to the Spiritual Life

in answering students' questions

SHORT STORY

ABOUT LIFE

VENERABLE FATHERS BARSANUPHIUS THE GREAT AND JOHN THE PROPHET,

COMPILED BY THE MONK

NICODEMUS OF THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

The writers of this divinely wise and most soul-beneficial book were truly God-bearing, Christ-bearing and spirit-bearing Fathers Barsanuphius and John — models of asceticism, guides of silence, lamps of reasoning, unceasing eyes of clairvoyance, treasuries of virtues, receptacles of the Holy Spirit.

But time, which destroys everything and covers the good with the darkness of oblivion, has not left us a narrative about the life of these God-bearing luminaries Barsanuphius and John; Wherefore I, being feeble, have endeavoured to select from their own book, which is here offered, some particular testimonies (of their lives), and to present them to those who wish to know by what virtues these God-bearing Fathers attained the utmost perfection accessible to mortals.

The great and divine Father Barsanuphius was born in Egypt, as Evagrius the Scholastic testifies in the 32nd chapter of the 4th book of his Church History. And from the 55th answer of the Elder himself, it is clear that he was taught the Egyptian and Greek languages. From a young age, this ever-memorable man desired to lead an ascetic life. One day, passing by a horse lists, where people were running together with dumb animals, and seeing how one was trying to warn and overtake another, he said to himself in his mind: "Do you see how hard the servants of the devil struggle? Should not we, the heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, strive all the more?" And having become even more zealous through this spectacle, Saint Barsanuphius departed for spiritual asceticism, as another Elder John writes about him (in Answer 450). Coming to the vicinity of Gaza in Palestine and finding there the coenobitic abode of Abba Seridas, he built himself a small cell at first outside the monastery and, shutting himself up in it, enjoyed the sweetest honey of silence (as can be seen from the 221st answer). It seems that he built himself another reclusive cell and remained silent in it, but where he built it is unknown; One can only assume that it was near the same monastery.

At the beginning of his silence they brought him from the monastery only three loaves of bread a week, which he ate (ref. 72), but at the same time he indulged in weeping, and drew such sweetness from tears that from the sensation of this ineffable sweetness he was content with only one small loaf of bread, and many times forgot to eat it also, according to David: "I have forgotten to bear my bread." At the sound of my sighing my bone clings to my flesh (Ps. 101:5-6). Thus he partook of food sometimes twice a week, sometimes once, and sometimes, when he came to a meal, he approached the food as if full, and, taking it, he condemned himself, saying: "Why am I not always in this condition?" for from the sweetness of spiritual food he forgot sensual food (Ref. 96). And what is even more astonishing, he could even go through his whole life without eating or drinking, and without putting on clothes, for his food, drink, and clothing were the Holy Spirit (Rev. 78).

In the course of time, washing himself with constant tears, the blessed one so cleansed his heart not only of bodily but also of spiritual passions: self-conceit, vanity, man-pleasing, deceit, and other similar passions, even more deeply hidden in the heart, that he became higher than the arrows of the enemy, acquired the world of thoughts, which is the receptacle of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as the divine Gregory of Thessaloniki says (in his Homily to the Nun Xenia), He also acquired that which had fallen asleep in him, or, to put it better, had died all passionate movement and reasoning, which is why he called his hermitage a tomb, as another Elder John explained when he asked why the Great Elder called his cell so. He answered, "Because he has rested from all passions, for he is completely dead to sin, and his cell, in which he is shut up, as it were in a tomb, for the sake of the name of Jesus, is a place of rest, where neither the demon nor his prince, the devil, enters; it became a sanctuary, containing the dwelling place of God (Ref. 73). From the very time when he cleansed his heart of passions and was vouchsafed to be the temple and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, as a result of such purity he was enriched with a highly creative true and perfect humility, not, I say, that outward humility which consists of humble garments and humble words, but that which, according to the words of the great Gregory of Thessaloniki (see his homily to the nun Xenia), builds up the Holy Spirit. renewed in the womb (cf. Ps. 50:12). That is why the Fathers, especially the divine Gregory of Sinai, call this humility God-given. Humility, in the words of Barsanuphius himself, consists in considering oneself as earth and ashes in deed, and not only in words; and to say, Who am I? And who thinks I'm anything? I have nothing to do with (ref. 191). Through such humility (the Great Elder) was vouchsafed the greatest of all virtues – reasoning, which, according to the words of the same Barsanuphius, was given by God to the monk as a steward. And in the words of the divine Meletius the Confessor: "Reasoning is the ascent of the virtues, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all that is good, the lamp shining in the darkness, the guide of the erring, the refuge of the afflicted" (Step. 166). From reasoning the great Barsanuphius was vouchsafed to receive enlightenment, by which, according to the explanation of the Monk Peter of Damascus, the mental and innermost essences of sensual and mental creatures are comprehended.

Through insight, however, he was vouchsafed to receive the gift of clairvoyance and prophecy, in order to see what is happening afar away as being near, and the future as the present. This gift was given to this blessed father in such abundance, that two years in advance he foresaw and foretold the arrival in their community of the Monk John, a monk of the holy Sava monastery (ref. 1). He also foresaw and foretold that some rich people would come to the monastery and stay there for a while (ref. 31). He also knew by grace the dispositions of the hearts of men, and answered those who questioned him, not according to their words, but according to the direction of their minds and thoughts (Reps. 54 and 161). And his predictions were confirmed by the deed itself. Thus he prophesied of a prince sent by the king to place an unworthy bishop on the throne of Gaza, and that "though this bishop reach the gates of the city, he will not enter the city, for God will not allow him to do so." And indeed it happened: suddenly the news of the king's death was received, and all the hopes and plans of the bishop were dashed (rev. 812).

Who, then, is able to depict the abundant love of this blessed man for God? For he carried in his heart the love of Christ, which burned like a mighty flame of fire, as he himself testifies (Rev. 109). That is why nothing could lead to its fall, for love, according to the saying of the Apostle, falls away (1 Cor. 13:8), and, according to the words of the divine Barsanuphius, perfect love never falls, and he who acquires it remains in ardor, burning together with love for God and neighbor. Who, then, can express the love for his neighbor that burned in him? The compassionate father did not cease day and night to beseech God that He would make all the brethren God-bearing. Let us listen to his own words about this: "Even before your petition, for the sake of the love that burns in me (like a mighty fiery flame) for Christ, Who said, 'Thou shalt love thy sincere one as thyself' (Matt. 22:39), because it is kindled and because I am burning in spirit, I do not cease day and night to pray to God that He would make you God-bearing, that He would dwell in you and walk around you, and that He would send down the Holy Spirit to you... I have been to you as a father who tries to include his children in the bright armies of the king, without their own care for them" (Rev. 109). And the Elder not only prayed to God for this, but also actually accomplished that the brethren became truly God-bearing and spirit-bearing. In the same way, the Great Elder enlightened Seridas, the abbot of the monastery, with his prayer and opened his mind to comprehend the incomprehensible (Rev. 10). And upon the Monk Andrew by his prayers he brought down the Holy Spirit, that he might strengthen him in patience and thanksgiving (ref. 211), for his prayers ascended to God like shining lightning and like the rays of the sun, so that the Father rejoiced in them, the Son rejoiced, and the Holy Spirit rejoiced (Rev. 110), and in all useful petitions they were heard.