Fr Avvakum Inherited from St Silouan of Athos the Gift of Unceasing Prayer of the Heart

Beloved in the Lord,

This book is about Elder Avvakum (Vakarov) of Athos and the difficult fate of the Athonite Monastery of St Panteleimon 1920s–1970s. A native of Transcarpathia, Fr Avvakum left an indelible trace on the history not only of the Russian Athonite monastery, but of Athos as a whole.

It is amazing how, in the mountains of Transcarpathia, Divine Providence brought forth men who were to preserve monastic life in St Panteleimon Monastery at a time when it was on the brink of extinction. The life of Elder Avvakum and his fellow Transcarpathian monks wonderfully brings together several historical periods and the fates of many people. Fr Avvakum was both a witness and a bearer of the ascetic spirit of Mount Athos familiar to many generations of Orthodox pilgrims who have visited the Holy Mountain. After arriving on Athos in the 1920s, when its very populous Russian Orthodox community was encountering its first problems, Fr Avvakum saw some of the glory of the old Russikon, which was an icon of waning pre-revolutionary Holy Russia. Here he met living examples of his predecessors’ ascetic life.

Fr Avvakum’s life on Athos was in certain aspects similar to that of his spiritual guide, St Silouan of Athos. Like him, Fr Avvakum was at once inconspicuous and irreplaceable; he carried out the most difficult obediences on equal terms with his fellow monks, both in his youth and in his later years despite his status as a member of the Council of Elders, monastery steward, and representative to the Holy Community, not to mention his venerable old age. Although he witnessed and actively took part in many historical events in the life of Mount Athos and Eastern Orthodoxy, Fr Avvakum was always very modest, while preserving a dignity natural to those living the deliberate and austere life of an Athonite monk.

He was awarded honours by kings and patriarchs, yet Fr Avvakum kept them hidden. He disliked having his picture taken and he relished in the unpretentious fare prepared by the kelliotes (cell-dwellers) on feast days. He was equable and kind with all people, although top-ranking hierarchs, esteemed scholars, statesmen, and influential benefactors were among his friends, correspondents, and interlocutors.

From St Silouan of Athos, Fr Avvakum received the gifts of humble obedience, love of his neighbour, and economy of speech. He had a boundless appetite for hard work, which he demonstrated throughout his long illness, which sapped him of his remaining physical strength and caused him much suffering and sorrow.

The most valuable gift Fr Avvakum inherited from St Silouan, and many other ascetics and elders was that of unceasing prayer of the heart. He was a monk on Mount Athos for half a century, concentrating the while on prayer and the acquisition of inner peace.

I hope that this book will serve as an edifying example for contemporary monastics and laypeople alike. May this marvellous ascetic inspire us in our frailty and weakness to struggle as best we can to acquire inner prayer of the heart, which is the life-blood of the soul. May he help us bear the cross of sickness and sorrow with humility and patience, for it is this that makes us beloved children of our God and Creator.

Foreword by His Beatitude, Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine