On Hesychia and the Cleansing of the
Mind and Heart
A proven lover of the desert was the blessed Russian hieromonk Father
Serapios, who visited the great hesychast and recluse Kallinikos in 1912-13,
to ask his blessŽing that he might depart and join those athletes who
conŽtended in the field of the desert.
Elder Kallinikos, an experienced teacher of the Jesus Prayer, described to
the Russian monk the dangers, traps and delusions which the enemy of our
salvation uses to atŽtack those who live in seclusion, especially those
without a spiritual guide. But when he saw Father Serapion's wounded heart,
burning with divine desire, he gave in, on condition that he could be his
guide. Father Serapios celebrated the liturgy in St. Gerasimos' chapel and
then, with the prayers tid blessing of his coach and elder Kallinikos, left
to go toward Athos' peak.
Twelve years passed since that meeting. Then one night, around midnight, the
great hesychast's disciple came to his teacher's remote hut and knocked on
the door. Elder Kallinikos, thinking that the knock might be a delusion from
the devil, asked, before he opened the door, for the Symbol of Faith to be
recited. Father Serapios obeyed, even adding the "Our Father" and the "One
is Holy, One is the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father." At
this, Elder Kallinikos opened the door, threw his arms around him and asked,
"Where have you been all these years, my brother? Believe me, I thought you
were lost, although I never stopped praying for you. Where did you stay?
What was your food?"
"Holy Father," replied Father Serapios in a weak voice, "after you blessed
me, I went to the peak of Athos. I stayed three days and nights, but not
being able to endure the cold, I went to Panagia.1 I tried to stay there,
but I could not find my beloved hesychia, because many pilgrims visited
there.
"A bit farther down, I discovered a cave. Not even the shepherds of Lavra
when herding their sheep could see me there, because I hung an old cassock
over the cave's openŽing. I ate the things I found in the forest: chestnuts,
shoots, acorns, roots and bulbs. I drew water from the well near Panagia's
hut. Day and night my soul was filled with ineffaŽble bliss coming from the
Jesus Prayer and visions.
"I lived constantly contemplating our God's mysteries. Forgive me, my elder,
you know better than I what it is like, that light which warms up and
illuminates all within me. I desired nothing else. Paradise was there. I
lacked only one thing. The Holy Communion. And that is why I have fiŽnally
come here: to receive your blessing; for the time of my repose is near, and
I do not want to depart without the Holy Mysteries."
That very day the Divine Liturgy was served, and they communicated.
Afterwards the disciple had a bit of dry bread and greens together with his
teacher and guide. Thus full of bliss, Father Serapios departed for his
beloved desert.
---------------------------
The great hesychastic father Daniel the Hosiopetritan, afŽter the daily
liturgy would withdraw into his cell for an hour of silence. It was an hour
dedicated to tears and compuncŽtion. He would always say that "The lantern
illuminates the world around it, but buries its mouth . . . ."
---------------------------
There have been many ascetic fathers on the Holy MounŽtain who were
dedicated totally to prayer, vision, and pracŽtising all the virtues. That
is why they received divine conŽsolations from heaven, illuminations from
above. Such was the Romanian hermit Theophylaktos, who came from Vatopedi to
St. Basil's desert with three monks under obeŽdience to him. Frequently he
stayed in caves, in which it was possible to attain greater hesychia,
clearer watchfulness of mind, and higher exaltation of soul. He used to say
that in one of the caves of this desert, the idolaters who had inhabited the
Athonite peninsula prior to the monks' arŽrival had hidden a statue which
had once stood on the peak of Mount Athos and served as a lighthouse. There
was a large diamond on the statue's head which was used as a sort of lamp to
guide travelers by sea.
--------------------------
At one time Theophylaktos, who prayed unceasingly, did not go to the cave as
was his usual habit. He stayed in his hut by himself instead. During his
prayer an angel of the Lord appeared and conversed with him. Coming back
from accomplishing a task which had been assigned to him, one of the elder's
monks in obedience passed by the hut and heard a discussion. He wondered who
the visitor was to whom his elder was talking. With curiosity he entered,
callŽing "Elder! are you here?" At that very moment the angel disappeared.
"O, my son," the elder sadly replied, he who was such a great runner in the
heavenly race. "I wish you had not come .... I have lost a great blessing."
And he explained the visitation.
He is the same father who took care of the wounded roedeer, and his face
shone with light shortly before his fallŽing asleep.
-------------------------
I once had the blessing of meeting the elder Christodoulos, who had been a
monk under obedience to the great neptic2 father of Katounakia, Kallinikos
the Recluse. In the course of one day's polite hospitality to me, the
unworthy, in his remote hermitage, Father Christodoulos told me much about
his ever memorable elder, some of which is included in the third edition of
Contemporary Agioritan Profiles.
Elder Kallinikos was a teacher of the Jesus Prayer and visions who for
fifty-five years had confined himself within the limits of his hut, which
measured twenty metres in all.
That is why he was called a recluse. He was born in 1853 and reposed in
1930.
------------------------------
A friend and lover of hesychia, of vigilance and of noetic3 prayer was
Dionysios from Cyprus, who as an ascetic reŽmained in Kafsokalyvia's skete
and then returned to Stavrovouniou in Cyprus in 1875, where he became the
father of many spiritual children.
---------------------------
There is a prayerful, eremitic breeze which often blows over the blessed
Katounakia. There many years ago I met the hesychastic elder Anthimos. He
struggled in ascesis in a hut above where the Danielites were located. He
was a man of silence. Whenever he did talk, he almost always spoke about the
ceaseless prayer of the heart, noetic prayer. "The Jesus Prayer deifies man,
while praying to the Theotokos prepares one for deification," he used to
say.
---------------------------
"All Holy Mother of God, help me. My blessed Panagia . . ." a monk would
say, and his voice echoed sweetly from the depths of his heart as he walked
on the paths of St. Anne's skete. "We place all our hope in her, and we are
consoled by her," he continued. "She is our mother, our heart's salvaŽtion.
Otherwise we are following a route which we do not know where it is
leading."
