Burning with such love for his neighbor, this heavenly man, in imitation of Christ, laid down his life for his brethren and gave an answer to God for them (Rev. 57 and 58), for he saw and covered the sins of men, just as God sees and covers them (Rev. 236).

For the sake of such an abundance of love for one's neighbor was given to him, directly from God, (the power) to bind and resolve sins (ref. 207), which constitutes the perfection of gifts, as Barsanuphius himself says that the perfection of gifts (is) "to forgive sins, to free souls from darkness, and to bring them into the light" (Ref. 211). That is why the Lord also bestowed upon the Apostles various gifts before His resurrection, and this perfection of gifts He gave them after the Resurrection, according to the words of the same Barsanuphius: "Consider in the Gospel how and how many times Christ gave His disciples the gifts of healing, the casting out of demons, and the perfection (of gifts) — when He gave them the power to forgive sins, saying to them, 'If ye forgive sins, they shall be forgiven' (Jn. 20, 23)" (ref. 10).

And since the great Barsanuphius was vouchsafed to receive this gift of forgiveness of sins, he once said to a certain sick brother in the monastery, who asked for forgiveness of sins: "God saith unto thee, Great King, all thy sins are forgiven thee" (ref. 144); And on another occasion he said to another brother who was in consumption, "At thy request, God has forgiven thee all thy transgressions from thy childhood unto the present time. Blessed be God, who was willing to forgive you everything" (ref. 146). Sometimes the Elder took upon himself half of the sins of some (neighbors), sometimes all of their burdens (Revs. 163, 164 and 236). For others he labored, praying to God that He would blot out the sin of blaspheming them; For thus he answered his brother, who had fallen into blasphemy: "Guard thy mouth, lest thou fall again into the most cruel blasphemy, though it be necessary for thee to lay down thy very soul. I have shed much sweat beseeching God for this" (Rev. 228). The Great Elder committed the souls of some of the dying to the Holy and Life-Giving Trinity and, upon their ascension to heaven, freed them from demonic attacks (ref. 145). In a word, the great Barsanuphius attained the measure of love for one's neighbor that the Apostle Paul had, and before Paul, the great God-seer Moses; Wherefore Barsanuphius himself uttered his own words of Moses, as he himself writes: "Believe me, brother, that my spirit earnestly urges me to say to my Lord, who rejoices in the salvation of His servants: 'Lord! Either bring my children into Thy kingdom with me, or blot me out of Thy book.'" (Rev. 110).

Can I tell you even more? Blessed Barsanuphius, according to the words of the divine David, placed in his heart the sacred ascents and joined humility to humility, silence to silence and love to love, and was finally vouchsafed to attain the highest gift – rapture to God, in order to ascend to the seventh heaven, not on the dreamy wings of thought, but in the ineffable power of the Spirit, and there to receive blessing and to see the ineffable blessings and mysteries of the Kingdom of God. not knowing whether he was in the body or out of the body, like the great Paul. Let us listen to what the great Barsanuphius himself says about this: "God will assure you that love exalts those who have it to the seventh heaven, just as some already ascend boldly and are blessed, if in the body, or apart from the body, we do not know, God knows (2 Cor. 12, 3); And that ye may know the beginning of the way to this joy, hear: "First of all the Holy Spirit cometh unto man, and teaches him all things, and how to be humble-minded, of which ye cannot hear this day; Then, guided by this first kindling, he ascends to the first heaven, then to the second, and so on, as he progresses, even to the seventh. And there it is vouchsafed to see unspeakable and terrible things, which no one can hear, except those who attain this measure, which may the Lord vouchsafe you also'" (Rev. 109).

That is why he was given the abundant gift of wonderworking, so that he could raise the dead in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, cast out demons, heal incurable diseases, perform other powers and miracles, and, like Elijah, shut up and open the heavens, as the great Barsanuphius himself says of himself, or, to put it better, as God testifies, Who gave him these gifts (see Ref. 181). For this reason he (the great Barsanuphius) also delivered the Elder who lived in the monastery from the illness with which he was suffering (Rev. 172, 173); In the same way he healed another sick brother (512, 513). After all this, (the Great Elder) was vouchsafed to be not only a son of God by grace, but also, which is more worthy of wonder, to be called and to be the brother of Jesus, as he himself says: "Pray for me, cursed, that I also may remain in this measure to the end. He who dwells in it has already become the brother of Jesus" (ref. 181). And when the secular brother of this saint, old in years, wished to converse with him, the saint answered him: "I have a brother Jesus. But if you, despising the world, become a monk, then you will also be my brother" (ref. 345).

When the divine Barsanuphius attained such perfection, he received such great boldness toward God that one could pray to God for an innumerable multitude of people, and his petition was not rejected (see Ref. 110). Therefore, when during the life of this divine father a great wrath (of God) overtook the whole world, and the fathers, who were silent in that community, asked the Holy Elder to make prayers to God, so that His wrath might cease, he replied that three perfect men prayed to God for the whole world, and one of these three was the great Barsanuphius himself. Here are the saint's own words: "Many pray to God, who loves mankind, that this wrath of His against the world may cease, and there is no one more loving than God; but He does not want to have mercy on us, for He resists the multitude of sins that are committed in the world. But there are three men who are perfect in the sight of God, who have surpassed the measure of mankind and have received the power to decide and bind, to forgive sins and to keep them. It is they who stand between destruction and peace, so that the Lord does not suddenly destroy the whole world, and, through their prayers, He dissolves the punishment with mercy; They are told that this wrath will endure for a short time. So, pray with them. The prayers of these three men merge at the entrance of the high altar of the Father of lights, and they rejoice and rejoice with one another in heaven. And when they look upon the earth, they weep together, and shed tears, and weep for the evil that is done therein, which exalts the wrath of God. These men are John in Rome, Elijah in Corinth, and another in the diocese of Jerusalem (i.e., Barsanuphius himself, who says this, for he was silent near Gaza in the diocese of Jerusalem), and I believe that they show great mercy, indeed they do. Amen" (ref. 566). And since in the saints, who have received grace from God, not only the mind and soul are sanctified, but also their sacred bodies, by means of the soul, receive grace and sanctification, so also with Saint Barsanuphius not only the soul and mind were imbued with grace and sanctified, but also his sacred body was vouchsafed Divine grace and holiness, and the things that were close to the saint, received some kind of Divine power and grace. Just as, according to what is said in the Acts of the Apostles, the heads and burdens of the Apostle Paul healed the sick: just as the heads and burdens of the sick were healed from the sweat of his body, and they were healed of their infirmities (Acts 19:12), so the doll of the great Barsanuphius, which he sent to John in the monastery of St. Sava, protected the latter from many temptations and evils (Rev. 1). In the same way, another venerable father sent to the great Barsanuphius his doll and analav, asking him to wear them, to consecrate them, and then to return them to him, so that he would have protection and help in them (ref. 123). Many received from Saint Barsanuphius a blessing, i.e., a portion of the bread which he had eaten, and a little of the water which he had drunk, and by taking them they felt relief from the passions with which they were tormented (cf. Rev. 43, 44, 169). But the name of Abba Barsanuphius alone, only mentally invoked, acted and gave help to those who called upon him, just as another Elder, the divine John, said to the abbot of the monastery Elian, in answer to his question: What answer should be given to everyone? "Ask the Holy Elder in your mind: 'Abba, what shall I say?' and, according to the Lord's commandment (cf. Matt. 10:19), do not be anxious about what you say" (see Rev. 592).

Such are the great gifts that the great among the fathers Barsanuphius was vouchsafed to receive and attain to such a great perfection of virtues; However, such great gifts and co-education were brought up in him with such temptations, which many not only cannot endure by the deed itself, but even their ears will not be able to contain them. Listen to how he himself writes about this (in his epistle) to John of the monastery of Sava: "If I write to you about the temptations that I have endured, I think that your hearing, and perhaps no one's, will bear them at the present time" (answer 13). Likewise, the blessed one was subjected to great illnesses, but he endured them with such valor that, being sick, he not only never bowed down on his bed for his comfort, but did not even abandon his handiwork (ref. 165). And this indulgence of sickness upon him was perfectly just; For because of their great gifts, the saints are also subjected to great temptations, and unless a man sheds blood, he cannot receive the Holy Spirit into himself, as Peter of Damascus said, "Give the blood and receive the Spirit."

This saint lived in the sixth century, in the time of Emperor Justinian, and for fifty years and more no man saw him, for he shut himself up in a very small cell, as if in a kind of tomb, and during that time he did not eat any other food than bread and water. But when the rumor of all this reached Eustochios, then Patriarch of Jerusalem, he did not believe it and wished to see it in person; For this purpose, taking with him certain people, he brought them to the place of the monk's seclusion, and when they attempted to dig up the wall and enter into the cell, a fire that suddenly burst out of it almost burned Eustochius himself and all those who were with him, as the scholastic Evagrius testifies to this in the 34th chapter of the 4th book of his Church History, saying (about this) thus: "At the same time there were God-bearing men who did great signs; among them, Barsanuphius, an Egyptian by birth, was especially famous. He dwelt in the flesh as a bodiless man in a certain dwelling near the city of Gaza, and performed many miracles; but he spent his life shut up in a very small cell, and for "fifty years or more he did not show himself to anyone,"[2] and did not use anything earthly; [3] And when, not believing this, Eustochius, the First Hierarch of Jerusalem, gave orders to dig up the cell in which the man of God had shut himself up, a fire suddenly burst forth and almost burned all those who were there. And after the dormition of the great Barsanuphius, when he departed to the fathers and to the longed-for Christ, a certain elder who lived in the monastery was laid in his grave, [4] as the most divine Barsanuphius himself had prophesied during his lifetime" (ref. 152).

It must be known that there were two Barsanuphias: one was this holy and most orthodox father, and the other was a heretic, who adhered to the heresy of the Monophysites, who were also called headless and ten-horned, because they considered not one person, but many, to be the leaders of their heresy. That heretic Barsanuphius was included by the divine Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in a book which contained a confession of faith, and which he sent to the Sixth Holy and Ecumenical Council, which had gathered against the Monothelites. This divine Barsanuphius, of whom we speak, was a man in all respects completely Orthodox, and the Church of Christ venerates him as a saint, which was also confirmed by the holy Patriarch Tarasius, being questioned about this by Saint Theodore the Studite. Theodore the Studite himself testifies to this in his Testament, saying as follows: "I accept the entire divinely inspired book of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the lives and divine writings of all the God-bearing fathers, teachers and ascetics. But I say this for the sake of the injurious Pamphilus, who, having come from the East, slandered those venerable fathers, that is, Mark, Isaiah, Barsanuphius, Dorotheus, and Hesychius, not those Barsanuphius and Dorotheus, who were of one mind with the Acephalites and with the so-called decakerat (ten-horned), and for this were anathematized by Saint Sophronius in his book, for these are completely different from those I have mentioned. Which, according to the tradition of the Fathers, I accept, having asked His Holiness Patriarch Tarasius, the Priest, and other reliable Eastern Fathers; moreover, the image of Barsanuphius is on the enditia (vestment of the throne) of the great Church,[5] together with the images of the Holy Fathers Anthony, Ephraim, and others; And in the teachings of the above-mentioned Fathers I did not find not only the slightest impiety, but, on the contrary, much spiritual benefit."

Another Elder, the Monk John, lived the same silent life as Barsanuphius, and was vouchsafed the same gifts of the Spirit as he did, especially and especially the gift of clairvoyance and prophecy, for which reason he was called a prophet. For this reason the great Barsanuphius said to a certain man, who first questioned the divine John and, having received an answer from him, asked Barsanuphius himself about the same thing: "The God of Barsanuphius and of John is one" (ref. 220). Likewise, when some asked him to tell them about the life of John, he answered thus: "Concerning the life of my unanimous son, a blessed and humble novice, who in all things renounced all his desires even unto death, what shall I say to you? The Lord said, "He that hath seen Me in the form of the Father" (John 14:9). And of the disciple he said, "Let him be like his teacher" (Matt. 10:25). He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matt. 13:9)." (Responsible. 129.)

With these words the saint wanted to show that the divine John was in every way similar to his father and teacher Barsanuphius; the same thing appears from another circumstance: when some questioned the divine John about (some) matters, he was in the habit of sending the inquirers to the great Barsanuphius himself, that he might give them an answer; John did this out of humility, which is why at one time a certain Christ-loving man said to him: "Why do you mock us, Father John, when you send us to inquire of the holy and Great Elder Father Barsanuphius, when you have the same power of the Spirit as him?" (Question 792).

Where the Monk John came from and came here, we do not know. He lived in the first cell of the great Barsanuphius, which the latter had created outside the Gaza monastery, and remained silent there for 18 years until his death (ref. 221). No one ever saw him smile, or be embarrassed, or partake of the Divine Mysteries without tears, as the abbot of that monastery testified of him (Ref. 568).

The Monk John foresaw and foretold many things concerning life and death (Rev. 785 and 786), and together with the Elder Barsanuphius he healed from illness a certain Christ-loving and pilgrim-loving man (Rev. 793). Also, according to the gift of foresight, he chose for ordination those who were worthy of it (Rev. 811). For the sake of the rich gift of prophecy, which was given to him by the Lord, he was called by many, as we have already said, John the Prophet. For this reason the Monk Nikon inscribed on the two books containing the answers of this father: John the Prophet.

This Monk John also foreknew of his own death, of which he said: "In the weeks of Abba Serida I shall die. If Abba Seris had lived longer, I would have lived another five years, but since God hid it from me and took it, I will not live any longer" (Rev. 221).