Finally, the Athonite legend. After the death of the Monk Silouan, an Athonite monk came to a spiritual council and submitted a petition for permission to retire into the wilderness. He is summoned and asked: "Why?" He answers: "I think that it is useful for my soul" And one of the fathers answers him: "Is it inconvenient to be saved here too? The late Father Silouan spent his whole life in our monastery, and will you find anyone more in the desert?"

Thus, all five questions do not provide an answer; And if we return to the social aspect of monasticism and hermitage, then much will become clearer to us, because we can formulate the question differently.

A monk, even if he clearly hears God's call, moves away from well-being, but this coin has a reverse side – he is moving away from the hardships of earthly order. The most characteristic example of Paul of Thebes. The last straw that predetermined his departure was a lawsuit started by his son-in-law over the inheritance - he gave everything and was free.

Most of the first desert dwellers were either from the court milieu, like Arsenius the Great, or from very wealthy families, like the three great hierarchs and teachers, i.e. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom. Basil the Great is one of the theoreticians of coenobitic monasticism, but he stayed in the wilderness for a long time. John Chrysostom, although he did not love the wilderness, spent 4 years in it, as if for hardening.

A monk is not just a guardian of a strict life. In the sense of baptismal vows and, above all, the renunciation of Satan and surrendering oneself entirely to the will of God, the perfection of a Christian is indeed necessary in the world as well as anywhere else.

Social ties, civic and family responsibilities, social responsibilities – they are for everyone, and they can only be broken when you receive a call from above! Therefore, desert monks not only flee from the world, but he dies to the world – it is absolutely impossible to die without the will of God!

As Seraphim of Sarov said, when he was asked by the pilgrims, when asked, "What should I tell your brother in Kursk?" he answered, pointing to the holy icons: "Here are my relatives, and for living relatives I am already a living dead."

Basil the Great: "A monk must be completely homeless."

(the word economy – oikonomiya – house-building, domestic order; oikos – homeless, homeless)

A monk does not go into social nowhere.

Therefore, in the seventh. What is the desert society? is a new abode, which is on earth, but not of the world. Monks, even hermits, lived in special clusters. Mary of Egypt is absolutely alone, but this is an exception that proves the rule.

Usually, it is not a kind of brotherhood, but a multitude of children around one father – a spiritual leader. These children do not communicate with each other, except at the behest of the elder. Their houses themselves testify to the complete frailty of the earthly - huts, dugouts.

Anthony the Great and, especially, Macarius the Great are surrounded by disciples. At St. Sergius of Radonezh, disciples also gather for spiritual guidance.

In the wilderness, a new society begins, but on new, as it were, foundations. Cutting off the will is the basic principle of this society. And the cutting off of the will is such that the monk seeks God's participation in his relationship with the leader, with the elder – otherwise it will not be possible to fulfill all the obediences.