They say that there are seven of these ascetics invisible to ordinary eyes. When one of the brotherhood of seven dies, they choose one of the inhabitants of Athos and invite him to join their brotherhood. From time to time on Mount Athos someone disappeared and then they said that he had become wax.
The brotherhood of invisible elders is for Athos what Saint Athos is for the world: the understanding that somewhere there live more perfect monks who preserve peace with their prayer warms the heart, makes you think about your own imperfection and have a humble thought about yourself.
The legend about the Athos wax says that the mysterious brotherhood will exist until the end of time and the invisible elders will perform one of the last liturgies on earth...
“Ascetics who received from God the gift of becoming invisible is the ancient and most mysterious legend of the Holy Mountain,” says writer Yuri Vorobyovsky, who has been visiting Athos for many years, who wrote the book “Invisible Elders” and released a documentary film of the same name.
BATTLE WITH Evil Power
Why should they be invisible?
This is the elders’ response to the curiosity of the all-pervading world. They don’t have a minute for empty communication. As long as they keep, even in sleep, their constant, self-propelled prayer, the world stands in its place.
So says the legend.
I first heard about the invisible elders in 1997 - my first pilgrimage to an Orthodox monastic republic. On a warm evening, we sat on the balcony of the archondarik (hotel) of the Panteleimon Monastery with the American Eugene, a descendant of emigrants from Russia. The black silk of the sea is decorated with a silver braid of a lunar path. From the side of the port of Daphne, a searchlight searches the water - the Holy Mountain is protecting itself from prying eyes.
Evgeniy is a frequent visitor to Mount Athos. It was he who spoke about the mysterious ascetics. Not only about legends, but also about his meeting in the Athos forest... A mysterious gray-bearded monk appeared in front of him out of nowhere - and at the right moment. The American was lost and in despair. The hermit showed him the way. Evgeniy turned around to thank him, but there was no one on the path. It was as if a monk had evaporated.
Intrigued by the American, I began to ask about the secret brotherhood of the Holy Mountain people themselves, including the author of several books, the Greek monk Blasius. There have been a lot of stories.
- Interesting interesting!
- At the end of the 19th century, the librarian of the Russika monastery, Father Panteleimon, wrote down testimonies about the elders. In 1835, hunters caught wild goats under Mount Athos. One day at dawn, walking along the rapids, they came across a naked old man emerging from an inconspicuous cave. Surprised, they started a conversation:
“Bless me, father.”
- God bless.
- How are you doing?
- Thank the Lord. How is the Holy Mountain located?
- Safely after the filthy Turks.
- Which Turks? – now the old man was surprised.
- Which ones? Those who lived on Athos as a result of the Greek uprising.
- What uprising?
- Don’t you know that we Orthodox Christians shed our blood for ten years to overthrow the Turkish yoke?
- No, I didn’t know. There are seven of us here, we don't go anywhere...
At the monastery of St. Anna, the hunters told about the meeting. Many holy fathers gathered and, forgetting about old age and infirmities, picking up their robes, they set off to look for the elder. To no avail...
The doctor of the Great Lavra, Father Athanasius (Kambanos), called their habitat the sparsely populated, densely forested spaces between the monasteries of Little St. Anna and Glossia.
The few who have been privileged to see these hermits describe them as magnificent, almost fleshless ascetics, completely naked, but shining with the robe of Divine grace. Father Athanasius also referred to the testimony of Elder Anthony from the monastery of St. Peter, who came to the Lavra, fulfilling the instructions of the invisible ascetics: “Go and tell the Lavra doctor that he will soon get sick and die, so he must get ready.”
And indeed, soon Father Afanasy fell ill and, without any serious illness, fell asleep in eternal sleep. Before his death, he published 80 years ago in the magazine “Svyatogorsk Library” information that these holy ascetics exist and wander in the deserts of Athos - for the glory of God and for the spiritual benefit of the inhabitants of the Holy Mountain.
- Why are they naked, Yuri?
- Over many years of wandering, living in narrow caves, clothes are torn, and such great ascetics, as you understand, no longer need new ones. As the hermit's clothes are torn, the soul becomes increasingly freed from bodily bonds and unites with God. The naked elders are naked as if in an image of deliverance from coarse flesh. So they are the chosen ones in their true form. Or lost, lost at the right moment to help.
Papa Kral, a hermit who labored in the rocks of Athos for half a century.
Holy Mountain Father Jacob labored for many years in the monastery of Kafsokalyvia. As a novice he constantly came at night to the cathedral church - kyriakon - and prayed for hours before the icon of the Holy Trinity. One night, on a full moon, I saw a magnificent hermit, completely naked, with long hair and beard as white as snow.
The elder raised his right hand and made the sign of the cross over the locked inner doors of the temple. They opened by themselves. A mysterious stranger entered the church and kissed the icons with reverence. When the hermit left, the inner doors of the temple began to move again and closed themselves.
The shocked novice secretly followed him. They rose higher and higher, to the top of Mount Athos. Having reached the cell of Panagia, the hermit went inside. Jacob caught up with the elder and, throwing himself at his feet, with tears begged him to show mercy and keep him as a novice. “Child, you cannot bear this feat,” answered the elder. - Without the grace of God it is impossible to bear the burden of life in this place. Return to your elder, remain in obedience to him, and you will be saved...”
- What kind of feat was he talking about?
- A feat that is difficult to bear is, of course, not only the strictest fasting and the winter cold of the highlands. The main feat is the endless spiritual battle that is waged in the desert. When you are alone with a demon. Several pagan temples are known on Mount Athos, dating back to the 6th-4th millennium BC. For example, the huge picturesque rock Idolio, that is, Idol. It is not recommended to visit it without special blessing. As you approach the temple, the path is shrouded in fog. This is a cloudy area. The whole body is saturated with cold, all-permeable moisture, and fear creeps into the soul.
At the intersections of the paths converging to Idolio there are crosses. Like road signs: the exit of evil spirits from the gorge is prohibited... At the top is a marble slab, about two by three meters. Human sacrifices were made on it in ancient times. On the sides of the slab there are drains for blood, which was collected in a huge stone bowl.
Here you feel with every fiber of your soul: the dark energy has not gone anywhere. Soldiers of Christ - hermits - come here to fight evil spirits. Give battle to the devil in his very lair. This is the spiritual tradition. Many Athonite monasteries, including the Lavra founded by St. Athanasius, stand on the site of ancient temples. So each such monastery is also a symbol of the spiritual victory of Orthodoxy.
Elder Joseph the Hesychast
BROTHERHOOD OF THE SEVEN
- Hieromonk Athanasius Simonopetris, a disciple of the Great Geronda (Elder) Paisius the Holy Mountain, recalled how he once came to his cell of the Holy Cross on the eve of Easter. It was Good Friday 1978.
- Geronda, I have long wanted to ask: do naked elders exist?
He took my left hand, as he usually did, and put his other hand on my back. He shot a glance and asked: “And you, blessed soul, what do you think about this?”
- If the Holy Spirit blessed them to be in the old days, why shouldn’t they be now?
- If they ask you, then say that they exist...
- They told how twelve “invisible” naked elders were seen in St. Anna; in Malaya Anna they said that there were nine of them.
- No, there are not twelve or nine of them, but seven of them are hermits.
- Where are they?
- They wander near the top of the Mountain. They have a special gift from God and a prayer such that no one sees them. They may be near you, but you won't see them. That's why they are called invisible. This is not an allegory...
- What do they eat in winter?
- If they are completely naked in winter, without clothes, what’s the problem with getting soaked in something?! Okay, go - go, that's it!
- No, one more question...
- Eh, blessed one, what kind of curiosity is this? God does not want to show them to the world...
- I won’t leave until you say something more precise...
- Fine. I know only four... Every five years I see one of them, Father Seraphim, and we talk... He comes here just at this time, on Easter... Where are you? (He leaned forward a little, as if towards someone present.) Where are you, my blessed one? And, turning to me: “Don’t be so surprised by naked ascetics.”
- Why, father?
“Because on the Holy Mountain there is a state of greater holiness.”
Elder Paisios
- Yuri, there are legends about eternal lamas, either praying or sleeping in the secret caves of Tibet. Are the invisible elders of Athos also immortal?
- No.
- How then is the secret brotherhood of the seven preserved?
- Geronda Paisiy Svyatorets explained this way: “When one of them dies, they know where a suitable person is located who can withstand severe asceticism, and they call on him to replenish their number.”
THE ELDER APPEARED
“Paisiy Svyatogorets himself wrote how in his youth he got lost on the way to the monastery of St. Anna and met a hermit whose face literally shone,” Yuri Vorobyovsky continues the story.
- He looked about seventy years old, he was wearing a cassock made of a material similar to canvas or tarpaulin, all faded and torn. Apparently, he had no contact with the human world for many years, but not so long ago that his clothes were completely rotten. The holes in this robe are filled with sharp splinters. A thick chain hung around his neck, holding the box at chest level. Apparently there was some kind of shrine in it!
Before Paisius could ask a question, the hermit said: “My child, this road does not lead to St. Anne.” And he showed me another path. His appearance was like that of a saint!
“Where do you live, old man?” - Paisius asked the hermit.
“There somewhere,” he pointed with his hand to the top of Mount Athos...
Of course, this is not a matter of finding a path. The very appearance of the holy elder is a laconic and miraculous instruction on the true path. Judging by the memoirs of Paisius the Svyatogorets, he met this amazing hermit precisely when he was looking for spiritual guidance. In his search, the young monk walked along inconspicuous paths for so long that he lost count of what day it was today. The anchorite answered this question by taking out notched sticks from his bag.
There is such an episode in the biography of Paisius himself. He sits on the side of the path and talks with one pilgrim. A large group is approaching them, clearly heading towards the elder’s cell - so what? Everyone passes literally two meters away, without noticing those sitting. The interlocutor of Paisius Svyatogorets testified that at that moment they were clearly invisible to the others.
The elder even told the pilgrim to stop whispering - for fear that they would be heard, come up and prevent the conversation from being completed. He began to speak in a normal voice, but those walking not only did not see them, but also did not hear them.
Apparently, Paisius himself possessed such an amazing gift of invisibility, but rarely used it. The Lord revealed it to comfort people. Made him an OBVIOUS old man. Revealed to the world. He could also be called a comebacker. Returning for humanity from a special prayer-timeless space. The saint's prayer transcends time. She is in eternity, which is, as it were, always present; the past of the present and the future of the present.
In prayer, when an ascetic is caught up in this space, upon his return he is surprised to see how much time has passed while he was “absent.” This is how a person becomes eternal for a while. From this eternity comes everything “unusual”: the superhuman powers of ascetics, the power given to them over space and the ability to look into the “future of the present.” God knows, but when a monk stands in front of you and you don’t see him, perhaps at that time he is in eternity?
So are there still elders on Mount Athos? Any Athonite pilgrim is constantly asked about this. But before you get the answer, you need to grow to the question. Thank God that he is asking himself. The question does not belong to idle curiosity. The soul of an Orthodox person understands: the main events and the main people for us are not those who are shown on TV. The Universe still flies in its orbit not through the efforts of Nobel Peace Prize laureates...
The “powers that be” start wars by showing reporters a wise expression on their faces. Images, put on over emptiness, gathering in their circle, laugh at the stupidity of the crowd... But fateful events happen somewhere. Real people live somewhere. In some kind of concentrated silence, away from camera flashes. Where, if not on the mysterious Athos - with its legend about the invisible elders?! Where, if not in the temporary space of self-propelled prayer?!
THE SECRET OF FREEDOM
- It was the revolutionary year 1968. The world was worried about grandiose events. For some, the “Prague Spring” and the student revolution in Paris, for others, the opening of the Olympics in Mexico City and the world tour of the Beatles... And in the wretched Cross cell, which was hidden in the thicket not far from the Stavronikita monastery, lay the Russian schema-monk Tikhon. Didn't get up anymore. One day he called to his disciple: “Here now, my child, was the Mother of God with Saint Sergius and Saint Seraphim.”
The student asked: “What did the Mother of God tell you?”
“The feast of Her Nativity will pass, and after it She will come and take me to Herself.”
On the day of the panigir (celebration - Greek), the elder said to the novice: “Tomorrow I will die and I want you to bury me. And so I want to bless you.” For three hours he held his hands on the head of his spiritual child. Fingers that have made millions of signs of the cross.
Palms, rough from touching the floor during countless prostrations and worn with steel chains on the Karuli rocks, where the elder labored in a cave for a decade and a half (only by holding on to these chains can you climb to the cave carved into the rock!) What did this long touch of the elder’s hands mean? to the novice's head? What energy did it transmit? What experience? What did Father Tikhon silently pray for?
Then he gave such a touching parting word: “You pray for me, and I will come and see you every year. If you stay to live in my cell, I will be very happy. But let everything be as God pleases, my child. You see, I have provisions for you here for three whole years,” and he pointed to the canned food: six boxes of sardines and four boxes of squid. All these supplies were brought to him by one of his visitors a long time ago. They remained untouched.
“For me, these canned goods would only be enough for a week,” thought the student Paisiy... Yes, it was he, the future famous elder Paisiy Svyatogorets. Then he testified about Father Tikhon: “This old man made his life simple... He was free from any inconvenience, for what we call convenience today is in fact inconvenience. Convenience is when you simplify your life and limit yourself to what is necessary. Then a person is liberated...
An unknown Russian monk conveyed the secret of freedom to a Greek ascetic. A world that fought for racial freedom and rejoiced that it was in 1968 that the word “Negro” began to be replaced by the word “dark-skinned”; a world that was waiting for Czechoslovakia to finally be freed from the “Soviet yoke”; the world, which admired the heroism of the Cubans who defended their freedom on Playa Giron, knew nothing about this event. And I didn't want to know...
The Russian elder departed, and the Greek monk received charisma from him, the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is conveyed exactly this way: schema-monk Tikhon died in his arms... As many people as possible would be connected by such a supranational kinship!
- Yuri, in 15 years of traveling to Mount Athos, I understand that you have never met the invisible elders. Although I visited all the secluded corners of the Holy Mountain. To be honest, do you believe in them?
- There are elders! Eat! Personally, I don’t necessarily have to look for those very secluded caves where seven unknown people labor. Those interested in semi-spiritual speleology and semi-prayerful rock climbing are directed to the portal isihazm.ru. To descriptions of expeditions, whose participants claim that mysterious caves were found by them. And even that these secluded shelters are inhabited today.
I don’t know why worldly people need to fight their way through the blessing of invisibility! For monks who already have spiritual experience, it’s a different matter. They need to learn more. But their Lord most often does not lead to the desired meetings.
Father Alexander from the Kukuvino cell gives the author a lightning rod from the former Transfiguration Church, which is on the top of Mount Athos.
“Elder Joseph, together with Father Arseny, diligently searched for naked ascetics, hoping to receive instruction from them, but they did not find them. Later they heard that they came to Father Kosma, whose cell was in the monastery of Panagia. Naked ascetics came to this man every Saturday for many years and received communion. At some holiday, Father Kosma, having forgotten himself, let slip about this secret to other fathers.
The next Saturday, after the naked ascetics came and took communion, they told him: “You opened us, so you won’t see us again.” Father Kosma fell at their feet and asked for forgiveness. They answered him: “You are forgiven, but after what you did, you will not see us again.”
-...And I saw one invisible old man! However, he was only twenty-five years old, but old age is not an age category, nor is it a mandatory gray beard. In 1997 I met the Bulgarian monk Anthony. Zograf talked with him in the monastery. What is its “invisibility”, you ask!
The fact of the matter is that there are such ascetics on Athos who are visible to everyone, but the secret of their spiritual experience remains hidden. You see in front of you a simple monk, but you don’t see an old man in him... Three years after the death of Schemamonk Anthony, who died in a spiritual battle with the demonic world very young, according to Athonite custom, his bones were dug up. The ascetic’s skull turned out to be amber-yellow. Such, they say on the Holy Mountain, are only found among saints. Little by little the secret of his feat began to be revealed. But more about this in my new book.
In 1997, we met Schemamonk Anthony; after his death, his skull turned out to be yellow, as if waxy (a sure sign of an ascetic holy life on the Holy Mountain).
Enough said. I knew a saint! So Athos consoled me once again.
", on which this was filmed #Orthodox #movie: “It was far from Athos. In one small and poor Moldavian monastery, an elderly #nun showed the young pilgrim an old engraving. A pointed mountain, and shining rays emanate from it. This radiation of Athonite holiness seemed to touch his heart then... #Elder Kukuvino cells #hierodeacon Silouan tells us about his journey to Mount Athos and glances at the peak from time to time. #Mountain from the window of his cell - clearly in the palm of your hand... She is beautiful - it’s as if the bear skin of a brown autumn forest is thrown at her foot; A white marble peak emerges from this “skin”; the rays of the morning sun make it warm and pink. But then - out of nowhere - a small cloud appears. It grows, clings to the edge of the Mountain. Stops. It starts to swirl. Come on, come on! You point the lens of the video camera, zoom in on the picture, look - and you can’t tear yourself away. The clouds either flow along the rapids like some unprecedented rivers of milk, then they are layered one on top of the other, getting stuck at the peak. Then the wind finally blows away this multi-layered cake, and it floats majestically over the sea. Powerful #beauty the peaks seem inaccessible. Uninhabited. However, it is not. We ourselves have just descended from there and probably now a chain of pilgrims unknown to us is crawling up like hardworking ants... But somewhere there, in the rocks, there are other inhabitants. They are called invisible elders. At the end of the 19th century, the librarian of the Panteleimon Monastery, Father Panteleimon, recorded some evidence about them. Sometime around 1835 #hunters caught wild goats near Mount Athos. One day at dawn, walking along the rapids, we came across a naked old man emerging from an almost invisible cave. Surprised by the unusual meeting, they started a conversation: - Bless, father. - God bless. - How are you doing? “Thanks be to the Lord,” the elder answered and asked: “How does the Holy Mountain remain?” - Safely after the filthy Turks. - Which Turks? - asked the old man. - Which ones? Those who lived on Athos as a result of the Greek uprising. - What uprising? - Don't you know that we, #Orthodox, you shed your blood for 10 years to overthrow the Turkish yoke? - No, I didn’t know. There are seven of us here - we don’t go anywhere, and we didn’t know about it. Arriving later at the monastery of St. Anna, the hunters told there about what they had seen. Then many gathered #fathers, and, forgetting about old age and infirmities, picking up their robes, they ran to look for the old man. But - to no avail. They said that these are the very secret #devotees, numbering seven, to whom the famous confessor Christopher, who lived in Yannokopoulo, gave communion. Several decades later, Father Arseny, the forester of the Great Lavra, met some of the hidden elders, but he did not want to tell anyone about their place of residence, no matter how much he was convinced. Only once did he break a secret.” - Brothers and sisters! ☨ Please, a moment of attention! All yours
On August 29, an Orthodox exhibition-fair opens in Samara. Among its guests is the famous Orthodox writer Yuri Yuryevich VOROBIEVSKY, who will hold a series of creative meetings with readers. One of them will be dedicated to a new book about the Athonite elders. It is the fruit of fifteen years of trips to the Holy Mountain and is called “The Invisible Elders”. We present a fragment from it to your attention.
Papa Kral
Such remote places as Karulya are in vain called “God-forgotten”. This is wrong. The barren stones of Karuli are the fruitful vineyard of God. Its fertile spiritual soil was created by centuries-old prayers of hermits.
Let's swim up. In front of us is a huge, almost vertical cliff. It faces south and is literally hot from the sun most of the year. It seems that the “swallow’s nests” of the monastic kalivas stuck directly to the stone vertical. It seems that no goat paths lead to them! Is there even an inch where a person could stand?! When we look at the heights of monastic asceticism from the turbulent surface of the sea of life, we think that these peaks are absolutely inaccessible. But with God's help everything is possible.
Below you can see a rickety wooden device, fixed over the abyss. It looks like a homemade crane. This is true. From here a rope descended to the sea, and passing fishermen put olives, crackers, and beans into the basket. This method of supplying hermits was called “karula”. Literally this word means "coil".
The provisions raised up were supplemented by the fruits of prickly pear - cacti - growing here. They also used locusts for food. These are these reddish pods. If you chew them thoroughly, you get a sweetish mass. Acrids also grow in Palestine. On Athos we were told that John the Baptist ate them.
In general, people have been eating to their fullest here for centuries.
...Mooring to Arsana. From somewhere above, someone in secular clothes quickly runs towards us, as if he had been waiting and now he is meeting us. He hums something and whistles. From a distance he looks like a slender young man. It’s just his gray beard and long hair, which has turned into real felt, that betray his age. He is one of those Athonite hermits who has not combed his hair for decades, who, even in the most intense heat, does not immerse his body in the sea. But here’s what’s strange: such an ascetic emanates amazing freshness.
Before us is the old man about whom we have already heard. Schema-Archimandrite Stefan. Serb. We met. “George? - he asks again. - This is good. The holy martyrs, through prayer, come to the rescue before anyone else.”
Karuliot easily invites you to his place. From the pier, if you lift your head, his cell is visible, but it would be difficult to find it yourself. The monk pushes aside the thick bushes. Behind them is a barely noticeable rocky path. Cool! In some places you have to pull yourself up while holding onto the rope. Finally we are in his domain.
Father Stefan's cell is attached to the cave. Under its stone arches there is a rainwater storage tank built by the elder. It’s like a small lake, and there are fish in it! The old man spent decades building walls at the entrance to the cave. There is a temple, a small hotel for pilgrims, and outbuildings.
The hermit speaks quickly, in a mixture of Russian and Serbian, but almost everything is understandable.
“At first on Karula I was afraid of demons. I wanted to leave here. And then I think: this is my home, let them go. They cannot stand the cross. One night I looked: about thirty or forty of them were coming down the road. Eyes are burning! Nothing, I think, come closer. And then - the sign of the cross. They run, they are angry, they threaten. They shout like this: “You monks want to take our places!”
Did you understand the meaning of these cries? How the fallen angels hate the monastic, angelic order! How envious they are that the righteous take their places at the Throne of the Most High!
When Father Stefan talked about how he let demons get closer, I imagined him behind a machine gun. He's lived through wars. And now on his knitted cap is the badge of the Chetniks, Serbian partisan monarchists during the Second World War.
“The communists shot me,” he says. - When they led me, I prayed to the Mother of God: “Save me! And I will go to Athos as a monk.” They put us against the wall and from a few meters away two of us fired machine guns. They can't get in. It was as if someone pushed me. I started to run. The bullets whistle around the body and burn through the clothes. So he left. Without a single scratch. After the war, in the early fifties, he went to the Holy Mountain. On foot".
By that time, we later learn, he was already in the priesthood. In the Serbian monastery of Studenica, Bishop Nicholas (Velimirović), the future saint, ordained him as a deacon.
First, on Mount Athos, Father Stefan entered the Serbian Hilandar. Then he labored together with Russian monks in Kareya, then alone in Stary Russika. And finally he settled on Karula. Here he found the great Russian elders. And he himself became part of the living ascetic continuity. He even got what a cell! Father Sophrony (Sakharov), a disciple of Elder Silouan, labored there. Here, apparently, he began to write his famous book.
Over time, the newly made Karuliot became close to Father Nicodemus, who, in turn, received the blessing to go to Karulya and enter obedience to Theodosius of Karulsky from Elder Silouan.
Father Nikodim also came to the Holy Mountain on foot. Arrived from one war to another. He fought as part of the Russian corps, which was part of the French army. He did not want to return to Russia, which was left without a tsar. I went to serve the King of Heaven. In the homeland at that time they talked pathetically about the broken chains of autocracy, and the former non-commissioned officer grabbed hold of the Karula chains and never let them go completely.
By the way, the elder passed away in the arms of Father Stefan. I received my last communion from him. On Athos it is believed that charisma is transmitted in this way. Papa Kral also kept the head of Father Nikon.
Yes, here this schema-monk is often called “Papa Kral” - he once mentioned that he belongs to the Serbian royal family. Be that as it may, Father Stefan (his last name is Milkovich) was in correspondence with the heir to the Serbian throne, the grandson of King Alexander I. I don’t know how accurate the information about his aristocratic origin is, but very noble inhabitants often labored on Karula. Take Father Parfeniy, who belonged to the House of Romanov.
Father Stefan has been on Mount Athos for half a century. On Karula, in the solitude of his cell, forty years. They tell different things about the elder.
Some consider him seduced. They turn their strict attention to his fast, seemingly fussy speech. Condemned for rapid, seemingly nervous hand movements. They reproach him for his habit of whistling and his sociability. Indeed, all this does not fit with the classical image of a schema-monk. Someone also said that Pope Kral suggested that some Russians renounce their Church and become obedient to him... I don’t know. We haven't heard anything like that from him.
There is another opinion about the elder. About his feat of foolishness. They say that he deliberately disrespects ostentatious piety and ritualism. And in general, he emphasizes in every possible way the secondary importance of everything external and pretentious. They told how, shortly before his death, in Serbia, the elder “taught” one noble bishop with his staff. Yes, that was his style.
...After leaving for a minute, Father Stefan came out to us already in his vestments. There is something incomprehensible next to the pectoral cross. Look closer - aspirin tablets on a string. The very medicines that each of us hopes for and which the elder himself never used. Catching my glance, he said quite seriously: “In fact, the body must be treated with a staff, and the soul with a cross.”
What he is before God, only He, the Lord, knows. In general, they say that either a saint or a madman can go as a hermit on Karula...
Be that as it may, all the local keliots know that the Mother of God Herself appeared to the elder. Here is how it was. One day Lavra wanted to evict him. Allegedly, he occupied a plot of Karula land (more precisely, rocks), but did not pay any money. Then the Mother of God stood in the way of the astonished policemen. She put them to flight.
“I lifted the stones for construction from below, from the pier. And bags of cement. And logs weighing one hundred and fifty kilograms. I carried it at night. It's cool, the moon is shining, it's good! I was strong. Never been treated. Only recently, after a hurricane, when I was carrying fallen trees, my heart suddenly began to hurt. The head is hot. I say: “Glory to You, Lord!” And everything passed. Both for illness and for death – we must give thanks for everything.”
It was now the Greeks who installed cable cars on Karula. They lift weights along them - to places where even mules cannot reach. But in the late 90s, when we met Father Stefan, there was nothing like that here. How did he carry all this up and down the steep slopes?! There are places here where not everyone would dare to pass without a load.
A Serbian schema-monk recalled how he once climbed an almost vertical spur and almost fell into the abyss: a stone falling from above hit him on the arm. He also talked about two monks who fell down, and their bodies were found on a coastal cliff only a week later... In general, rockfalls are constant here. Like the devil's shelling. Not long ago all the old chains were swept away, now new ones have been nailed down.
But let's go back to 1997... We find ourselves in a small room overlooking the sea. She's all in icons. Lots of photos. They are left and sent to this unusual monk by pilgrims, grateful for his spiritual help, from Serbia, Greece, France... Among the photographs, most are of children. There is probably a girl here, Despina, whom I found out about later.
So, when the elder was repairing his dilapidated cell, one friend brought him building materials. This friend had a five-year-old daughter, Despina. And so, when the elder needed help, he went out to the sea and loudly asked: “Despina, tell daddy to come to me, I need him!” And this “telephone” connecting Athos with the “mainland” worked! The girl immediately ran to her father: “Dad, Father Stefan is calling you.” Why didn't he contact his friend directly? Maybe the child, in his purity, could hear the spiritual call better? And so, when a friend arrived, he asked: “Father Stefan, did you really call me?” And the elder answered: “Yes, I asked Despina to tell him that I’m waiting for you.”
But in the picture is Father Stefan himself. He writes something, and there are pigeons nearby.
“Birds love it when I write,” says Keliot.
- Qi-qi! Qi-qi! – at his call, the titmice immediately flock to him and fearlessly sit on his hand. He has noodles in his pocket. The old man feeds it to his feathered friends. It seems that the same product is the basis of his diet. Xerophagy! The owner treats us to wonderful grapes. Heavy grapes are suspended from the ceiling, and he bestows on everyone. It seems that I have never eaten such sweet and aromatic berries.
We look around. There are many books on the shelves. The Karul elder is known for his apologetic works. He writes them in Greek, English, German... One priest had the idea of giving him a typewriter, but soon received an answer to an unasked question from Papa Kral: thank you, they say, for your concern, but I don’t need a typewriter.
“I’m currently preparing a book about the end of the world,” Father Stefan tells us and goes to prepare an unpretentious dinner. — They like to stay with me. I'm rich.
He puts a kettle on the fire, old, smoked, without a handle. And then a scene arises that I later read about from other pilgrims. When the water boils, Father Stefan takes the kettle by the sides with both hands and begins to pour it into mugs (not entirely clean). You get it: a hot kettle! And the old man, having spilled the tea, didn’t even blow on his fingers!
Papa Kral was not averse to being photographed. He allowed us to take photographs too. Only on the condition that the flowers he planted be visible. Along the way, he said: “I brought the earth here from afar. I had to walk five thousand times!” His flowers were bursting with colors. Actually, the Serbian schema-monk had an agronomic education, but I think the secret of his flower garden was not in his professional skills.
Yes, on the rocky soil of the once pagan Athos, monks for centuries created that fertile layer of prayer on which new flowers bloom. This is the agronomic science of the Mother of God Garden.
With what humility he fulfilled our requests! How accurately he answered questions! I also remember his sharp gaze. It seemed that he knew about each of us. And he talks to us as if he were children dear to his heart. A priest from Bratsk who was with us asked the elder to retire with him for a few minutes for a spiritual conversation. It seemed to me that he came out of the monastic cell with a changed face. I didn't ask anything. This is a matter of spiritual intimacy.
They also told me at Panteleimon Monastery that many things are revealed to the elder. Monk L. told how his brother went to see Father Kral. He silently took the piece of paper, drew a route and wrote: “120 km.” Soon the monk was taken to Thessaloniki for surgery.
...And it’s time for us to rise higher. We are going to the Mountain. At parting, to please us, Father Stefan sang: “You, my comrade, remember no evil...” His voice was surprisingly high and transparent. Having finished singing, he said: “I used to have a good male voice, then I lost it, I sing like a child.” Or - angelic, I would add. The elder, like an Angel, almost lost his flesh.
When parting, the schema-monk gave us each an icon of the Mother of God “Three-Handed”.
…Several years have passed. We sail past Karuli. Where was our old friend’s cell? Here they are, charred ruins. Among the black firebrands and pieces of concrete, flowers stand out as bright red spots. Yes, misfortune befell the old man. It has burned out twice recently.
And here he is on the pier. My God! Even from a distance it is noticeable how old and haggard he has become. Looks lost. My heart ached, because we remembered Father Stefan completely differently.
Then I read the memoirs of one pilgrim about how an old man lived in a cave for two years after a fire. How I slept in it in the winter, covered with a heap of rags. An old monk among burnt things. Unsightly picture. But the elder never cared about external things. He only valued his flowers. And they didn’t burn in the flames!
But what happened?
Father Stefan told how the fire happened: flames came out of the cracks of the rock. How could this happen? Yes, earthquakes are frequent here, but Athos is not an active volcano. Or is there some kind of mysticism here? Chronologically, these misfortunes coincided with the time when America bombed Serbia. The elder suffered, and his fervent prayer for his homeland soared upward. She climbed to the Lord through that hole in the local rock, which is called the “Karula ear”. He cried for those who died in the fire... As if he had taken on part of this deadly flame! First, the temple and cell burned down, but the elder did not retreat and continued his prayerful feat in the cave. Then even her stones caught fire!
A schema-monk, by definition, takes the fire upon himself. This was clearly manifested in the fate of the Serbian elder. And if young Serbs during the bombings wore T-shirts with the image of a target, then the hermit always had this target with him - the vestments of a schema-monk.
...The last time I was on Karula, when the Russian monk A. began to build a new cell on this ashes. Everything will be done anew, even the tall rock foundation coming from the sea will be strengthened, but the flowers that Father Stefan loved so much, the flowers grown on the land he brought must remain.
The new owner of the cell says: “Now I’ll show you where he caught the fish from.”
We approach the edge of the cliff and see something resembling a roundabout.
From here the line dropped tens of meters down.
Is it really possible to catch something from such a height?
And how! Near the Karula rocks there is a bottomless sea depression, full of fish. On the Annunciation, he lowered a net from a cliff into the sea and asked: “Mother of God, send me some fish.” I immediately pulled it out, and there was always a festive “consolation” online.
We enter the ruins of the temple. The elder served here every day. Writer Pavle Rak said: “I brought him names, and then a year or two later he asked me again: “What about that one, and what about that one?” I already forgot who I wrote to him, but he kept praying for them. I remembered a thousand names every day! And he told me: “The Divine Liturgy is such a great thing! If I had known that the last liturgy on earth would be celebrated in South America at that time, I would have immediately gone there on foot to attend it. Because liturgy is everything. She holds up the world."
I pick up the brochure of Father Stefan lying on the floor in Greek. You need to take it with you, it will be a memory of the elder.
And here is the cave where there used to be two lakes. Now they are almost empty. The fire split the rock and the water left.
Memories came flooding back.
Do you know the story with the snake? - asks monk A.
Is this how Father Stefan tore it apart?
Yes,” our interlocutor continues for my companion: “Papa Kral enters his cave and sees some kind of hose hanging in the twilight. Where did he come from? Grab it with your hand, and it's a snake. With an instant movement, the Geront tore it in half! And he also said: “Who gave you permission to crawl here?!”
The elder was not afraid of demons or snakes. Nothing lethal. Yes, and death itself. He waited for her calmly. He dug his own grave and put up a cross: “Schiarchimandrite Stefan. 1922". Sometimes, sitting on the edge of the pit and dangling his legs, he even had a meal. He treated some pilgrims to what others brought him.
Once he was talking with guests in a cave, and at that time a snake crawled into it. Everyone stopped listening. Seeing this, Papa Kral hit it on the ground, tore it in half and exclaimed: “What kind of Christians are you?” Then he bowed to everyone to the ground. He had amazing strength - both in his hands and in his humble soul!
To say goodbye, we stood at the grave dug by Father Stefan. The blue cross he put up burned down. There is an empty pit nearby. Pope Kral never came to rest on Mount Athos. He died in Serbia, near Belgrade, in the Slantsy monastery, which is Hilandar’s metochion. I don’t know whether he was a zealot or whether he belonged to the ROCOR, but he rested in the bosom of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is a fact.
This happened in 2001, on the feast of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple. And She, to whom he had prayed for so many years, accepted his soul.
Yuri Vorobievsky
14.08.2013
"Invisible Elders"
Yesterday an Orthodox exhibition-fair opened in the cultural center of the regional center. Among its guests is the famous Orthodox writer Yuri VOROBYEVSKY, who will hold a series of creative meetings with readers. One of them will be dedicated to a new book about the Athonite elders. It is the fruit of fifteen years of trips to the Holy Mountain and is called “The Invisible Elders”. We present a fragment from it to your attention.
FREESTYLE WRESTLING
Paisius the Svyatogorets also spoke about fifty monks, vessels of the Holy Spirit, who labor inconspicuously in the monasteries of Athos. They carry out their feat in extreme humility. Sometimes you won’t even guess which of the brethren this elder is. He may not have a gray beard or universal veneration. He is invisible. He takes care that his name does not suddenly sound too loud.
On the Holy Mountain, which gave birth to a whole host of saints of God, there is an icon “The Council of Athonite Saints”. It's significant. In the first rows are the saints, whose names are known and written right there on the icon, and behind them, behind their heads, are a host of halos that have no names. No faces are visible...
Fight to the death
Fifteen years ago, in the Bulgarian Zograf monastery, I met the young monk Anthony. A photograph taken in the vestibule of the cathedral church has survived. We are standing next to each other, and in the fresco Saint George the Victorious is aiming his spear somewhere behind my left shoulder...
As I understood then, Monk Anthony had such a thought to go to the desert to save himself. Later I became aware of his arrival at the Holy Mountain. First of all, together with his friend Constantine, he went to the famous elder Pope Yannis. Ask for a blessing for hermitage. He said: go to the Bulgarian Zograf. Whoever endures in the monastery to the end will receive the crown of the Great Martyr George. Go and wait. Little Rafail will arrive from Russia soon, he will console you...
What kind of “little Raphael”?
Soon it was 1999 - Anthony learned that a new Russian brethren had appeared on Athos. He quickly ran towards them. At first I saw a representative monk with a thick beard.
-Are you Raphael?
- No. Father Raphael, here he is.
And Anthony saw the old man. Small! Just like Papa Giannis said. The young Bulgarian jumped for joy. Found Raphael, met him!
People often ask about whether there are elders. There are elders, but there are not enough novices. Father Anthony was ready to obey.
It was not only Anthony who often visited Hieromonk Raphael (Berestov), in the Zograf cell of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, for confession and for spiritual advice. Other young monks from the Bulgarian monastery began to come here. We ourselves saw this unusual crowd of people next to the wretched monastery.
“Monk Anthony acted like a fool,” recalls Father Raphael. He looked strange. He wore his clothes inside out, with the seams facing out. He pulled the kamilavka down over his eyes and then looked at his interlocutor as if from under his brows. His boots were always “asking for porridge,” but he didn’t seem to notice it.
When it was necessary for him to go with his brothers to Thessaloniki, they dressed him more decently. They were embarrassed that he looked like that. When they combed his hair or tightened his belt, the end of which hung like a saber, Father Anthony humbled himself. And they also brought him a newer jacket and shoes.
- Why are you dressed like that? - I asked him.
- I laugh at the world.
- Isn’t the enemy laughing at you?
- No, I laugh at the world...
He also once said:
- Father Raphael, I love Christ so much! I love Christ so much!
This was said with such feeling that I thought: yes, but I don’t have that kind of love.”
We can say that Father Anthony chose the path of thanksgiving. He thanked the Lord for everything, which is probably why he was so joyful.... Yes, we all the time beg the Lord for some invented benefits, but we forget to thank for the obvious benefits. And we still wonder why we were left with nothing!
Despite his young years, he was given the gift of reasoning. And it’s not that he read a lot, although he had books everywhere on the table and on the chair, on the bed and under the bed, in his pockets, in his bosom and even in his kamilavka. The point is not that he graduated from the Sofia Theological Academy and knew seven languages. Understanding the essence of things and the amount of knowledge are two different things....
When any disputes arose among the elders of Zograf, which sometimes took on, to put it mildly, a very stormy character, the abbot would say: call the blessed one! Father Anthony was invited, and he surprisingly quickly put an end to disagreements. Everyone agreed with his words. Despite his youth, he was a member of the council of elders of the monastery. I was even a housekeeper for some time, but not for long: I started giving everything away out of the kindness of my heart. In general, his obedience was to make candles for the temple.
“One day,” says his confessor, “he came to me and was dumbfounded:
- Father Raphael, I will die soon. Bad heart.
- What are you saying? There are doctors who will treat you with God’s help.
- No. Please, tonsure me into the schema.
I doubted it, and he added.
- There is a blessing from our abbot.
...When he crawled at his tonsure and then lay at my feet, I felt with all my heart the tragedy and greatness of what was happening.
He was lying down.
- Anthony, get up!
He hugged my legs and sobbed.
A lump came to my throat, I could barely restrain myself from crying.
He was tonsured into the mantle in the name of Anthony the Great, and into the schema - in the name of Anthony of the Kiev-Pechersk. When the newly tonsured schema-monk stood in the altar, I saw that a column of some kind of blackness had thickened above him. He himself was almost invisible. The enemy has come very close! Father Anthony said: bless, father, to fight him to death!
Two months after his tonsure, Father Anthony spent the night in Kareya, at the Zograf courtyard... He was found dead in the morning, on the day of remembrance of the Monk Dosifei. He died without letting go of the rosary, this spiritual sword of the monk. Continuing the victorious struggle until death...”
Precisely victorious. After all, when a person falls with a stopped heart, that’s not all. The last battle will be in the air ordeal. “After Anthony’s death,” Father Raphael continues, “at the beginning of the liturgy, when I was burning incense in the church, I suddenly heard his energetic and firm voice. He answered the demons who were trying to capture the schema-monk’s soul. And a little later: “Father Raphael, Father Raphael! It's me, Anthony. I was saved! I am in heaven"...
The strong fight the devil
The Athonite hieromonk Abel knew Anthony in the world of Todor - back in Bulgaria. “He was talented in everything, and when his father, a former athlete, brought him to freestyle wrestling, his son quickly began to make progress. He earned the title of Master of Sports and won international competitions. But even then he had an understanding that it was not the podium of honor, but the throne of the Most High that should attract all the attention of a Christian. Father was very disappointed when Todor left sports and began studying at the Faculty of Theology. Because he always carried a whole bag of books with him, the students called him Toshka Torba."
Father Abel falls silent. Remembers. I ask questions. My interlocutor does not answer immediately. It seems that he does not leave prayer during the conversation. A rosary runs in his hands.
We are again transported to Bulgaria: “The mother of the future Holy Mountain resident, who brought her son to God, was a deeply religious person, but suffered from obsession. The Lord allowed her this spiritual warfare so that her body would suffer and her soul would be saved. She worked as a teacher, and sometimes even during lessons, someone’s rough, seemingly male voice began to speak through her lips. From childhood, the Lord revealed a terrible reality to the future Athonite monk. Experience of knowing the demonic world. This experience was given to a real fighter. Even then, in his youth, he had the daring thought to devote himself to spiritual warfare. What awaited him was not sports pampering, but real freestyle wrestling. Bend your will towards good - go out to fight evil.
Having already become a Holy Mountain resident, Anthony fully realized the power of the enemy. He had a great will to fight, and the Lord allowed the demon to attack the monk. Hieromonk Abel says that sometimes a strange numbness came over him. He was breathing heavily and could not even raise his hand to make the sign of the cross. And until Father Raphael read the prayer “May God rise again,” sprinkling him with blessed water, the young monk remained as if shackled. And sometimes the enemy - clearly an “honored master” in his type of fighting - literally threw Anthony to the ground. These were throws worse than on the wrestling mat. But the monk did not retreat...
Well, the weak fight with their passions, the strong fight with the devil.
Once, Father Abel says, pilgrims asked a Bulgarian monk: what kind of attacks are there by demons? He was silent for a while and said: recently Satan appeared to one Holy Mountain dweller right in his cell while he was praying. Matchmaking hatred gripped the Agiorite. Having crossed himself, with the name of the Holy Trinity on his lips, he rushed at the terrible stranger and closed his hands on his throat. It is, of course, impossible to strangle an incorporeal creature, but this “master” retreats from his daring faith. Right in the monk’s hands, the enemy melted away like smoke... Wasn’t Father Anthony talking about himself? What if - about yourself?! By what ascetic “training” did he achieve such a “form” that he could frighten the horned one?
Third Heaven
Three years after his death, according to the ancient Athonite tradition, the bones of Father Anthony himself were dug up. His chapter turned out to be blessed. The color of buckwheat honey, like amber! Only the righteous have such skulls. This was confirmed by Father Ephraim, the monastery leader of St. Andrew’s monastery, a highly experienced elder who had to raise the relics more than once or twice. “I pleased the Lord with tears and prayer,” he said.
“And by obedience,” added Elder Raphael.
Such a chapter will not deceive anyone. When the mask of flesh decays, what remains is the true face of a person.
At first, the relics of Schemamonk Anthony were kept in his cell by his friend and prayer leader Father Kosma, with whom they arrived on the Holy Mountain. Now the newly-minted shrine has taken a special place in the Zograf ossuary.
Elder Raphael shows a photograph of the excavated grave. "Reverend" skull lying on the ground. And next to it is a photo card in a frame. Someone, shortly before the death of the blessed one, “caught” the moment when he stood for a long, long time, detached from his surroundings, looking at the sky.
Pope Yannis, who had some special, prayerful connection with him, recently said: “Your Anthony is a holy guy. Know that he is already in the Third Heaven...
Elder Raphael shows me another photograph: Father Anthony stands among tall palm trees: “This is him in Jerusalem... Just like at the doors of heaven.”
“Pray to God for us, Antonushka!” - the schema-monk wipes away his tears.
He came to some monks. He told one who had left the brethren to return. And it became clear: the blessed one was not just saved. He can now intercede for us before God. And he begged his mother. She passed away as a spiritually healthy schema-nun named Antonia.
Like this! It turns out that Schemamonk Anthony, in whom I saw simply a young zealous Holy Mountain dweller, was also invisible to others - an old man. I knew him! I talked to him! I could touch the saint!
This simple story contains the answer to the question that I get asked every time: are there still elders on Mount Athos? I answer again: yes! And not only on the Holy Mountain....
People's Radio. Russian Ark.
S. Gerasimov. 2013.04.24 (Yu. Vorobyovsky)
SEVEN INVISIBLEIt was far from Athos. In one small and poor Moldavian monastery, an elderly nun showed an old engraving to a young pilgrim. A pointed mountain, and shining rays emanate from it. This radiation of Athos holiness seemed to touch his heart then... The elder of the Kukuvino cell, Hierodeacon Silouan, tells us about his path to Athos and from time to time glances at the peak. The mountain from the window of his cell is clearly visible...
She is beautiful - it’s as if the bearskin of a brown autumn forest is thrown at her foot; A white marble peak emerges from this “skin”; the rays of the morning sun make it warm and pink. But then - out of nowhere - a small cloud appears. It grows, clings to the edge of the Mountain. Stops. It starts to swirl. Come on, come on! You point the lens of the video camera, zoom in on the picture, look - and you can’t tear yourself away. The clouds either flow along the rapids like some unprecedented rivers of milk, then they are layered one on top of the other, getting stuck at the peak. Then the wind finally blows away this multi-layered cake, and it floats majestically over the sea.
The powerful beauty of the peak seems unapproachable. Uninhabited. However, it is not. We ourselves have just descended from there and probably now a chain of pilgrims unknown to us is crawling up like hardworking ants...
But somewhere there, in the rocks, there are other inhabitants. They are called invisible elders. *(See the chapter on the invisible elders in my book “Tread on the Asp”).
At the end of the 19th century, the librarian of the Panteleimon Monastery, Father Panteleimon, recorded some evidence about them. Sometime around 1835, hunters were catching wild goats near Mount Athos. One day at dawn, walking along the rapids, we came across a naked old man emerging from an almost invisible cave. Surprised by the unusual meeting, they started a conversation:
Bless, father.
- God bless.
- How are you doing?
“Thanks be to the Lord,” the elder answered and asked: “How does the Holy Mountain remain?”
- Safely after the filthy Turks.
- Which Turks? - asked the old man.
- Which ones? Those who lived on Athos as a result of the Greek uprising.
- What uprising?
- Don’t you know that we Orthodox Christians shed our blood for 10 years to overthrow the Turkish yoke?
- No, I didn’t know. There are seven of us here - we don’t go anywhere, and we didn’t know about it.
Arriving later at the monastery of St. Anna, the hunters told there about what they had seen. Then many fathers gathered, and, forgetting about old age and infirmities, picking up their robes, they ran to look for the elder. But - to no avail. They said that these were the same sacred ascetics, seven in number, whom the famous confessor Christopher, who lived in Yannokopoulo, gave communion to. Several decades later, Father Arseny, the forester of the Great Lavra, met some of the hidden elders, but he did not want to tell anyone about their place of residence, no matter how much he was convinced. Only once did he break the secret.
One Russian hermit, Schemamonk Macarius, who lived in a cave on Kerasia and died in 1888, talked about it like this.
Before Easter in 1861, Father Arseny came to Father Macarius and asked: did he have anything for the Holiday? He said there was nothing. Then Fr. Arseny said: these days kayuki (vessels) from one of the islands come to the Lavra with butter, cheese, eggs and other things; go and stock up on food.
When did Fr. Macarius said that he had no money, so he promised to pay with his own: in a word, he persuaded him to go with him. On the way about. Macarius asked: since you have been a forester for so many years, and before that you were a sardar and a shepherd, then you probably know one of the hermits who lives in secret.
Father Arseny hesitated. He didn’t want to reveal the secret, but he also didn’t want to upset his old friend. Then he answered: If you take the sin of the oath upon yourself, then I will tell you! Monk Macarius promised: when I see the hidden elder, the first thing I will say is that it is my fault.
On the road from the Moldavian monastery of Kukuvino to the monastery, the forester turned off the road halfway and led him through impassable places, explaining where the hermit lived and how to find him. Only he doubted that his companion would be able to descend into that abyss. So they came to the very cliff. Precipitous rocks sank vertically on three sides, like a coffin.
The forester said: Now, if you can get down, then climb up; when you crawl to the site, look to the right under the rock and you will find a dwelling there!
Father Macarius began to descend. Later, he realized: no matter how difficult it is to climb the rocks of the top of Athos while collecting unfading flowers; but here it was incomparably more difficult.
At first his shoes got in the way, so he threw them down. Then the cassock also flew into the abyss. Finally the monk approached the bottom. Looking around, he noticed a kalivka and a sitting old man. When he saw the man, he crossed himself, spat, and soon went into his shelter and locked himself.
Warned about. Arseny that the hermit knew, in addition to Greek, Bulgarian and Russian, Turkish and French, Father Macarius, approaching the cell, began to say a prayer and knock on the door.
The hermit did not answer for a long time.
Father Macarius understood: he mistook him for a demon and began to convince the elder that he was a Christian and a monk.
What do you need? - the hermit finally asked in pure Russian.
- I came to look at you!
- Who brought you here - God or a demon?
“God,” answered Fr. Macarius.
The hermit did not accept and begged the uninvited guest to leave. Father Macarius answered one thing - that he would die at his cell, but would not leave. He had neither clothes nor bread with him.
What a restless and stubborn person you are - I have never seen anyone like you! - the hermit was surprised.
The stranger kept asking him to open the door for him.
“Oh, I know who told you,” said the elder, “he is a worthless man!”
- Don’t blame him, elder, it’s my fault!
- Get out of here, I beg you, get out!
“I won’t leave, I’ll sit at your door until Easter and die here.” I won't leave without seeing you!
“Read the Mother of God,” the elder finally said, and when he had read it, he opened the door and said: Well, what do you want from me?
“Bless me, father,” said Fr. Macarius, and fell at the old man’s feet.
“God bless,” he answered, and sitting on the threshold, invited his guest to sit down. About an hour passed in silence, and, getting up, the elder said: Go back where you came from!
“I wanted, father, to hear a word of benefit from you,” Fr. Macarius.
- What word will I tell you? I am a sinful person, and I don’t know anything else. You see, I live like a snake that hides from people in a hole. So I live in this hole.
- Well, after all, you know something, and maybe it would benefit me if you told me.
Seeing the simplicity and persistence of Fr. Macarius, the elder asked:
Where do you live? Who is your confessor?
- I live in a cave on Kerasy, and my confessor is Father Nifont on Kavsokalyvia.
- What is your handicraft?
- I'm making spoons.
- Which?
- Simple and with a “blessing” - with a carved blessing hand.
- Well, if you want to listen to me, then don’t make spoons with a “blessing”.
- Why is this so? These are best obtained in Russika and Serai (Andreevsky Skete - Yu.V.).
- So be it, but don't do it.
“I don’t know,” said Fr. thoughtfully. Macarius, - here in Russika there is an experienced confessor, Father Jerome, but he - nothing, takes it with a “blessing”.
“Oh, Jerome,” the elder remarked, “he is an experienced confessor in managing his brethren, but he does not enter into the recognition of subtle things, and therefore does not see that such spoons should not be made, for they could fall into the hands of infidels or heretics who may desecrate the image of the blessing.
And in the Orthodox family, a spoon is not an icon or a cross. A father can give himself to a child, act as amusement for him and trample underfoot along with useless things, and yet on this spoon there are two crosses - one is depicted as a blessing, and the other you carve on the handles.
Consequently, two crosses will be trampled upon, and this is a sin!
Father Macarius promised from now on not to make spoons with a “blessing”...
He wanted to ask the elder something else, but he did not know what or how to ask.
Finally asked a question:
- What kind of family are you, father?
The elder answered evasively:
- I come from all generations.
- Maybe you're Russian?
- No, from the Bulgarians.
- Why do you know Russian so well?
- I lived on Morfin with a Russian elder hieromonk. I also lived in the monastery of St. Anna, in Kavsokalyvia and on Provata - in one word I walked around different places, and finally the Lord revealed this holy place to me. I've lived here for 16 years.
- How many years did you live in all those places?
“I think more than 80 years,” and since he arrived on Athos, he has never left.
- How old are you?
- 118 years old.
- What do you eat and where do you get your clothes and everything else?
“I still have a brother-in-arms living (by tonsure from one elder), an abbot on the same island, and he delivers everything I need, coming by boat every three months.
In conclusion, Father Macarius asked if he would allow him to come again someday. He replied that even if he decided to do this, he would not get to him. And with that we parted.
And exactly. Having attempted to go to the elder after some time, he tore all his clothes on impenetrable thorny bushes, knocked off his shoes, but did not find the place.
A year later, he again asked Father Arseny, who had come to see him, to take him to this place. He fulfilled his wish, and the monk Macarius, with the same difficulties, went down to the old man’s garden, but did not find him alive.
A fresh grave with a cross testified to his death, and he was probably buried by a brother who came to see him.
Grieving that he did not find the elder, he went to the sea, into which a stream quickly ran, which began near the hidden kalivka. There, at the mouth of the stream, there was a white cross, which served as a sign for the arrival of the abbot from the island...
The story has also reached us about a certain Bulgarian, named Jacob, who labored for many years in obedience to one strict and God-fearing Greek elder in the Holy Trinity Skete of Kavsokalyvia. This novice, zealous for spiritual achievements, constantly came at night to the cathedral church - Kyriakon - and prayed there for hours in the narthex in front of the icon of the Holy Trinity.
And then one night - and then there was a full moon - he saw the following: the door opened and a magnificent hermit, completely naked, with long, snow-white hair and a beard, entered the narthex. The elder raised his right hand and made the sign of the cross over the locked inner doors. They opened by themselves. The mysterious stranger entered the church, reverently kissed the icons, and after some time left the kyriakon and began to move away along the path leading to the monastery of Kerasius (and when the hermit left, the internal doors of the temple began to move again and closed themselves).
Shocked by what he saw, the novice secretly followed the elder. They rose higher and higher, passed Kerasia, reached the fork with a cross known to all Athosites and, turning right, began to climb to the top of Athos. Having reached the cell of Panagia, the hermit went inside. Jacob quickened his steps, caught up with the elder and, throwing himself at his feet, with tears in his eyes, begged for mercy and to keep him with him as a novice.
“Child, you cannot endure this feat,” answered the elder. “Without God’s grace it is impossible to bear the burden of life in this place.” Return to your elder, remain in obedience to him, and you will be saved. And know that the Lord will soon take you from this life.
A feat that is difficult to bear is, of course, not only the strictest fasting and the winter cold of the highlands. The main feat is an endless spiritual battle that is waged in the desert.
(Digression about Idolio.
Kerasia seems to be the highest place on Mount Athos, where hermits known to us live. It is located at an altitude of approximately 800 meters. A little higher than Kerasia there is a place that is not recommended to be visited without special blessing. A huge picturesque rock, called by the Greeks Idolio, that is, Idol. There is an ancient pagan temple here.
(Several temples are known on Mount Athos, dating back to the 6th-4th millennium BC. I wrote about one of them, located next to the Great Lavra, in the book “Tread on the Asp”; it is also shown in the video film of the same name).
The descriptions of Idolio compiled by the expedition members of the portal isihazm.ru (we present photos from this portal) are as follows. As you approach the temple, the path is shrouded in fog. Here is already the altitude at which we enter cloudiness. This makes approaching a scary place especially unsettling. The whole body is saturated with cold, all-permeable moisture, and fear creeps into the soul.
At the intersections of the paths converging to Idolio, there are crosses. They are like road signs: the exit of evil spirits from the gorge is prohibited...
On the temple there is a huge stone square, about two by three meters. Human sacrifices were made on it. On the sides of this solid marble slab there are drains carved for blood, which flowed into a huge stone bowl.
Here you feel with every fiber of your soul: dark energy has not left here. It seems that even the trees around are drying up from horror... Only the soldiers of Christ - hermits - come here to fight with evil spirits, to give battle to the devil in his very lair. This is the spiritual tradition: many Athonite monasteries, including the one founded by St. Athanasius Lavra, are founded on the site of ancient temples. So each such monastery is also a symbol of the spiritual victory of Orthodoxy).
Yes,” says Father Silouan thoughtfully, “they completely renounced the world so that their pure prayer would hold the world together. These anchorites have a special gift from God - to be invisible. People shouldn't bother them. Only a select few see them. Nowadays, Elder Paisios...
An interesting video was recently made. Hieromonk Athanasius Simonopetris, a student of Geronta Paisius, tells how he once came to his honest father in the cell of the Holy Cross with the same question - about the invisible elders.
He was alone,” says Father Afanasy. “I was very happy about this.” It was Easter.
- Geronda, I wanted to ask if invisible elders exist? You do not know?
- What, isn’t the Holy Spirit the same? Isn't God the same?! Has anything changed? Why shouldn't they be? - So that means they exist?! You know? - If they ask you, then say that they exist...
- They told how they saw twelve elders in St. Anna, and in Malaya Anna they said that there were nine of them.
Elder Paisios answered:
No, there are seven of them. Well, okay, come on, go. Ade-ade, get out of here...
- Where are they?
- On the top of the mountain.
- Has anyone seen them?
- Nobody... They have a special gift from God and a prayer such that no one sees them. There are only seven of them. They may be near you, but you won't see them. That's why they are called invisible. This is not an allegory. But that's it - go away!
- What do they eat in winter?
- If they are completely naked in winter, without clothes, then what’s the problem with them getting soaked in something in winter?! Okay, go - go, that's it! *(In the book of the monk Joseph Dionysiatis “Elder Arseny the Caveman, companion of Elder Joseph the Hesychast” there are interesting memories of Elder Arseny. “One night,” he says, “from St. Anna we walked barefoot through the snow to our kaliva. As soon as the fathers of the monastery They saw the footprints and immediately rang the bells of the Kyriakon. Since there was no holiday, the skits ran to the temple to find out what had happened and why they were ringing the bells. Then a monk said to them:
“At last we have found the naked ascetics. Here are their traces. Let's follow in their footsteps to find out where they live.
They got up and came to our cave. They ask us in an imperative tone:
“Where did the naked ascetics hide?”
Father Arseny, with his good-natured simplicity, answers them:
– What naked ascetics?
- So they reached this place, here are the traces of their feet!
- Eh, fathers, we’ve gone through this. There are no nudes here.
- It’s not you! There are naked ascetics here!
And indeed, it was absolutely incredible, because, as you know, feet in cold snow will inevitably get frostbite. But two ascetics, one by faith in God, and the other by obedience to the Elder, lived above the laws of nature.”
No, no! - Ade, come on, that's it, I won't say any more.
- No, one more question...
- You are so curious! God does not want to show them to the world...
- I won’t leave until you say something more precise...
- Okay... Here's the secret. I know only four... Every five years I see one of them... They come here just at this time, on Easter... I can’t say more yet... Come before I die, and I will reveal more to you . I can't now.
I came, says Father Afanasy, a month before the death of the Elder, but he said that God did not want to reveal these hermits to the world...
Elder Paisios himself wrote how, having gotten lost on the way to the monastery of St. Anna, he met a hermit whose face literally shone: he looked about seventy years old, he was wearing a cassock made of a material similar to canvas or tarpaulin, all faded and torn. The holes in this robe are filled with sharp splinters. A thick chain hung around his neck, holding a box at chest level. Apparently there was some kind of shrine in it!
Before I could ask a question, the hermit said:
My child, this road does not lead to St. Anne,” and he showed me another path.
His appearance was like that of a saint!
“Where do you live, elder,” I asked the hermit.
“There somewhere,” he pointed with his hand to the top of Mount Athos...
Of course, this is not a matter of finding a path. The very appearance of the holy elder is a laconic and miraculous instruction on the true path.
Judging by the words of Geronda Paisius, he met this amazing hermit precisely when he was looking for spiritual guidance. In his search, Father Paisiy walked along inconspicuous paths for so long that he lost count of what day it was today. The anchorite answered this question by taking out notched sticks from his bag.
There is such an episode in the life story of Elder Paisius. An old man sits on the side of the road and talks with one pilgrim. A large group passes by, literally two meters away, clearly heading towards the elder’s cell - so what? They pass without noticing those sitting. Elder Paisius's interlocutor testifies that at that moment they were invisible to others. Apparently, Geronta also had such an amazing gift, but rarely used it. The Lord revealed it to comfort people. Made him an OBVIOUS old man.
Top, top! Apparently, those rays that emanate from her in the ancient engraving are not just an image.
So, legend connects the invisible elders with the Athos peak. It was there that Saint Maximus Kavsokalivit directed his steps, having received a command from the Mother of God.
Twice - barefoot, with prayer, despite the insurance of myriads of demons who had gathered on his way from almost the entire Universe - he climbed to the top. And finally, he received bread from the Mother of God, the eating of which immediately filled his heart with a violent boiling of mental prayer. After this, he was able to see in the darkness of the night and even fly... through the air. (Sober contemplation. M., 2003. P. 82, 85).
Was it not from them, from these seven who took on the angelic form, that a revelation came that also visited the future Geront Joseph the Hesychast?!
Indeed, in the thirties, throughout Athos he could not find a single Greek monk who would show him the path to smart work.
Two years of prayers, inconsolable tears that turned the ground at his feet into mud... And suddenly... something happened to him. That day he prayed, looking at the top of Mount Athos. At some point, unexpectedly, a certain breath seemed to come from there. And mental prayer came to him.
Having acquired a mystical experience, Elder Joseph settled in the monastery of Malaya Anna. The small cell, as in ancient times, helped to revive the large monasteries and monasteries. The disciples of Joseph the Hesychast who came out from here became their abbots and spiritual fathers - from Mount Athos to American Arizona...
The Athonite experience formulates a law that every time helps to overcome spiritual desolation: angels help anchorites, anchorites help kinoviat, and kinoviat help people...
There are elders! Eat! Enough said. Personally, I don’t necessarily have to look for those very secluded caves where seven unknown people labor. Those interested in semi-spiritual speleology and semi-prayerful rock climbing are directed to the portal isihazm.ru. To descriptions of expeditions, whose members claim that mysterious caves were found by them and that, according to a number of signs, they are inhabited today.
Maybe that's how it is. Maybe they found it. God save them. In any case, brave climbers discovered hard-to-reach caves in which very specific and personally famous anchorites—Illarion the Georgian and Pachomius the Serb—were working.
… “When we were restoring Kukuvino,” says Hierodeacon Silouan, “in the evenings, tired, we sat on a bench next to the temple, prayed and looked at the top. And as if from this peak Someone was sending us strength.
We, Athonite pilgrims, already understood this ourselves: scorched by the sun and exhausted, climbing to the top, we held on only to the Jesus Prayer. Getting up turned out to be the longest prayer in life for each of us. And – where did the strength come from!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner...