Creation. Diary

Volume I

Book One. 1856–1858

Introductory remarks

Before you, pious reader, are the diaries of the great Russian ascetic, the Holy Righteous Father John Sergiev (of Kronstadt), published for the first time. Previously, they had never been printed anywhere, being stored in the State Archives in the form of a handwritten author's text.

The first volume of the multi-volume edition contains deep spiritual reflections on the texts of the Holy Scriptures. As is known, Father John of Kronstadt devoted the first year of his pastoral service to the most thorough study of the divinely revealed texts. The Holy Righteous Father John expounds his spiritual contemplations in full and indissoluble unity with the Orthodox tradition of the Holy Fathers of the Church.

The proposed edition is both relevant and extremely timely. In fact, it is the second appearance of the great all-Russian pastor and wonderworker in our days. Studying these precious and by the grace of God, newly discovered for our Christian understanding, one understands that before us is an extremely honest living confession of the soul of the great all-Russian pastor and preacher, without the edge of any concealment or understatement, which was originally intended for us. Here are the saint's own words on this matter, recorded in his diary: "Do not destroy this book even after my death: perhaps someone will be found like me in thought and feeling, and will show his deep sympathy for what is written in this book..."

Perhaps not a single saint in the history of Universal Orthodoxy (with the possible exception of Blessed Augustine and his "Confessions") left behind such detailed and spiritually beneficial descriptions of his purely personal experience of the life he lived, of his intense and unceasing inner spiritual struggle.

There is no doubt that in the published diaries the reader, layman and clergyman, will find the most convincing and soul-healing pastoral answers to the real and practical questions of his spiritual life. And this is the enduring practical value of this publication for us, today's Christians, who live in an exceptionally complex spiritual atmosphere, very reminiscent of the situation of the early 20th century, in terms of the rampant cult of the flesh, consumerism, the spirit of mammon worship, spiritual omnivorousness, and the ongoing process of apostasy on a global scale.

We prayerfully hope that this much-useful publication will eventually be fully published, to our common spiritual enlightenment, to the glory of the Holy Orthodox Church and for the benefit of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.

PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA ALEXY II

From publishers

This multi-volume edition is supposed to include all the personal diaries of the Holy Righteous Father John of Kronstadt, known to date in the originals.