Teachers of spiritual life - Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet

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Many saints left behind not only the memory of their deeds and miracles, but also other works that do not lose their popularity in our time. So the guide to the spiritual life of Barsanuphius the Great is considered to be such. In it, he tried to explain in detail what is worth doing and what is not necessary if you want to observe a godly life.

Life of a Saint

He was born in Egypt. He was the most zealous ascetic. There are references to the fact that not far from the monastery of Avva Serida, he built himself a small cell. There he spent quite a long time serving the Lord and zealous prayer. This is how a life dedicated to God began.

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For such devotion, he was given the gift of clairvoyance. A little later he moved to an even more cramped room, where he spent 50 years working on his works and exploits. Constant prayers allowed him to achieve a high degree of spiritual perfection. There are mentions of his exploits in some manuscripts.

Regarding the date of death, but it is also not clear. Most are inclined to believe that he ended his life in 563. His memorial day is considered to be February 19.

Teachers of spiritual life - Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet

Priest Augustine Sokolovsky Ven. Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet On February 19, the Church celebrates the memory of the Venerable Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet. The saints were great ascetics and teachers of spiritual life. Their appearance in the history of the Church marked the end of the great glorious original monastic era. Celebrating their memory is a gift to the Church of a special, distinctive ascetic tradition that once flourished in the monasteries of Gaza.

The emergence of monasticism in Palestine was closely connected with the development of pilgrimage to the Holy Places. The monastic tradition here was not homogeneous, and developed in at least three main centers: Palestine proper, Sinai and the area around Gaza. The personification of monasticism in Palestine for all times was Euthymius the Great (377-473) and Savva the Sanctified (439-532); on Sinai - John Climacus (579-649); in Gaza - Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet.

The great ancient biblical city of Gaza, in which Samson once brought down the temple of Dagon, killing the Philistines (Judges 16:23-30), has always lay at the intersection of trade roads. On the way from Jerusalem, the Apostle Philip baptized an Ethiopian eunuch here (Acts 8:26). In the first centuries of the Christian era, Gaza was a center of culture and learning. The school of oratory flourished here and even had its own original theological school.

There were monasteries in the vicinity of Gaza. The beginning of monastic life here was laid by Hilarion the Great (291-372). The bishop of Mayum near Gaza was the anti-Chalcedonian Peter Iver (411-491), to whom a number of scholars attribute the authorship of works that went down in history with the name of Dionysius the Areopagite. The greatest Monophysite theologian, Bishop Severus of Antioch (465-538), was tonsured there. The great orator and exegete Procopius of Gaza (475-528) taught and wrote his works in Gaza. Abba Dorotheos (510-580) and his disciple Dosifei (6th century) were born and labored here.

Barsanuphius the Great was from Egypt. However, we know nothing about his origin and youth. When studying his biography, it seems that, like the ancient biblical prophets, God simply kept his life under cover. Evagrius Scholasticus (536-590) wrote very little about Barsanuphius in his “Church History”: “At that time, God-bearing men and great wonderworkers lived in many places. Among such men, who shone with glory everywhere, is Barsanuphius, a native of Egypt. In one monastery near the city of Gaza, he lived an ethereal life in the flesh and performed many miracles that cannot be remembered. Everyone is sure that he still lives, imprisoned in the hut, although it has been more than 50 years since he disappeared from view” (IV, 33). The Latin version of the saint's life has also been preserved. Through careful reconstruction, some information about the life of Barsanuphius was gleaned from his answers to questions from his students. By the special providence of God, although Barsanuphius himself did not write anything, an extremely large number of such answers have been preserved.

The life of Barsanuphius, as well as the evidence of his correspondence, brings to us an example of an amazing, synergistic and, perhaps, unique in history interaction of saints: Barsanuphius himself, John the Prophet, Abba Dorotheus and Abba Serida, after whom the monastery was named. So, Barsanuphius was constantly in seclusion, John followed him. So, he lived for 18 years in seclusion in the cell where Barsanuphius had previously labored.

Serid brought communion and food to Barsanuphius, and Dorotheus was Serid's student. The fathers conveyed questions from the world to Barsanuphius and John and wrote them down. John also gave answers that, according to researchers, had great practical meaning. Barsanuphius's answers are more extensive. More than 850 answers from both fathers have been published in Russian translation. After the death of Serid, the answers were written down by Abbot Ilian. Dorotheus collected all the answers together. Dositheus was Dorotheus's student.

Barsanuphius had the gift of performing signs, John could foresee the future, and therefore was called a Prophet. Apart from this, almost nothing is known about John. He departed to the Lord very early, around 540, shortly after Serid. Apart from John, Seridas and Dorotheus, Barsanuphius hardly trusted anyone. He was a born and convinced hermit. Seeing God alone was his calling. A characteristic feature of Barsanuphius’s worldview was his avoidance of theological disputes.

It is interesting to divide the letters of Barsanuphius and John according to the addressees. The first part contains letters to hermits, the second to monks in the hostel, and, finally, in the third, separate section, to laity and bishops. The ancient Church considered monasticism and episcopacy incompatible; the bishop was doomed to live in the world. The time of Barsanuphius and John completed an era when it seemed that the Universe would soon become Christian, and there were more and more monastics throughout the earth. To paraphrase the great Cappadocian Gregory of Nyssa, “all people must become monks, so that the Lord will be forced to come again soon.”

Barsanuphius departed to the Lord in 563, seven years before the birth of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. In 635 Gaza was conquered by the Arabs. Thus a new, non-monastic world was born. In the Orthodox Theological Dictionary of 1913, Gaza is called a fortified city in Palestine, witness to the exploits of Samson, with 16,000 inhabitants. Currently the city has a population of 410,000. Traces of the ancient monastic presence have long been erased.

The memory of Saints Barsanuphius and John is important as the key to understanding monasticism. Monasticism as an Institute? Monasticism as power? Monasticism as vows? Monasticism as a sacrament?

Monasticism as walking before God. Like here and now, like pure ad hoc. The ancient ascetics prayed for this and believed in it. For them, monasticism was the call of the Apocalypse, never to leave Christ - the First Love (cf. Apoc. 4:2).

What does a saint help with?

His abilities were demonstrated more than once in those cases when people turned to him for help. In most cases they are associated with petitions:

• about healing;
• about the gift of making the right decision;
• about guidance on the true path;
• forgiveness of all sins.

The most common is the reading of the prayer of Barsanuphius the Great for forgotten sins. After all, many will agree that we do not always remember what minor sins we have committed. In this case, reading it will help.

“Sovereign Lord, since it is a sin to forget one’s sins, I have sinned in everything against You, the One Knower of the Heart; You forgive me everything according to Your love for mankind; This is how the splendor of Your glory is revealed when You do not repay sinners according to their deeds, for You are glorified forever. Amen."

You can pronounce it in front of the icon or without it. It is important at the moment to focus on the words that come out and try to clear your thoughts. Strong faith and an open soul can create many miracles.

He appeared a year before his death, but immediately gained fame, so that crowds gathered to see him in the Jordan to be baptized by him.

Who is he? And why in such a short time did he gain such fame that his fame is still spread and extolled by the entire Church, and his honest head exudes many miracles and healings?

Name of the Holy Prophet

His name says a lot about a person’s personality. In ancient times, names were given great importance. It expressed the circumstances of the baby’s birth and had a decisive influence on his entire subsequent life. The great righteous man, who lived on the border of two Testaments - Old and New - was called by the Church the Prophet and Forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Baptist of the Lord.

“John” is translated from Hebrew as “grace of God.” The Holy Prophet John was given to his righteous parents - the priest Zechariah and the righteous Elizabeth - already at a time when “both of them were advanced in years” and no longer expected to become parents. God, who righteously rewards all who believe in Him and keep His commandments, sent down to them such a son as they did not dream of, and at a time when they did not expect. So incomprehensible are the ways of the Lord and such is the Providence of God, for “the Lord does whatever he wants, in heaven and on earth, on the seas and in all the abysses” (Ps. 134:6).

The very name “John” was given to the unusual baby by the Archangel Gabriel even before birth. And when his father, the priest Zechariah, did not believe the Angel, he was speechless. And he acquired it again when, in confirmation of the words of his wife Elizabeth, being deaf and dumb, he wrote on a tablet: “His name is John” (Luke 1:63).

When John went out to preach, they began to call him “Baptist” from the Greek “baptizo” - “I baptize”, and literally: “I immerse”. This name was unique in the Jewish tradition, and belonged only to John the Baptist. The Baptism of John, although it did not have the grace-filled power to give birth to new life, had a sacramental meaning. This baptism was associated with the repentance of a person and symbolically depicted that grace-filled Baptism and Repentance, which became possible only with the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. In this regard, the name Baptist had the mysterious meaning of an intermediary during ritual immersion (washing).

John is also called the Prophet and Forerunner of the Lord: the Lord Himself says about him: “What did you go into the desert to see?.. A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and greater than the prophet” (Matthew 11:9). He is called the Forerunner because he directed the thoughts of all his followers to the true Messiah - Jesus Christ, whose coming he came to announce: “You yourselves are my witnesses of this, that I said: I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him” (John. 3, 28).

Predictions about the coming of the Forerunner

John the Baptist came into the world “as it is written in the prophets” (Mark 1:2). His coming was foretold. The coming of the Savior to the world was the most important event in the history of mankind, therefore a Forerunner was needed who would prepare the way for the Messiah.

John the Baptist appeared as such a Forerunner. The prophet Malachi said about him: “Behold, I am sending My angel, and He will prepare the way before Me” (Mal. 3:1). Prophet Isaiah: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert the paths of our God. Let every valley be filled, and every mountain and hill be made low, and the crooked places be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed…” (Isa. 40: 3-5).

Archangel Gabriel told Zechariah about the baby that was to be born from him: “...He will be great before the Lord; He will not drink wine or strong drink, and will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God; and he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children, and to the disobedient the minds of the righteous, to present to the Lord a prepared people” (Luke 1:15-17).

Birth and childhood of St. John the Baptist

About the childhood of St. Little is known of the Prophet John from the Gospel. The most remarkable thing is that, even before he was born, he had already begun to fulfill his prophetic ministry. The Gospel tells us how the Virgin Mary, who had already conceived in the womb of the Lord Jesus Christ, “went with haste to the hill country,” to the city of Judah (today this place is called Ein Karem), where the house of the righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth was. At this time, a miraculous event occurred: the future John the Baptist “leaped in the womb” of St. Elizabeth: “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb! And where is it from me that the Mother of my Lord came to me?.. And blessed is she who believed, because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled” (Luke 1:41-45). An amazing thing happened: the baby John, not yet able to speak, having the Holy Spirit on him, uttered a prophecy about the Mother of God through the mouth of the Righteous Elizabeth.

Miraculous phenomena also accompanied the birth of the holy Prophet: as soon as his father Zechariah confirmed the name of the baby, writing it on a tablet, “immediately his mouth and tongue were loosened, and he began to speak, blessing God” (Luke 1:64). After this, awe fell on all those present: “All who heard it laid it on their hearts, and said: What will happen to this child?” (Luke 1:65-66). The answer to this question was the prophecy of his father, St. Zechariah: “And you, little child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will come before the face of the Lord to prepare His way, to make the people aware of salvation in the forgiveness of their sins...” (Luke 1, 76-77).

After this, “the child... grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts until the day of his appearance to Israel” (Luke 1:80).

The Gospel does not speak in more detail about John's childhood. According to early church tradition and apocryphal literature, Zechariah, John's father, was killed by King Herod's soldiers for not revealing where the baby was hiding.

The Apocrypha specifies that John escaped death among the thousands of murdered infants in Bethlehem and its environs during the massacre of the infants, since his mother Elizabeth hid with him in the desert (Protoevangelium of James, XXII chapter).

Appearance and sermon of St. John the Baptist

The appearance of the Holy Prophet John to the people of Israel is solemnly announced in all the Gospels: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (about 28 A.D.) ... under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. And he went throughout the entire surrounding country of Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:1-3). He preached “in the wilderness of Judea” (Matthew 3:1). “And all the country of Judah and the people of Jerusalem came out to him; and they were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins” (Mark 1:5). The “Desert of Judea” was a place on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, near the Dead Sea. The Gospel of John specifies that John the Baptist preached “at Bethabara” and also “at Aenon, near Salem.” John's preaching had an eschatological orientation. The main theme in it was a call to repentance: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:2).

The word of John, in contrast to the “letter of the law” of the proud and self-righteous Pharisees and Sadducees, who considered themselves the only true teachers of the Israeli people, was with authority and power. It reached the depths of a person’s soul, no matter what class and rank he belonged to, and revived the souls of ordinary people, exhausted from spiritual thirst, tired of the dry and lifeless teaching of the Pharisees. "What should we do?!" - the people called to him, and John answered each one according to his heart, briefly and clearly, encouraging him to active repentance: “Whoever has two clothes, give to the poor; whoever has food, do the same.” He convinced the publicans: “don’t demand anything more specific to you,” and said to the soldiers: “don’t offend anyone, don’t slander and be content with your salary.”

John’s especially formidable denunciation fell on the heads of the Pharisees and Sadducees and their followers, who considered themselves righteous and hypocritically came to be baptized only for show, fearing the opinion of others: “You brood of vipers! Who inspired you to flee from future wrath? Produce fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think of saying to yourself: “We have Abraham as our father”... Even the ax is already at the root of the trees: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:7-9 ).

Lifestyle and appearance of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner John

The entire appearance and way of life of the holy Prophet and Forerunner John was a challenge to the hypocritical worship of God by his contemporaries. They were especially struck by his extreme asceticism: John had no home, lived and preached in the desert, “did not drink wine or strong drink,” “had clothes made of camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.” The stern ascetic appearance of the ascetic and his menacing denunciations prompted us to think of him as Elijah and even as Christ.

According to the prophet Malachi (Malachi 4:5-6), the coming of the Messiah should have been preceded (or accompanied) by the appearance of the prophet Elijah, who was supposed to anoint the Messiah and attest to his rank. The Christian tradition, believing that Elijah and Enoch will return at the time of the Second Coming of Christ (Rev. 11: 3-12), generally transfers the functions of Elijah during the earthly life of Christ (first coming) to John the Baptist. He appears “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).

The image of John the Baptist as a desert ascetic, prophet and accuser was so similar to the idea of ​​Elijah (who was supposed to return before the coming of the Messiah) that John even had to specifically deny his identity with him (John 1:21).

When asked by people sent from the Pharisees and Sadducees whether he was the Christ, John answered: “I am not the Christ. - Who are you? Or me? - He said: no. - Prophet? - He answered: no. They said to him: who are you? So that we can give an answer to those who sent us: what can you say about yourself? “He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness...” “Why are you baptizing if you are not Christ, not Elijah, not a prophet?” (John 1:20-25).

Testimony of St. John the Baptist about Christ

So, when the people were at a loss as to who John was: Elijah, who was to come before the coming of the Messiah, or Christ Himself, Who would establish His Kingdom on earth, John answered the thoughts of the people’s hearts: “I baptize you with water, but he comes ( behind me) He who is stronger than me, whose shoe belt I am not worthy to untie (bending down); He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16-17).

Moreover, he adds that the Messiah is already here: “...There is someone standing among you, whom you do not know: He is the one coming after me, who has stood in front of me...” (John 1: 26-27).

And in confirmation of these words, the Lord Jesus Christ appears to the people on the Jordan River. “John, seeing Jesus coming to him, said: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; I did not know Him, but for this reason I came to baptize in water, so that He might be revealed to Israel” (John 1:29, 31). When Jesus asked for baptism, “John restrained Him, saying: I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me? But Jesus answered Him: Leave it now, for in this way it is fitting for us to correct all righteousness” (John 1:3, 13-15).

Here we clearly see that John recognized himself as less than Christ, but the Lord Himself comes to be baptized not in order to wash away sins, but in order to “fulfill all righteousness,” that is, so that His ministry would be performed according to the Law. John did not know Jesus Christ before and would not have known if God Himself had not pointed to Him: “I did not know Him, but for this reason I came to baptize in water, so that He might be revealed to Israel” (John 1:31). About how John should recognize Christ, he was told from above: “... He who sent me to baptize in water said to me: “On whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). This appearance of Christ to the people of Israel happened like this: “When all the people were baptized, and Jesus, having been baptized, prayed, the sky was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove, and there was a voice from heaven, saying: You are My beloved Son ; I am well pleased with you!”

John “saw and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34). And after this, two of John's disciples, one of whom was named Andrew, became disciples of the Lord Jesus.

John had many disciples who were embarrassed that Jesus, just like John, began to baptize the people, “and everyone comes to Him.” John calms this confusion in the hearts of his disciples by sending them to Him, comparing himself to the friend of the groom, who “rejoices when he hears the voice of the groom.” He says: “...this joy is fulfilled; He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:28, 30). Throughout his ministry, John the Baptist never tires of saying that he is not the Christ, but the One who comes after him. However, as a man, John still doubts that Jesus is the Messiah who must save the world, although he recognizes Jesus as the Strongest.

So, being imprisoned by Herod, he sends his disciples to Jesus in order to make sure that there is no mistake: “Are you the one who should come, or should we expect someone else?” To this, Jesus points out the abundance of miracles that cannot be performed by human power: “Go, tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised... and blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” ( Matthew 11:2-6).

Testimony of Christ about John the Baptist

The Lord Jesus Christ treated John with great respect - he placed him above other prophets. So, when the disciples who came from John left, the Lord began to exalt John the Baptist: John is not “a reed shaken by the wind” and not the one who dresses in soft clothes and lives in royal palaces. Moreover, “from among those born of women there has not arisen a greater one than John the Baptist,” however, “the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11: 7-9, 11). John has the spirit and power of Elijah and is the last prophet “who must come,” according to Jewish tradition, to announce the Kingdom of the Messiah (Christ) (Matthew 11:12-14). And further the Lord says: “Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him as they wanted” (Matthew 17:12).

Beheading of John the Baptist

The Great Prophet and Baptist of the Lord John impartially denounced the wickedness and corruption of both the Jewish high priests and those in power. Among other crimes against righteousness, John denounced the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, who took the wife (and at the same time the niece of both) Herodias from his brother Herod Philip and married her, grossly violating Jewish law. For this, Herod, probably under the influence of Herodias, imprisoned John. “Herodias, being angry with (John), wanted to kill him, but could not,” for Herod did not dare to execute him, “knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and took care of him; I did a lot of things listening to him, and listened to him with pleasure” (Matthew 14:3-5, Mark 6:17-20).

However, the hatred of the evil woman did its job. The insidious Herodias finally figured out how to destroy John. “The opportune day came when Herod, on the occasion of his birthday, gave a feast to his nobles, the commanders of thousands and the elders of Galilee. The daughter of Herodias came in, danced and pleased Herod and those who were reclining with him. The king said to the girl: ask me what you want, and I will give it to you. And he swore to her: whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you. Even up to half of my kingdom” (Mark 6:21-23).

Worthy of her bloodthirsty mother, her dissolute daughter (tradition preserved the name of this wicked maiden - Salome) went to Herodias and asked her “what to ask,” to which she answered: “the head of John the Baptist.” The girl immediately ran to fulfill the godless and brutal command, adding to this that the head of the great Prophet should now be brought on a platter (Mark 6:25). What about Herod? “The king was saddened,” the Gospel tells us, “but for the sake of the oath and those who were reclining with him, he did not want to refuse her” (Mark 6:26). A reckless oath became the reason for the cruel death of the Righteous One, the great Prophet, the Forerunner of the Lord: “And immediately sending a squire, the king ordered his head to be brought. He went and cut off (John’s) head in prison, and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the maiden, and the maiden took it to her mother.”

Saint John Chrysostom comments on this atrocity in the following way: “Again Herodias goes berserk, again goes on a rampage, again dances, again demands from Herod the head of John the Baptist!.. All of you who have heard the voice of the Gospel, together with me, are surprised at the courage of John, and the weakness of Herod, and the brutal the rage of wicked women..." (John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, Creations. - St. Petersburg, 1902. Vol. 8, Book 2, pp. 607-612.). Subsequently, having outraged the honest head of John, Herodias threw it into an unclean place, and the Christians, having found the head of the righteous man, reverently preserved this great shrine. The body of the Forerunner was buried by his disciples (Mark 6:29).

God's judgment was carried out on Herod, Herodias and Salome for the crime they committed during their earthly lives. Salome, crossing the Sycoris River in winter, fell through the ice. The ice squeezed her so that her body hung in the water, and her head was above the ice. Just as she had once danced with her feet on the ground, now she, as if dancing, made helpless movements in the icy water. She hung like that until the sharp ice cut her neck. Salome's corpse was not found, but the head was brought to Herod and Herodias, as the head of St. John the Baptist had once been brought to them. The Arabian king Arefa, in revenge for the dishonor of his daughter, in 38 after R. X. moved an army against Herod. Having been defeated, Herod was subjected to the wrath of the Roman emperor Caius Caligula and, together with Herodias, was exiled to prison in Gaul, and then to Spain. There they were swallowed up by the opening of the earth.

Veneration of the relics of the Holy Prophet and Baptist of the Lord John

The relics of the holy saint of God John began to be venerated immediately after his burial. According to ancient tradition, John's headless body was buried in Sebastia (Samaria), next to the grave of the prophet Elisha. The Apostle Luke, returning to his native Antioch, wished to take his incorruptible body with him, but the Sebastian Christians opposed this and allowed him to take only the right hand with which the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordan. In 362, pagans from Sebastia, at the request of Julian the Apostate, destroyed the tomb of the Baptist, burned his remains and scattered the ashes. And from the relics of the saint, the mentioned right hand and head are currently preserved (originally remaining with Salome). There are three known discoveries of the head of St. John the Baptist, in honor of which Christian holidays were established. Parts of the honest head of the righteous are scattered throughout the world. They are in the Great Lavra on Mount Athos, in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, in the Basilica of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome and in many other places. The large (front) part of the shrine is located in France, in the Notre Dame d'Amiens temple. Orthodox pilgrims are increasingly visiting these places.

Sergey Makhonin, based on materials from Internet sites in Tyumen

Works of Barsanuphius

Mentions of Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet are in the form of answers. They say that the saints gave instructions regarding the pious life of believers. They are regarded in the same way as a guide to spiritual life aimed not only at contemporaries, but also at all subsequent generations. By observing them, you can notice your growth and development in the spiritual sphere.

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The main aspects that he advises to observe are:

• heart storage;
• reasoning and fiery love;
• fast;
• unceasing prayer;
• silence.

By adhering to all this, you can achieve the maximum. For such his deeds, he was gifted with the ability to heal, foresight and foresight.

God bless you!

Watch another video story about Saint Barsanuphius:

Education of a Saint

Barsanuphius was well educated. His student, Abba Dorotheos, was also educated, and Barsanuphius did not see this as any obstacle to salvation, but guided the student, taking advantage of his education as well.

In general, the holy fathers believed that reason should not be discarded, but rather deified. They were open to knowledge. John of Damascus, St. Augustine, and Basil the Great write a lot in their books about the achievements of contemporary science. Now these fragments seem absurd, but this is not the fault of the fathers - they trusted the knowledge of their time.

For example, St. Theophylact of Bulgaria talks about the origin of pearls in the sea like this: a mollusk opens its shell, and lightning strikes there, lightning gives birth to a shell. He connects this ancient scientific assumption with the Birth of Christ from the Virgin by the inspiration of the Spirit.

Damascus also has similar examples. However, this is natural, since the scientific picture of the world has changed many times. Therefore, what is important to us here is the very trust of the fathers in science.

Gregory the Theologian quoted pagan authors no less often than Scripture.

Basil the Great adopted knowledge from the pagans, of course, using the methodology of the holy apologist philosopher.

O. Sergius Bulgakov writes: “Christianity from Greco-Roman culture chooses and perceives its own, what belongs to it as Christianity before Christ.”

For example, Socrates said that God is visible in His actions, that true knowledge comes from Him and must lead to Him. With surprising sensitivity for a pagan, he noticed that the virtues and vices of each person affect the fate of all future generations, the entire cosmic order of things. It is not difficult to notice that the holy ascetics were exposed to the universal connection of everything with everything and the influence of personal sin on the desecration of the world. Socrates, not having the insightful insight of Christian ascetics, says the same thing many centuries before them. This is possible, since God gives the authors genuine insight into the world and its essence.

Christians, like this, took from paganism. All this was present in Christianity, but had not yet been expressed in such beautiful words.

Christians also borrowed some methods and aspects of knowledge from ancient science. Logical laws, the art of argument. They also adopted specific knowledge.

Therefore, Basil the Great blessed Christians to study ancient authors and studied them himself.

After all, the light of antiquity is the light of the Christian God. This is how fathers like Gregory the Theologian understood it. Antiquity does not know about this, but we know. And everything of the Lord is dear to us.

Many fathers had the best education for their era. Such are our contemporaries: Nikolai Serbsky, Justin Serbsky.

And they all had to listen to insults from the ignorant, who wanted to see everyone just as ignorant.

Archimandrite Cyprian Kern writes about this: “The fathers of the classical era of Orthodox theology - St. Athanasius, the Cappadocians, St. Maximus the Confessor, Patriarch Photius, St. John of Damascus and many others - were for their time representatives of the broadest intellectual culture. They stood at the level of the sophisticated elite of that era... They perfectly knew philosophy, rhetoric, mathematics, music... Giving undeniable primacy to spiritual preparation and piety, they were not at all afraid that secular education could somehow interfere with their piety and spirituality. And in fact, neither their humility, nor their faith, nor their prayerful feat suffered from the fact that they knew Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Virgil and the like. Anyone who has delved at least a little into the study of patristics and read the holy fathers, at least in the edition of Min, cannot help but be surprised by the education and high level of those whom they want to present as simpletons and obscurantists. The enemies of Christianity, Lucian, Celsus, and Julian, wanted to present them as obscurantists and simpletons, but in fact the holy fathers amazed even the pagans with their “external”, that is, intellectual preparation.”

Cyprian Kern draws an important conclusion from this fact about the need for a Christian to have intellectual preparation, at least for missionary purposes. It is always good to know history, literature, and science better than your interlocutor in order to help him see the traces of God in everything.

One student who studied at the Faculty of Theology said that before completing her studies she could not argue with her learned husband on the topic of the Church. And after she learned it, she easily defeats her husband when he makes some ridiculous accusations against the Church.

One more thing. There is an ancient apostolic principle: first the spiritual, then the spiritual. Knowledge and culture provide a person with spirituality, since this spirituality is actually rooted in the Spirit.

One priest told the following story about his visit to the Optina elder hegumen Theodore Trutnev:

“My soul burned with love for monasticism, the desire for unceasing prayer, asceticism and fasting. And so I approached Abbot Theodore (Trutnev): “Father, bless me to read the Philokalia.” He looked at me with his constant soft smile and said: “No need, you’d better read a fairy tale now... That was such an unexpected answer, but as I now understand, deep and wise.” After all, what is the main thing in fairy tales? Yes, the same as in the “Philokalia.”

A young man came to one elder on Mount Athos and asked which books of the holy fathers the elder would advise him to read. And the elder said to him: “Read Dickens.” And in response to the young man’s surprise, he explained that before becoming a saint, one must become a good person.

Saint Barsanuphius of Optina: “Russian literature, in its best representatives, in the person of its political giants, where it seethes with the highest creative ideas, is prophetic literature par excellence. Everything in her strives for Heaven with the purest flame of passion and delight. This is literature, the whole strength of which lies in its pathetic search for the highest truth, the highest justice, the Living God, the living person. In it, all the motives of human life are reduced, as they should be in great literature, to their moral and religious roots.”

Blessed Jerome: “Read the ancients, approve of some, learn what is good in them, and do not deviate from the faith of the Church.”

Saint John of Damascus: “If we can get something useful for ourselves from external scriptures, then this is not prohibited... let us take the best thoughts for ourselves.”

Let's turn to the Bible: “Every woman will ask from her neighbor and from the woman who lives in her house for silver and gold and clothing, and you will dress your sons and your daughters with them, and you will rob the Egyptians” (Ex. 3:22).

St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Augustine interpret this passage in a similar way. “To prepare the wealth of external education with which foreigners by faith are adorned. For moral and natural philosophy, geometry and astronomy, and literary works, and everything that is respected by those outside the church, the teacher of virtue commands to take in the form of a loan from the rich like this in Egypt, to keep with oneself in order to use it in business at the time when it is necessary. the divine temple of the sacrament will be decorated with verbal wealth” (Gregory of Nyssa).