Our venerable father Nikifor was, according to the testimony of Saint Nicodemus, a Latin by birth, but later accepted the confession of the holy Orthodox Eastern Church and led an ascetic life in the most desolate places of the holy Mount Athos. He flourished in the forties of the fourteenth century and, together with the godly and venerable Theoliptus (later the saint of Philadelphia), was the mentor and leader of Gregory of Thessaloniki (Palama) in the study of the highest teaching of ascetic wisdom, as he himself testifies to this in his writings.
In a silence free from worries, listening to himself alone and inexpressibly uniting within himself with the most worldly, highest object of desire - God, the Monk Nicephorus received the blessed gift of the light of grace embodied in the heart. Having himself richly tasted this Divine gift, the blessed father, in order to give us guidance in receiving the same treasure, compiled a “scroll” in which, having collected passages on sobriety, attention and prayer from the writings and lives of the holy fathers, and at the end, adding advice from his experience, he invites everyone to ascend, through heartfelt prayer, to the most sincere communion with the Lord.
This scroll, called “Nicephorus the Solitary’s word on sobriety and guarding the heart, is of great use,” as a correct and good guide to prayer, is placed in the book “Philokalia” in Russian translation, volume 5, pp. 259-272. M. 1890
In his truly multi-useful word, St. Nicephorus calls sobriety and guarding the heart a way that, without labor and sweat, leads you into the haven of dispassion and delivers you from falling through the wiles of the devil. St. Nicephorus himself calls this method or path to spiritual perfection “attention,” and says: “Some of the saints called attention as guarding the mind, others as guarding the heart, others as sobriety, others as meaningful silence, and others as something else. But all these names mean the same thing; Just as they say about bread - ukrukh, hunk, piece, so understand about this.”
Indicating how to achieve this internal activity, St. Nicephorus says: “Having gathered your mind to yourself, force it to enter your heart and stay there. When your mind is established in your heart, then it should not remain idle there, but constantly say the prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! And never be silent. For this, keeping the mind unimaginative, makes it elusive and inviolable to the enemy’s attacks and every day leads it more and more into the love and lust of God.” “The whole face of virtues will come to you, with much-desired and sweet attention: love, joy, peace and so on, for the sake of which then every request of yours will be fulfilled, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor and worship, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen".
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St. Sava I of Serbia, archbishop. († 1237, commemorated January 12, May 6)
See Life on p.
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Prmch. Pachomius the Russian, Athos († 1730, May 7, May 20 (on Patmos), May 21 (on Athos))
The Holy Martyr Pachomius was from Little Russia, the son of pious parents.
In his youth, the Tatars kidnapped him and sold him to a Turk, a tanner by trade, who took him with him to his homeland, to the so-called town of Usaki, located in the Philadelphia region (in Asia Minor). The Muslim, having taught the young man his skills, tried in every possible way to entice this innocent man into Mohammedanism, but Pachomius, understanding the craft well and diligently practicing it, disdained and did not want to hear about the wicked teachings of Mohammed. In vain did the frantic Turk use canes, threats and hunger - young Pachomius endured all this with joy and fortitude for his piety. Thus, for twenty whole years he remained in slavery and captivity, serving the cruel master with complete zeal and devotion. Meanwhile, the Hagarene, seeing that he could not influence the heart of the courageous young man either with threats, or beatings, or torture, embarked on satanic tricks: he had a daughter-maiden, and he planned to use her as an instrument to lure Pachomius into apostasy from the faith of Christ.
The Turk began to caress him, persuade him and, offering him his daughter in marriage, promised to make him the full heir of all his property, but the virgin young man with firmness and contempt rejected the caresses and offers of his master, preferring chastity to all the treasures of the world and repeating in his heart the apostolic word: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ; tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword” (Rom. 8:35). Finally, his master, seeing the inflexibility of his thoughts, freed him and gave him permission to go wherever he wanted. Pachomius glorified the Lord and was just getting ready to set off, when he suddenly fell dangerously ill. Meanwhile, the neighboring Turks, having learned about everything that was happening to Pachomius, and not wanting to let him out of their hands, wanted to use his very illness to their advantage. Having gathered in the house where the young man lay ill, they falsely announced that during painful attacks he had renounced Christ and gave them his word to hang out as soon as he was able to recover.
As a result, when he began to recover from his illness, he was forcibly dressed in Turkish dress, without, however, performing the circumcision ceremony. No matter how much he disgusted, no matter how much he denied, and no matter how much he cursed Mohammed and his teaching, the Turks did not want to hear, repeating one thing: that he had already once forever renounced his faith and belonged to their prophet. There was nothing to do: Pachomius indignantly withdrew from there to Smyrna under the guise of a merchant, and from there, throwing off his Turkish dress, he went to the holy Mount Athos, where, near the St. Paul's monastery, with one virtuous elder Joseph, who had a special gift of reasoning, he spent twelve years in obedience, accepting from him an angelic image and confessing everything that happened to him and what happened in the past years. At this very time, in the Kavsokalivsky monastery, the Monk Akakios was famous for his wonderful life.
Pachomius repeatedly heard about his great asceticism and, wanting to imitate him to the best of his ability and learn monasticism by experience, he moved there, spent six years under the guidance of the Monk Akakios, fed on the labors of his hands, so that finally he himself became a model of truly ascetic life and the adornment of his time. The consequence of this was that everyone loved him and used the edifying example of his life.
But while in this way Pachomius ascended from strength to the strength of spiritual life, his heart involuntarily trembled when a confused thought led him to think whether he had actually denied Christ in a painful attack or in unconsciousness.
“After all, without a reason, the Turks could not become attached to me,” he thought, “and clothe me in green clothes, which actually belongs to the triumph of their wicked faith.”
For a long time he could not overcome his spiritual excitement and finally revealed himself to his spiritual elder, asking him for blessings for his martyrdom. The elder, believing that this was a consequence of pride, and not of the gracious actions of the Spirit, reproached him, scolded him and drove him away from himself. Despite this, however, Pachomius pestered his elder for a whole year with a desire for martyrdom, and for a whole year the elder beat him, humiliated him and tormented him with canons, thinking that Pachomius was suffering from a spirit of pride. Finally, seeing that this thought did not leave Pachomius, together with him he turned to God in prayer, asking to reveal His holy will, and then both of them turned to the advice of the then famous elders, especially the wondrous Akakios, who blessed the young man for the desired feat. So, Pachomius, accompanied by his elder Joseph, went from the Holy Mountain to his former master, in the town of Usaki.
There the Turks immediately recognized Pachomius, and as soon as he appeared, they seized him and presented him to their effendi, the head of the town, declaring that Pachomius was in slavery to their neighbor and of his own free will denied Christ, as a result of which he was accepted by them into Mohammedanism, and decently dressed, and now he has betrayed his word and appears in a monastic Christian dress.
– Is this true? – asked Effendi Pachomius.