The "Works of the Ancient Ascetic Fathers" offered to the reader are a reprint of a book that has become a bibliographic rarity, published in the 1990s. The publication contains translations of patristic ascetic works by such well-known authors of the Egyptian desert of the fourth century as St. Ammon, St. Serapion of Thmuis, St. Serapion. Macarius of Egypt, Stephen of the Thebaid, blg. Iperechios, and besides that great Cappadocian St. Gregory of Nyssa. These works contain the spiritual wisdom and ascetic experience of the ancient saints, so necessary and in demand in modern church and especially monastic life. The translation of these monuments of ancient church monastic writing was made by Professor A. I. Sidorov of the Moscow Theological Academy and is supplied with extensive scholarly commentaries. The editors also hope that this patrological publication will attract the attention of teachers and students of theological educational institutions and simply a thoughtful Orthodox reader who is not indifferent to the patristic heritage.

ru Tatyana Trushova saphyana@inbox.ru ExportToFB21, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 30.07.2012 OOoFBTools-2012-7-30-15-51-16-1249 1.0 The Works of the Ancient Ascetic Fathers Sibirskaya Blagozvonnitsa Moscow 2012 ISBN 978–5–91362–489–5

The Works of the Ancient Ascetic Fathers

St. Ammon, St. Serapion of Thmuit, St. Macarius of Egypt, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Stephen of the Thebaid, blg. Iperechius

Foreword[1]

Monasticism, which appeared at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth centuries, concentrated in itself, as if in a focus, all those ascetic traditions which, although they constituted the essential features of the religion of Christ from its very inception, were only partially and separately represented in "historical phenomenality" until the end of the third century. Having rapidly spread to all corners of the "Christian ecumene" of that era, monasticism immediately became the main guardian and guardian of the "spiritual Tradition" of Orthodoxy[2], being on guard of it to this day. As soon as it appeared on the historical stage, monasticism gave rise to an abundant literature, rich in its spiritual and moral content and diverse in its genre features ("Epistles", "Homilies", "Chapters", "Patericons", etc.). The monuments of this literature were united by the fact that almost all of them, as a rule, were written by monks and for monks, which allows us to speak of "monastic writing" as a kind of peculiar type of Christian literature. However, since monasticism has always thought of itself as the embodiment of the ideal of life in Christ and according to Christ, it is not surprising that the works of the Fathers immediately became the most widely read works among all Orthodox Christians, as they remain to this day. Many of them were included in the treasury of Orthodox spirituality – the well-known "Philokalia". However, since this "Philokalia" did not encompass all the monuments of monastic writing, and also because the work of philologists and patrologists on the works of the ascetic fathers continues tirelessly, there was an urgent need not only to supplement it, but also to correct it according to new, more thorough from a scientific point of view, editions of the original texts of the Church Fathers. In part, we have already begun to fulfill this task by publishing "The Works of St. Maximus the Confessor" and "The Works of Abba Evagrius." The present edition should be considered as a continuation of this work. It includes those works of the ascetic fathers that reflect the most ancient layer of monastic writing in Greek.

The first place among them is occupied by the works of St. Ammon, a direct disciple and continuer of the work of St. Anthony the Great[3]. Born, most likely, at the very end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century (even the most approximate dates of St. Ammon's life are unknown to us), he lived a long life in the labors of asceticism, departing to the Lord, probably at the end of the fourth century, already in the rank of bishop (his cathedra is difficult to determine, but one source calls St. Ammon "bishop of Oxyrhynchus"). Being one of the favorite spiritual children of St. St. Ammon often replaced him, heading the monastic community of Pisper during the absences of the "father of monasticism", and then, after the death of the monk, he became its abbot. The works of St. Ammon have come down to us in two main versions, Greek and Syrian. In Greek, the following have been preserved: 1) fifteen "Narratives ("apophthegms") about Abba Ammon"[4]; 2) the seven epistles; 3) "Instructions", which include "Teachings" (4 in number), "Exhortatory chapters" (19 chapters), "Abba Ammon's Discourse on Those Who Wish to Be Silent" (11 chapters) and a work entitled "On the Joy of the Soul of Him Who Has Begun to Serve God" (73 chapters); 4) two fragments of unknown origin[5]. The Syriac version includes 25 apophthegms (partly identical to the Greek ones) and a more complete collection of epistles than the Greek (14 letters). The authenticity of the works of St. Ammon cannot always be established with certainty: for example, one of the Greek fragments attributed in the manuscript tradition to this saint is an excerpt from the work of Evagrius of Pontus "The Image of Monastic Life", and it is difficult to establish which of the two ancient ascetics this text really belongs to; The "exhortatory chapters" partially coincide with the twenty-seventh "Sermon" of St. Isaiah (the manuscript tradition of whose writings, by the way, is extremely intricate and requires even more careful study); The tenth epistle of the Syriac version is in many respects identical with the fifty-seventh "Spiritual Discourse" of St. Macarius of Egypt (see below about the discovery of new "Spiritual Discourses"). But with a greater degree of probability it can be assumed that the main part of the works preserved in the Greek language really belong to St. Ammon.

Another outstanding disciple of St. Anthony and one of the founders of ancient monasticism was St. Serapion of Thmuit. An associate of St. Athanasius the Great in his struggle against the Arian heresy, he was famous at that time as one of the most grace-filled ascetics and archpastors. Very little of his literary heritage has survived: the treatise Against the Manichaeans, which shows the author's theological skill, a liturgical work called the Euchologion, several fragments from other works in Syriac translation, and three epistles (two in the Greek original and one in the Syriac and Armenian translations). Of the latter, the Epistle to the Monastics is of the greatest interest, for in it both the essential features of the ascetic theology of St. Serapion himself and the worldview of the entire ancient monasticism are most clearly manifested. That is why the translation of this epistle is included in our collection[8].

A significant place in this collection is occupied by the works of St. Macarius of Egypt. The name of this great ascetic is associated with a large number of works, some of which have been known for a long time, and others have been discovered only in modern times. The first category includes the famous "Spiritual Conversations" (50 in number), which have been repeatedly published[9] and translated into Russian several times[10]. For modern researchers of ancient Christian writing, this collection of works by St. Macarius was called "type II". In addition to this type, there are seven more "Conversations" discovered and published by G. Marriott in 1918.[11] They have survived only in two manuscripts of a rather late time (one of the early 16th century, and the other is just a copy of it), but, nevertheless, these "Conversations", according to the publisher, came from the pen of a great ascetic; the only exception is the 54th Discourse, which is an excerpt from Palladius' Lausaicus[12]. Certain doubts about the authorship of St. Macarius is also evoked by the 57th "Discourse", which, as already mentioned, largely coincides with the tenth epistle of the Syriac version of the works of St. Ammon and, most likely, belongs to him. However, in any case, all these "Discourses" are the most precious monuments of ancient monastic writing, which is why we considered it necessary to translate them (based on the above-mentioned edition by G. Marriot).

The discovery of new works by St. Macarius, however, did not confine himself to the seven "Discourses" mentioned above. Three more manuscript collections of these works were found. The first of these, designated "Type I," consists of 64 "Homilies and Epistles." This collection is headed by the "Great Epistle", which deserves special mention. Being one of the main and most interesting works of St. Until recently, it remained unknown to both specialists and a wide range of readers. Only some excerpts from it were included in the so-called "Discourse on the Safeguarding of the Heart", which, like the other six "Homilies" of the monk, known for a long time, is a later compilation of his works[13]; in addition, some fragments of the Great Epistle are included in the extracts of Symeon Metaphrastus (the so-called "150 chapters"), published in the Greek "Philokalia"[14]. The full text of this work was first discovered and published by W. Jaeger[15], who also discovered the original text of the treatise by St. Gregory of Nyssa "On the Purpose of Life According to God and on True Asceticism" (Latin title "De instituto Christiano" – "On the Christian Order"), known until then in an extremely distorted and truncated form[16]. Working on the preparation of the edition of both works, W. Jaeger immediately noticed that they had great similarities, concluding that St. Macarius, writing the Great Epistle, had before his eyes the treatise of St. Gregory of Nyssa, and therefore depended on it. More precisely, W. Yeager believed that the author of the "Great Epistle" was not St. Macarius, but a certain ascetic who lived in the fifth century in the Near East, does not exclude the possibility that this ascetic could also be St. Simeon the Stylite, whose name this work is inscribed in some manuscripts[17]. However, W. Jaeger's point of view on the relationship between these two works did not receive support from the majority of scholars who studied this issue: many researchers came to the conclusion that St. Gregory of Nyssa reworked the Great Epistle, which is primary in relation to the treatise "On the Purpose of Life According to God"[18]. R. Staats, who published a critical edition of both works, believes that the Great Epistle was written around 381, and the treatise of St. Gregory of Nyssa around 390.[19] It is difficult to establish the reasons for such a revision, but there is no doubt that the treatise of St. Gregory of Nyssa, despite its dependence on the Great Epistle, bears the features of a completely original work. It is very possible that this one of the great Cappadocian Fathers of the Church, who fully shared the ascetic worldview of his elder brother (St. Basil the Great), "adapted" the work of St. Macarius to the peculiar conditions of Asia Minor monasticism. In view of the extreme importance of both works for the history of Orthodox ascetic theology, we considered it necessary to translate them, placing the treatise of St. Gregory immediately after the Great Epistle (the support for our translation was the above-mentioned edition of R. Staats).

The remaining 63 "Homilies" of St. Macarius, belonging to "type I" manuscript collections, were published (in two parts) by G. Berthold in 1973.[21] They were translated into Russian in full by A. G. Dunaev[22] and in part: thirteen "Homilies" were translated by Archimandrite Ambrose (Pogodin),[23] and eight "Homilies" by Archbishop Vasily (Krivoshein)[24]. They were published together in the series "Library of Fathers and Teachers of the Church"[25]. A manuscript collection of St. Macarius, called "type III"; usually it includes 43 works, of which 15 coincide with the "Spiritual Discourses"; the publication of the remaining twenty-eight was carried out in 1961 by E. Klostermann and G. Berthold[26], and later they were republished, with minor textual changes, by V. Despres[27]. Of all the newly-discovered creations of St. Macarius, this collection has been translated into Russian many times: four "Homilies" from it were translated by Vladyka Vasily (Krivoshein)[28], the first eight works of this "type" were translated by us, providing our translation with comments[29], and, finally, it was translated in its entirety by V. V. Bibikhin (under the pseudonym V. Veniaminov)[30]. It can be noted that in the manuscript tradition there is also a collection designated as "type IV": it includes 28 "Homilies" that coincide in general (with the exception of variant readings) with "type I"; it was not published separately.

A special place among the works of St. Macarius occupies the so-called "Epistle to His Children" (or "To the Children of God"). Until very recently, it was known only in translation into Latin[31]; A. Wilmar, who published the critical text of this translation and devoted a special study to the work, believes that the characteristic features of the epistolary genre are absent in it, and therefore this work should be considered as a small treatise, representing "an almost complete and clearly marked program of ascetic and mystical life." The translation into Latin was most likely made in the first half of the fifth century, for Gennadius of Marseilles already refers to this epistle around 470. Its author, in the opinion of A. Wilmar, is hardly identical to the author of "Spiritual Conversations", since the specific and individual features of the worldviews of each of these writers differ significantly from each other. A Syriac translation of this epistle has also been known for a relatively long time,[33] but only recently has the Greek original of the work been published, published by W. Strotmann, who, joining A. Wilmar and L. Marriot, believes that its author is not the writer who created the Spiritual Discourses[34]. Thus, the majority of researchers are unanimous in recognizing the fact that the Epistle to His Children belongs to the most ancient layer of monastic writing, but are inclined to deny the identity of its author with the author of the Spiritual Discourses (whom they call "Pseudo-Macarius"). If we leave aside the hypothesis concerning the "Pseudo-Macarius," then, of course, it is impossible to completely exclude the assumption that the said epistle could have been written by some other ascetic named Macarius (for example, St. Macarius of Alexandria or "of the City"), since at least seven fairly well-known Macarius can be counted for the fourth century alone. However, in our opinion, there is no particular need for this, since the difference between the style and worldview themes touched upon in the epistle and the style and themes of other works of St. Macarius are of an unprincipled nature and can be explained by the natural evolution in time of the views and "author's handwriting" of one and the same writer. Therefore, the "Epistle to His Children" is included in this volume[37], although, taking into account the point of view of researchers, we did not put the author's name in the title in the 1st edition.