Saint Sophrony the Athonite

hey everyone god bless you it's uh saturday evening and i'm about to leave my office and go to great vespers but i decided that i couldn't do that without making this recording for your benefit i know how many of you uh at least i have a sense from your sending me notes uh how many of you benefit and profit by listening to the sinha sarian on pnp and you hear the lives of the saints and your families get to hear them some of you at the dinner table and while you're driving in the car well tonight is a very special evening tomorrow the 11th of july is the feast of saint safrani of essex the founder of the monastery of saint john the baptist there in the village of toleshant knights by malden a spiritual father of the 20th century of such magnitude and such influence for the sake of the kingdom of god spiritual son of saint siloan the athenite and his biographer i have not found yet his official life to have it recorded and put into the sinaksari and so when you go tomorrow to listen you aren't going to be able to hear about this incredible saint sophroni who was just glorified on the 27th of november of 2019 so his first feast was last year this will be the second time that his life has been chanted in the churches of god throughout the world we painted father safroni on the walls of our church um years before his glorification but without a nimbus and we're waiting now to have our iconographers come back and to put that halo on saint safroni's head i'm going to read his life now to you a short version of his life so you can appreciate at least the contours of this magnificent christian man it comes from the introduction of a book entitled christ our way and our life this book was published almost 20 years ago in 2003 by father of zechariah zahara spiritual father at father safroni's monastery of saint john the baptist and a spiritual son of saint safrani our commander deeply respected not just by doofuses like myself but uh around the world and this is his basic essentially father zacharias's dissertation doctoral dissertation on the theology of elder safroni and he presents us a nice summary life at the beginning of the book archamandre sophroni saharaf was born in moscow in 1896 he studied at the national school of fine arts in moscow and took up painting as his career as well as endowing him richly with natural talents god also gave him exceptional spiritual gifts from the outset of his life from a young age he assimilated the spirit of the living god of his fathers in his youth he was possessed by a thirst for absolute being and he devoted himself to a serious consideration of the existential problems of his time and place his intense metaphysical quest brought him to sense painfully the tragic character of human existence he came to belittle the idea that the absolute could be contained in the psychological level as he saw it of the gospel commandments of love and he strayed from the path of christianity he was attracted by the theories of eastern religions seeing in them a logical solution to the grievous sight of suffering and pain and he practiced for about eight years the transcendental meditation that is linked to their philosophical delusion of an impersonal absolute his return to christianity was provoked by an awakening to the scriptural text of god's revelation to moses i am that i am by god's grace he understood that the absolute and unoriginated being is none other than the personal god first revealed to moses the same god who has in these last days spoken to us by his only begotten son by jesus christ from the moment of his personal meeting with him who is father safroni did not rest from an intense striving to be initiated into the mystery of the god revealed to him and to penetrate the infinite dimensions of the person of christ in whose image man was created with extremely intense mourning he lamented for decades his misguided quest for the impersonal imaginary absolute of the oriental religions he viewed his laps from christianity as a fall like that of adam and as suicide on the metaphysical plane in his book we shall see him as he is which is tantamount to a spiritual autobiography he describes how he lived out his repentance in 1925 after a short period of studies at the saint sergius theological institute he left paris for the holy mountain of athos where he lived for 22 years he first settled in the monastery of saint pantalemon where he met and formed a close spiritual bond with saint silane 1866-1938 in whose person he saw clearly portrayed the authentic dimensions of christian life father safroni had lived for about five years at saint pat to layman's monastery before he met saint silane personally he was ordained deacon in 1930 and each time he came out of the sanctuary to sense the monks he used to feel awe and shame when he passed in front of the saint but he had not as yet had any occasion to speak with him a few years after his ordination to the diaconate father safroni was visited by a hermit father vladimir and they spoke together on various spiritual matters father vladimir was moved to compunction by their conversation as well as by the spiritual atmosphere of their whole meeting and he spontaneously addressed father safroni with the question father cephroni how can someone be saved at that moment father safroni was preparing tea for father vladimir and he replied stay on the verge of despair but when you see that you are going to fall over draw back and have a cup of tea and he handed him some tea this word and above all the strong feeling which it transmitted struck the hermit and he left shaken he went afterwards to saint siloan to seek advice and check the veracity of father saffroni's exhortation the next day father safroni was coming down the staircase from the main building of the monastery which had many stories towards the central courtyard and saint siloan was coming up from the warehouse in the opposite direction they would normally have met outside the entrance to the main church but father saffroni out of his habitual respect moved aside to avoid getting in the way of the holy man saint siloan however also changed direction so that they met unavoidably in front of the refectory at that point saint silajuan asked father safroni father safroni did father vladimir visit you yesterday and father safroni omitting all the intermediate stages usual in conversation replied by asking did i make any mistake likewise going straight to the point saint siloan said to him no but what you said was beyond his measure if you like come and see me tomorrow and we can speak more about this thus father safroni visited saint siloan who told him about his own life he recounted the 15-year long battle he had waged against evil spirits he converted to him the revelatory word of christ keep thy mind in hell and despair not which marked a crucial moment in his spiritual struggle and which was powerful enough to save him from every diabolic temptation and purify him from proud thoughts this historic meeting had a definitive effect on father safroni's later spiritual evolution and on his theology his communications with saint siloan reassured father safrani that he was not misguided in the spirit of repentance which perpetually inflamed him he was instructed by the saints teaching and because of his unwavering faith in the start's word he acquired stability in his ascetic life and was led to freedom from passions he lived out the rest of his days both in the desert and later in his service in the world testifying to the fact that only by voluntarily descending to hell following the pattern set by the gospel can the believer be placed securely on the path of god and learn the indescribable humility of christ and be united with him father cephaloni held star at siloan in such respect and trust that in spirit he venerated his very footsteps he spoke and wrote about how he considered his close contact with saint silan as god's greatest gift to him he remained close to him until the end of the saints life and then with the blessing of his abbot and the council of elders of the monastery he withdrew to the desert of mount athos from his hermit cell he served as father confessor to the monasteries of saint paul gregorius simoneos petras zenofondos and to many skeets and other groups of monks in 1947 he left athos to return to france and in 1948 he published in russian the manuscripts entrusted to him by saint siloan before his death having added some biographical information and an extensive analysis of the saints teaching in 1959 he found founded in essex england the community which was to become the patriarchal stavrophegix monastery of saint john the baptist where he fell asleep in the lord on july 11 1993 in spiritual terms father safroni stands out as a sign from god for his generation he lived out the tragedy the anxieties the difficulties and the quests of the much troubled 20th century and through his living example his prayer and his word he gave answers to the burning questions of his contemporaries father safroni's lapse in his youth into the impersonal theology of the oriental religions was transformed by the wondrous providence of god into a gift from heaven although father safroni had never consciously rejected christ he nonetheless considered his going astray as apostasy and as a crime against the love of god of the of of the love of the god of his fathers this became the starting point of his unremitting deep inconsolable repentance through the grace given despair of repentance as he himself describes it he was liberated from the bonds of the old man and enabled to contemplate without passions the uncreated light of the face of christ from then on he understood the spiritual place of the human person in its divine human fullness he saw the two great commandments of love become the law of his whole being the first shown in an insatiable desire for god and the second in prayer for the world to the point of self-forgetting and abundant tears in such agonized prayer he spent himself for decades because father safroni had the grace given experience unique to christianity of the personal or as he preferred to say hypostatic principle as well as knowing from within the content of the indian religions he proved an invaluable apologist for orthodox hesacastic practice in a challenging epoch whose spirit is syncretistic with persuasive and compelling authority he succeeded in describing the difference between the two ascetic theories oriental and christian which are as far apart as the uncreated is from the created he contracted the spiritual suicide to which transcendental meditation leads with the incomparable life-giving experience of meeting and being united with the personal god of scripture father sophony was endowed with many gifts of the holy spirit the most impressive was the living word of god which he grasped through prayer and carried in his heart he was a man of the word every contact with him was an opening to new understanding in life and even his most everyday words conveyed grace to those who turned to him he prayed continuously and intensely for those who suffer and rejoiced more than over any miraculous occurrences to see his word and his prayer transform their hearts he struggled to diminish their pain but above all he spent himself to his utmost in the service of the greatest and most significant miracle of our temporal life the union of human beings with the spirit of the living and eternal god no phenomenon in the spiritual life could take him by surprise he had traced the whole path at one in the same time both unfathomable depths and immeasurable heights were within his reach as well as knowing the grace of repentance he was familiar with the altar alternations that occur in the practice of inner prayer he was schooled in the regenerating word of christ and had taken upon himself his martyric priesthood he deeply loved the divine liturgy and affirmed that to celebrate it appropriately is as spiritually fruitful for prayer as is hezikism in the desert he used to say to be a christian one must first be like an artist just as artists are captivated by the subjects they paint and by the desire to portray them as perfectly as possible so too the christian is captivated by christ and by a desire to attain his endless perfection i press on to make it my own because christ jesus has made me his own when father safroni felt his end approaching he said i have said everything to god i have finished what i had to do now i must depart he summoned the members of the community one by one imparting to each his final instructions and a personal farewell word then with humility as well as boldness he wrote a fervent letter to his all-holiness patriarch bartholomew with heartfelt thanks for all the care shown towards his monastery as well as expressing deep gratitude he begged the patriarch to defend the fragile work of his hands give your blessing upon the lowly sheep of my fold that this place small poor and insignificant but founded upon many tears and heartfelt groaning and blood and sweat may never be forsaken by your affectionate care and good pleasure he ended the letter by asking his hirak's blessing to depart to the long for light of the risen christ father safroni passed away peacefully and now reposes in the lord but he continues through his word and his prayer to minister for the miracle that his soul desired the regeneration of the faithful and their entrance richly provided for into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ the following works of father safroni have been published in english saint silo on the athenite 1991 and again 1999 his life is mine 1977 we shall see him as he is 1988 on prayer 1996 and again 1998 words of life 1998 principles of orthodox monasticism 1964 the monk of mount athos star at siloan 1975 and wisdom from mount athos writings of saint silane 1975. in all his books he develops christian anthropology in the light of saint siloan's experience which he also shared in his teaching on the person he continually portrays saint silan as a model his anthropology follows the tradition of the church but he develops it with a particular emphasis and an original robustness and inspiration which grew out of his long and exceptional trials in the furnace of god's training the originality of father safroni's theology lies in his interpretation of certain aspects of christian revelation in such a way as to answer satisfactorily the theological problems of his time the central axis of his living theology is his deep investigation into the meaning of the personal or hypostatic principle in divine being and in humanity and his description of certain features of humanity which determine man's final realization as far as this is possible within the limits of earthly life this theology is presented as an account of man's personal encounter with the living god and as a chronicle of the experience of divine light since silhouette and his disciple and biographer archimandrite cephroni deserve a place in the history of the church the present study aims to establish the spiritual experience of these two men as a subject worthy of consideration in the academic circles of the contemporary theology i also hope to demonstrate the uniqueness of orthodox anthropology which has the last word to say in response to the challenges and accidental existential problems of our generation well there you have it may the prayers of saint safrani of essex save us and inspire us in our walk with god and are seeking the kingdom of heaven i wish you a wonderful feast on the occasion of saint cephroni's feast day and i ask your prayers patristic nectar publications is pleased to present a new 11 lecture series by father josiah trenham entitled the gospel revealed an exposition of saint paul's epistle to the romans this most famous of all saint paul's letters is a majestic proclamation of the christian gospel a gospel described as the power of god revealed from heaven for the salvation of all who believe the great apostle sets forth the dire need of all human beings for god's saving work in jesus christ as well as the majestic fruits that attend faith in the lives of christians here in 16 chapters saint paul expounds many themes that have captured the christian imagination for 20 centuries now available at patristicnector.org

Channel: PatristicNectarFilms

Views: 6,705

Rating: 4.9718308 out of 5

Keywords: saint sophrony of essex, st sophrony, st sophrony of essex, saint silouan the athonite, saint silouan, monastère saint silouane, mount athos, athonite monks, english monasticism, Saint Sophrony, Patristic Nectar, Father Josiah Trenham, Orthodox Christians, Orthodox Church, orthodox christianity explained

Id: bh6yMFSp7Yc

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 10 2021