Житие преподобного отца нашего Марка Афинского

One day Abba 2400 Serapion told the following. During my stay in the inner Egyptian desert 2401, I once went to the great elder John and, having received a blessing from him, sat down to rest, tired from the road. Having dozed off, I had a vision in a dream: I imagined two hermits who came to the elder and received a blessing from him. They said to each other: - Here is Abba Serapion; Let us accept his blessing. Abba John remarked to them: “He just came from the desert today and is very tired: give him a little rest.” The hermits said about me to the elder: - This is how long Serapion has been asceticizing in the desert, and not going to Father Mark, who is asceticizing on Mount Francesca, located in Ethiopia 2402. This Mark has no equal among all the hermits and fasters. He is one hundred and thirty years old, and ninety-five years have passed since he began to labor in the wilderness. During all this time he did not see a single person. Not long before this, some of the saints who participated in the light of eternal life visited him, and they promised to receive him to them. While they were saying these words to Father John, I woke up from my slumber and, not seeing anyone at the elder’s, told him about my vision. “This vision,” the elder told me, “is something Divine; but where is the Thracian Mountain? - Pray for me, father! - I said to the old man. After completing the prayer, I said goodbye to the elder and went to Alexandria 2403, which was twenty days away from here; I walked this path for five days, almost without resting either day or night, scorched by the heat of the sun, which burned even the dust on the ground. Entering Alexandria, I asked one merchant: how far is it still to go to the Thracian Mountain, located in Ethiopia. The merchant answered me: - Yes, father, it is still very far from this place. It takes twenty days to go to the borders of the Ethiopians, the Hittite people 2404; the mountain you are asking about is even further away from here. - Approximately how much food and drink should I bring for this journey, since I want to go there? “If your journey,” answered the merchant, “will take place by sea, then you will not be on the road for long; but if you go by land, you will be on the road for thirty days. Having heard this, I took water into a gourd and some dates and, placing my trust in God, I set out and walked through this desert for twenty days. During the journey I did not meet anyone, neither animal nor bird. For this desert has almost no plants at all, because there is never any rain or dew, which is why there is nothing edible in this desert. After twenty days of travel, the water that I had in the pumpkin came out, and the dates also came out, I was very tired and could not go further, but I could not return back, and lay down on the ground from fatigue. And then those two hermits appeared to me, whom I first saw in a vision with the great elder John. Standing before me, they said to me: Rising to my feet, I saw one of them crouched on the ground, turning to me and asking: - Would you like to refresh yourself? “As you wish, father,” I said. Thereupon he showed me the root of one of the desert plants and said: – Taste from this root and, by the power of the Lord, continue your journey! I ate a little, and immediately felt reinforced in my strength, and my soul rejoiced. I felt so refreshed that it seemed to me that I was not tired at all. Then they showed me the path along which I was to go to St. Mark, and moved away from me. Continuing my journey, I approached a high mountain that seemed to reach to the sky. There was absolutely nothing on it except dust and stones. When I approached the mountain, I saw the sea at its edge. Climbing the mountain, I walked for seven days. When the seventh night came, I saw an Angel of God descending from heaven to Saint Mark, saying to him: “Blessed are you, Abba Mark, and it will be good for you!” So we brought to you Father Serapion, whom your soul wanted to see, since you did not want to see any other people besides him! When my vision ended, I walked fearlessly and walked until I reached the cave in which Saint Mark lived. When I approached the door of the cave, I heard the saint singing the psalms of David and saying: “For in your sight a thousand years are as yesterday” (Ps. 89:5), and further from the same psalm. Then, from the abundance of spiritual joy that gripped him, the saint began to speak to himself in these words: “Blessed is your soul, Mark, that with the help of God you have not polluted yourself with the impurities of this world, that your mind has not been captivated by evil thoughts!” Blessed is your body, since it is not mired in the lusts and passions of sin! Blessed are your eyes, which the devil could not tempt by contemplating someone else's beauty! Blessed are your ears, because they have not heard the voice of a woman in this vain world! Blessed are your nostrils, because they did not smell the stench of sin! Blessed are your hands, because they did not touch any things belonging to people. Blessed are your feet - those who did not step on the road leading to death and did not rush towards sin! Your soul is filled with spiritual life and Angelic joy! And again then he began to speak, turning to his soul: “Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me is His holy name. Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His benefits” (Ps. 103:1-2). Why are you grieving, my soul? Don't be afraid! You will not be detained in the dungeons of hell; under no circumstances will demons be able to slander you. By the grace of God, there is no special sinful vice in you: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them” (Ps. 33:8). Lord, blessed is the servant who does the will of his master.” Having uttered this and much more from the Divine Scripture to console his soul and to confirm his undoubted hope in God, the Monk Mark went out to the door of his cave and, weeping with tenderness, called out to me, saying: - Oh, how great is the feat of my spiritual son Serapion, who undertook the task of seeing my abode! Then, having blessed me, he hugged me with his arms and, kissing me, said to me: – For ninety-five years I stayed in this desert and did not see a person. Now I see your face, which I have wanted to see for many years. You were not too lazy to undertake such work in order to come to me. Therefore, my Lord, Jesus Christ, will reward you on the day when He judges the secret thoughts of people. Having said this, the Monk Mark ordered me to sit down. I began to ask the monk about his praiseworthy life. And he told me the following: “I, as I said, have been living in this cave for ninety-five years.” During this time I did not see not only a person, but even an animal or a bird, I did not eat bread baked by the hands of people, I did not put on clothes. For thirty years I experienced terrible need and sorrow from hunger, thirst, nakedness, and most of all from the temptations of the devil. Tormented by hunger, I then ate the dust of the earth, and, tormented by thirst, I drank sea water. The demons swore a thousand times among themselves to drown me in the sea and, seizing me, with beatings they dragged me to the low places of this mountain. But I was climbing to the top of the mountain again. They again dragged me away from here until the skin fell off my body. Dragging me and beating me, they shouted furiously: - Get away from our land! Since the beginning of the world, no one has come here - how dare you come here? After thirty years of such suffering, after such greed, thirst, nakedness, and disturbances from demons, the grace of God and His mercy poured out on me. According to His providence, my natural flesh changed; hair has grown on my body; at the right time food is brought to me and the Angels of the Lord visit me. I saw, as it were, a semblance of the Kingdom of Heaven and the abodes of bliss promised to the souls of saints, prepared for people who do good. I saw the likeness of the Divine paradise and the tree of knowledge, from which our forefathers ate. I also saw the appearance of Elijah and Enoch in paradise, and there is nothing that the Lord did not show me from what I asked of Him. “I asked him,” says Serapion, “tell me, father, how and why you came here?” And the saint began his story with these words: – I was born in Athens 2406, where I studied philosophical sciences. After the death of my parents, I said to myself: “Just as my parents died, just like that I will die. So, it is better for me to voluntarily renounce this world before I happen to be caught away from it.” And immediately, taking off my clothes, I stood on the board and set off to swim on the sea. Carried by the waves, by Divine providence, I landed on this mountain. When we were talking with each other in this way,” continues Serapion, “then the day came and I saw the Monk Mark, overgrown with hair, like an animal, and I was horrified, since he could not be recognized as a man by anything other than his voice and the words coming from his mouth. Noticing my embarrassment, Saint Mark said to me: - Do not be afraid when you look at my body, because flesh taken from the corruptible earth is corruptible. – Does the world still stand in the law of Christ according to the previous custom? “Now,” I answered him, “by the grace of Christ, it’s even better than former times.” “Does idolatry and persecution of Christians continue to this day?” he asked again? “With the help of your holy prayers,” I answered, “the persecution has stopped and there is no idolatry.” Hearing this, the elder rejoiced with great joy. Then he asked me again: – Are there some saints in the world today who work miracles, as the Lord said in His Gospel: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed and say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). While the saint was saying these words, the mountain moved from its place approximately five thousand cubits 2407 and approached the sea. Saint Mark, rising and noticing that the mountain was moving, said, turning to it: “I didn’t order you to move, but I talked with my brother; so you stand in your place! As soon as he said this, the mountain really fell into place. Seeing this, I fell on my face in fear. Meanwhile, the saint, taking me by the hand and standing me on my feet, said to me: -Have you not seen such miracles during the days of your life? “No, father,” I answered. Then the saint, sighing, wept bitterly and said: - Woe to the earth, because Christians on it are called such only by name, but in reality they are not! “Blessed be God, who brought me to this holy place, so that I would not die in my fatherland and be buried in land defiled by many sins!” We spent that whole day,” Serapion narrates, “in singing psalms and spiritual conversation, and as evening came, the monk said to me: - Brother Serapion! Isn’t it time for us to partake of the meal with gratitude after prayer? To these words I did not answer him anything. After this, he, raising his hands to heaven, began to recite the following psalm: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I will not lack for anything” (Ps. 22:1). Having finished singing this psalm, he turned to the cave and said: - Brother, offer me a meal. Then he told me again: “Let’s go and taste the meal that God sent us.” I was amazed at myself, wondering who Saint Mark ordered to prepare the meal, because for the whole day I did not see any people in his cave. When we entered the cave, I saw two standing tables, on which were placed two soft and white breads, shining like snow. There were also vegetables beautiful to the eye, two baked fish, peeled olives, dates, salt and a full mug of water, sweeter than honey. When we sat down, Saint Mark said to me: - Child Serapion, bless! “Forgive me, father,” I answered. And I noticed near the meal a hand stretched out from the sky, making a cross over the offer. At the end of the meal, Mark said: - Brother, take this from here! And immediately the meal was taken away by an invisible hand. I was amazed at everything that happened: both at the invisible servant (for the incorporeal Angel of the Lord, who became in the flesh, St. Mark, at the command of God), and at the fact that in all my life I had never tasted such delicious food and never drank such sweet water as was at that meal. To my bewilderment, the saint told me: - Brother Serapion! Have you seen how many blessings God sends to His servants! All the days God sent me one loaf and one fish, but now for your sake He doubled the meal - he sent us two loaves and two fish. The Lord God feeds me with such and such a meal throughout the entire period of my first sufferings. As I told you at the beginning of the conversation, having been in this place for thirty years, I did not find a single root of a plant that I could eat. Experiencing hunger and thirst, due to extreme necessity, I ate dust and drank bitter sea water and walked naked and barefoot. My toes fell off from the frost and terrible heat; the sun burned my flesh and I lay prostrate on the ground like a dead man. Meanwhile, the demons raised their struggle against me, as against someone abandoned by God. But I, with God’s help, endured all this out of love for the Lord. At the end of my thirty years of suffering, by the command of God, my hair began to grow until it covered me completely, like a garment. And so, from then until now, demons cannot approach me; hunger and thirst do not take possession of me; neither heat nor frost bothers me. Despite all this, I have never been sick with anything. But now the limit of my life is ending, and God sent you here so that you could bury my humble body with your holy hands. Then, after some time had passed, the saint again said to me: - Brother Serapion! Stay awake this night on the occasion of my imminent death. After that, we both began to pray, chanting the psalms of David. At the same time the saint said to me: - Brother Serapion! After my departure, put my body in this cave, covered the door of the cave with a stone and left this cave. I then bowed to the monk and with tears began to ask him for forgiveness and told him: “Pray, Father, to God, that He may take me with you, so that I too may go where you are going.” Answering these words of mine, the saint said to me: - Do not cry on the day of my joy, but be even more joyful. You need to return to your place. May the Lord, who brought you here for your work and pleasing God, grant you salvation. Moreover, find out that your return from here will not take place along the road on which you came here, but you will reach your place in a different - unusual way. After a short silence, the Monk Mark then said: - Brother Serapion! This day is important to me: more important than all the days of my life. Today my soul is freed from carnal suffering and goes to rest in the heavenly abodes. Today my body will rest from many labors and illnesses; Today God will take me to Himself. While the saint uttered these words, his cave was filled with light, which was brighter than the light of the sun, and that mountain was filled with the fragrance of aromas. Taking me by the hand,” Serapion continues, “Reverend Mark began to speak to me like this: “Let the cave in which I stayed with my body, working for God during my life, remain until the general resurrection, and here will be my deceased body, which was the abode of illness, labor and deprivation. You, Lord, free my soul from my body! For Your sake I endured hunger, thirst, nakedness, frost and heat and all sorts of other disasters. Master! You Yourself clothe me with the robe of glory on the terrible day of Your coming! Finally, fall asleep, my eyes, which never dozed off during my night prayers! Calm down, my legs, which have worked hard during the all-night vigil! I am moving away from temporary life, and I wish everyone who remains on earth to be saved. Save yourself, fasters, wandering in the mountains and caves for the sake of the Lord! Save yourself, ascetics who endure all kinds of hardships for the sake of achieving the Kingdom of Heaven! Save yourself, prisoners of Christ, imprisoned, expelled for the sake of truth, having no consolation in anything except the One God! Save yourself, monasteries, working day and night for God! Save yourself, holy churches, who serve as cleansing for sinners! Save yourself, priests of the Lord, mediators between people and God! Save yourself, children of the Kingdom of Christ, adopted by Christ through holy baptism! Save yourself, lovers of Christ, who welcome strangers as Christ Himself! Save yourself, worthy of pardon, merciful ones! Save yourself, you rich, who grow rich for the Lord and spend their lives in deeds pleasing to God! Save yourself, you who have become poor for the Lord! Save yourself, faithful kings and princes, who carry out judgment in truth and mercy! Save yourself, humbly wise fasters and hardworking ascetics! Save yourself, all who love one another for Christ's sake! May the whole earth and all who live on it be saved in the peace and love of Christ!” Then,” says Serapion, “after saying this, the Monk Mark, turning to me, kissed me, saying: “Be saved, brother Serapion! I adjure you by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, so that you do not take anything from my humble body, not even a single hair. Let no clothing touch it, but let only the hair with which God clothed me be with my body during burial. Likewise, don’t stay here.” While the saint was pronouncing these words, and I was sobbing, a voice was heard from heaven, saying: “Bring Me My chosen vessel from the desert; Bring Me a doer of righteousness, a most perfect Christian and a faithful servant! Come, Mark, come! Rest in the light of joy and spiritual life!” Then Saint Mark said to me: - Brother, let's kneel! And we knelt. After that I heard an angelic voice speaking to the monk: Hearing this voice, says Serapion, I immediately stood up and, looking, saw the soul of the saint already freed from the shackles of the flesh - it was covered with angelic hands in white-light clothes and was ascended by them to heaven 2408. I contemplated the airy path to heaven and the heavens opening. Moreover, I saw hordes of demons standing on this path and heard an angelic voice addressed to the demons: – Sons of darkness, run and hide from the face of the light of truth! The holy soul of Mark was detained in the air for about one hour. Then a voice was heard from heaven saying to the angels: - Take and bring here the one who shamed the demons. When the soul of the saint passed through the demonic hordes without any harm to itself and was already approaching the open sky, I saw, as it were, the likeness of a right hand stretched out from heaven, receiving an immaculate soul. Then this vision disappeared from my eyes,” says Serapion, “and I saw nothing more. It was about six o'clock at night; Having prepared the holy body of the saint for burial, I spent the whole night in prayer. When the day came, I sang the usual chants over the body with tears of joy, kissed it and laid it in the cave, and closed the door of the cave with a stone. Then, after much prayer, I descended from the mountain, praising God and calling on the saint to guide me on my way back from this impassable and terrible desert. When then, after sunset, I sat down to rest, suddenly those two hermits who had appeared to me before appeared before me and said to me: “You, brother Serapion, buried the body of a blessed ascetic, whom the whole world is truly unworthy of.” So, getting up, continue your journey at night, for it is difficult to travel during the day due to the terrible heat. Then I got up and went after those who appeared to me and followed them until early morning. When the day began to draw near, they said to me: “Go in peace, brother Serapion, to your place and give thanks to the Lord God.” When I walked a short distance away from them, I noticed that I was already approaching the doors of the church located in the monastery of the great elder John. Being very surprised by this, I loudly glorified God and remembered the words spoken to me by the Monk Mark that my return from him would not be along the road along which I came to him. And I believed that through the prayers of the saint I was transported invisibly. I thanked our most good God, who arranged everything for the good of me, unworthy, through the prayers and requests of His faithful servant, our venerable father Mark. Hearing my voice, Abba John hurriedly came out of the monastery and, greeting me, said: – Abba Serapion returned to us safely, by the grace of God. Then we went to church, and I told the elder and his disciples about everything that had happened to me, and we all glorified God. After this the elder said to me: “Truly, brother, here he is, Saint Mark, was the most perfect Christian; We call ourselves Christians only in name, but in reality we are far from true Christianity. Our humane and merciful God, having accepted the holy saint Mark into the eternal abodes of His Heavenly Kingdom, may He save us and His entire Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church from all the machinations of the devil, and may He always be with us, His humble servants, and guide us to fulfill His holy Divine will, so that we may follow in the footsteps of His great saints, the venerable fathers ours - so that on the terrible day of judgment with our father Mark we may receive mercy through the prayers of our Most Pure Lady Theotokos and all the saints who pleased our Lord, Jesus Christ, to whom glory, honor and worship belong with the Father and with the most holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and to endless ages. Amen. Abba is the father, abbot of the monastery. The internal or hermitage desert is a day's journey further than the cell desert, in Egypt, in Libya. It was a wild sandy desert, where springs of water were only occasionally found; There was no beaten path here - the path was directed here along the course of the stars. Mount Thracian - in Libya, in present-day Tukra. Ethiopia is a country south of Egypt - Nubia and Abyssinia. Alexandria is a famous city in antiquity, located at the mouth of the Nile, in Egypt, and founded by Alexander the Great (336–323 BC), which was at one time the center of world learning and trade. The Hittites - descendants of Heth, the son of Canaan (son of Noah), lived in the mountains (Num. 13:30), in the southern part of Palestine, near Hebron (Gen. 23) and near Bethel (Judges 1:26). Athens is the capital of the ancient Greek state, famous in ancient times for its education and trade. Here were the famous philosophical schools, where some of the fathers and teachers of the Church were educated. Elbow is a measure of length used in ancient times, equal to the distance from the elbow to the end of the middle finger (about 10 vershoks). (The length of the elbow was ≈ 4.45 cm. The length of the elbow was defined as the distance from the end of the extended middle finger of the hand to the bend of the elbow; it could vary up to 46 cm. - Editorial of the ABC of Faith.). The death of Saint Mark followed around 400. You might be interested in: