Chapter Six.

Saint Silouan: A Model of Spiritual Life.

        “O what a Lord is ours!... If the Lord is ours, then all things are ours. That is how rich we are.”^[92] Echoing the language of the Apostle Paul, Saint Silouan touches on the essence of Christian existence. For him Christian life is knowing Jesus Christ who became poor so that we might become rich (I I Cor. 8:9). Silouan lived in awe and wonder at the glory of the Lord and His love for all creation. The centrality of God's love for the world and Christ's glorious victory over sin and death mark Silouan's life with the special qualities observed in Orthodox saints: Easter joy, encompassing love and spiritual radiance. The opportunity to examine the life and thought of Silouan is an invitation to explore some of the rich dimensions of Orthodox spirituality.

        Saint Silouan was a Russian “staretz” or spiritual elder who was proclaimed a saint some years ago. We are fortunate to know about the Staretz through his disciple Archimandrite Sophrony. In 1948, ten years after Silouan's death, Sophrony wrote a volume in Russian about Silouan's life and writings which was subsequently published in Paris under the saint's name (1952). An English translation of this volume was published in 1958 entitled The Undistorted Image.^[93] Later a revised and expanded edition of this work came out in two volumes, one entitled The Monk of Mount Athos and the other Wisdom from Mount Athos^[94] which are the main sources for the saint's life and thought. The first is an interpretive account of the life and teaching of Silouan. It offers personal reflections of someone who intimately knew him and provides insights especially into the spiritual struggles of the Saint. The second book, edited also by Sophrony, contains the teachings of Silouan. These teachings were set down during the last years of the Saint's life in the form of inspired notations.

        The title of the second book, Wisdom from Mount Athos, in one respect does not correctly reflect the spiritual message of Silouan. The Staretz’s teachings are, to be sure, gems of spiritual wisdom but the Saint would not think of them in this way. What he has to communicate to his readers is a gospel, good news, a divine message: to know Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. He writes with evangelical fervor and his words, even in translation, radiate apostolic power. Both of the above books are valuable contributions to the spiritual witness of Silouan whose life reaches down to modern times. The present appreciation of Saint Silouan and his teaching is based on these two books.

        Born Simeon Ivanovich Antonov in the year 1866, Silouan lived the ordinary life of a Russian peasant. He was an honest, strong young man much impressed by the wisdom of his pious unlettered father. Simeon himself received little formal education. He went to school for only “two winters,” as he said, probably just enough to learn how to read and write. However, his youth was marked by an inner yearning for God. This was highlighted by various incidents in his early life. At the age of nineteen he expressed the desire to enter the monastic life. Nevertheless, family considerations and sins of youth, with which the Saint was not untouched, diminished the divine calling in him.

        A particular incident seems to have served as a turning point in his life. It was a jolting vision after a period of careless living. While Simeon on one occasion dozed off to sleep he dreamed that a snake crawled down his throat. He awakened full of horror and revulsion. He immediately heard a sweet voice saying: “Just as you found it loathsome to swallow a snake in your dream, so I find your ways ugly to look upon.^[95] Simeon was convinced that the Virgin Mary had spoken to him and was trying to lift him up from a life of corruption and spiritual death. This experience generated in him a deep consciousness of sin and an equally profound need for repentance. These were the foundations for his later ascent to spiritual heights. At the age of twenty‑six, as soon as he finished his military service, Simeon entered the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos, the greatest monastic center of the Orthodox Church composed of more than twenty monastic communities and many hermitages.

        The young novice set upon his monastic duties and the life of prayer with singular devotion. As in the case of each novice, Simeon was given a prayer rope (a “rosary”) and was taught the Jesus Prayer — “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” — which he practiced with great zeal. The first spiritual fruits soon appeared. He writes: “One day when I was a young novice I was praying before the icon of the Mother of God, and the Jesus Prayer entered into my heart.”^[96] This is a high state of spiritual prayer, known to Orthodox Saints and Church Fathers, in which the invocation of the Name of Jesus works spontaneously and uninterruptedly in the heart by the action of the Holy Spirit. Called the prayer of the heart, it is a high spiritual gift. Not long afterward Simeon was granted an even more sublime experience which he later intimated to his close disciple Sophrony. According to the latter,^[97] Simeon, while at Vespers, near the icon of the Savior, beheld had a vision of the living Christ Himself. This was the decisive experience of his life. His whole being was filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit. He experienced a profound sense of forgiveness and reconciliation. Joy and peace flooded his soul. This was a new spiritual birth. Silouan himself is reticent about the actual vision. But he hints at this profound experience here and there as reflected in the following references:

In the first year of my life in the monastery my soul apprehended God in the Holy

Spirit . . . I turned to God for forgiveness, and He granted to me not forgiveness alone

but the Holy Spirit, and I knew God in the Holy Spirit.^[98]

    And again: “It was given to me, a poor sinner, through the Holy Spirit to know

that Jesus Christ is God.^[99]

    I brought nothing but sins with me to the monastery, and I do not know why,

when I was still a young novice, the Lord gave me the grace of the Holy Spirit. . .

I did not ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit: I did not know about the Holy Spirit and

how He enters the soul, nor what He does with the soul; but now it is a great joy for

me to write of this. 0 Holy Spirit, how dear art Thou to the soul!^[100]

Three years later, at the age of thirty, Simeon was professed a monk, receiving the name of Silouan in accordance with the monastic tradition of changing name as a sign of a radical change in life. For most of his forty‑six years as a monk, Silouan worked in the monastery flour mill and was also one of the monastery stewards serving in the kitchen and dining room. He never became externally significant. He quietly carried out his duties without attracting attention to himself. His disciple Sophrony cites several humorous incidents about important figures coming to seek the spiritual advice of the Staretz to the surprise of some of his fellow monks who did not have eyes to see what treasure they had in Silouan.

        In one such incident a learned monk, Father Stratonicos, came to visit Mount Athos from the Russian Caucasus. He was well‑known for his spiritual wisdom. But he had come to the Holy Mountain to find someone with whom he could profitably discuss several matters of concern to him. After two months of visiting various monasteries he began to feel that his long and arduous journey had perhaps been in vain for he had not learned anything new. Then he incidentally discovered Silouan. They talked privately on several occasions. Afterwards Father Stratonicos became quiet and deeply thoughtful. Another monk engaged him in the following conversation:

“What is wrong with you Father Stratonicos? I don't recognize you... You sit

sit there mournfully, your inspired lips sealed. What is the matter?” “How should

I answer your questions?” replied Stratonicos. “It is not good for me to speak. You

have Silouan. Ask him.” The monk who had asked the questions looked amazed.

He had known Silouan for a long time and respected him. But he never thought of

asking him for any advice.^[101]

Silouan grew in the spiritual life but not without severe struggles. An initial period of spiritual exaltation followed his vision of Christ and his new birth by the Spirit. But this experience began to diminish in him. Severe struggles ensued. The questions that now emerged with great significance to him were: How can one remain alive to the gentle grace of the Holy Spirit? Once illumined, why does the mind become dark and dull again? How can one grow to spiritual stability? Silouan himself makes reference to his spiritual struggles. He is open about the cause of his soul's turmoil:

Twice was I beguiled. The first time was at the beginning when I was a young novice,

and came about because of my inexperience; and the Lord was swift to forgive me.

But the second occasion was due to pride, and that time I suffered a long torment

before the Lord healed me.^[102]

It was through such struggles that Silouan learned more deeply about spiritual vigilance, the subtle warfare with pride, the cleansing of the heart, and complete reliance on God. In general Silouan's spiritual life was molded through the traditional Orthodox monastic disciplines such as worship, the life of prayer, reading of the Bible and hearing and reading works of the Church Fathers. Although the Saint had little formal education, he became well‑schooled in the liturgical texts, Holy Scripture and the contemplative writings of Church Fathers. These were the sources, along with his devotion to private prayer, that provided the nourishment for Silouan's spiritual growth.

        Silouan's most precious lesson was about humility. Humility seemed like a key which unlocked a deeper knowledge of the mysteries of God. Having discerned and renounced spiritual pride, Silouan was especially drawn to the humility of Christ. He received a richer illumination of grace which enabled him intuitively to understand the truths of Scripture and the spiritual teachings of the Church Fathers. Grace no longer seemed to leave him as before. Temptations diminished. Greater spiritual stability prevailed. His soul increased in joy and gratitude for all things. A deep love flowed from his heart for all people and for all creatures and wonders of creation.

        One of the most distinctive aspects of Silouan's life was his personal witness or testimony, reminiscent of Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949‑1022 AD). Silouan was a man of God. He had come to know God deeply and personally. The fire of divine love consumed him. Externally he was a quiet, simple, and gentle man who carried countless sacks of flour around the mill of Saint Panteleimon's monastery. Unlike Saint Symeon the New Theologian, he sought to instruct no one. He writes: “All my desire is to learn humility and the love of Christ that I may offend no man and pray for all as I pray for myself.”^[103] Inwardly his soul was a dwelling‑place of the Holy Spirit. As in the case of the Prophet Jeremiah and of Saint Paul, the consuming fire that burned within his soul did not permit him to remain silent. Toward the end of his life he received a calling to write about God's love for the world. He exclaims:

My soul loves the Lord, and how may I hide this fire which warms my soul? How shall

I hide the Lord's mercies in which my soul delights? How can I hold my peace, with my

soul captive to God? How shall I be silent when my spirit is consumed day and night

with love for Him?^[104]

Silouan did not stir up those immediately around him nor created any controversies. But his written word carries authority as a personal witness on behalf of God, such as in the case of the Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists. He states: “I write out of the grace of God. Yea, this is truth. The Lord Himself is my witness.”^[105]

        Silouan did not write in order to write. Like many spiritual writers before him, he wrote because of the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit. He wrote at the end of his life, after his long spiritual struggles, when he had deeply matured in grace and was beyond the subtle influence of pride. He does not write about himself, although he seems to make the daring claim of having within him the same grace which empowered the Prophets and Apostles. He writes about the Lord. He thinks of himself as insignificant. His personal concerns completely recede behind the reality of the glory of God and the need to call all men to repentance. Can a single soul be saved? That was the crucial question. He says: “My soul knows His mercy towards me, and I write of it in hope that even one soul may come to love the Lord and be turned to Him by the fire of repentance.”^[106]

        Silouan addressed himself not only to his contemporaries but to all. The love of God, the call to repentance, the need for forgiveness and the experience of reconciliation in the Holy Spirit are abiding issues for every generation. There is in the Saint a profound note of catholic truth and a genuine universal concern which flow from his soul. Silouan's heart burned with love not only for Orthodox Christians, not for Christians alone, but for all human beings. For him all persons on every corner of the earth were part of the people of God. Silouan's soul calls out to all. Here are some typical statements from his notations:

I cannot remain silent concerning the people, whom I love so greatly that I must

weep for them.^[107]

    My heart aches for the whole world, and I pray and shed tears for the whole world,

that all may repent and know God, and live in love, and delight in freedom in God...

0 all ye peoples of the earth, pray and weep for your sins, that the Lord may

forgive them.^[108]

    O ye peoples of the earth, fashioned by God, know your Creator and His love

for us... Turn to Him, all ye peoples of the earth... Know all ye peoples that we

are created for the glory of God... Cleave not to the earth, for God is our Father

and He loves us like beloved children.^[109]

Silouan was a man with a message. He was an evangelist. He wrote with a spiritual directness reminiscent of the proclamation of the Apostles. He is totally involved in a deeply personal way both with God and with man. Not infrequently, like Saint Paul, the ambassador of Christ who beseeched all to be reconciled to God (11 Cor. 5:20), Silouan pleads with people on behalf of God, as one pleads with dearly beloved brothers. His was an inner loving authority received directly from God. His notations have the character of a prophetic and evangelical witness. He does not write with intellectual arguments to convince the mind. He writes as a man of God to convert the heart. What follows are some major themes reflected in his writings such as knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit, prayer, the inner spiritual struggle, and the criteria of authentic spiritual life.