'There Are No Dead in the Grave'

Christ is risen!

The following is an excerpt from Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), We Shall See Him as He Is, trans. Rosemary Edmonds (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2006). The event he discusses took place when he was an art student in Paris.

And lo, on Easter Saturday, in 1924 perhaps, the Light visited me after I had taken communion, and I felt it like the touch of Divine Eternity on my spirit. Gentle, full of peace and love, the Light remained with me for three days. It drove away the darkness of non-existence that had engulfed me. I was resurrected, and in me and with me the whole world was resurrected. The words of St John Chrysostom at the end of the Easter Liturgy struck me with overwhelming force: 'Christ is risen and there are no dead in the grave'. Tormented hitherto by the spectre of universal death, I now felt that my soul, too, was resurrected and there were no more dead . . . If this is God, then quickly let me abandon everything and seek only union with Him. (p. 178, ellipsis in the original)

After this experience, Elder Sophrony tried out the Orthodox theological school in Paris. But deciding that even this was not enough, he left to become a monk on the Holy Mountain, where he lived for about twenty years.