Compositions

Epistles of St. Anthony the Great

With a preface by Bishop. Kallistos of Diocleia and translated by O.Sedakova Op.: Parish News of the Church of Cosmas and Damian in Shubin. №14. Moscow, 2001. The page number after the text on this page.

PREFACE

"A physician whom God has given to Egypt," this is how St. Anthony the Great (251-356) was described by his friend and biographer St. Athanasius of Alexandria. Not only from Egypt, but from the most remote parts of the Roman Empire, a continuous stream of visitors stretched into the desert to see the hermit Anthony: priests, monks, laymen. Some went to seek advice in some of their business, others simply wanted to be with him, learning from his silence and finding that his very presence renewed hope in them [ [1]]. St. Anthony is a prototype of a special and characteristic of Eastern Christianity spiritual type of elder, geron (Greek), a grace-filled "abba" or spiritual guide.

Many of the words and advice with which St. Anthony healed his fellow Christians have come down to us, processed and to a greater or lesser extent, in his Life, compiled by St. Athanasius, and in the Apophthegmas, or Homilies of the Desert Fathers [[2]]. However, did St. Anthony himself take care to write down his spiritual teaching, and have these records survived? The Life tells us that he "did not know how to read and write," but even so he could well dictate what he considered necessary to his disciples. And in fact, seven epistles, the authorship of which is traditionally attributed to St. Anthony, have been preserved. Their authenticity has been disputed, but by now most researchers recognize them as authentic. (There are, in addition, twenty other epistles that are definitely doubtful.) If these seven epistles really belong to St. Anthony, they must have originally been written in Coptic, the native language of local Egyptian Christians. Part of this Coptic dough has been preserved; There is a Syriac translation of the First Epistle and a complete version of all seven in Georgian and Latin.

As far as I know, this is the first time in this edition that these seven epistles appear in English. Their translator, priest and doctor of theology Dervas Chitti (1901–1971), devoted his life to the study of early Egyptian and Palestinian monasticism, collecting the fruits of his forty years of research in the remarkable work Citizenship of the Desert [ [3]]. The present translation of the Epistles he prepared for his own use, not for publication; And although he gave several of his friends typewritten copies of the translation, no doubt he would have wanted to revise the text before sending it to the press. I have made a few minor amendments to it to avoid some ambiguities. As an introduction, we have included in this edition a short article prepared by Fr. Dervas for the journal Sobornost [ [4]]. It is reprinted with the kind permission of the publisher of the magazine. I have provided it with footnotes and expanded the bibliography.

At first glance, these seven epistles may seem unremarkable. It is necessary to read them more than once, slowly and carefully, so that their deeper meaning becomes clear. Then the reader will gradually begin to discern the leading themes of the teaching of St. Anthony, to which he constantly returns: this is the theme of the testimony that the Holy Spirit gives birth to in the consciousness of every person; it is the need to achieve self-8-

knowledge, that is, to discover and love in ourselves our true self, created in the image of God; further, it is the complete salvation of man, both of his soul and of his body; it is a call to follow the Lord in His extreme self-abasement and humility; it is, finally, the unity of the Church, which embraces both the Old and New Testaments, and the Angels, and the saints, and those who live on earth; our interdependence in a common inheritance as members of one another in the Body of Christ.

These main themes of the Epistles are expressed in words that in their directness and simplicity are reminiscent of the Words of the Desert Fathers. "The spirit enters into loving fellowship with the mind," writes St. Anthony. «… Persist in the testimony that the Spirit bears in your mind like a child. The spirit determines for man the labors with which he constrains his soul and body, so that they may be purified and together enter into his inheritance... Get to know yourself... He who knows himself knows God... Who knows himself, knows all people... Who can love himself, loves everyone... From our neighbor is our destruction, and our life is also from our neighbor... Whoever sins against his neighbor sins against himself... We are all members of each other, and the body of Christ, and the head cannot say to the foot: "I do not need you." And if one member suffers, the whole body is affected and suffers with it... Therefore, we must love each other with all our might. For he who loves his neighbor loves God; and whoever loves God loves his own soul."

Here we hear the genuine voice of the wilderness experience.

Ep. Kallistos Diokleia Oxford, 1975.

PRELUDE