in His knowledge lies liberation from the slavery of sin and the fear of death.
Once, talking with a hermit monk, the elder asked:
– If they put you in heaven and from there you see someone burning in hellfire, will you be at peace?
“What can you do, it’s your own fault,” he heard in response.
Then the elder with a sorrowful face replied: “Love cannot bear this. We need to pray for everyone.”