Nicholas of Serbia, St. Missionary Letters 

To the Russian Reader

Here is a collection of letters from one of the most famous bishops, preachers and thinkers of the Serbian Church – Nikolaj Velimirovic.

The Orthodox writer, who created such works as the discourses "Over Sin and Death", "Omilia", "Ohrid Prologue", "Sermons on the Mount", "The Word about the All-Man", who left behind many other similar spiritual pearls, answers the questions of believers. Unfortunately, out of many letters, only about three hundred have survived.

His style is poetry, his language is as pure as a mountain spring. He himself is the bearer of patristic Orthodoxy, the gold melted down into the seven Ecumenical Councils.

The "Missionary Letters" saved many Serbian souls from wandering in empty fields where spiritual hunger reigns, from falling away from patristic Orthodoxy, from despondency and despair in the most difficult conditions of slavery and frequent wars.

Under the influence of this book, the "People's Orthodox Christian Community" was created, headed by Bishop Nicholas himself, which numbered more than two hundred thousand registered members and made an invaluable contribution to the preservation of faith and morals in Serbia.

With heartfelt warmth, we hand this book into the hands of the Russian reader, we hand it over to the fraternal Russian people with the hope that it will bring us even closer together in our holy and beautiful Orthodoxy. Bishop Lavrenty of Shabatsko-Valevo

Letter 1

to the worker who asks about the spiritual life

Spiritual life is real life. Everything else is dust.

Our dust and body are the earth borrowed from the earth. Earth, water, fire and air – from these, these four elements, the human body is created. It is created so skillfully, so wonderfully that it is impossible to express. And yet the body itself is not life, the chariot is not a traveler, the cage is not a bird.