О Лаврентии
The Test of Obedience
The abbot demonstrates the profound obedience of an elderly monk by subjecting him to a public trial of patience during a meal.
When I was once sitting at table with this great abbot, he leaned his holy lips to my ear and said: "Would you like me to show you divine wisdom in the deepest white hair of old age?"1 I asked him to do so, and the holy father called over a monk named Lawrence from the second table, who had lived in the monastery for about forty-eight years and was the community's second-ranking priest.2 He came over, prostrated himself on the ground before the abbot, and received a blessing. But when he stood up, the abbot said nothing to him and left him standing before the table without eating—even though the meal had only just begun. So he stood there for an hour or two, and I was already ashamed even to look at this laborer's face; for he was completely white-haired, already in his eightieth year.3 He stood that way, without greeting or answer, until the meal was finished; and when they rose, the holy man sent him to the aforementioned great Isidore to tell him the beginning of the thirty-ninth psalm (Ps.4 (Ps. 39:2).5 .6
The Interiority of Simplicity
Lawrence reveals that his obedience is rooted in seeing the abbot as Christ, which protects his heart from evil thoughts.
But I, being the craftiest of men, didn't miss the chance to test this elder, and I asked him what he was thinking while he stood before the table. He answered: "By picturing the shepherd in the image of Christ, I never thought I was receiving commands from him, but from God. So I stood there, Father John, not as before a human table, but as before the altar of God, and I prayed to God; and through my faith and love for the shepherd, I had no crafty thought against him at all." For someone has said: Love thinks no evil.✦ Still, know this too, Father: if anyone has given himself over to simplicity and willing guilelessness, the Evil One no longer finds a place in him, not even for a moment."7
Read the original Latin
Когда я однажды сидел за трапезою с великим сим настоятелем, он приклонил святые уста свои к моему уху, и сказал: «Хочешь ли я покажу тебе в глубочайшей седине Божественное мудрование?» Я просил его об этом, и преподобный отец позвал от второй трапезы инока, по имени Лаврентия, который около сорока восьми лет жил в той обители, и был вторым соборным пресвитером. Он пришел и, поклонившись игумену до земли, принял от него благословение. Но когда встал, то игумен ничего не сказал ему, а оставил его стоять перед трапезою не евши; обед же только начинался. Так он стоял с час, или два, и мне стало уже стыдно взглянуть на лицо сего делателя; ибо он был совершенно седой, имея уже восьмидесятый год от роду. Он стоял таким образом, без привета и ответа, пока обед не кончился; а когда встали, то преподобный послал его к вышеупомянутому великому Исидору сказать ему начало тридцать девятого псалма23 (Пс. 39:2). .
Я же, как лукавейший, не упустил случая испытать сего старца и спросил его, о чем он помышлял, стоя перед трапезою. Он отвечал: «представляя себе пастыря во образе Христа, я никогда не помышлял, что получаю повеления от него, но от Бога; посему и стоял я, отче Иоанне, не как перед трапезою человеческою, но как перед жертвенником Божиим и молился Богу; и по вере и любви моей к пастырю я не имел против него никакого лукавого помышления. Ибо некто сказал: любы не мыслит зла. Впрочем и то знай, отче, что если кто предал себя простоте и добровольному незлобию, в том лукавый уже не находит себе места ни на мгновение».
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.13.5 — It does not dishonor others, it does not seek its own, it is not easily provoked, it does not keep a record of wrongs.
Notes
- 1 ↩«Божественное мудрование» rendered as 'divine wisdom' (godly cast of mind / divine prudence). «В глубочайшей седине» is 'in deepest gray-haired age'—extreme white-haired old age, not merely abstract wisdom.
- 2 ↩«Вторым соборным пресвитером» rendered as 'the second senior priest of the community' (second ranking collegiate/council presbyter of the monastery).
- 3 ↩«Делателя» rendered as 'laborer' in the ascetic sense—one who works the spiritual craft—not a merely secular worker.
- 4 ↩Source splits the psalm citation across s6–s7; trailing '23' after «псалма» is treated as a footnote marker, not part of the psalm number. Sentence ends mid-parenthesis by design of the source segmentation.
- 5 ↩Fragment completing the psalm reference begun in s6: Psalm 39:2 per the source's numbering.
- 6 ↩Source sentence is only a residual period from citation/segmentation; no independent Russian prose to translate.
- 7 ↩Russian «лукавый» here is the personal Evil One (the devil), not mere craftiness; contrast with «лукавейший» (s1) and «лукавого помышления» (s2), which name human cunning.
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