Saint Silouan, the Athonite

Saint Silouan, the Athonite by Sophrony, Archimandrite. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780881411959.

In the autumn of 1892 a young Russian peasant named Simeon from the province of Tambov was drawn to that ancient repository of Orthodox spirituality, Mt Athos. He had done his military service and now came to the Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon, to embark on long years of spiritual combat lasting until his death in 1938. Although he was unlearned and ignorant in the ordinary sense, tireless inner strivings gave him authentic personal experience of Christianity identical with that of many of the early ascetic Desert Fathers. The first part of this book is a remarkable account of St Silouans life, personality and teaching by his spiritual disciple Archimandrite Sophrony. Part two comprises the writings of Silouan, originally penciled in laborious, unformed characters on odd scraps of paper.