The work of St. Joseph of Volotsk, "The Enlightener," was formed in the struggle against the heresy of the Judaizers, which shook Russia at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Polemically sharp, theologically profound, vividly and vividly written, this book remained for centuries a living phenomenon of Russian culture and a weapon of ideological struggle. The attacks on Orthodox doctrine that St. Joseph had to repel in the sixteenth century are repeated in our days with renewed vigor on the part of countless sects, heresies, and "new" religious and non-religious teachings, which is why The Enlightener, which was translated from Church Slavonic into Russian for the first time, is still relevant today.

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St. Prep. Joseph of Volotsk. Educator Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery 1994

St. Joseph of Volotsk

Educator

Preface

The Monk Joseph of Volotsk (in the world John Sanin) was born on November 12, 1440 in the village of Yazvishche-Pokrovskoye near the city of Volok Lamsky (now Volokolamsk) in the family of pious parents John and Marina. As a seven-year-old youth, John was given to study the monk of the Volokolamsk Monastery of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Arsenius.

At the age of twenty, despising worldly vanity, John chose the path of monastic life. With the blessing of the elder of Tver Savvin of the monastery Barsanuphius, he withdrew to Borovsk, to the monastery of the Monk Paphnutius († 1478, Comm. 1 May), who tonsured him into monasticism with the name Joseph.

The tonsure and subsequent monastic exploits of the Monk Joseph yielded grace-filled fruits in the life of his entire family. Soon after the departure of the monk from the world, his father, John, was stricken with a grave illness – paralyzed. The Monk Paphnutios immediately received him also into his monastery, tonsured him into monasticism with the name Ioannikii, and entrusted him to the care of his son, who rested him for 15 years, until his very death. To his mother the Monk Joseph wrote a letter of admonition, advising her to choose the monastic order; she took monastic vows at the Blaise Convent of Volok Lamsky (in schema Maria). Following their parents, the brothers of the Monk Joseph also went into monasticism.

Joseph spent eighteen years in obedience to the Monk Paphnutius, carrying out the heavy obediences entrusted to him in the kitchen, bakery, and hospital.

After the repose of the Monk Paphnutius in 1478, the administration of the monastery passed to the Monk Joseph. Wishing to establish a perfect and complete communal life for the brethren, the Monk Joseph undertook a journey to other monasteries in search of a proper arrangement of monastic life. The order which he wished to establish in his brotherhood, the monk found at the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery, where in fullness and strictness was carefully preserved the cenobitic rule commanded by the Monk Cyril. But many of the brethren of the Paphnutiev monastery refused to accept the strict order of communal life, and then the Monk Joseph conceived the idea of founding a new monastery in a desolate, untouched place. With a few like-minded brethren, he withdrew to a forest wasteland near Volok Lamsky and there founded a monastery in the image of the monastery of Kirillov. The first church, in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, was consecrated on August 15, 1479.

Gradually, a multitude of brethren gathered around the spirit-bearing mentor. The monk established a strict and perfect communal life. The ustav of the monastery, later expounded by the Monk Joseph (The ustav is published in the book: Epistles of Joseph of Volotsk, Moscow-Leningrad, 1959, pp. 296–321.), has preserved for us the monastic rules. The basis of life in the monastery was the cutting off of one's will, complete non-acquisitiveness, unceasing work and prayer. Everything was common among the brethren: clothing, shoes, food, drink; without the blessing of the abbot, no one could take a single thing into the cell; no one was to drink or eat separately from others. The food was the simplest, everyone wore thin clothes, there were no locks at the doors of the cells. In addition to the usual monastic rule, each monk made up to a thousand or more prostrations a day. The first good news was presented to the divine service, and each occupied a strictly defined place in the church; It was forbidden to move from place to place and talk during the service. In their free time, the monks participated in common work or engaged in needlework in their cells. Among other works, the monastery paid great attention to the copying of liturgical and patristic books. After compline, all communication between the monks ceased, and everyone went to their cells. Confession was obligatory every evening with the revelation of thoughts to one's spiritual father. Most of the night was spent in prayer, sleeping only for a short time, many sitting or standing. Women and children were strictly forbidden to enter the monastery, and the brethren were not even allowed to talk with them. Obeying this rule, the Monk Joseph himself refused to see his aged mother, a nun.