'The Father of Moldavian Hesychasts'—St Daniel the Hesychast

Today, 14 December on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Daniel the Hesychast of Voroneţ (†1496). [1] Speaking of St Daniel, Bishop Seraphim (Joantă) tells us that ‘tradition calls this Saint “the Father of Moldavian hesychasts” because of the influence he exercised on the development of the hesychastic life, both in his lifetime and after his death.’ [2] According to Archimandrite Ioanichie (Bălan):

By the holiness of his life, Saint Daniel the Hesychast showed himself to be a Christ-bearer and a great teacher of silence and the Jesus Prayer or even from his youth. During his lifetime there was no hesychast and spiritual father in Moldavia more renowned than he, nor any doer and teacher of prayer more skilled. For this reason all the abbots and spiritual fathers of northern Moldavia, as well as the high officials of the National Council (the Sfat), had him as their spiritual father. [3]

Here is the brief Life composed by Fr Ioanichie:

Our holy Father Daniel the Hesychast was one of the greatest Saints brought forth by the Moldavian land, a great teacher of the desert and a guide of monks.

This Romanian Saint was born at the beginning of the fifteenth century to a family of poor people who lived on the estates of Saint Nicholas Monastery in Rădăuţi. He was named Demetrius at Baptism. He became a monk at this same monastery when he was sixteen years old and was given the name of David. After some years of severe asceticism, he was granted the grace of the priesthood and went to live at Saint Laurence Monastery in Vicoul de Sus commune. Then being called by the Holy Spirit to the life of the desert, he became a schemamonk with the name of Daniel sometime before 1450. At first he lived the ascetic life alone in unknown spiritual labors in the valley of Secu Brook near Neamţ Monastery, and then in a small cell carved out of rock in the valley of Putna Creek.

After the consecration of Putna Monastery in 1470, Saint Daniel the Hesychast went to live in the vicinity of Voroneţ Monastery, where he carved for himself a cell out of rock under Falcon Cliff. He lived the ascetic life here for twenty years, pleasing God, training many disciples, and performing many miracles of healing.

When the church of Voroneţ Monastery was built in 1488, Saint Daniel the Hesychast—who was then over eighty years old—moved down to the community and became the abbot of this monastery. He lived for a short time longer and was honored by the people as a Saint and miracle-worker. Saint Daniel gave his soul into the hands of God about the year 1496 and was buried in the church, where his relics remain until today. [4]

Fr Ioanichie tells us that as a child, St Daniel ‘was never absent from church, nor did he play with other children, or seek repose and food, but rather he always prayed and was obedient to his parents in all things.’ He continues:

When he was about ten years old, the child Demetrius was given to Saint Nicholas Monastery in R to be educated. Although young in age, he showed himself old in understanding, for he quickly learned the Horologion and the Psalter by heart, as well as the practice of spiritual asceticism. [5]

A spiritual child of the holy hierarch St Leontius of Rădăuţi, as a monk St Daniel ‘loved silence, fasting, and prayer most of all. . . . In his cell he slept a little on a small stool, keeping vigil often and meditating on divine things. He loved the Psalter greatly, knew it by heart, and repeated it daily.’ [6] Later in his account, Fr Ioanichie refers to St Daniel’s life in a cliffside cell in the valley of Viteu Brook:

The asceticism practiced by our holy Father Daniel the Hesychast in his cell was this:

Day and night he kept vigil in unceasing prayer and meditation on divine things, fasting until sunset. He didn’t leave his cell all week. His food was dried bread, roots, and herbs, and for handiwork he wove baskets of withes. On Sunday he celebrated the Divine Liturgy and communed the Body and Blood of Christ. Afterwards he received those who came to him for healing and for a profitable word. During the fasts he would fast for as much as three and sometimes five days. He had the gift of prayer and tears. [7]

There are some interesting references to the variant activities and lifestyles of St Daniel’s disciples. First, Fr Ioanichie tells us:

He soon became the spiritual father of dozens of hesychasts who labored in the forests of Voroneţ, in the Rarău Mountains, and over the length of the Eastern Carpathians. Most of them practiced the Jesus Prayer, fasting, and silence, others read the Psalter daily, others made thousands of prostrations and wove baskets, while others, being good calligraphers, wrote service books for churches and monasteries. [8]

Later on, Fr Ioanichie writes specifically of the Fathers of Voroneţ:

During his abbacy Voroneţ monastery reached the height of its spiritual flourishing, being for a long time considered Moldavia’s lavra of hesychasm. All the monks of the community, over sixty ascetics, practiced the Jesus Prayer. Some were renowned pastors and spiritual fathers for the faithful, others were learned teachers in the monastery school and untiring calligraphers, and most were monks of prayer who glorified God unceasingly and prayed for the whole world. Many parish priests, abbots, bishops, monks, hesychasts, and officials were educated and learned spiritual asceticism at Voroneţ. More than fifty other hesychast disciples of Saint Daniel lived in asceticism out of love for Christ in the age-old forests of the Voroneţ, Rarău, and Stînişoara Mountains. The great Abbot and guide of souls, ‘our holy Elder, Father Daniel the Hesychast’, directed all these men and guided them on the good path to the Kingdom of Heaven. [9]

I have already referred to St Daniel’s relationship with St Stephen the Great of Moldavia in my post on the latter. Although he flubs the holy Prince’s name, calling him ‘Petru Rares’ [10], Fr John McGuckin in what looks to be a fascinating article refers to St Daniel’s counsel to St Stephen during his battles with the Turks as an example of the ambivalent attitude to war and violence in the Eastern Church. Fr McGuckin writes:

The saint commanded the prince to erect monasteries on the site of the great battles, to ensure mourning and prayer for the lost souls whose blood had been shed. This was an act that was seen as a necessary expiation of Petru’s ‘equally necessary’ violence. Both he and his spiritual mentor were heavily burdened by their perceived duty of defending the borders of Christendom. To this day Romania’s most ancient and beautiful churches stand as mute witnesses to a bloody history where Islam and Christianity’s tectonic plates collided (as often they did in the history of the Christian East). [11]

At one point, speaking of St Daniel’s call by the Holy Spirit to the desert-dweller’s life, Fr Ioanichie writes, ‘His soul was wounded by the love of Christ and he desired to glorify Him unceasingly with the angels and with the hesychasts who lived in the Carpathian forests.’ [12] I cannot help but pause and reflect here. I first learned of the Carpathians when I read the words of Jonathan Harker in his journal entry from Bistritz on 1 May: ‘I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.’ [13] Thus, in my imagination the Carpathians took on a dark, superstitious, even Gothic cast from my very first encounter with them. But more importantly, due to the idiosyncracies of my childhood, it was a landscape that stuck with me. The Carpathians were to me something like what Narnia probably is to many other children.

Little did I know then that, as Bishop Seraphim notes, what ‘appears to be the most ancient monastic center in the Romanian land’ consisted ‘of a notable number of sketes and stone cells located in the mountains in the angle of the Carpathians.’ [14] The discovery not only of Orthodoxy, but Orthodoxy in its deepest and most radical form in the midst of that imaginative landscape of my childhood gave me a wonderful sense of fulfillment, of everything being brought full circle by God’s providence. Lewis speaks of the baptism of his imagination. For me it was like discovering that much of what I’d imagined had already been baptised. (For more examples, see this post, and this one.)

The image at the top of the post represents the first depiction of St Daniel ‘as a Saint with a halo’. It was painted by his disciple, Metropolitan Gregory (Roşca) ‘in 1547 on the southern wall of Voroneţ Monastery, to the left of the entrance to the pridvor as can still be seen today. He is holding in his hand an open scroll on which is written, Come, brothers, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the lord. Who is the man . . . (Ps. 33).’ [15]


[1] The Holy Trinity parish calendar site seems to have an error here, listing ‘Venerable Daniel the Hesychast of Voronej (17th c.) (Romania)’. The only Romanian ‘Daniel the Hesychast’ connected with a place-name resembling this one is St Daniel the Hesychast of Voroneţ, who lived in the 15th c., and according to Fr Ioanichie, this St Daniel is commemorated on 14 December. Clearly, Holy Trinity has some typos.

[2] Bishop Seraphim (Joantă), Romania: Its Hesychast Tradition & Culture (Wildwood, CA: St Xenia Skete, 1992), pp. 66-7.

[3] Archimandrite Ioanichie (Bălan), Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. 1 (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996), p. 190.

[4] Ibid., pp. 182, 184.

[5] Ibid., p. 184.

[6] Ibid., pp. 184, 186.

[7] Ibid., p. 188.

[8] Ibid., pp. 191-2.

[9] Ibid, pp. 192-3.

[10] Petru IV Rareş was a Moldavian voievode of the 16th century.

[11] Fr John McGuckin, ‘Nonviolence and Peace Traditions in Early & Eastern Christianity.’

[12] Fr Ioanichie, p. 186.

[13] Bram Stoker, The Annotated Dracula, ed. Leonard Wolf, Illust. Stty (NY: Clarkson N. Potter, 1975), p. 2.

[14] Bishop Seraphim, p. 19.

[15] Fr Ioanichie, p. 193.

'His Mind Was Always United with God in Love'—St Paisius Velichkovsky

Today, 15 November on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Paisius (Velichkovsky) of Moldavia and Mt Athos (1794). Most well known perhaps as the tireless translator of various texts of the Philokalia into Slavonic, St Paisius is famously mentioned by Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov, where the great novelist writes that the institution of monastic eldership ‘was revived again in our country at the end of the last century by one of the great ascetics (as he is known), Paissy Velichkovsky, and his disciples’ (The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky [NY: Vintage, 1991], p. 27). Fr Sergius Chetverikov describes his greatness thusly (qtd. in Bishop Seraphim [Joantă], Romania: Its Hesychast Culture & Tradition [Wildwood, CA: St Xenia Skete, 1992], p. 101):

In his person were united in an admirable synthesis personal sanctity, devotion to Orthodoxy, a remarkable aptitude for organizing coenobitic communities, the art of attracting to himself and spiritually forming numerous disciples, and thus creating around himself great schools of asceticism, and, finally, a true literary talent.

In his ‘Introduction’ to Blessed Paisius Velichkovsky: The Man Behind the Philokalia, by Schemamonk Metrophanes, trans. Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1994), Fr Seraphim observes:

. . . [F]or Orthodox Christians of the 20th century there is no more important Holy Father of recent times than Blessed Paisius Velichkovsky. This is so not merely because of his holy life; not merely because, like another Saint Gregory Palamas, he defended the hesychast practice of the mental Prayer of Jesus; not only because he, through his many disciples, inspired the great monastic revival of the 19th century which flowered most notably in the holy Elders of Optina Monastery; but most of all because he redirected the attention of Orthodox Christians to the sources of Holy Orthodoxy, which are the only foundation of true Orthodox life and thought whether of the past or of the present, whether of monks or of laymen. (p. 13)

St Paisius’s disciple, Schemamonk Metrophanes, produced the most moving encomium of him in the following passage (The Life of Paisij Velyčkovs’kyj, trans. J.M.E. Featherstone [Cambridge, MA: Harvard U, 1989], p. 148):

In his teaching, his maintenance of a community, his spiritual struggles, his labors beyond human endurance, his wisdom and divine understanding, his counsel, his discernment, and his other gifts from God, our blessed father was in every way like the pious fathers of old and all those who have come after them. He was adorned with all virtues, external and internal, even as the holy fathers of old. His face was radiant like that of an angel of God, his appearance gentle, his speech humble and without boldness. He greeted all with love; he answered with piety; he was filled with goodness; he was always inclined to mercy; he attracted all to himself even as a magnet attracts iron. His humility and meekness were profound. He was forbearing in all things. In every way was this great man godly and full of grace. His mind was always united with God in love, to which his tears bore witness. Whenever he spoke of theology, his heart was flooded with love, his face shone with gladness, and tears poured forth from his eyes in confirmation of the truth. Whenever we stood before him our eyes never tired of the sight of him: we desired insatiably to look upon him; nor were our ears ever stopped with displeasure or tedium at his speech, for as I have already said, in the joy of our hearts we forgot ourselves. When we looked upon his face, we kept our ears always near his mouth, even as the Athenian philosophers of old did. For whenever they saw someone who excelled in wisdom, they desired to talk with him, and the eyes and ears of all were fixed upon him in their desire to hear some new bit of wisdom. How much more were our eyes fixed upon our blessed philosopher! For from his mouth we always heard new things concerning spiritual mysteries or the moral precepts of the God-bearing fathers.

Of course, not the least of his accomplishments were the many translations St Paisius and his disciples produced. As I have noted here, Dostoevsky was acquainted with the Saint through his translation of the homilies of St Isaac of Syria. Speaking of the importance of St Paisius’s work, Fr Georges Florovsky writes in Part 1 of his magnum opus, Ways of Russian Theology, trans. Robert L. Nichols (Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1979), p. 161:

Under Paisii’s guidance, Niamets monastery became a great literary center and a source of theological-ascetical enlightenment. This literary activity was organically link with spiritual and ‘intellectual construction’. . . . The message of spiritual concentration and wholeness possessed particular significance for that age of spiritual dualism and cleavage. Publication of the Slavonic-Russian edition of the Philokalia constituted a major event not only in the history of Russian monasticism but generally in the history of Russian culture. It was both an accomplishment and a catalyst.

Fr Florovsky also notes that St Paisius ‘did not retreat from or reject knowledge. His actions mark a return to the living sources of patristic theology and thinking about God’ (p. 160). Ultimately, while the Philokalia was published in Greek no later than Slavonic, it was the Slavophone hesychast revival under St Paisius that led to the discovery of the Fathers among Russian intellectuals and theologians, who in turn eventually influenced theologians in Greece beginning in the 1960s, leading to a boom of interest in the Fathers there and the repopulation of the Holy Mountain (Chrestos Yannaras, Orthodoxy & the West: Hellenic Self-Identity in the Modern Age, trans. Fr Peter Chamberas & Norman Russell [Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox, 2006], pp. 126-8).

Finally, I would like to offer a few words from the great Elder himself. First, here are two passages from his autobiography:

Within a little more than two years, with God’s assistance, I learned the Primer, the Book of Hours, and the Psalter, and straightway I began, with God’s help, to read other books with great facility; and from my elder brother, mentioned above, I learned to write after a short time of study at home. Between lessons, whenever I found free time, I read assiduously the books of the holy Scripture, the Old and the New Testaments, the Lives of the saints, the writings of St Ephrem and St Dorotheus, the Pearl of St John Chrysostom, and as many other books as were to be found in the aforementioned holy church; and from the reading of such holy books, especially the Lives of our pious fathers who pleased God in the holy and angelic monastic state, there began to grow in my soul a longing for withdrawal from the world and assumption of the holy monastic habit. (Featherstone, p. 5)

At the appropriate season the venerable superior of the hermitage, Father Dometij, assigned me the obedience of tending the hermitage’s vineyard, which was on level ground above the hermitage, at a distance of nearly one verst. He commanded me in no wise to dare eat any grapes until I had eaten at least a small piece of bread; but provided I ate the bread, he gave me his permission and blessing to eat as many grapes as I wished, before or after the daily meal. He did this for two reasons, firstly because grapes were few in the country where I was born, and I had scarcely ever had the chance to taste them, and secondly, out of indulgence to my weakness, for he realized that I had a great desire to eat grapes and that I could not get my fill of them. Having received his command and blessing, then, after eating a bit of bread, I ate grapes often, both before and after the meal, choosing the ones which grew sparsely, that is, not close together, for these were sweeter than the others. My passion for eating grapes came to such a pitch that I wanted no other food. When I went to the meal in the hermitage, I ate very little of anything else, but I ate grapes in abundance and with great relish. Having partaken of almost no other food that whole season until the harvest, I suffered no small illness of body, and my face grew thin as if from some disease. But after the harvest, when I ceased eating grapes and partook of the usual food with the brethren, I began to feel stronger day and night; and in a short time I was restored to my previous state of health. (Featherstone, pp. 82-3)

Finally, here is a passage taken from the Saint’s writings on the spiritual life (here):

Have you heard, my beloved soul, how the Holy Fathers spent their lives? O my soul! Imitate them at least a little.

Did they not have tears? O woe, my soul.

Were they not sorrowful, thin and worn out in body? O woe, my soul.

Did they not have bodily illnesses, great wounds and lamentation of soul with tears? O woe, my soul.

Were they not clothed in the same infirm body that we have? O woe, my soul!

Did they not have the desire for splendid, sweet and light repose in this world and every bodily repose?

Yes, they desired these things, and their bodies in truth were afflicted, but they exchanged their desires for patience and their grief for future joy. They cut off everything once and for all. They considered themselves as dead men, and tormented themselves mercilessly in spiritual labors. Do you see, my soul, how the Holy Fathers labored, having no repose and suffering every kind of evil? They subjected the flesh to the spirit and fulfilled all the other commandments of God, and were saved.

But you, O pitiful soul, do not at all wish to force yourself, and you grow faint from small labors, grow despondent and do not at all remember the hour of death and weep over your sins but you have become accustomed, my wretched soul, to eat to the fill, to drink to the fill and to be slothful. Do you not know that you are called voluntarily to torment? And yet you endure nothing. How then do you wish to be saved?

At least from this time forth, then: Arise, my beloved soul, and do what I shall tell you.

If you cannot labor as the Holy Fathers did, then at least begin according to your strength.

Serve everyone with humility and simplicity of heart; acknowledging your infirmity and belittling yourself, say: ‘Woe to thee, my wretched soul; woe to thee, vile one; woe to thee, O all-defiled one, slothful, careless, sleepy, cruel; woe to thee, who hast perished!’ And so, little by little it will come to tender-feeling, will shed tears, will come to itself and repent.

For more on St Paisius, see this brief article by the great Metropolitan Laurus of blessed memory.

'Teaching, Reproving, & Consoling All'—St Anthimus the Iberian

Today, 27 September on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of St Anthimus the Iberian, or ‘the Georgian’ (1650-1716), Metropolitan of Wallachia. Of course, I have already posted the fullest Life of St Anthimus I know of in English (Archimandrite Ioanichie [Bălan], Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. I: Third to Eighteenth Centuries [Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996], pp. 383-4), as well as many additional pertinent facts and observations, here, where I also discuss St Anthimus’s moment of fame in Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian (NY: Back Bay, 2006).

But to his summary of St Anthimus’s life, Fr Ioanichie adds a few more details in the ‘Works and Teachings’ section of his chapter on the Saint. I shall post these, another excerpt or two from the ‘Teachings’, and the Troparion of the Saint, which I did not post last time. First, the passages on his ‘Works’ (pp. 385):

1. This blessed hierarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, after being estranged from the land of his fathers at a young age and suffering great temptations among the pagans, was guided by Christ to the Romanian Land. There he found a second homeland, as well as fathers, brothers, and every consolation of the Holy Spirit.

2. Taking up the yoke of Christ at Snagov Monastery, Hieromonk Anthimus became a good monk and an unsurpassed printer. In the fifteen years before he was made a bishop, he founded two printing houses and dozens of ecclesiastical books in Romanian, Greek, Arabic, and Slavonic, becoming the greatest printer of Romania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His books were distributed in all the Romanian provinces, and even as far away as Athos, Greece, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Sinai, Syria and Georgia, for he was a devoted servant of Christ and defender of the Orthodox Church.

3. For the holiness of his life, Abbot Anthimus the Georgian was consecrated Bishop of Rmnic, and later Metropolitan of the Romanian Land. As a spiritual pastor and father, the great hierarch shone upon all like a candle on a candlestand, from the prince to the last pious layman. He was a wise man, inspired by the Holy Spirit, constant in faith, strong in hope, astute in speech, humble in heart, and full of divine love.

4. Desiring, for the sake of men’s salvation, that the church services be performed in the Romanian language, Metropolitan Anthimus multiplied the number of printing houses, and translated and printed the principal service books, beginning with the Horologion and the Liturgicon. Of the sixty-four books printed by him and his disciples, twenty-four were in Romanian.

Thus Metropolitan Anthimus is a major founder of the Romanian liturgical language. In his time the divine services began to be performed throughout the whole country only in Romanian, for the comprehension and consolation of all.

5. Besides enriching the services with books in the vernacular, the good pastor of Christ’s Church also made other contributions. He rebuilt churches in the villages and towns, founded the Monastery of All Saints in Bucharest, today called ‘Antim’ [after the Saint] (1713-1715), and made donations and initiated restoration work in other monasteries. He trained many disciples to be printers, gave much alms to the poor, and was a patron of scholars. For the teaching and defense of the right Faith, this skilled theologian, hierarch, and evangelical preacher authored and printed numerous
sermons, called Didahii.

In addition to those offered in the previous post on St Anthimus, here are two more excerpts from the Didahii:

14. Another time Metropolitan Anthimus said, humbling himself: ‘Being blinded by worldly vanities, we do not rejoice in anything but the works of the darkness of this age. We all have set out towards wicked things, like a wheel rolling downhill that cannot be stopped. All these thing have come upon us for no other reason but our unbelief. For like Pharaoh our hearts have hardened in evil, and we go about like untamed horses, unbridled and shameless, until we will fall into an abyss and perish.’

‘Therefore I say to you, my beloved ones, and I teach you with the fear of God, as your spiritual father and pastor, that you should come to your senses and repent of your impious works. God is merciful, and if He sees our turning back and good repentance, He will forgive us. For He says through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah: Return to Me and I will return to you (Is 45:22).’ (p. 386)

62. ‘Before Christ’s Passion we were surrounded by five unvanquished enemies, who were always arrayed against us and brought us to great and incurable corruption: sin, death, hell, the devil, and the body.

‘He extinguished sin through the pouring out of His most precious Blood, and it can no more hurt us unless some evil passion will gain mastery over us. Death, which was born of sin, He killed by His death. Hell, which is the perfect reward of sin, He laid waste and shattered by His descent into it. The devil, who was the instigator of all sins and the tormentor of our souls, He bound and cast into the deepest abysses of hell. And the body, through His sufferings and His crucifixion on the Cross, He pacified and cleansed of the passions.’ (pp. 394-5)

Finally, Fr Ioanichie concludes his chapter on St Anthimus as follows:

74. Thus did this meek, humble, and most wise Father of the Romanian Land labor for the salvation of his flock, teaching, reproving, and consoling all for twenty-six years. Then, as it was ordained by God that he should die for the truth, he was cruelly tortured and drowned by the Turks, and he gave his soul into the arms of Christ. Thus the holy Metropolitan Anthimus is numbered in the ranks of the holy martyrs of Romania, and he prays in heaven for the salvation of our souls. (p. 397)

The Troparion of the Saint in Tone 3:

O holy Father, Hierarch Anthimus, with diligence thou didst order well the pastors and instructors of thy flock, and with divine wisdom didst pour forth rivers of holy words. Thou didst give thy life for thy flock and obtain the crown of martyrdom from Christ God, to Whom do thou pray, O holy Father, Hierarch Anthimus, to grant peace and great mercy to those who celebrate thy holy memory. (p. 397)

'Fearless Defender of the True Faith'—St Stephen the Great of Moldavia

Today, 2 July, there is another Saint I’d like to mention—Saint Stephen the Great of Moldavia (1432-1504). The holy Hieromonk Jacob of Putna (15th c.) addressed him as, ‘The right-glorifying and beloved-of-Christ Stephen Voievode, by the mercy of God Prince of the Moldavian land, son of Bogdan Voievode’ (Archimandrite Ioanichie [Bălan], Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. I [Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996], p. 210). Archimandrite Ioanichie (Bălan) calls him the ‘greatest Voievode of the Romanian nation’ (Romanian Patericon, p. 179). Here is the assessment of Bishop Seraphim (Joantă), in Romania: Its Hesychast Tradition and Culture (Wildwood, CA: St Xenia Skete, 1992):

Stephen the Great is the greatest figure of Romanian history. The country being harassed and attacked incessantly by the Turks, he was able to defend its integrity and independence at the price of numerous sacrifices. The piety of Stephen can be judged by the number of monasteries he built: ‘forty-four’, says the chronicler Gregory Ureche. According to tradition, the pious Voevode built a monastery after every victory over the Turks. (p. 66, n. 33)

When St Stephen was just 19, his father, Prince Bogdan II of Moldavia, was murdered by the latter’s bastard half-brother, and St Stephen was forced to escape with his cousin, Vlad Dracula Ţepeş, ‘via the famous Borgo Pass’ (Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally, Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times [Boston: Back Bay, 1989], p. 66). After the latter had gained his father’s throne, that of Wallachia, in 1456, he helped his cousin, St Stephen to take his own father’s throne in the Moldavian capital of Suceava in 1457 (p. 83). Thus began a reign marked by nearly constant warfare, largely against the Muslim Turks pouring into Europe, but also by a flourishing of Moldavian culture manifested particularly in the monasteries that St Stephen built, widely considered some of the most beautiful in the world. In this he was guided by some of the holiest men of the Romanian lands. According to Fr Ioanichie:

This wise Metropolitan [Theoctistus I of Moldavia and Suceava] was the first counselor of Stephen the Great. When the land was threatened by war, Stephen took counsel with him before doing anything. And when the Prince left for battle, the Metropolitan commanded all the monks in the monasteries and all the hermits in the mountains to keep all-night vigils with fasting and prayer until the Voievode should return victorious to Suceava. And when by God’s allowance Stephen was defeated in battle (as he was at Războieni in 1476), Metropolitan Theoctistus with his clergy was the first to encourage him, pray for him, and urge him to not surrender the country. He also counseled Stephen the Great to erect a monastery after each battle as an offering of thanksgiving to God. The Great Prince built Putna Monastery (1466-1470) at his exhortation, and the Metropolitan himself consecrated it on September 3, 1470. At the Metropolitan’s request, Stephen entirely rebuilt Zographou Monastery on Mount Athos (1466-1475), and gave much help to other monasteries on Athos. (p. 181)

But St Stephen also maintained a very close relationship with a seemingly more unlikely figure—St Daniel the Hesychast (†1496), a hermit who lived in a cave in Moldavia. According to Fr Ioanichie, the future Prince visited St Daniel after the murder of his father, Prince Bogdan—

He remained there for several days, confessing his thoughts before the Saint and receiving from him the remission of his sins and many words of consolation. Stephen’s agitated soul became calm, and the great hesychast blessed him and prayed for him. Then he prophesied that he would soon become Prince of Moldavia, and dismissed him in peace. (p. 189)

The prophecy being fulfilled upon St Stephen accession to the throne in 1457, the love and devotion of the holy Prince toward the anchorite became even greater. Fr Ioanichie writes:

From that time the Saint became an important counselor of the Great Prince, and his spiritual father and intercessor with God. The Voievode often visited his cell, confessed his sins, asked him for a profitable word, and did nothing without his prayer and blessing. The Saint encouraged him and exhorted him to defend the country and Christianity against the pagans. Saint Daniel assured him that if he would build a church to the glory of Christ after every battle, he would be victorious in all his wars.

Stephen the Great obeyed him and defended the Church of Christ and the Moldavian land with great courage for nearly half a century after the fall of Byzantium. He won forty-seven battles and built forty-eight churches. (p. 189)

Here is the Troparion in Tone 1 for the Holy Prince, taken from Fr Ioanichie’s book, p. 180:

Fearless defender of the true faith and protector of the land of thy forefathers, great founder of holy churches and monasteries, O Prince Stephen, pray to Christ God to deliver us from our needs and sorrows.

'Numbered In the Choir of Holy Confessors'—Ss Iorest & Sava of Transylvania

Today, 24 April on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Hierarchs Iorest (or ‘Ilie Iorest’) and Sava Brancovici the Confessors, Metropolitans of Ardeal (Transylvania). St Iorest, born ‘Elias’ or ‘Ilie’, came from a Transylvanian peasant family and was tonsured a monk at the 15th-c. Putna Monastery, a foundation of St Stephen the Great of Moldavia. According to Fr Ioanichie (Bălan), in Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. 1—3rd to 18th Centuries (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996), p. 322:

Attending the spiritual school at this lavra, he became a skilled monk and a good calligrapher and iconographer. He was zealous for the service of the Church and the preservation of the holy Orthodox Faith. For the purity of his heart the abbot made him a hieromonk, and St Iorest was as a burning torch in the community of fathers, performing the sacraments with the fear of God and consoling the people with choice Christian teachings.

In 1641 the holy monk’s renown brought him to the attention of the Moldavian Prince, Basil Lupu, and he was consecrated Metropolitan of Ardeal (Transylvania) at Alba Iulia. At that time Calvinism was a very real problem in Transylvania, and St Iorest struggled to protect his flock against this heresy. He travelled frequently to all of the villages, ordaining ‘zealous priests’ (p. 322) and establishing new churches. Finally, he was thrown in prison by the heretics, where he was beaten and abused. As Fr Ioanichie writes, ‘The Saint endured martyrically, being ready to give his life for the defense of the Orthodox faith and the salvation of his flock’ (p. 323). He was held for nine months before being fined and finally released.

St Iorest eventually returned to Moldavia, where he served the faithful as Bishop of Huşi from 1656-1657 and was honoured as a loving shepherd. ‘Then he gave his soul in peace into the arms of the Great Archpriest Jesus Christ, being numbered in the choir of holy Confessors’ (p. 323).

St Sava Brancovici had a very similar experience. He was baptised Symeon, growing up in a pious family near Inău. According to Fr Ioanichie, ‘After he had studied books and learned the order of the services of Comana Monastery, he became a protopriest and celebrant of the Church of Christ in his native village, performing the sacraments with great zeal and fear of God’ (p. 350). It was after the death of his wife that St Sava was chosen as Metropolitan of Ardeal, being tonsured a monk at the cathedral in Tîrgovişte, consecrated bishop, and enthroned at Alba Iulia. In Transylvania, St Sava too had to face the Calvinist heresy. As Fr Ioanichie writes (p. 350):

For the twenty-four years that he was Metropolitan, St Sava courageously confessed the right faith, combatted the erroneous Calvinist teachings, strengthened the unity of the Romanians around the Orthodox Church, erected numerous houses of prayer in the villages and cities, appointed devoted priests, and consoled the Ardelean peasants, strengthening them in faith and hope.

But the evil one was plotting against him. The king of Transylvania, who was encouraging the spread of Calvinism, made false accusations against St Sava and threw him into prison. There, ‘for three years the hierarch was persecuted, beaten with rods, mocked, and martyrically tortured for the true faith, being pressured to accept Calvinism’ (p. 351). Thanks to God, though, this holy Confessor endured all and defended true Christianity. He was released in 1683, but was so crippled by torture that he fell asleep in the Lord shortly thereafter. ‘For the holiness of his life the faithful numbered him in the choir of the Saints even during his lifetime’ (p. 351).

'His Humility & Love Have Covered Him With Glory'—St Basil of Poiana Mărului

Today, 15 April on the Church’s calendar, we celebrate the memory of the Holy Basil (1692-1767),
Abbot of Poiana Mărului Skete and elder of St Paisius Velichkovsky. I apologise that it's so late that many of my readers will likely be reading this the next day, by the clock as well as the liturgical calendar. I'm afraid my time is fairly occupied this week by a project with a deadline. Forgive me.

In his autobiography, St Paisius Velichkovsky calls St Basil ‘our common teacher and instructor, the most pious and holy elder and schemamonk Vasylij’ (J.M.E. Featherstone, trans., The Life of Paisij Velyčkovs’kyj [Cambridge, MA: Harvard U, 1989], p. 75). According to St Paisius (pp. 75-6):

This pious servant of God far surpassed everyone in his understanding of divine Scripture and the teaching of the holy fathers, in spiritual discernment, and in his thorough knowledge of the sacred canons of the holy Church and interpretation of them in accordance with the commentaries of Zonaras, Theodore Balsamon, and others. The fame of his teaching and pious direction toward the path of salvation went out everywhere. When I saw him, I glorified God because He had deemed me worthy to see such a holy man.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid the elder is not nearly so well known as his spiritual son (who warranted an immortalising nod from Dostoevsky, no less), so I shall post the brief Life by Archimandrite Ioanichie (Bălan) in full, as well as an excerpt from this great elder’s writings. Here is Fr Ioanichie’s account (Romanian Patericon, Vol. I [Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996], pp. 422, 424-5):

The holy Hieroschemamonk Basil was the spiritual father of Elder Paisius Velichkovsky, and one of the most renowned teachers and workers of the Jesus Prayer in the eighteenth century.

Taking up the cross of Christ from his youth, in 1705 or 1706 he became a schemamonk at Dălhăuţi-Focşani Skete, where he labored in asceticism as a hesychast with great zeal and fear of God. There he studied the depths of the Holy Scriptures and read many writings of the Holy Fathers. By the grace of Christ he became a great worker of divine prayer and a spiritual counselor of the fathers in the community.

Being ordained to the priesthood, in 1715 he became abbot of Dălhăuţi Monastery and a famous guide of souls, so that his name became known everywhere, even to the Prince of the Romanian Land, Constantine Mavrocordat. In the period of twenty years that he was abbot of Dălhăuţi, St Basil gathered around him a community of over forty monk-hesychasts, whom he taught obedience, humility, silence, and the secret work of the Jesus Prayer. Thus Abbot Basil made his community a true spiritual school of hesychastic life according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers that was renowned in the Romanian Land. His disciples—Muntenians, Moldavians, Ardeleans, and Russians—lived in perfect love and good order. When there was no longer room for them at Dălhăuţi, some of them settled in nearby sketes: Trestieni, Ciolanu, Cîrnu, Răteşti, Rogoz, Bontăşti, Valea Neagra in Vrancea, and others.

About the years 1730-1733, Abbot Basil renovated Poiana Mărului Skete and moved there with twelve disciples. As Abbot at Poiana Mărului, St Basil spiritually directed all the sketes in the Buzău Mountains, regularly visiting them either personally or through letters. One of his disciples was St Paisius Velichkovsky, whom he received in Trestieni Skete for some years, and whom he tonsured on Mt Athos in 1750.

The rule of Abbot Basil called for a harmonious coenobitic life, daily reading of the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, the practice of the Jesus Prayer, pure guarding of the mind, one meal a day, and weekly Communion.

As a teacher of prayer, the great abbot also wrote some Homilies about the guarding of the mind, prayer, and spiritual training, which are short introductions to the philokalic writings of St Nilus of Sora, Philotheus, Hesychius, and Gregory the Sinaite. His introductory Homilies are true philokalic texts, and a guide on how to approach Christ through divine prayer.

Attaining the measure of the great hesychasts, St Basil gave his soul into the hands of the Lord in 1767, leaving behind many disciples.

Many more details have been furnished in the Life of St Basil published as part of a translation of his works by one of the monks of the former ROCOR brotherhood of Prophet Elias Skete on Mt Athos (a kind schemamonk whom I had the great honour to meet). See Elder Basil of Poiana Mărului (1692-1767), His Life and Writings, trans. A Monk of the Brotherhood of Prophet Elias Skete, Mt Athos (Liberty, TN: St John of Kronstadt, 1996), pp. 9-29. Despite, however, a rather thorough fleshing out of the elder’s biography in comparison with the Patericon account, the author concludes:

In this account of the known witnesses concerning the life of the Elder Basil, we find him overshadowed by his great disciple St Paisy Velichkovsky and only elusively present in the accounts by his other disciples. This is somehow appropriate. Elder Basil’s genuinely monastic humility and love for his children in Christ has covered him with their glory. This must be one of the finest tributes for anyone who follows the Divine Teacher Who said to His disciples, ‘Amen, Amen, I say unto you. He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father’ (John 14:12). (p. 29)

But while the biography is great, the translation of St Basil’s writings is the more important contribution. Our author and translator is typically self-deprecating when he writes:

Having not known any better than to be born in America, I am deprived of a native command of any language, beginning with English and certainly including Russo-Slavonic and Romanian. I can therefore only beg the reader’s forbearance for all the many ways in which my efforts here have fallen short, in particular wherever the English is unnecessarily rough or obscure or wherever the meaning of the original text is not faithfully rendered. (p. 39)

Here, though, is a passage of this translation, taken from St Basil’s ‘Letter to the Most Reverend Priest-Monk Alexy, My Spiritual Son in Christ’ (Elder Basil, p. 129):

I am sending you a covenant and a pact for peace in the Lord, established between us, of whom the Lord said, ‘If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their transgressions, neither will your Father forgive you your transgressions.’ (Matthew 6:14-15) And ‘As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise’ (Luke 6:31). So my friend, being a weak person, I also desire that anyone I sin against forgive me. And so I am forcing myself, even though my heart is unwilling, to forgive my brother’s sins against me and to what extent? The Lord did not say seventy times, but seventy times seven, if he sins and repents, to forgive him (Matt. 18:22; Luke 17:4).

This, then, is our criterion and our rule. Were we to observe it, no one could separate us from dwelling together with one another in love. But our self-justification, which someone called the devil’s throat, does not permit us to put the blame on ourselves in keeping with the commandment. Instead we blame our brother and think that we are innocent, which is an obvious lie. My brother may be guilty of offending me, but I am also guilty of sin, because I did not endure it patiently. So both of us violate the commandments of Christ when we blame each other, as Adam did to Eve and Eve to the serpent (Genesis 3:12-13).

We also perish or fall under condemnation in the same way as they did because of self-justification alone, and not because of sin, for there is no man without sin (Job 14:4-5), even if he be a saint, if he has lived a single day in this world.

This is a wonderful book, though I’m afraid I have little right to own it. As the now-Metropolitan Jonah wrote in his review in Divine Ascent, ‘This is not a book for the casual student of spirituality, but for the serious practitioner of the tradition of the Fathers’ (Divine Ascent: A Journal of Orthodox Faith, The Entry into Jerusalem 1999, Vol. 1, Nos. 3/4, p. 152).

One Who 'Noetically Breatheth Forth Divine Cassia'—St John Cassian the Roman

Although today is technically 28 February on the Church’s calendar, I have decided to post about St John Cassian—whose feastday is actually the 29th—anyway. It is customary on non-leap years to transfer the commemorations from that day to the 28th.

I have a tremendous devotion to St John Cassian (often called ‘St Cassian the Roman’ in Eastern sources), and consequently, I’m afraid that everything I want to cover can’t be confined to just one post. For this first one, I shall simply reproduce the Life of St Cassian by Archimandrite Ioanichie Bălan in his Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. I (Third-Eighteenth Centuries) (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996), pp. 51-7. It is an unusually full, well-written hagiographic account. Even St Nicodemus’s ‘Brief Biography’ of St Cassian prefacing his writings in the Philokalia contains scarcely any biographical detail whatsoever, focusing instead on his writings and teachings (Φιλοκαλία των Ιερών Νηπτικών, Τόμος Α' [Athens: Astir, 1982], p. 60). For a brief account, however, see the Prologue, Bulgakov’s Handbook, and this account from HTM. The title of the post is paraphrased from the following verses translated on the latter site (which I found in Greek, with some additional lines, here):

Being noetically translated to the divine noetic beings,
Cassian noetically breatheth forth divine cassia.

Before I begin Fr Ioanichie’s account, I’d like to offer a brief note about the identification of St Cassian as a ‘Daco-Roman’. This is based on what seems to be the earliest testimony concerning St Cassian’s origin—the De Viris Illustribus (c. 495) of Gennadius of Marseille. Gennadius calls St Cassian a ‘Scythian by race’, which, as William Harmless points out, ‘would mean that he grew up in the Dobrudja, in modern Romania’ (Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism [Oxford: Oxford U, 2004], p. 374). Harmless, however, also notes that some modern scholars have discounted Gennadius’s testimony, arguing that he came from somewhere in southern France (on p. 403, n. 5, Harmless cites one argument, for instance, that ‘it is unlikely Cassian’s sister, who lived in Marseilles with him, would have made the long voyage from Scythia’). But aside from the intrinsically flimsy nature of the particular argument Harmless mentions, it seems to me that we are always on surer ground in trusting our Fathers in the Faith and, indeed, the ancients in general, than those whose careers depend on coming up with new and exciting things to say about matters thought long settled. So Gennadius was writing some 60 years after St Cassian’s repose. That seems pretty good to me, especially considering that he was a priest in the city where St Cassian’s monastery and relics were, and where traditions about him would have been most faithfully preserved.

So, here is Fr Ioanichie’s Life of St Cassian:

This great ascetic, theologian, organizer of monasteries, teacher, apologist, and renowned ecclesiastical writer of the Church of Christ was a native Daco-Roman. He was born in 360 in Dacia Pontica, in the diocese of Tomis, forty kilometers northwest of the town of Constanţa, in ‘the borders of Cassian and [the district] of the Caves’. His parents, pious and wealthy Christians, gave their son John Cassian (i.e., ‘from the parts of Cassian’) an excellent Christian education, training him from childhood in the reading of Holy Scripture and in an exalted spiritual life of prayer, asceticism, virginity, and zeal for divine things. Being thirsty for learning, he was given over from his childhood to one of the schools that functioned at that time at Tomis, Histria, and Axiopolis, or to one of the nearby monasteries. Here he studied the works of the great classical authors and philosophers, both Greek and Latin, and later also the patristic writings of the second to the fourth centuries which circulated in the northeast of the Roman Empire.

In one of his Conferences, St John Cassian evokes with fondness his parental home, the monasteries, and the beauty of his native land in Dacia Pontica. Here is what he tells us [the English translation of Fr Ioanichie’s Patericon gives a lengthy quote from Conferences XXIV.i.2-3 in the NPNF translation; here I shall give only a portion of XXIV.i.3, and that from Boniface Ramsey, trans., The Conferences, by St John Cassian (NY: Newman, 1999), p. 825]:

. . . In addition, there was painted before our eyes the setting of the ancestral property of our forebears and the pleasant and delightful nature of that region, and how graciously and aggreeably it stretched out to the reaches of the wilderness, so that the recesses of the forests might not only gladden a monk but also provide sufficient supplies of food.

According to his own testimony, St John Cassian ‘even from childhood lived among monks, whose exhortations he heard and who example he saw’. In the age-old forests in central and northern fourth-century Dobrogea, there existed a strong monastic movement with many monasteries and dozens—or perhaps hundreds—of ‘Scythian’ monks and Christ-loving hermits ‘in whose breast blossomed the monastic rule, the habitation of the life of virginity and a particularly severe asceticism . . . whose manner of life is completely worthy of admonition’, as St Epiphanius of Cyprus (340-403) states in his book Against the Eight Heresies, referring to the Audian monks of Dacia Pontica.

Seeing the holiness, zeal for God, and ascetic labors of the ‘Scythian monks’ in his homeland, St John Cassian decided from his tender youth to take up the good yoke of Christ, becoming a monk in one of the monasteries of the diocese of Tomis where St Germanus, his relative and life-long friend, was already laboring in asceticism. His good name, chosen life, and zeal for God—as well as the vast education he ahd acquired—made the young Monk John Cassian the friend of the great Bishops of Tomis, Ss Vetranion (second half of the 4th c.) and Theotimus I ‘the Scythian’ (c. 392-403).

Desiring to worship at the Holy Places and especially at the Life-giving Sepulchre of Christ, St John Cassian left for Jerusalem in 380, when he was only twenty years old, together with his sister, and his relative and friend St Germanus. Here the two monks settled at a monastery in Bethlehem, near the cave where Christ was born.

After more than five years of asceticism and spiritual labors in Bethlehem, St John Cassian was inspired by the grace of the Holy Spirit to visit the monasteries and hermitages of Egypt, the fatherland of Christian monasticism, together with his friend Germanus.

For more than seven years, the two Daco-Roman monks from the Mouths of the Danube sought out the holy monks, abbots, anchorites, and teachers of the Egyptian desert, learning from them the art of spiritual labor, and perfecting themselves in holiness, prayer, and humility. St John Cassian began here to write his celebrated literary work in twenty-four books called the Conferences with the Fathers, asking for and receiving the counsel and words of instruction from the great anchorites that labored in the Nile Valley, Scetis, Tabenna, Mt Nitria, Raithu, and Mt Sinai. The good soldiers of Christ went like bees from place to place, from one hesychast to another, collecting from each the nectar of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

After a short return trip to Bethlehem, the two Daco-Roman hesychasts went back to Egypt and stayed there until 399. Then, because of the disturbances of the monasteries of the Nile Valley which had been provoked by Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria, St John Cassian and his friend Germanus went to St John Chrysostom in Constantinople, whom they had heard about and greatly loved. Seeing the holiness of St John Cassian’s life and his deep theological education, the great Patriarch and Teacher of the whole world ordained him a deacon and accepted him as his disciple. St John Cassian lived in proximity to St John Chrysostom for five years, learning from him many profitable teachings.

The exiling of the great Patriarch John from his throne in 404 forced St John Cassian to leave for Rome together with his inseparable friend Germanus, to take up the defense of St John Chrysostom before Pope Innocent I. Then, hearing of the death of their good father and pastor in exile in Cucusus, Armenia in 407, and being disgusted by this great injustice performed by the Emperor Arcadius, St John Cassian never again returned to the East or to his fatherland at the Mouths of the Danube. He settled permanently at Marseilles in southern Gaul, where he founded two monasteries, one for monks dedicated to St Victor and another for nuns, according to the model of Ss Pachomius and Basil the Great. Thus he organized the first monasticism in the West according to the rules of the monastic life as practiced in the East.

Ordained a priest and made the Abbot of the two monasteries, St John Cassian gathered numerous disciples around him. He appointed spiritual fathers for them and arranged an order of asceticism and monastic life as in the East. He devoted his years of old age primarily to writing. His opera—which are still read today—comprise three works:

1. On the Institutions of the Monasteries of the Common Life and On the Healing of the Eight Principle Sins (De institutis coenobiorum), a work written in 420 in 12 books, at the request of Bishop Castor of Apta Julia in southern Gaul. In the first 4 books, St John Cassian speaks about the clothing of the monks in Palestine and Egypt, of the nightly prayers and psalms, the daily services, and the conditions of reception into the monastery of new novices. In the next 8 books, St John Cassian speaks about the 8 deadly sins, which he calls ‘thoughts of evil’, namely: gluttony of the stomach, incontinence, love of money, anger, despondency, sloth (accidie), vainglory, and pride.

2. Conferences with the Fathers (Collationes Patrum), in 24 books or conversations. This is the most important surviving literary work of St John Cassian. It is divided into 3 parts. The 1st part, in 10 books, comprises the first 10 conferences with the Fathers of the desert of Scetis which St John collected during his second trip through Egypt (393-399). It is dedicated to Bishop Leontius, a brother of Bishop Castor. The second part comprises 7 books, conferences 11-17, with Fathers from the region of Panephysis. The third part, the last 7 books, comprises conferences 18-24, with Fathers from the region of Diolkos. This work was written between 420 and 429.

3. On the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius (De incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium), in 7 books, written also in southern Gaul, in 429-430. This last work of St John Cassian has a profound dogmatic and apologetic character, and combats the heresy of Nestorius, who would not call the Virgin Mary the Birthgiver of God (Theotokos) but only the Birthgiver of Christ (Christotokos).

In the first two works, St John Cassian presented the rules of the monastic life as practiced in the East to Western Christianity for the firs time, thus making a stable connecting bridge between the Christian countries of the Orient and the Occident. And in his third work, the Daco-Roman theologian deals with the first heretical, unorthodox doctrine known to the West, Nestorianism. Thus St John Cassian became the first organizer and founder of monasticism in western Europe, where he made patristic and mystical thought, as well as the spiritual experience of the great Fathers of Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine, known for the first time. St John Cassian is also considered a great apologist of the apostolic faith, one who was profoundly knowledgeable in Orthodox dogmas, and who fought with all his strength against Nestorianism, Pelagianism, and the teaching of the absolute supremacy of grace over free will.

After more than sixty years of constant ascetic labor in the monastic life, St Cassian ended his life in peace at his monastery in Marseilles in 435, giving his soul into the hands of Christ and leaving behind some hundreds of disciples. His holy relics lie in a subterranean chapel in the Monastery of St Victor, and his head and right hand lie exposed in the church for veneration. He was considered a Saint even during his life. He is commemorated on February 29.

Saints & Vampires

A few years ago, a new vampire novel came out that attracted a lot of attention. While I was a fan of Dracula growing up (I read the Victorian novel in the fifth grade), I have long been wary of subsequent vampire novels, for the simple reason that most of them are trash. But this one seemed a bit different. Incorporating a great deal of actual research into Eastern Europe and the historical Prince Vlad who bears an ill-defined relationship to Stoker’s monster, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (NY: Back Bay, 2006) was actually thought to have some literary merit. Suffice to say, though it is not flawless, I was scarcely disappointed with the book when, at last, I read it.

Anyway, a good deal more could be said about this book, but I wanted to focus on just one of the many interesting historical references Kostova makes. In Part II, Chapter 41, two of the protagonists discover a book in the library of the University of Budapest entitled, ‘Ballads of the Carpathians, 1790’ (Kostova, p. 338). Inside, they discover a number of woodcuts including one that shows a forest with some animals seemingly hidden within it, among which is a dragon, a domed church, and letters spelling the word ‘Ivireanu’ (Kostova, p. 352). While they ask another scholar in Budapest if he has any clue as to its meaning, this first fellow is clueless (Kostova, p. 354), and it is not until they meet a very interesting character in Bulgaria, Anton Stoichev, that they learn the significance of this word. Asked if he knows it, Stoichev replies:

‘Yes, yes, my son.’ Stoichev seemed to be looking through me without seeing. ‘It is the name of Antim Ivireanu, a scholar and printer at Snagov at the end of the seventeenth century—long after Vlad Ţepeş. I have read about Ivireanu’s work. He made a great name among the scholars of his time and he attracted many illustrious visitors to Snagov. He printed the holy gospels in Romanian and Arabic, and his press was the first one in Romania, in all probability. But—my God—perhaps it was not the first, if the dragon books are much older. There is a great deal I must show you!’. . . (Kostova, p. 493)

Now, while I didn’t immediately recognise ‘Ivireanu’, despite its obvious similarity to ‘Iveron’ and thus, ‘Iberia’, ‘Snagov’, on the other hand, is a name I have known at least since I was 11 years old. It is almost certain that I first learned of it in the book, In Search of Dracula: A True History of Dracula and Vampire Legends, by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu (NY: Warner, 1974). On pp. 128-9 of that volume, the authors tells us:

Snagov is an island in one of the lakes surrounding Bucharest, and is located in the heart of the Vlasie forest. The island is about a mile in length, and a half mile in width. Today, a small brick chapel is all that remains of the ancient monastic complex. This chapel, one of three that originally belonged to the monastery, was rebuilt in 1517. It is here that tradition assigns Dracula’s grave. . . .

As in the case of Castle Dracula, one may safely pressume that the island monastery with its secure strategic position was originally built on an extensive scale, either by Dracula’s grandfather, Prince Mircea of Wallachia, or by one of the boyars at his court. From official documents we do know that mircea often resided at the monastery and that he endowed it with vast tracts of land from the surrounding villages. Relatively few official documents mention this monastery in Dracula’s reign, but in the 16th century a Wallachian prince, in an act of endowment, confirmed those estates bestowed upon the monastery by Dracula. In addition, we know that between 1436 and 1447 Dracula’s father endowed Snagov with more land than any other monastery of the realm, and that in 1464 Radu the Handsome endowed it with three additional villages: Vadul Parvului, Calugareni and Stroiesti. These along with gifts from other memberss of the family lead the conclusion that Snagov is par excellence a Dracula ecclesiastical establishment.

In Dracula’s time, Snagov undoubtedly was one of the three largest and most important monasteries in Wallachia.

Bishop Seraphim (Joantă), in his important study of Romanian monasticism, adds a little to McNally’s and Florescu’s account. He calls Snagov the ‘most ancient hermitage known in the Codrii Vlăsiei . . . , whose origins may go back before the 14th century’, and ‘an important spiritual and cultural center for the country’ (Romania: Its Hesychast Tradition and Culture [Wildwood, CA: St Xenia Skete, 1992], pp. 57, 58). Finally, Bishop Seraphim corroborates Kostova even further:

In the 17th and 18th centuries the monks of Snagov printed on their own presses numerous service books and books of religious teaching destined for Orthodox Romanians, Greeks, Arabs, and Georgians. At the turning point between these two centuries, Abbot Anthimus of Iberia (Georgia), the future Metropolitan of Wallachia, particularly distinguished himself by his publishing activities. (Bishop Seraphim, p. 58)

This piece of information about ‘Antim Ivireanu’ leads us to our fourth and final source of relevant information: Archimandrite Ioanichie (Bălan)’s Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. I: Third to Eighteenth Centuries (Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1996). Here we learn that this man who plays an enigmatic, if not sinister rôle in Kostova’s novel, was a holy man, martyred for his faith by the Muslim Turks in 1716, glorified by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1992, and commemorated (according to the Romanian Wikipedia article) on 27 September. I shall reproduce in full Fr Ioanichie’s brief Life of St Anthimus, as well as a short paragraph or two from the various teachings of the Saint that he gives.

The venerable Metropolitan Anthimus was born in Georgia. His parents, John and Maria, gave him the name of Andrew at his baptism. In his youth he was made a slave by the Turks, and he lived for many years in Constantinople, where he learned the Greek, Arabic, and Turkish languages, as well as the arts of sculpture, painting, and embroidery.

About 1690 Andrew was brought to the Romanian Land by Constantine Brîncoveanu. There he learned the art of printing from Bishop Metrophanes, and after a year he became a monk and was ordained a priest.

From 1691 to 1694 he directed the royal printing house in Bucharest and printed three books. Between the years 1694 and 1696 he founded a new printing house at Snagov Monastery, and from 1696 to 1701 he was abbot of that monastery. During that time he printed fourteen books, four of which were in Romanian, and the others in Greek, Slavonic, and Arabic.

Between 1701 and 1705 he again directed the printing house in Bucharest, where he printed fifteen books, most of them service books.

From 1705 to 1708 he was bishop at Rîmnicu Vîlcea, founding the first printing house there. During those three years he printed ten books, seven of which were in Romanian. From 1708 to1716 he was Metropolitan of the Romanian Land, where he founded new printing houses and produced another nineteen books, of which twelve were in Romanian.

In the autumn of 1716 Metropolitan Anthimus was imprisoned by order of the Turks, defrocked, and exiled to the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai. On the way there he was martyred by the soldiers and thrown into the Tungia River, near Adrianople (today’s Edirne in Turkey). It is now thought that he may have been drowned in Snagov Lake. (Fr Ioanichie, pp. 383-4)

There are nearly 14 pages in Fr Ioanichie’s book full of the teachings of this holy hierarch. I shall give two passages, the first being particularly appropriate as we prepare to begin the Lenten fast:

29. What profit is it for the body to be empty of food, but the soul full of sins? What profit is it to be pale and withered from fasting, but burning with envy and covetousness? What profit is it to abstain from wine, but to be drunk with the venom of anger? What profit is it to not eat meat, but to rend the flesh of our brethren by slander? What profit is it for us to cease from things which are sometimes allowed, but to do things that are never allowed? God loves and honors those who keep themselves from what is forbidden. (Fr Ioanichie, pp. 388-9)

Finally, the second passage is quite interesting in light of the desire for unnatural immortality that Dracula expresses to a 15th-c. abbot of Snagov on p. 675 of Kostova’s book, a desire he obviously achieves within the story:

70. Death is a great gift and merciful cure given to man by God, for this body of sin decays and another spiritual body, incorrupt and deathless is raised up at the general resurrection. Death brought great gain to man, says St Gregory the Theologian, for sin is cut off so that evil may not live forever. (Fr Ioanichie, p. 396)

'A Hesychast Missionary'--St Nicodim of Tismana

Today, 26 December on the old Orthodox calendar, among the more obscure Saints we commemorate is Romania’s great transmitter of the hesychast tradition, St Nicodim of Tismana (there is a complete Life in Romanian available here). In the sadly out-of-print English translation of his study, Roumanie: Tradition et Culture hésychastes (published by Fr Placide’s old monastery, Bellefontaine), Bishop Seraphim (Joantă) writes:

. . . [W]hen the Romanian nation came to manifest itself in the 14th century in the two states of Wallachia and Moldavia, there arose at the same time—through St Nicodemus of Tismana (an Athonite monk)—a great enthusiasm for the hesychast renaissance initiated by [St] Gregory the Sinaite on Mount Athos; an enthusiasm which reverberated intensely and immediately in Romania. (Bishop Seraphim [Joantă], Romania: Its Hesychast Tradition and Culture [Wildwood, CA: St Xenia Skete, 1992], p. xiv)

Although not himself a native of Romania—Fr Ioanichie [Bălan] says he was a ‘Macedo-Romanian’ born in Serbia (Romanian Patericon—Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vol. 1: Third to Eighteenth Centuries [Platina, CA: St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1994], p. 143), while according to Paul of Aleppo, he was half-Greek, half-Serb (Seraphim, p. 45)—one can see clearly from Bishop Seraphim’s statement the magnitude of St Nicodim’s impact on the Romanian Church.

Described by the Life of Abbot Isaiah of Hilandar as ‘a man honorable and holy, versed in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, with a penetrating spirit, and strong in dialectics’ (Seraphim, p. 46), St Nicodim was tonsured at Hilandar, where, according to Fr Ioanichie, he was even made abbot (Ioanichie, p. 145). After some years there, he went to Serbia to found a church and two monasteries (Seraphim, p. 45), before finally settling in Romania at the prompting of a ‘divine revelation’ (Ioanichie, p. 146). His first monastery east of the Danube was founded ‘according to the [Athonite] principles of hesychast life’ to defend the Orthodox against Hungarian attempts to impose Catholicism on them (Seraphim, p. 46). Unfortunately, it fell into the hands of the Hungarians while St Nicodim was accompanying Abbot Isaiah of Hilandar to Constantinople to intercede on behalf of the Serbian Church with the hesychast patriarch, St Philotheos (Kokkinos). It was then that St Nicodim founded Tismana, his most famous monastery which is still inhabited today. There, as well as at the later foundation of Prislop in Transylvania, he would retire to a cave for five days a week to give himself up to prayer and ascesis, returning to the community on Saturdays and Sundays to liturgise and heal the sick (Ioanichie, p. 149; Seraphim, pp. 47-8). He fell asleep in the Lord at Tismana Monastery in 1406. Unfortunately, none of his own writings are extant, although a Gospel he copied at Prislop has survived.

Bishop Seraphim concludes his study of St Nicodim:

A hesychast missionary in the spirit of St Gregory the Sinaite, whom he had known in his youth, St Nicodemus established his rule of life in the many communities founded by himself or his disciples in the three Romanian lands. Romanian monasticism thus owed to him its hesychastic orientation in the 14th century. The cultural and spiritual blossoming which was its result was to continue, more or less without interruption, for the next three centuries. (Seraphim, pp. 48-9)