Житие преподобного Серафима, Саровского чудотворца
The Discipline of Silence
After the death of the builder Isaiah, Father Seraphim intensifies his ascetic labors by taking on a three-year vow of silence, withdrawing from visitors and even from the monastery, communicating only through signs with the novice who brings him food.
The elder, Fr.1 Seraphim, after the death of the builder Isaiah, didn't change his former way of life and continued living in his hermitage.2 He only took on an even greater labor — namely, keeping silence.3 He no longer went out to visitors. If he happened to meet someone unexpectedly in the forest, the elder would fall face down on the ground and wouldn't lift his eyes until the person had passed by. In this way he kept silence for three years, and for a time he stopped visiting the monastery on Sundays and feast days.4 One of the novices would also bring him food in the wilderness, especially in winter, when Fr.5 Seraphim had no vegetables of his own. Food was brought once a week, on Sunday. It was hard for the monk assigned this obedience to carry it out in winter, because to Fr. Seraphim's hermitage there was no road. Sometimes he would wade through the snow in a blizzard, sinking in it up to his knees, with a week's supply in his hands for the silent elder. When he entered the entryway, he would say a prayer, and the elder, saying “Amen” to himself, would open the door from his cell into the entryway. Crossing his hands on his chest, he would stand at the door with his face bowed down to the ground; he himself would neither bless the brother nor even look at him. And the brother who had come, having prayed according to custom and bowed down at the elder's feet, would set the food on a little tray that lay on the table in the entryway. For his part, the elder would put on that same little tray either a small piece of bread or a little cabbage. The brother who had come carefully noted this. By these signs the elder silently let him know what to bring him the following Sunday: bread or cabbage. And again the brother who had come, having said a prayer, bowed down at the elder's feet and, having asked for his prayers for himself, returned to the monastery without hearing from Fr. Seraphim, not a single word. All of this was only the visible, outward signs of the discipline of silence.6 The essence of the ascetic struggle, however, didn't lie in outward withdrawal from company, but in stillness of mind and the renunciation of every worldly thought, for the purest dedication of oneself to the Lord.7
Prayer on the Stone
Inspired by the holy stylites, Father Seraphim undertakes a hidden ascetic labor of standing on a stone in the forest at night and on a stone in his cell during the day, praying with raised hands for a thousand days and nights.
Father's practice of silence Seraphim also combined this with standing on a stone.8 In a remote forest, halfway from his cell to the monastery, there lay a granite stone of extraordinary size. Recalling the hard ascetic labor of the holy stylites, Father9 Seraphim resolved to take part in asceticism of this kind. To this end he would climb onto this stone at night, so as not to be seen by anyone, in order to intensify his prayerful ascetic labor. He usually prayed either on his feet or kneeling, with his hands raised upward, like St.10 Pachomius, with his hands, crying out in the publican's voice: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."11 To balance his nighttime struggles with daytime ones, Fr. Seraphim also kept a stone in his cell. On it he prayed during the day, from morning until evening, leaving the stone only to rest when his strength failed and to take food to sustain himself. He endured this kind of prayer struggle, at times, for a thousand days and nights.12
The Hidden Labor Revealed
The physical toll of the stone-standing causes lasting illness in Seraphim's legs, leading him to cease the practice, and the secret of this labor remains unknown until he reveals it near the end of his life for the edification of others.
From standing on the stones, and from the hardship of this prayerful labor, his body changed very noticeably; the illness in his legs returned, and from that time until the end of his days it never stopped tormenting him. Father Seraphim understood that continuing such labors would wear out his strength of spirit and body, so he stopped praying on the stones. He carried out these labors in such secrecy that not one human soul knew of them or even guessed at them. Abbot Niphont, who succeeded Isaiah, received a secret inquiry about Father Seraphim from the Bishop of Tambov.13 Seraphim from the Bishop of Tambov.14 A draft reply from Niphont has survived among the monastery's papers, in which the superior answered: "Concerning the labors and life of Father Seraphim, we know them; but as for any secret acts of his, and likewise his standing a thousand days and nights on the stone, no one knew of them."15 Seraphim we know; but as for any secret acts of his, and likewise his standing a thousand days and nights on the stone, no one knew of them." Near the end of his days, so that he would not remain a riddle to people, following the example of other ascetics, among the other events of his life he also told some of the brethren about this labor, for the edification of his hearers.
Read the original Russian
Старец о. Серафим после смерти строителя Исаии не изменил прежнего рода жизни и остался жить в пустынке. Он только принял на себя ещё больший труд, а именно, молчальничество. К посетителям он более не выходил. Если ему самому случалось неожиданно встретить кого в лесу, старец падал ниц лицом и до тех пор не поднимал глаз, пока встретившийся не проходил мимо. Таким образом он безмолвствовал в продолжении трёх лет и некоторое время перестал посещать обитель по воскресным и праздничным дням. Один из послушников носил ему и пищу в пустынь, особенно в зимнее время, когда у о. Серафима не было своих овощей.
Пища приносилась однажды в неделю, в день воскресный. Трудно было назначенному иноку совершать это послушание в зимнее время, так как в пустынку о. Серафима дороги не было. Бывало, бредёт он во время вьюги по снегу, утопая в нём по колена, с недельным запасом в руках для старца-молчальника. Вошедши в сени, он произносил молитву, а старец, сказавши про себя: «Аминь», отворял дверь из келии в сени. Сложив руки на груди крестообразно, он становился у двери, потупив лицо долу, на землю; сам ни благословит брата, ни даже взглянет на него. А пришедший брат, помолившись, по обычаю, и поклонившись старцу в ноги, полагал пищу на лоточек, лежавший на столе в сенях. Со своей стороны, старец клал на лоточек же или малую частицу хлеба, или немного капусты.
Пришедший брат внимательно замечал это. Этими знаками старец безмолвно давал знать, чего принести ему в будущее воскресение: хлеба или капусты. И опять пришедший брат, сотворив молитву, кланялся старцу в ноги и, испросив молитв его о себе, возвращался в обитель, не услыхав от о. Серафима ни единого слова. Всё это были только видимые, наружные знамения молчальничества. Сущность же подвига состояла не в наружном удалении от общительности, но в безмолвии ума, отречении от всяких житейских помыслов для чистейшего посвящения себя Господу.
Молчальничество о. Серафим соединил ещё со стоянием на камне. В глухом лесу, на половине пути от келии к монастырю, лежал необыкновенной величины гранитный камень. Вспомнив о трудном подвиге свв. столпников, о. Серафим решился принять участие в подвижничестве сего рода. Для сего он восходил, чтобы не быть ни от кого видимым, в ночное время на этот камень для усиления молитвенного подвига. Молился он, обыкновенно, или на ногах, или стоя на коленях, с воздетыми вверх, подобно св.
Пахомию, руками, взывая мытаревым гласом: «Боже, милостив буди ми грешному». Чтобы уравнять ночные подвиги дневным, о. Серафим и в келии имел камень. На нём он молился во время дня, с утра до вечера, оставляя камень только для отдохновения от изнеможения сил и для подкрепления себя пищею. Такого рода молитвенный подвиг он нёс, по временам, в течение тысячи суток.
От стояния на камнях, от трудности этого молитвенного подвига, тело его очень заметно изменилось, в ногах возобновилась болезнь, которая с этого времени до кончины дней не переставала мучить его. Отец Серафим понял, что продолжение таких подвигов привело бы к изнурению сил духа и тела, и оставил моление на камнях. Подвиги сии он проходил в такой тайне, что ни одна душа человеческая не ведала о них и не догадывалась. К бывшему после Исаии игумену Нифонту был тайный запрос об о. Серафиме от епископа Тамбовского. В бумагах обители сохранился черновой отзыв Нифонта, в котором настоятель отвечал: «О подвигах и жизни о. Серафима мы знаем; о тайных же действиях каких, также и о стоянии 1000 дней и ночей на камне, никому не было известно». При кончине дней своих, чтобы не остаться загадкой для людей, по подобию других подвижников, в числе прочих явлений своей жизни, он, в назидание слушателям, рассказал и о сём подвиге некоторым из братии.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source segmentation splits the abbreviated title о. (Father) from Серафим in the next sentence; rendered as Fr. to match Orthodox usage.
- 2 ↩строитель here is Isaiah’s monastic office as monastery builder/superior, not merely a construction worker.
- 3 ↩молчальничество is the ascetical discipline of silence (silence-keeping), not mere muteness.
- 4 ↩Source has в продолжении (common orthographic slip) for в продолжение; sense is clearly ‘for the duration of three years.’
- 5 ↩Sentence breaks mid-abbreviation о.; completed by Серафима in s8.
- 6 ↩молчальничество rendered as 'discipline of silence' (ascetic silence-keeping), not mere muteness.
- 7 ↩безмолвие ума rendered as 'stillness of mind' (hesychastic silence of the mind); помыслов as 'thoughts' in the monastic sense of logismoi.
- 8 ↩Russian соединил ещё со takes молчальничество from s1 as its object: Father Seraphim also combined his practice of silence with standing on a stone.
- 9 ↩столпников = stylites (pillar-dwellers). о. = Father (отец), abbreviated before Серафим in s6.
- 10 ↩воздетыми вверх implies raised hands/arms (воздетые руки); руками is explicit only in the following section. св. continues as Пахомию in ChichagovZhitieSerafima.1.10.5.s1.
- 11 ↩Continues the previous section's unfinished clause (hands raised upward, like St.).
- 12 ↩Russian суток means full twenty-four-hour periods; rendered as 'days and nights' to match the Life's later wording of 1000 days and nights on the stone.
- 13 ↩Source sentence is cut mid-abbreviation at «об о.»; continues in s5 as «Серафиме...».
- 14 ↩Continuation of s4: full sense is a secret inquiry about Father Seraphim, sent to Abbot Niphont by the Bishop of Tambov.
- 15 ↩Quoted reply is cut mid-abbreviation at «о.»; continues in s7.
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