Elder Ieronymos of Aegina on the Empirical Prerequisites of an Effective Preacher

 Then the Elder [Ieronymos] turned to his other visitor:

"How are you? How is the spiritual life going?"

"Thank God, Elder, I'm trying. I was recently assigned to preach and I do not know what to do. What do you advise me?"

"Let me tell you. If your life is such that it is in agreement with what you teach and you are an example, then take the assignment. The saints experienced what they wrote and taught. And those who write or speak for the Holy Fathers, must have a similar life. Preaching is good. The hare is not as afraid of the thunder of heaven as the devil is of the preaching of the apostles. However, you should only teach what you yourself do.

Elder Arsenios the Cave-Dweller: "Reading Is Also a Kind of Prayer"

Elder Arsenios the Cave-Dweller, fellow ascetic of Saint Joseph the Hesychast, said:

"Reading is also a kind of prayer. Every day we would read one or two chapters from Holy Scripture and then we would read patristic books.

As for Saint Isaac the Syrian, we always held him in our arms. If you do not have another book, Isaac the Syrian is enough; he says it all.

But we also read the Ladder, Abba Dorotheos, the Evergetinos, Saint Makarios, etc., and also the lives of our Saints.

The Service of Small Vespers to Saint Isaac the Syrian

 

 

The following Service of Small Vespers to Saint Isaac the Syrian, together with a Great Vespers and a Matins Service, were composed by the eminent hymnographer of Mount Athos, Monk Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis, who was commissioned to write them by St. Paisios the Athonite, out of his deep love and reverence for St. Isaac, having established September 28th as his feast day.

 

SMALL VESPERS

 

Four verses have been appointed, and the Stichera Prosomoia are chanted. 

 

Tone 2. When suspended on the Cross.

When you received the immaterial fire, of the love of Christ in your heart Father, then you followed in your youth, O thrice-blessed Isaac, Christ the Savior, having denied a passionate attachment to the world; wherefore, God-bearing monastic, with earnest self-control, you cut off the offshoots of the passions.

An Offering of Praise to Holy Abba Isaac the Syrian (Photios Kontoglou)

Sketch of St. Isaac the Syrian by the hand of Photios Kontoglou

ENCOMIUM

An Offering of Praise to Holy Abba Isaac the Syrian,
Inadequate for the Sublimity of Its Subject,
but Written With Much Love

Photios Kontoglou

Athens, 1944

'The man to whom wisdom has been given knows 

the inward essences of immaterial things and what 

is the origin and consummation of the world.'

- Thalassios the Lybian

(Century 1:47)

He who wishes to praise the holy Isaac should hold an Archangel's trumpet, and not this sinful pen I have here in my hand.

Who will weave an unfading garland for his head? With what melodious praise could any human being laud this man who is hymned by the very angels? With the harmonious art of the tongue, come now, let us extol this humble wildflower of Syria, this gold-spangled fountain of immortality, this salt of the earth, this honeybee of virtue, this gold-stringed lute which ravishes the heart, this divinely-fashioned intellect, this glory of the Orient, this tremendous ocean, this enchanted light shining to unfathomed depths, this blessed child of God, and whatever else our tongue may call him, accustomed as it is to speak of trivialities.

Saint Isaac the Syrian Resource Page

St. Isaac the Syrian (Feast Day - September 28)

  

Verses

 

Isaac the venerable we proclaim with veneration, 

Through him we are initiated into mysteries most excellent.

On the twenty-eighth we celebrate Isaac our imperishable boast.

 

Synaxarion of Saint Isaac the Syrian

 

Saint Isaac the Syrian as a Model for our Lives

 

The Feast Day of St. Isaac the Syrian on September 28th

 

The Service of Small Vespers to Saint Isaac the Syrian

 

Oikos to Saint Isaac the Syrian

  

Was St. Isaac the Syrian a Nestorian?  

 

An Offering of Praise to Holy Abba Isaac the Syrian (Photios Kontoglou)

 

Elder Ieronymos of Aegina on the Empirical Prerequisites of an Effective Preacher

 

Elder Arsenios the Cave-Dweller: "Reading Is Also a Kind of Prayer"  

 

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (1 of 7) 

 

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (2 of 7) 

 

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (3 of 7) 

 

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (4 of 7) 

 

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (5 of 7) 

 

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (6 of 7) 

 

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (7 of 7) 

 

Saint Isaac the Syrian and Christopher Columbus 

 

St. Isaac the Syrian Celebrated in Qatar 

 

Patriarch of Jerusalem Meets With Prince of Qatar 

 

St. Isaac the Syrian on the Birth of Christ 

 

A Guide To Christian Life (St. Isaac the Syrian) 

 

St. Isaac the Syrian on the Harm of Foolish Zeal 

 

Gehenna - the Torment of God's Love (St. Isaac the Syrian) 

 

The Church Fathers On Temptations, Sorrow and Despair 

 

Fasting as a Weapon in Spiritual Warfare (St. Isaac the Syrian)

Saint Isaac the Syrian and Christopher Columbus

In the 12th or 13th century, a selection of St. Isaac’s Homilies was translated from Greek into Latin, and from Latin into French, Portuguese, Catalan, Castilian, and Italian.

Queen Mary of Aragon ("Bloody Mary") owned two copies of the Catalan translation. Another copy was among the goods left to the Cathedral of Seville by Hernando Columbus, Christopher’s son.

Synaxarion of Saint Isaac the Syrian

Synaxarion

On the twenty-eighth of this month [September], we commemorate our Venerable and God-bearing Father Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of the City of Nineveh.

Verses

Isaac the Venerable we proclaim with celebration,

Through him we are initiated into mysteries most excellent.

On the twenty-eighth we celebrate Isaac our imperishable boast.

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (7 of 7)

Fr. John Photopoulos

...continued from part six.

(The letter below refers to only two volumes of the works of Pseudo-Isaac that were published by the Monastery, as the third had not yet been published. Instead of a response to this letter, the third volume was published.)

March 15, 2006

To the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of the Prophet Elias in Thera,

the Reverend Archimandrite Damaskinos Gavalas

I do not know you, but I take courage to bother you about a serious issue, in my opinion. This is in regards to the publication by your Monastery of The Ascetic Discourses of Saint Isaac the Syrian vols. B1 (Discourse 1 - 3) and B3 (Discourse 12 - 41), which were translated by Nestor Kavvadas.

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (6 of 7)

...continued from part five.

6. Abba Isaac on Eternal Life and Eternal Hell

All of the above cacodoxies of the Pseudo-Isaac writings have nothing to do with Abba Isaac and his all around Orthodox teachings.

A) Regarding the Nestorian cacodoxies, despite the best efforts of Alfeyev and those with him, they cannot prove that such delusions exist in the authentic works of the Saint.

B) Regarding the apokatastasis of all, the following must be said:

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (5 of 7)

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

...continued from part four.

5. The Appalling Intervention of Bishop Kallistos Ware

In 1998 Bishop Kallistos Ware of Diokleia wrote an article for the journal Theology Digest (1998) titled: "Dare We Hope for the Salvation of All?" He concludes by writing: "Our faith in God’s love makes us dare to hope that all will be saved."

With this article the foundation of Orthodox Eschatology is debated, in fact the very words of Christ. Bishop Kallistos asks if an eternal hell will exist. He places the reader before the philosophical dilemma: ultimate dualism or ultimate restoration and reconciliation. Here's his reasoning:

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (4 of 7)

Dr. Sebastian Brock

...continued from part three.

4. The Blasphemy of Pseudo-Isaac

After the pseudo-revelation that Saint Isaac was Nestorian, another "revelation" followed. A certain Dr. Sebastian Brock discovered in an Oxford library in 1983 a manuscript in the Syriac language of the tenth or eleventh century that contained a collection of ascetic discourses (41 Chapters) that bore the name of Isaac the Syrian. Most of the Discourses were published by Brock in an English translation in 1995.

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (3 of 7)

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

...continued from part two.

3. Irreverent Chatter Regarding the Person of Saint Isaac

Let us now turn to the book by Alfeyev. "From Wensinck's preface and other works I learnt who Isaac was" writes Bishop Kallistos Ware in the Foreword. "I discovered that he belonged to the Church of the East, commonly called 'Nestorian'. But, so I gradually came to realize, this did not mean that either Isaac himself, or the ecclesiastical community to which he belonged, could justly be condemned as heretical." From the writings of Bishop Kallistos, as well as the entire book by Bishop Hilarion, it is immediately understood that they have eliminated from their consciousness the ecclesiastical tradition regarding the Life of Saint Isaac the Syrian, which they "learnt" from Wensinck and other works, saying that Abba Isaac was a Nestorian!

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (2 of 7)

...continued from part one.

2. What the Holy Fathers Say About Abba Isaac

Despite the lack of a day for commemorating this Saint and many others, the Church accepts them as authentic in Christ, their Life as in the Holy Spirit, their teachings as a distillation of their experience of theosis, of their "sensation in God" as Abba Isaac writes.

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (1 of 7)

By Protopresbyter Fr. John Photopoulos

This paper has been prompted by the book The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian by the bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, as well as by the three volume editon of the writings of Pseudo-Isaac published by the Sacred Monastery of the Prophet Elias in Thera titled The Ascetic Discourses of Saint Isaac the Syrian: A Translation from the Syriac. After this article there follows a letter by the author to the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of the Prophet Elias in Thera on the issue of the cacodox writings of Pseudo-Isaac.

1. Introduction - Abba Isaac the Syrian

Saint Isaac the Syrian as a Model for our Lives

St. Isaac the Syrian (Feast Day - Janaury 28 and September 28)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

The venerable Isaac lived in the sixth century. He was from Syria, specifically from the city of Nineveh. We do not have any information about his parents. What we do know is that the Saint received a good education and at a young age he withdrew from the world and entered a Coenobitic Monastery. Later, he withdrew into the desert, where he reaped the sweet fruits of hesychasm and then, in obedience to the Church, he was ordained Bishop of Nineveh.

Gehenna - the Torment of God's Love (St. Isaac the Syrian)

From Ascetical Homilies 27:

- "In love did God bring the world into existence; in love is God going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised."

- "God’s recompense to sinners is that, instead of a just recompense, God rewards them with resurrection."

- "If zeal had been appropriate for putting humanity right, why did God the Word clothe himself in the body, using gentleness and humility in order to bring the world back to his Father?"

- "Let us not be in doubt, O fellow humanity, concerning the hope of our salvation, seeing that the One who bore sufferings for our sakes is very concerned about our salvation; God’s mercifulness is far more extensive than we can conceive, God’s grace is greater than what we ask for."

- "Sin, Gehenna, and Death do not exist at all with God, for they are effects, not substances. Sin is the fruit of free will. There was a time when sin did not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist. Gehenna is the fruit of sin…"

From Ascetical Homilies 48:

- "As for me I say that those who are tormented in Gehenna are tormented by the invasion of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves a damnation much heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is absurd to assume that the sinners in Gehenna are deprived of God’s love."

- "Love is offered impartially. But by its very power it acts in two ways. It torments sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it gives joy to those who have been faithful."

- "That is what the torment of Gehenna is in my opinion: remorse. But love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability."

- "This is the aim of Love. Love’s chastisement is for correction, but it does not aim at retribution…But the man who considers God an avenger, presuming that he bears witness to His justice, the same accuses Him of being bereft of goodness. Far be it, that vengeance could ever be found in that Fountain of love and Ocean brimming with goodness! The aim of His design is the correction of men."

From Ascetical Homilies 51:

- "Even in the matter of afflictions — the judgment of Gehenna, say — there bides a hidden mystery, whereby the Maker has taken as a starting point our patent willfulness, using even Gehenna as a way of bringing to perfection His greater dispensation. If the world to come proves entirely the realm of mercy, love, and goodness, how then a final state that claims requital for its measure?"

- "God is not One who requites [i.e. requires payback for] evil, but He is One who sets evil right."

- "That we should think that Gehenna is not also full of love and mingled with compassion would be an insult to our God. By saying He will deliver us to suffering without purpose, we most surely sin. We blaspheme also if we say that He will act with spite or with a vengeful purpose, as if He had a need to avenge Himself."

- "Do not call God just, for His justice is not manifest in the things concerning you. And if David calls Him just and upright, His Son revealed to us that He is good and kind. ‘He is good’, He says ‘to the evil and to the impious.’ How can you call God just when you come across the Scriptural passage on the wage given to the workers?…How can a man call God just when he comes across the passage on the prodigal son who wasted his wealth with riotous living, how for the compunction alone which he showed, the father ran and fell upon his neck and gave him authority over all his wealth?…Where, then, is God's justice, for while we are sinners Christ died for us!"

Was St. Isaac the Syrian a Nestorian?

The Feast Day of St. Isaac the Syrian on September 28th

+ + +

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (1 of 7)

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (2 of 7)

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (3 of 7)

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (4 of 7)

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (5 of 7)

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (6 of 7)

Abba Isaac the Syrian, the "Unjustly Accused" Saint (7 of 7)

+ + +

Prayer of St. Isaac the Syrian to Christ
(in which he appeals to Christ as to one person, who is simultaneously God and man)

O Christ who are covered with light as though with garment, who for my sake stood naked in front of Pilate, clothe me with that might which You caused to overshadow the saints, whereby they conquered this world of struggle. May Your divinity, Lord, take pleasure in me, and lead me above the world to be with You. O Christ, upon whom the many-eyed cherubim are unable to look because of the glory of Your countenance, yet out of Your love You received spit upon Your face: remove the shame from my face and grant an open face before You at the time of prayer.

A Guide To Christian Life (St. Isaac the Syrian)

By St. Isaac the Syrian

Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others.

Be crucified, but do not crucify others.

Be slandered, but do not slander others.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep:
such is the sign of purity.

Suffer with the sick.

Be afflicted with sinners.

Exult with those who repent.

Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone.

Be a partaker of the sufferings of all,
but keep your body distant from all.

Rebuke no one, revile no one,
not even those who live very wickedly.

Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin,
each and every one, and shield them.

And if you cannot take the fault on yourself
and accept punishment in their place,
do not destroy their character.

The Feast Day of St. Isaac the Syrian on September 28th

St. Isaac the Syrian (Feast Day - January 28 and September 28)

In the Greek Orthodox calendar there is no official feast day for St. Isaac the Syrian. Traditionally, however, he has been celebrated on January 28th together with the other great Syriac Father of the Church, St. Ephraim the Syrian. The Slavic Churches celebrate St. Isaac officially on January 28th.

Not too many years ago Elder Paisios (+1993) sought to change this fact due to his great veneration for St. Isaac. He commissioned a Service to be written in his honor and chose to celebrate his feast on September 28th. The Service was written by the eminent hymnographer Fr. Gerasimos Mikragiannanites (+ 2002). Today the feast of St. Isaac is celebrated on Mount Athos on September 28th.

Furthermore, the first church dedicated to St. Isaac was built on Mount Athos, in the cell of a monk of the brotherhood of Elder Paisios in Kapsala.

Elder Paisios, who would read the Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac beneath the icon of the Saint, would say of St. Isaac: "If anyone went to a psychiatric hospital and read to the patients Abba Isaac, all those who believed in God would get well, because they would recognize the deeper meaning of life."

He also said:

"First you must read the Gerontikon, Philotheos History, and Evergetinos. All these books are practical not theoretical. Their simple patristic spirit and holiness will help you remove secular logic from your mind. Next, you should read Abba Isaac, and this way you will not see him as a philosopher, but as a man illumined by God."

It should also be noted that before the establishment of September 28th as the feast of St. Isaac by Elder Paisios, when he heard rumors that scholars accused St. Isaac of being a Nestorian, he prayed about this situation. Through divine revelation it was revealed to him that in fact St. Isaac was Orthodox and he wrote in his Menaion for January 28th the following words after the description of the feast of St. Ephraim the Syrian: "...and Isaac the Great Hesychast and much unjustly accused."

Below is the text of the Service in honor of St. Isaac commissioned by Elder Paisios. It is distributed by the Kalyva of the Resurrection of Christ in Kapsala on Mount Athos, where lived Fr. Isaac of Lebanon, a spiritual child of Elder Paisios. His ascetical tradition is maintained by Fr. Euthymios and his brotherhood.

isaak syrian by Misha

Read also: Ὁ Ἀββᾶς Ἰσαάκ ὁ Σύρος, στό στόχαστρο τοῦ Οἰκουμενισμοῦ (pdf)

The Feast Day of St. Isaac the Syrian on September 28th

St. Isaac the Syrian (Feast Day - September 28)

In the Greek Orthodox calendar there is no official feast day of St. Isaac the Syrian. Traditionally, however, he has been celebrated on January 28th together with the other great Syriac father of the Church, St. Ephraim the Syrian. The Slavic Churches celebrate St. Isaac officially on January 28th.

Not too many years ago Elder Paisios (+1993) sought to change this fact due to his great veneration for St. Isaac. He commissioned a Service to be written in his honor and chose to celebrate his feast on September 28th. The Service was written by the eminent hymnographer Fr. Gerasimos Mikragiannanites (+ 2002). Today the feast of St. Isaac is celebrated on Mount Athos on September 28th.

Furthermore, the first church dedicated to St. Isaac was built on Mount Athos, in the cell of a monk of the brotherhood of Elder Paisios in Kapsalis.

Elder Paisios, who would read the Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac beneath the icon of the Saint, would say of St. Isaac: "If anyone went to a psychiatric hospital and read to the patients Abba Isaac, all those who believed in God would get well, because they would recognize the deeper meaning of life."

He also said:

"First you must read the Gerontikon, Philotheos History, and Evergetinos. All these books are practical not theoretical. Their simple patristic spirit and holiness will help you remove secular logic from your mind. Next, you should read Abba Isaac, and this way you will not see him as a philosopher, but as a man illumined by God."

It should also be noted that before the establishment of September 28th as the feast of St. Isaac by Elder Paisios, when he heard rumors that scholars accused St. Isaac of being a Nestorian, he prayed about this situation. Through divine revelation it was revealed to him that in fact St. Isaac was Orthodox and he wrote in his Menaion for January 28th the following words after the description of the feast of St. Ephraim the Syrian: "...and Isaac the Great Hesychast and much unjustly accused."

Below is the text of the Service in honor of St. Isaac commissioned by Elder Paisios. It is distributed by the Kalyva of the Resurrection of Christ in Kapsala on Mount Athos, where lived Fr. Isaac of Lebanon, a spiritual child of Elder Paisios. His ascetical tradition is maintained by Fr. Euthymios and his brotherhood.

isaak syrian by Misha