Глава 9. 1786–1792

Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake 494 . Holiness blossoms in the desert and grows in anxiety, bearing its best fruits in oblivion, despised by people, and the greatest good created by it is that which no one sees and which it seeks to hide even from itself. She lives by humility, raised by sacrifices. And when divine Providence does not send her trials, she trembles and inflicts them on herself, as if difficulties and adversities are her natural driving force” 495. If there were such a saint in the Church who managed to escape the said law, we would have the right to doubt his holiness. Such is the nature of man who seeks sanctification. To become worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, he must strive on earth. The mysterious saying of the Great Paul is very significant: “You have not yet become bloody, struggling against sin” 496 . This does not mean that this should happen, whether in reality, or invisibly, in the depths of conscience. It was not in vain that the Author and Finisher of our faith 497 was hanged on the Tree, but he suffered, leaving us an image so that we would follow His footsteps 498, as the first of the apostles, Peter, testifies. Since 1783, that is, three years earlier than the time we are describing, “The Philokalia”, “Evergetin” and the book “On Constant Divine Communion” were published. The people of Svyatogorsk learned, although it is unclear in what ways, that Nikodim Kapsaliot 499 had worked on these books, and expressed their gratitude to him for the benefit they had acquired. However, many monks did not accept the book “On Permanent Divine Communion” favorably, deciding that it violated church rites and contained heretical teachings! And for this reason, the already persisting unkind attitude towards kollivads led over time to the emergence of a new temptation, especially since the compiler of the book was precisely kollivad. The specific charge was that the book in question, in contrast to the established custom that monks took communion three or four times a year, and the most attentive of them once every forty days at the most, taught that Christians should take communion once, or twice, or three times a week. Of course, this accusation pointed to the deepest ignorance of church teaching and the strange conclusions of the accusers themselves. From here one can understand what gratitude the Orthodox people should feel towards the Kollivads and personally towards the Monk Nicodemus, who discovered for them a “pearl of great price”, buried at the bottom of dark ignorance for centuries, given that the book in question was reprinted many times. The book “On Constant Divine Communion” was also read by a certain monk, one of those who adhered to the mentioned gloomy prejudice. His conscience was confused, and he sent it to the Great Church of Christ, accompanied by all kinds of words of condemnation. And Patriarch Procopius 500, outraged by the contents of the book and the monk’s letter, conciliarly condemned both the book and Saint Macarius Notara, whom he mistakenly considered its author 501 (since he knew about the efforts that Saint Macarius made to publish it in Smyrna), also threatening with excommunication any faithful who would dare to read this book. The enlightened inhabitants of the Holy Mountains fought with all their might to ensure that the unjust and contrary to the canons excommunication proclaimed by the patriarch was cancelled, but in vain. It was in force until Neophyte 7502 ascended the throne of Constantinople and reversed the unreasonable condemnation, writing in this regard to the alleged author of the book, Saint Macarius, a letter from which it is clear how much the work of the Monk Nicodemus corresponds to the holy canons and the very spirit of the Church. After the Patriarchate justified Kollivadian views on the Sacrament of Divine Communion, the enemies of the holy father fell silent, no longer able to accuse him of heretical fabrications. Satan lost the fight to keep the faithful from communing with the Life-Giving Mysteries, and therefore put a new evil thought into the minds of those who submitted to him. Having suffered defeat in an open struggle, ungrateful and unloving, they decided to attack on the sly, spreading slander that St. Nicodemus does not believe that the whole of Christ is in every particle of the Holy Bread, but believes that it is only a part of Him, and moreover: that he believes that the Body and Blood of Christ are perishable, and it is for this reason that he teaches constant Divine Communion. If we take into account that another twenty-two years must pass before the Sacred Kinot of the Holy Mountain intervened in the dispute, proclaiming St. Nicodemus “the most Orthodox and imbued with the dogmas of the Church of Christ...” 503, then we can imagine what a storm arose on Athos, how many temptations befell the holy father and what Job-like patience and inexhaustible kindness he showed. This is what saints are like! For so many years he was attacked, slandered, humiliated, ridiculed by passionate people, but he remained silent, waiting for the fulfillment of the false blessedness of the Lord: “Blessed are you when they revile you... and in every way unjustly slander you for My sake,” and he wept and prayed for those who offend 504, whom, as Euthymius says, he “consigned to the abyss of oblivion and mercy of God" 505. Along with the question of the saint’s imaginary wickedness, the dispute about the remembrance of the dead, which had been dormant, also stirred up. In those days, the former Patriarch of Alexandria, Matthew, died, leaving as executors the Bishop of Aleppo 506 Gennady and the learned monk Vissarion: both were fierce persecutors of the collivades. When the time came for the forties, the mentioned executors sent a written invitation to Saint Macarius, who was at that time on Mount Athos, to take part in the commemoration of the deceased, which was scheduled for Sunday at the monastery of Kutlumush. This event served as the starting point for the resumption of the dispute over commemorations. Saint Macarius not only refused to participate in the service, but also very definitely answered those who invited him: “Why do you prefer to commemorate on Sunday, ignoring the other days of the week and breaking the decrees and statutes of the Church that prohibit this? I have never performed commemorations of the dead on Sundays and will not do so” 507. After this, new unrest and persecution began. Saint Nicodemus was a man of the church, a deep connoisseur of the sacred canons and traditions; he, like no one else, knew their true meaning, and moreover, he had a clear awareness of his responsibility - as a faithful child and as a teacher of the Church. It was this, despite his meek character and love for every fellow believer, that led him to inevitable clashes with those who violated the holy canons or despised sacred traditions: he did not even tremble before hierarchs and patriarchs. This explains the fact that throughout his venerable life on the Holy Mountain he was constantly subject to the wrath of his opponents, who had little respect for the church rules established by the Holy Spirit. He rested in Bose with an invincible pen in his hand instead of a weapon, and with a heart filled with sorrow that people were violating the divine commandments. Saint Macarius of Corinth, having written the above-mentioned message, as Athanasius of Paros notes in an unpublished manuscript, which, we hope, will finally be published 508, “immediately withdrew to the island of Chios, fearing that he would have to suffer some evil from these filthy murderers. And there he received a letter from His Holiness (Procopius was on the throne at that time), filled with anger, rage and threats. Then Macarius wrote the following answer: “Your threats and intimidations will not correct the matter, and I am ready to suffer if Your Holiness decides to excommunicate me.”509 Despite the turmoil and sorrow, Saint Nicodemus did not despair and did not give up his writing. He achieved unity with God, and if he paid attention to the anger that surrounded him, it only prompted him to cry and pray for his brothers in Christ, who were suffering such suffering from a common enemy. He lived with ardent love for God, and this love tore him away from all creation. This is possible. “God and man cannot be separated from each other. A certain inner necessity pushes them towards mutual rapprochement, for they exist one for the Other. After all, God wants to be the God of man, and man must become the man of God. In God there is a certain inner aspiration towards man, whom He has chosen as the object of His love. But in man there is a certain inner desire for God, for whom he was created.” This resolves all the contradictions of our existence, which only in love for God finds fulfillment of all the impulses of the heart, peace of the soul, contentment of the mind. All saints experience similar closeness to God. And therefore their tears are unceasing and their lamentations unspeakable. 2. Collection of works of Gregory Palamas Palamas, having ascended to the extreme limit and acquired a thought illuminated by divine insights, left the Church his wisest theological writings... As the biographer of St. Euthymius reports, didascal Athanasius of Paros, who was at that time in Thessalonica, and Metropolitan Leonty of Iliopolis asked the venerable Nicodemus to begin preparing for the publication of the unpublished works of St. Gregory Palamas. Nicodemus just needed a reason. After all, he considered Palamas one of the most expressive theologians of hesychasm, for whose sake he worked so hard and endured so much during the twenty-five years that passed before his conciliar justification. In his writings, the Monk Nicodemus, more often than any other Father, with great respect and love, mentions Palamas whenever it is necessary to confirm some theological opinion in the field of Orthodox spirituality, about which, as well as about Saint Gregory himself, it will be very useful to say a few words here. The Divine Palamas combined extensive theological learning with personal experience of Eastern spirituality, since he lived for many years on Athos - both in cenobitic monasteries and in silence. And he discerned in the attacks on the Svyatogorsk fathers expressed by the monk from Calabria Barlaam, the agnosticism inherent in the Latin Church and now trying to overturn the basic dogmatic tenets of Orthodox mysticism. And therefore, in his desire to protect the Church, Saint Gregory abandoned a detailed consideration of the mystical contemplations of hesychasm and transferred the dispute directly to the dogmatic sphere. The correctness of Saint Gregory was solemnly proclaimed at two councils, which confirmed with their authority the meaning and significance of the deepest life in Christ. Hesychasm of the 14th century was a simple but very vivid expression of the spirituality of the Eastern Church, and therefore it is the hesychast teaching of Palamas that the Church is guided by when it needs to lay out the foundations of its high and mysterious life. Everything that the Church lives by and that is recognized in its depths as truth finds its clear expression on Athos, in mystical natures. No modernism, no innovation, no charm was possible here. A teaching that had a strong dogmatic basis simply found its new expression: that Christ is mysteriously revealed to those who love Him. Therefore, Saint Gregory, a mystical nature and a holy heart, based on church dogmatics, in order to defend the completely Orthodox opinion, which was then under attack, collected all the teaching about the mystical life contained in the Scriptures. We will not sin against historical truth if we say that the luminary of Thessalonica, Gregory, is to the East what Thomas Aquinas is to the West. And just as he systematized Western theology within the framework of limited human thought, so Palamas, standing in the freedom that Christ gave us 510, gave a certain harmonious divine image of the high mystical theology of the Christian East, which had previously remained scattered. But he in no way turned theology into a “system,” for the Spirit not only breathes where it wants 511, but as it wants, in the hearts of those who follow the rule of freedom 512 and love. The Great Gregory became an invincible apologist for the mystical unity of man with God and Orthodox spirituality as such. In this way he saved the Church from humanistic influences, since hesychasm 513 arose mainly as a response of Orthodoxy to humanistic movements in the West. Saint Nicodemus set to work with great zeal. Immersed in the study of the theological works of Palamas, he completely forgot about the arrows that human passions threw at him. Here, in Kapsala, the spirit of divine peace and angelic residence, the silence of feelings, divine love that filled the heart, and the Lord’s radiance that enlightened the mind reigned. There was no place for human indignation, any kind of malice and “the prince of this world.” We learn about the saint’s labors on the works of Palamas from his friend, Stefan Scourteus, who reports the following: “The teacher Nicodemus the Holy Mountain, of blessed memory, collected the writings of St. Gregory Palamas from the libraries of the Holy Mountain and other parts of Greece, with great care compiled commentaries on them in Hellenic 514 and divided them into three volumes...” Unfortunately, these creations were lost, and their loss was irreplaceable. The manuscripts were sent for printing to the Viennese printing house of the Markidi Puliu brothers. But in the same printing house the revolutionary appeals of Rigas Fereos 515 were then printed, and therefore the Austrian authorities destroyed the printing house, and everything that was in it was stolen. Among other things, the manuscripts of St. Nicodemus disappeared. From the letters we found while working in the archives of the Great Lavra, we learn that immediately upon receiving the news of the disappearance of the writings of St. Gregory Palamas, a search began for them, in which influential people from Vienna and Thessalonica, as well as Ioannis Kapodistrias 516, took part. It was only in 1835 that part of this collection of creations was found. This is reported by Stefan Scourteil in a letter to his brother. Stephen was then in Venice, where he was engaged in the publication of the remaining unpublished works of the Monk Nicodemus, which had been commanded to him. In the aforementioned letter to Athos, he writes the following: “... I already wrote to you about the works that I undertook to find the works of Palamas, and now the works of the divine Palamas were found in Vienna, with a certain Konstantin Vizirulis, but these turned out to be not those that the glorious Nicodemus sent there. And I, thinking that these were the same ones, tried to get my hands on them. This book contains the saint's conversations, moral and festive, numbering up to sixty 517, the life of Peter of Athos, the message of Xenia to the nun, the Decalogue of the New Testament, three chapters on prayer 518, a message from Asia to his Church 519, 150 theological chapters 520, the Synodal Tomos against Varlaam and Akindinus, the Svyatogorsk Tomos and the life of the saint himself at the beginning of the book in Hellenic. The book is well written and spelling correctly, is ready for publication and has a preface, not Hellenic 521 ... I wrote to Archimandrite Mr. Callinicus in Vienna so that he would work and, if possible, find the works of the saint sent by the teacher Nicodemus, as the most complete, equipped with links and comments on difficult places, and also including nine words against Varlaam and pointers and divided into three volumes..." 522. What were the creations sent to Austria by the Monk Nicodemus? And how could it happen that manuscripts were found in Vienna that also contained the works of St. Gregory Palamas? Were they not the same ones sent by the Monk Nicodemus, although Stefan Scourteus doubted this? The late Sophronius Evstratiadis expresses justifiable bewilderment at Stephen's statement. “It is worthy of surprise,” he writes, “how Stephen realized that in front of him were not the manuscripts of Nicodemus, while their contents were entirely the works of Palamas? How did these works end up in the hands of Vizirulis and how could Stefan, after almost forty years from the moment of sending the collection of Palamas’s works, know that these were not the once sent manuscripts, which he, perhaps, had not seen, and if he had seen, he could not keep their contents in his memory all these years? Probably not all of Palamas’s works were discovered, but there is no doubt that it was part of a collection sent to Vienna for printing.” In any case, the loss of the works of his beloved theologian saddened Nicodemus so much that, as we will see later, he could not find consolation in his cell: he was sad not so much because the works he had raised were wasted, but because, first of all, theologians, as well as the clergy, laity and monastic brothers, were deprived of the mystical theology of Palamas. Today 523 Orthodox theological scholarship and the Greek people are in the deepest ignorance regarding the theology of St. Gregory Palamas, which is explained by Catholic influences and the lack of Orthodox experience. Therefore, modern theology becomes so blurred that it is sometimes unable to discern the difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism (we are not talking about Protestantism here, since its falling away from the truth is one way or another obvious). This fact undermines the foundations of the Orthodox Church, which entails the emergence of conditions for the penetration of errors both into liturgical life and into the area of ​​Orthodox spirituality. The Greek Orthodox Church is obliged to put forward St. Gregory Palamas as the most remarkable exponent of its teaching. For example, Roman Catholicism has recently reaffirmed its confidence in the philosophy and theology of Thomas Aquinas, who, as Patriarch Philotheus Cocchinus writes, 524 “spoke from the earth and the womb.” Without St. Gregory Palamas, many topics that represent the quintessence of Orthodox theology would remain unexamined or would be resolved incorrectly. Every ship is steered by the helm. By the book I sow the whole Church 525. For St. Nicodemus, the church was the atmosphere in which he breathed spiritual freedom. Only within the fence of Orthodoxy did his existence take on a special meaning; he carried out his holy mission, submitted to God, and served his brothers. The life of the saint is filled with deep reverence for the Church. However, it was also very important that he sought to instill respect for the authority of the Church in every believer. All his exploits, which often brought him into conflict with people, had one goal: to protect the laws and institutions of the Church. In his holy life he knew only two paths: the path of Orthodox spirituality, which is a concentrated expression in line with the ongoing Tradition of the life of the Holy Fathers, whom he zealously imitated, and the path of preserving the teachings of the Church, embodied in the canons, which he worked so hard to bring into system. It is life-giving that the Orthodox Church, until 1800, did not have a complete set of sacred canons 526 that guide its mystical ship. Such a set of canons, for the sake of better understanding by the faithful people, translated into simple Greek, coordinated with each other and provided with numerous notes, became the “Pidalion” of St. Nicodemus. The monk not only gave a name befitting the Ship-Church. He himself became the helmsman. He took a formless mass of canons, often contradictory and differing grammatically and in content, and united them, using his divinely inspired wisdom. He established his exegetical system by creating “symphonies” that could be used by both the learned and the unlearned. And his notes, to the writing of which the saint was moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit, received equal significance with the canons associated with them. They became their continuation, and now no one listens to Rallis and Potlis 527 as much as to the words of Saint Nicodemus. “Pidalion” is a valuable and forever unchanging property of all Orthodox Churches. Non-Orthodox people see in it the Orthodox Code of Law. The entire hierarchy considers the saint’s notes in the “Pidalion” to be equivalent to the text of the canons themselves. The Orthodox world studies the Pidalion as a treasury of the most authentic church teachings. Bishop Porfiry Uspensky 528 expressed deepest sadness and bitter annoyance to the publishers of the works of St. Nicodemus, due to the fact that he did not “see Russian names among the subscribers,” as he wanted 529. “Narrow-minded people,” he says, “did not know that Nicodemus became the teacher of the entire Orthodox world, and that his holy soul rejoiced at the Christian success of other Orthodox nations” 530. In Russia, the Pidalion, together with the saint’s commentaries, is considered a continuation of the Holy Scriptures and an expression of the teaching of the Ecumenical Councils. “After finishing the book of St. Gregory Palamas,” writes Euthymius, “the teacher Father Agapius from Morea came and brought his newly printed book of rules. And, having seen our own manuscript, explained by the late Father Dionysius Piperiot 531, he agreed to print it too” 532. Then the Monk Nicodemus was 39 years old. Of course, it can be difficult for us to determine which period of the writer’s life became the most fruitful, but we can say with confidence that it was during these years that the saint worked especially hard. The work of organizing the sacred canons and developing a system of their interpretation, which became his personal invention, required special attention and, undoubtedly, tired even the monk, strengthened by his love for the Church and receiving strength from its Creator. If we did not have the testimonies of Euthymius and Cyril 533, no one would ever suspect that the work on the “Pidalion” was entirely carried out by the Monk Nicodemus alone, since, as is known, Agapius was also mentioned among its compilers. But Agapius 534, the didaskal of the famous school in Dimitan, became simply an assistant to the Monk Nicodemus, and he accepted him out of his great humility, considering himself too bad a canonist to proceed to such heights. All the work fell on the saint himself, and that is why he experienced such grief when the “Pidalion” was distorted by Theodoret 535. The remark of his life writer: “Immediately they gathered three or four copyists into the kyriakon, and Agapius and Hierotheus took care of books and food” 536 - leaves no doubt that it was Saint Nicodemus who was the only author of the “Pidalion”. This is also clear from the following messages of Euthymius: “Nicodemus went down to the kaliva of Elder Luke, because it was closer (implied to the monastery of Pantocrator. - Note by M. Theoclitus). And it was truly a miracle to see this blessed one, who was sitting on a bench, and there were books around him, some open and others closed, and with a stylus in his right hand, he looked into one, then into the other.”537 And at the same time, out of his great humility, the monk decides to put the name of Agapius before his own during publication. Thus, in the prologue and dedication of the Pidalion, mention is made of “the beloved two in Christ.” It was characteristic of Saint Nicodemus not only to share with others the honor of his numerous labors, but also to completely impart it to another. Those who are engaged in the work of writing have usually heard about something completely different, and therefore can appreciate the moral merit of such great deeds. If someone works incessantly for two or three years, creates works of eternal significance, with the help of which the ship of the Church calmly makes its way, and at the same time does not want to open itself, because it prefers to remain known to God alone, this means that such a person “has the Spirit of God.” From a young age, Saint Nicodemus did not have the habit of flaunting his personality. He considered himself a “fiend” and “unwise,” which shows how fully he lived in the Lord if he had the power to hide the fruits of his spiritual labors, while nature itself compels us to display them, albeit with some shyness, like our beloved child. The reverend father was noble by nature and did not want to desecrate the divine image with such pettiness. The depth of spirit that distinguished him from a young age, the constant study of theological wisdom, the enjoyment of the joy of life in the Lord, the awareness of his sinfulness inherent in every imperfect human nature, the contemplation of the ineffable greatness of God, ardent love for Christ, fiery love for his brothers - all this filled the soul of the saint, which was constantly spurred on by humility, self-reproach and crying in Christ. The perfection of God, unapproachable to human nature, on the one hand, and our worthlessness, on the other, which his purest mind contemplated with rare clarity, always kept the saint within the boundaries of voluntary humiliation. These truths descended from his mind into his heart, and he ceased to see in them only words, but really lived by them, perceived them as an inner experience, as a spiritual feeling. And when the Monk Nicodemus presented the “Pidalion” to the Church, which had been deprived of it for eighteen centuries, 538 when he brought the sacred canons to the hierarchs, confessors, priests and people of God, explained in such a way that even a child was now able to study the laws and dogmas of his Church, he did not at all consider that he was doing something significant. For him, his duty to the Church knew no bounds and was not limited to the fulfillment of one or another task. Having united in his soul with love directed towards boundless spaces, this duty itself became limitless. Therefore, when the saint fully completed his mission on earth, leaving rays of spiritual light for future centuries, he did not consider himself worthy to apply the apostolic word to himself: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course...” 539. On the contrary, he believed that he had brought nothing into the world, and asked for divine mercy, dying like a great sinner - he, the great Nicodemus, who was whiter than snow, was a true Christian... Before the publication of the Pidalion, there were handwritten Nomocanons compiled by Greek clergy and laymen, imperfect and so distorted that the interpretations in them were presented as laws themselves, and besides, there were many absurdities and additions 540. The venerable himself writes: “It was intolerable for us, beloved, to see so many of the confessors’ “bad nomocanons” handwritten, distorted, falsely inscribed, with some rules instead of others and explanations of interpreters instead of the canons themselves, and what is worst is that these interpretations themselves are corrupted, reinterpreted and teach strange and erroneous things...” 541 . In the Svyatogorsk libraries, beautiful handwritten Pandects were found, which contained the rules (canons) of the Apostles, Ecumenical and Local Councils and the Holy Fathers, as well as interpretations approved by the Church - the famous canonists Zonara, Balsamon, Aristin, Kedrin, Vlastar, Anonymous, and others, less known. However, the enormous work of the tireless one did not consist of just collecting the sacred canons and their authoritative interpretations, but, as it says in his prologue: “We filled in what was missing from the interpreters, clarified the unclear, corrected the contradictory and cut off the excess...” 542. The reverend writer’s talent was especially revealed in his “symphonies”: it is they that make it possible to recognize Nicodemus the Holy Mountain, according to the general opinion of critics, as a great canonist. “Symphonies” presuppose keen judgment, a deep knowledge of the canons and their history, and a free recollection of them all together, which helped to clearly imagine their identity, difference from each other and relationship. And in the reverend’s own authoritative interpretations, placed in the notes, which make up almost half of the 750 pages of the “Pidalion,” they comment on historical cases and the needs of the Church that prompted it to accept certain canons, talk about heresies and give a lot of information related to the dogmas, government and deanery of the Church, as well as about imperial Novels, Digests, Institutions, etc., which proves the great the learning of the holy man. But for the monk, deprived of any bibliographies, dictionaries and manuals, the only treasury of all knowledge was only his limitless memory. How can the rarest memory and bright judgment be combined in the most harmonious way in one person with unparalleled diligence, making one remember Chrysostom and Origen? Today it is possible to compile a “Patrology” or a book about the sacred canons without any difficulty, spending very little time thanks to ready-made materials. But the reverend father was forced to read entire volumes to find the only information he needed. But where the Monk Nicodemus made a real revolution in the ideas of that time, it was in the field of language, writing “Pidalion” in dimotic 543 - for the sake of the simpletons. This demonstrated the breadth of his views and his desire to make the canons of the Church the property of all the faithful, “wise and foolish,” who could thereby acquire a right-wing church consciousness. Therefore, the saint became a “disturber of order.” Of course, even then no one argued that books could be published in modern Greek, but not the Pidalion, “for the canonical right of the Church should not be published in a simple presentation, so that the sacred canons do not become known to the common people,” as the former Patriarch of Constantinople Kirasim Gerasim and the former Metropolitan of Larisa Meletios said, opposing the approval of the Pidalion. Fortunately, an old friend of the saint, Patriarch Neophytos 7, was on the Ecumenical Throne at that time. Having completed this enormous work, the Monk Nicodemus took it to Hieromonk Agapius, so that he, coming to Constantinople, would work for the approval of the “Pidalion” by the Great Church of Christ. But, as we will see later, on the way to his approval, as happens in any good deed, unexpected misfortunes arose, saddening “the noble ascetic of Christ, exhausted by poverty and, like a giant, towering over our insignificant generation.” "Pidalion" has now been published six times 545, and the last edition was very carefully carried out by the Athens publishing house Al and E. Papadimitriou 546; We also know of one publication in Russian 547 and, in recent years, in English. Those who sow in the south with Divine tears, reap the classes with the joy of ever-life 548. Powerful Euthymius narrates: when Saint Nicodemus received from Nanna Kavtanzoglou, who was at that time in the city of Thessalonica, who maintained trade relations with Viennese merchants, the news that the writings of Saint Gregory Palamas had been lost, he was so deeply saddened that his great labors were in vain and the Church was deprived of the teachings of the saint, that he could no longer remain in his cell. “Crying and sobbing” 549, he went to his beloved friends, the collivads of the Euthymian brotherhood, in the hope of finding consolation. Souls, embraced by fiery love for their neighbors, perceive their joy or loss as their own. The example of the Apostle Paul is expressive enough to show what the relationship of a spiritual father with his children is. The divine Paul is ill until Christ is depicted in Galatians 550, feels constant torment in his heart 551 because of his fellow Jews, is inflamed 552 when he sees his children tempted, and is weak 553 for the sake of their weakness, constantly being with them in spiritual and emotional communion, and he himself catches the spiritual and emotional unrest of the Churches. This is true love in the Christian life! And the soul will not find peace, constantly consumed by the desire to benefit its neighbor, to rejoice with those who rejoice and cry with those who cry 554, and stretches out its wings - sometimes in order to fly to the Divine together with its beloved, and sometimes to cover its children like a bird with its chicks... 555. The saint’s weeping and pain confirm to us that he not only had a deep understanding of his mission, but also considered all the Orthodox Christians for whom he worked day and night as his children. For truly great men, earthly life is sorrow, anxiety, care and incessant crying. And as if the saint’s torment had not yet reached the measure that God, rejoicing in the good cry of His earthly friends, had determined for everyone, news came from Hieromonk Agapius “that he was tired of waiting for the approval of the “Pidalion” and that he received from the patriarchal priest Dorotheos and others only contempt. He retires to the Peloponnese, and whatever happens to this book.” After a two-month stay in the Kaliva of Euthymius, of which he became an elder after the death of Damascus, the saint becomes a novice 556 of Sylvester, about whom we have already had occasion to speak. Sylvester had a kaliva in honor of St. Basil in the same area of ​​​​Kapsala. In this kaliva, which we visited 557, three centuries earlier lived Saint Theophilus the Myrrh-Streaming, friend and co-worker of Saint Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople. The holy relics of St. Theophilus were buried by his disciples under the holy altar of the Kaliva church. More than once the indescribable fragrance emanating from the holy relics filled the kaliva, bringing tenderness and spiritual rapture to the reverent visitors who were there at that hour. From the kaliva of St. Basil, the monk sent a letter to Patriarch Neophytos 7, where he did not remember the friendship that connected them during the years of study in Smyrna, but asked, for the sake of the Church, to take care of the speedy approval of the “Pidalion”. The message resonated with the patriarch, and he instructed the priest Dorotheus to check the book and present it to the Church for approval, which is what happened. Then Dorotheus “asked us,” writes Neophytos 7, “to send the book to the wisest and most learned didascal of Cyrus, Athanasius of Paros, who was staying in Chios, and to the Most Reverend Macarius, formerly of Corinth, who was also staying there, and having sent them the book, we also received a good testimony about it from them.” Then the patriarch sent the “Pidalion” to Saint Nicodemus so that “at our (i.e., the patriarch’s – note per.) expense, the book would be rewritten and corrected, for we had the intention of printing it, again at our expense. But in the meantime, having left the Ecumenical Throne, we were deprived of such a rewarding reward: and therefore the most reverend fathers of Athos and many others living outside the Mountain began collecting donations for the publication of the book...” 558. After the amount necessary for the publication of the Pidalion had been collected, the book was sent to Theodoret, who was then in Romania, so that he would take it to Leipzig and take care of the publication, at the request of Saint Nicodemus. The monk remained in the Kaliva of St. Basil for some more time, during which he wrote “Blessings” and corrected the Praises of Great Saturday. Tired of endless ascetic and literary labors, the Monk Nicodemus felt the need for rest and moved to the monastery of Pantocrator, located about an hour's journey from Kapsala, by the sea, where he lived for about a year. However, the love of silence, which became a natural state of soul and spirit for the holy hermit, again led him to the same area. He bought a new kaliva, located between the kaliva of Euthymius, dedicated to St. Sergius, and the kaliva of St. Basil. Wanting to better imagine the circumstances of the life of the holy father and venerate in the Kalivas in the place where he stood, we undertook a study of the area of ​​​​Kapsala. A certain monk, who had been living in the mentioned kaliva for many years, told us that, as he heard, according to legend, in the very place where the church altar is now located, there was a fireplace where the teacher warmed himself in winter. In those years there was no church in the cell, which is why Euthymius does not give her name, but only says “that she is on the way to Saint Basil.” Later, some monks built a small church dedicated to St. Nicholas on the site of the hearth. The Monk Nicodemus was then about forty-five years old, and he was still full of creative forces. Immersed in his writings, in the depths of spiritual life, in sacred reflections, he literally forgot about bodily food. If it is true that they say that while he was writing, a hermit came to him and brought him fresh bread, the monk cut off a piece of it out of brotherly love and put it in his mouth, and when that hermit came to see him again in the afternoon, he found the bread untouched, and the piece unchewed in the saint’s mouth, it is clear that he became above the laws of nature. Euthymius narrates that “his food was sometimes rice boiled in water, sometimes water with honey; and most of the time he ate olives and soaked beans” 560. The unpretentiousness and voluntary poverty of the monk, as well as his detachment from all material things, are characterized by the following story of Euthymius: when the brotherhood of the latter invited Nicodemus to a joint meal on some holiday, he, if everyone was silent, “ate as if he were hungry, which he was, but if they asked him about something, he began to talk, and during his speech he forgot his hunger, so that many times our late elder ordered him shut up so he can eat" 561. His solitary life in kaliva was filled with prayer and writing. This period became one of the most fruitful for him in terms of writing. But he was so tired of ascetic deeds and writing that at the age of only forty-eight years he felt exhausted in his bodily strength and more than once said to his brother: “I am exhausted, older than Ananias” 562. But despite this, grace inflamed his heroic heart even more, prompting him to new works, which he took on with special enthusiasm. In his silent kaliva, he corrected, freeing from the errors that had crept in, the Euchologium 563, wrote the second Exomologitarium, and compiled an interpretation of the 14 Epistles of the Apostle Paul, and the 7 Council Epistles of the Apostles Peter, James, John and Jude. He provided commentaries on the Psalter of Euthymius Zigaben, the Verse of nine biblical songs, which he called “The Garden of Grace,” and prepared for publication the manuscript of the book of the Monk Barsanuphius. We will talk about all these works separately. The Monk Nicodemus never remained idle, both because of the love for the edification of his neighbor that constantly burned in his soul, and in fulfillment of the apostolic word: “For those who have served well prepare for themselves the highest degree and great boldness in faith in Christ Jesus” 564. And indeed. “Nothing is done by a person in vain, neither good nor evil, and every moral act receives a visible result: either closer and more intimate, or more distant. And the voluntary sacrifice of the innocent for the guilty will not be in vain.” Truly spiritual people know well that the condition of the life of the soul is constant wakefulness and mental activity, the expression of which is pure love: for God and for neighbor. And the Monk Nicodemus plunged from his youth into this endless abyss, driven by the purity of his soul, without which love cannot become genuine and great. His soul can be likened to a golden censer, in which his holy love burned in the stench of spiritual fragrance. August Nikolaos. Philosophical studies. – Note. m. Theoklit. Patriarch of Constantinople Procopius (1785–1789). Let us recall that the author, M. Theoclitus, adheres to his point of view, while modern research has proven that St. Macarius of Corinth was the compiler of a book on Divine Communion. – Note. ed. Patriarch of Constantinople Neophytos 7 (1789–1798, 1798–1801) he was a fellow student of St. Nicodemus of the Svyatogorets according to the Smyrna school. Ὁμολογία Πίστεως. Σ. 176. Euthymius does not have such words. – Note. ed. Aleppo, a city in Syria, was formerly called Aleppo. – Note. ed. Ἀϑανάσιος ὁ Πάϱιος. Δήλωσις τῆς ἐν Ἁγίῳ Ὄϱει ταϱαχῶν ἀληϑείας. Ἀϑῆναι, 1988. Σ. 102–103. We are talking about the book “Exposition of the truth about the disturbances that took place on the Holy Mountain,” published in 1988 in Greece, ed. Hieromonk Theodorit of the Svyatogorets (see previous note). Ἀϑανάσιος ὁ Πάϱιος. Δήλωσις τῆς ἐν Ἁγίῳ Ὄϱει ταϱαχῶν ἀληϑείας. Ἀϑῆναι, 1988. Σ. 103. Here, by hesychasm, the monk Theoclitus means the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas and his supporters. Hesychasm, as a teaching about sobriety of the mind, about “mental silence”, appeared already in the 4th–5th centuries; the words themselves ἡσυχία, ἡσυχασμός mean “silence.” And “smart work” as such, according to the Holy Fathers, was invented by the Ever-Virgin Mary (see: St. Gregory Palamas. Conversation (omilia) Introduction of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Holy of Holies // Conversations (?) of St. Gregory Palamas: In 3 hours. Moscow, 1993 [reprint: Montreal, 1984]. Part 3. P.115:134). Those. in ancient Greek, and not in the “simple” dialect, as the modern Greek language was then called. Greek revolutionary, supporter of the ideas of the French Revolution. Count Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776–1831), Greek and Russian statesman, moved to Russia in 1809, where he served in the Russian diplomatic service until 1827, in 1816–1822. served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire; in 1827 he was elected president of the Greek government. Probably, here we are talking about conversations, or homily, of St. Gregory Palamas. The last three works were included in the Greek (and Russian) Philokalia. A message to the saint's Thessalonian flock, written by him from Turkish captivity. Also included in the Philokalia. Those. written not in ancient Greek, but in “simple” modern Greek. Εὐστϱατιάδης Σ. Νικόδημος ὁ Ἁγιοϱείτης // Μακεδονικά. 1941. 1. Σ. 38–57. – Note. m. Theoklit. We are talking about the situation in the 1950s. A lot has changed in the years since then. Theology of St. Gregory Palamas is known very widely, including thanks to the works of Greek scientists. P.K. Christ carried out the publication of the main works of the saint, i.e. in many ways completed the work begun by St. Nicodemus. The monk Theoclitus himself wrote a book about St. Gregory Palama, which has already gone through three editions. St. Philotheus Kokkin, Patriarch of Constantinople (1353–1354, 1364–1376; commemorated October 11), friend and associate of St. Gregory Palamas, one of the most subtle theologians of late Byzantium, who canonized Palamas and wrote his life and service to him, as well as numerous theological, hagiographical, liturgical texts (including canons, akathists, prayers). From the preface to Pidalion. “Πηδάλιον” in translation means “helm”, so sometimes “Pidalion” is called in the traditional Church Slavonic translation - “Helmsman”. We are talking about a code, firstly, complete, uncorrupted and verified, secondly, published in a typographical way, and thirdly, presented and interpreted in modern Greek. Publishers of the Syntagma, a complete set of canons in Greek, published in the mid-19th century. Ep. Chigirinsky Porfiry (Uspensky) is an outstanding Russian hierarch of the 19th century, a tireless traveler and researcher of Christian antiquity, the author of the three-volume “History of Athos”, notes on travel to the shrines of the East and Europe. There is an inaccuracy here, ep. Porfiry expressed annoyance not at the publishers, but at the Russians themselves, that among them there was not a single subscriber to “this precious book” (we are not talking about the first, but the second edition of this book - in Athens in 1841). See: Porfiry (Uspensky), bishop. History of Athos. St. Petersburg, 1892. Part 3/2. P. 506, 513. – Note. ed. The place of the quotation has not been found, but judging by the style, this is most likely an adaptation by the author (M. Theoclitus) of some statement of the bishop. Porfiry, who, for example, concludes his review of the works of St. Nicodemus: “Nikodem the Holy Mountain was a much learned, much diligent and many useful scribe. This is the Athonite bee, which collected a lot of honey and honeycomb from different flowers for food for Orthodox Christians” (Ibid. p. 520). – Note. ed. Dionysius of Zagoreisky, employee of St. Nicodemus, with whom, for example, he edited the modern Greek transcription of the works of St. Simeon the New Theologian. Kirill, student and employee of St. Nicodemus. Agapius the Elder (1741–1815), hieromonk and priestly preacher (hierokyrix), founded a school in his homeland in Dimitsan, and was the director of the Evangelical School in Smyrna. Engaged in education, preaching and opening schools throughout Greece, Agapius thereby pursued the goal of awakening the Greek people and achieving deliverance from Turkish enslavement; it was not without reason that among his students were figures of the Greek uprising of 1821. The “Book of Rules” mentioned by Euthymius is the “Collection of all sacred and divine canons." – Note. ed. Theodoret arbitrarily introduced changes that distorted the meaning into the manuscript of the “Pidalion” entrusted to him for printing. This means that the Church did not have such a complete and systematized set of canons; Of course, very authoritative collections of canon law, such as the Nomocanon or the Alphabetical Syntagma of Matthew Blastar, not to mention many others, existed before. In the 18th century in the Greek Church, clergy used precisely such imperfect collections; this was one of the manifestations of the general decline in which the Greek Church and people found themselves during Turkish rule. Dimotika (literally, “folk” language) is a Greek language focused on spoken language. It was he who formed the basis of the modern modern Greek language. During the time of St. Nicodemus, as well as for almost a century and a half after his death, the simple Greek language was considered unacceptable for “high” literature, science, and religious works, which used either the Byzantine version of the ancient Greek language, or another variety of modern Greek - kafarevus, i.e. a “purified” language, the norms of which are close to ancient Greek. For example, this book by the monk Theoclitus was written in Kafarevus. Words by Cosmas Vlahos: Βλάχος Κ. Ἡ Χεϱσόνησος τοῦ ἁγίου Ὄϱους Ἄϑω καὶ αἱ ἐν αὐτῇ μοναὶ καὶ οἱ μοναχοὶ πάλαι τε καὶ νῦν. Μελέτη ἱστοϱικὴ καὶ κϱιτική. Βόλος, 1903. Σ. 110–111. After 1959, new editions were undertaken. The total number of publications for 2004 is no less than thirteen. Since the 1950s, this publishing house has reprinted the Philokalia and Evergetinus several times, as well as other important patristic books. This information is erroneous: a Russian translation of “Pidalion” does not yet exist, but attempts are being made to translate it. In this case, most likely, we are not talking about entering into obedience in the true sense of the word: the monk simply settled in the kaliva and thereby automatically found himself subordinate to its “elder,” because everyone living in the kaliva is called “novices.” Here the monk Theoclitus speaks about himself. At the moment, scientists have established that St. Nicodemus did not work on the Euchologium, and under this erroneous title is hidden another book by Nicodemus the Holy Mountain. The confusion in the names occurred due to the fact that Euthymius, in his biography of St. Nicodemus called “Euchologium” (“Prayer Book”) not “The Breviary,” which is denoted by this word in Greek, but the book “Extract from the Psalms of the Prophet and King David.” See: Μενεβίσογλου Π. Ἀνύπαϱκτος ἔκδοσις τοῦ Μ. Εὐχολογίου ὑπὸ Νικοδήμου τοῦ Ἁγιοϱείτου // Ἐπιστημονικὴ Παϱουσία Ἑστίας Θεολόγων Χάλκης. 3. Ἀϑῆναι, 1994. Σ. 551–560.