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From the compiler

This Complete Collection of the Works of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov includes all the revealed texts of his writings, both those that were in print and those that have already been found in the archives and are offered to the reader for the first time. Moreover, the volume of newly published texts is very significant: in addition to the literary and theological works of the saint, it also contains a large array of letters sent by him to various persons, as well as documentary materials that significantly supplement his biography. In addition, our edition also includes a corpus of memoirs about Bishop Ignatius, a great spiritual writer and ascetic, and theological considerations of his works. For the first time, the reader will receive an exhaustive bibliography of publications of the texts of the saint himself and a list of printed materials about him.

The complete works of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov are supposed to be published in seven extensive volumes:

Volume I. Ascetic Experiments. Part I. Supplement — A Word about Man. Appendix — Memoirs of M. V. Chikhachev and Alexandra Kupreyanova.

Volume II. Ascetic Experiments. Part II: Supplement — Archpastoral Appeals on the Question of the Emancipation of the Peasants from Serfdom (1859). Comments by A. M. Lyubomudrov. Appendix — From the consistorial correspondence of the saint.

Volume III: A Word on Death. Supplement — Archaeological Description of the Antiquities of the Valaam Monastery (1853). Appendix — Consistorial correspondence (continued).

Volume IV: Ascetic Sermon. Supplement — Unpublished works of the saint (prose and verse). Appendix — Bibliography of publications of the works of St. Ignatius and literature about him (compiled by T. N. Semyonov).

Volume V. Offering to Modern Monasticism. Supplement — Letters of St. Ignatius to the Abbot of the Cheremenets Monastery, Hegumen Anthony (Alexei Pankratyevich Bochkov). Appendix — Letters to Vladyka: Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, Metropolitan Philaret (Amfiteatrov) of Kiev, Archimandrite Ignatius (Malyshev), Archimandrite Pimen (Myasnikov); Optina Elders: Moses, Leonid, Macarius, Anatoly, etc.; Ploshchansk elders: Anatoly, Hilarius, Ioannikii, etc.

Volume VI. The supplement is the letters of Bishop Ignatius to the laity: N. N. Muravyov-Karsky, A. S. Norov, kn. D. N. Sheremetev, A. S. Taneyev, the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod A. P. Tolstoy, and others.

Volume VII. The final volume of the Collected Works of the saint is devoted to the publication of his numerous letters to various persons, many texts are verified from manuscripts or published for the first time. Appendix — Responses of the Press to the Publication of the Works of St. Ignatius. Theological Considerations of His Writings. Materials for the canonization of the great ascetic of God.

In distributing the texts into volumes, the editors unfailingly adhered to the author's will shown by His Grace in preparing for publication the first collection of his works. At that time, Bishop Ignatius was retired in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, where he completely immersed himself in publishing. He revised the texts of all his main works anew, it became possible to give them in their original entirety, without censorship deletions. The composition of the volumes was determined by the saint himself, the technical verification of the texts, and the proofreading he entrusted to the spiritual writer S. I. Snessoreva. All the expenses for the publication were borne by Peter Alexandrovich Brianchaninov, the brother of the Bishop, his sincere associate and philanthropist. The first two volumes of the Collected Works of the Saint, during his lifetime, were printed in the printing house of I. I. Glazunov in 1865. In the next two years, volumes III and IV were published, and the Lord vouchsafed His ascetic to rejoice in the results of his creative work during his lifetime and to fully manifest the author's will in the presentation of texts. The final, fifth volume of the Collected Works during his lifetime, "Otechnik", was published after the death of the saint. Thus the canonical type of publication of the works of Bishop Ignatius was formed, and all subsequent collections of his works (St. Petersburg, 1886; St. Petersburg, 1905) invariably repeated in the main the first, in which the will of the saint himself was expressed.