The podvig of St. Paisius Velichkovsky can be defined in different ways. Undoubtedly, he was great in that he thirsted for a genuine teaching about spiritual life and inner work. It is very important that he made translations in which he tried to get to the bottom of the phenomena of the spiritual path expounded by the Holy Fathers – the movements of the soul and spirit. Those who speak of the high creative nature of all the Paisievs' affairs are also right. We see the main of the actions of the monk in the fact that, having found an unflattering source of genuine spiritual understanding in the writings of the Holy Fathers, he grew from this knowledge a spiritual flock, the souls of people, whom he led along an unflattering path to God in the work of elderly nourishment.

We must see the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the fact that Elder Paisios returned from Athos to his homeland. It was here that he had to bring the living teaching, the life that he had found in God, it was he who was given the gift of restoring spiritual life in the fading and almost extinct Russian monasticism. It was here, in his homeland, that the treasure he had acquired was strengthened and established, giving birth to many followers and disciples, who brought it to the Russian monasteries.

In connection with the hostilities, Paisius' disciples, together with their elder, had to move after 12 peaceful years of life in the Dragomir Monastery to the Sekul Monastery, and then to the larger Neamt Monastery. Here the living conditions of the brotherhood were more difficult than in Dragomirna, the worldly came closer, but again the Paisiev family continued their divinely wise life, full of labor. Again, a great deal of book work was carried out, and here Elder Paisius finally decided to publish the translations of the Philokalia made by him and his brotherhood.63 Here, foreseeing his death, Elder Paisius began to write an "autobiography."

Great were the feats of the elder. His cell, according to the words of his life, did not close until evening. Everyone could come and reveal their sadness, bewilderment, ask a question. And the elder's word was always patient, loving, and spiritual. And the night found him, exhausted and sick, translating the Holy Fathers. A collection of teachings "Enthusiastic Classes" was also compiled. The brotherhood was large in number; there were Russians and Moldavians, and the life of the monks went on as before, even the Turkish army did not disturb their lives.

The elder died in the last decade of the XVIII century, at the age of 72, quietly, peacefully, as if he had fallen asleep. But the sorrow of the brethren was great; At the same time, his disciples composed a service to him, since they revered their father as a saint. A spirit of deep sorrow imprints the content of the service, and the main thing that the disciple who composed the service wishes to note is the elderly work of the abba. Therefore, although the service is permeated with thoughts about the death of their unforgettable father, the kontakion speaks of the joy of the elder who is fulfilling the main work of his life – the guidance of the elders and the salvation of the souls of their neighbors. "Thou wast joyful in form," the disciple writes in the kontakion, "and thou didst bow the ears of those who asked thee for help, and thou didst stretch out thy hands to lift them up."64 Thus, joy, sinless joy and salvation of souls – this is the main thing that remains as a commandment to subsequent generations from the work of Paisius. Therefore, it is hardly possible to agree with those authors who interpret monasticism, and in particular the monastic path of Elder Paisius, as suffering. Yes, the elder endured a lot of suffering from his earliest years, from the time he went in search of God and the salvation of his soul. He endured much in monasteries, traveled a lot, and was a stranger in search of true spiritual guidance, but he also acquired spiritual joy and joy. His eldership was perceived by certain people as heresy, and Schema-Archimandrite Paisius passed by this sorrow, enduring everything in God, leading from sorrow to the fullness of spiritual blessings and unfading joy.

The translations of the Holy Fathers, especially of St. Isaac the Syrian, show at what height of spiritual progress the monk translator was when he delved into the almost indescribable mysteries of spiritual life, expounded by the Syrian ascetic. Excerpts from the words of St. Isaac, translated by Elder Paisius, are given here as the conclusion of this chapter, as its spiritual conclusion. Some passages in the translations are obscure and little understood, but the labor of delving into their inner meaning brings great spiritual consolation to the heart that seeks this consolation.

Here are these excerpts.

"It is not possible for us to know the truth except by allowing temptations," we read in the first Sermon of St. Isaac in the translation of St. Paisius. "And God has many providence on man, and there is no man who is not under His providence, and even more so on those who have come to seek Him and endure passions for Him with a finger (as if at the direction of the finger) sees brighter."65

Such and similar truths were found by the blessed Elder Paisius in the translation given to him with great effort. And these truths became the basis of a living and joyful inner life, which he revealed to others.

"The beginning of the path of life, to learn with one's mind in the words of God, and to dwell in poverty," we read in the same Homily of Paisius' translation. "Until the soul acquires drunkenness in the faith (ecstasy of faith) of God, in raising the power of its sensations, it heals the weakness of the senses, it can trample down the visible substance by force, which is the fence of the interior, and does not feel it."66

Such is the beginning of the sea of the words of the Monk Isaac (if the sea has a beginning) – the words into the depths of which the Monk Paisius tries to penetrate. We touch upon the sea of these words, these spiritual revelations below briefly, selectively, mainly in order to make it clear what a great work the divinely wise Paisius worked on and what he considered to be the basis of the spiritual life that he communicated in his elderly guidance.

For example, St. Isaac writes about the difference between tears: "The essence of tears is more burning; And first of all, in this order of tears man reaches in need, and by these the door is opened to him to enter the second rank, which is the best of this, which is the land of joy, by which man receives mercy."67

The words of the Monk Isaac about prayer: "And this behooves you to understand, beloved, that every conversation is in secret, and every care of good thought about God, and every spiritual instruction in prayer is determined, and in the name of prayer it is established and within this name is contained the name: either the reading of the words of differences, or the voices of the lips in praise of God, or the care of the Lord in sorrow, or the body of worship, or the psalmody of verses, or other things, from which teaching abides pure prayer, and from it love is born of God. For love comes from prayer, and prayer from being a hermit".68 Such is the breadth of the judgments of the Monk Isaac, and after him the thoughtful, word by word, living of the Monk Paisius into the translation of what was written...

Sometimes in his clairvoyant spiritual freedom, the Monk Isaac goes even further, and in Homily 34 he suddenly utters: "The gift without temptation is perdition to those who accept that diminution (shortcomings) in certain guardians of truth. There is one who makes his life with the wisdom of God."69 Such is the incomprehensible reflection of the Monk Father, – and it is possible that the Monk Paisius often comprehended it in his elderly work!