Introduction
The revelation of God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – lies at the heart of the Church’s entire theology. Indeed, in patristic thought, theology represents precisely the translation of this Trinitarian Revelation into experience and lived reality, both in the communal life of the Church and in the concrete existence of each of its members.
This divine revelation of the Holy Trinity serves not only as the foundation of theology but, more than that, it is reflected as its perspective or purpose. For knowledge of the Trinity does not entail a passive and complacent attitude sufficient merely to attain knowledge of the truth, but ‘seeks and inherently involves a perfect union with God, a sharing in God, a participation in the life of the Holy Trinity, and all this so that we may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) in a real sense; this fact represents the ultimate goal of human life and the very essence of what the life to come entails’1 Thus, Theology relates in a concrete and ever-relevant way to what the revelation of God to humankind means, and to the union of humankind with the One who has revealed Himself.
Following the Fall, this destiny of humankind became difficult to fulfil. Humankind’s power to draw near to God was weakened, the mind darkened, and the will inclined more towards evil. In this state, only God’s drawing near to man could free him from the chains of sin. Therefore, the Incarnation of God and His accomplishment of objective salvation opened up for man the capacity to appropriate this redemptive state of salvation, through free cooperation with divine grace.
Thus, the Church’s teaching of the faith highlights the existence and nature of divine grace, as well as the essential role it plays in man’s attainment of salvation. ‘Orthodox doctrine does not conceive of divine grace as a good in itself, separate from God. This is evidenced by the fact that Orthodox doctrine alternates between the teaching that salvation is attained through grace and the teaching that man attains salvation in communion with Jesus Christ, or through the Holy Spirit. Grace is not a created aid, extrinsic to Christ, but is the uncreated, divine energy poured out by the Holy Spirit upon us, through the risen and exalted humanity of Jesus Christ; ‘grace is nothing other than communion with Christ in the Holy Spirit’2
As an energy springing from the divine essence itself, divine grace manifests as a work of the three divine Persons, whilst at the same time being a proof of their presence. But as a sanctifying energy, divine grace is revealed as belonging in a special way to the Holy Spirit, the One who enters into the innermost being of our being. For this reason, grace is also called ‘spirit’ or even the Holy Spirit.
And in order to receive divine grace, we must be in communion with Christ; this communion simultaneously draws upon the presence of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Christ. ‘The work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit are inseparable: Christ creates the unity of His mystical Body through the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit communicates Himself to human persons through Christ’3 Thus, divine grace is the bond through which man is united with God and participates in the life of the Holy Trinity, becoming a partaker of the divine nature.
“When speaking of grace, we must emphasise both its quality as an inexhaustible power that comes to us from the infinite Divinity dwelling in the humanity of Christ, and the perspective of light which He opens up for us in the infinity of communion with the Person of Christ or with the Holy Trinity, Who has revealed Himself to us in Christ, through love. Grace is the window opened onto the infinity of God as a Person, or as a communion of Persons, once God has, through grace, brought us into relationship with Himself. Grace expands the boundaries of our existence and thereby truly satisfies its thirst for the transcendent personal infinite. As such, grace enables us to fulfil our calling as the image of God, or aids our progress towards likeness to Him, or towards the infinity of our loving relationship with Him”4.
With regard to this act of communion and union between man and God as a work of divine grace, theology expresses itself antinomically, using expressions related to the Trinitarian dogma concerning the One (the Being) and the Three (the Persons).
Proceeding from practice and experience and arriving at theory and formulation, the teaching concerning divine grace was also consolidated, beginning in the 4th century—a period of Monophysite debates—and culminating in the work and writings of Saint Gregory Palamas (14th century), through whom the teaching on grace found its definitive formulation; and as a form of spiritual experience preceding the formulation of this doctrine—and which remains its foundation—we have what is known as the Hesychast movement or Hesychasm.
Thus, as early as the 4th–6th centuries, Hesychasm was regarded as ‘an ascetic discipline of monastic origin’5; a discipline which took the form of a genuine movement of spiritual renewal, employing the Jesus Prayer as its method, with the aim of attaining peace of mind and communion with God.
‘Hesychasm was initially practised by the Desert Fathers, who drew their inspiration from the Philokalia and adopted, as a discipline for the development of the inner life, the continuous invocation of the name of Jesus. (...) For the Hesychast Fathers, the theory and practice of the Jesus Prayer, silent meditation on the name of Jesus and the state of tranquillity it produces, are not an end in themselves. Rather, hesychasm creates a state in which virtues are practised, the most important of which are purity of heart (apathia), repentance (metanoia), but above all sobriety, vigilance or attentiveness of the heart (nipsis)’6
As regards the etymology of the word ‘hesychasm’, it should be noted that there are several views reflecting both the word’s origin and its meanings. For some scholars, such as Hausser, Adnes and Sarafidi, the etymology of the term ‘hesychia’ has not been established with certainty 7. The Hesychasts trace the origin of the term ‘hesychia’ to the divine revelation received by Abba Arsenius after he left the imperial palace and became an anchorite. He hears a voice from heaven telling him: ‘Flee, be silent, be still!’. The semantics of the term ‘hesychasm’ are laden with various connotations. For example, its origin may lie in the verb ησθαι – ‘to be seated’. In the Septuagint, the term hesychia and its derivatives mean refraining from speech or from unnecessary movement (Proverbs XI, 12; VII, 11). In the New Testament, we find the verb ησυχάζειν – to be silent (Luke 14:4), to observe the Sabbath rest (Luke 23:56) or to leave others in peace (Acts XXI, 14; XI, 18).
The commonly accepted meaning of hesychia is ‘stillness’. Thus, the connection between hesychia and the act of anachoretic withdrawal is reflected. The resulting term in Romanian is ‘sihastru’, meaning one who withdraws into the wilderness 8.
Essentially, as I have stated, the practice of Hesychasm as a spiritual activity consists in the unceasing recitation of the ‘Jesus Prayer’.
In this regard, it is interesting to note the morphological observation made by linguists concerning the Romanian translation of the terms ευχή Iησoύ. They argue that ‘the grammatically correct formulation is “the prayer to…”, not ‘the prayer of…’, because the term Iησoύ, in the morphology of Ancient Greek, is in the genitive of direction, indicating not so much possession as the direction towards, which is not exactly easy to grasp within the semantic universe of the Romanian language’9
Hesychasm upheld a mysticism of vision and union through the concentration of the mind in the heart, whilst reciting the prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.
Although the emphasis in Hesychasm lies on the contemplative aspect, it does not, however, ignore the realities of everyday life. It is not merely a spiritual preoccupation of the Hesychasts; rather, through its engagement with the reality of the world, it becomes the catalyst for the world’s spiritual transformation. Thus, Hesychasm does not despise the world in a self-centred contemplation, but transfigures it. The Hesychast is strengthened through prayer and participation in the Holy Mysteries.
The foundation of Hesychasm, viewed from a theological perspective, is revealed through the teaching on the union of man with God, a teaching which is in fact ‘the core of the Orthodox conception of salvation’10). Through Saint Simeon the New Theologian, Hesychasm came to be formulated as a genuine method; he composed numerous hymns referring directly to the awareness and presence of divine grace, as a result of the practice of monological prayer.
The Prayer of the Heart and Romanian Hesychasm in the Theology of Saint Paisius of Neamț
The spiritual and cultural flourishing that Romanian monasticism experienced through the work of Saint Nicodim of Tismana would continue, at least with the same fervour, into the following centuries. However, as a specifically Romanian movement, it would undergo a true renaissance, this time in the Philokalia tradition, through three prominent representatives—who were, moreover, spiritually united by the mystery of discipleship—namely Saint Basil of Poiana Mărului, Saint Paisie of Neamț and Saint George of Cernica.
Also noteworthy, through the disciples of Saint Paisie of Neamț, is a profound interest in the writings of Saint Gregory Palamas, a fact which would lead to a major effort to translate them, both into Romanian and into Church Slavonic.
On the other hand, a distinctive feature of this period is the translation – a first of its kind – of the Philokalia into a modern language, as Metropolitan Serafim Joantă states 11: “The publication of the Philokalia represents the great spiritual event of Orthodoxy in that era, having most beneficial consequences for the spiritual and cultural worlds of Romania, Russia and Greece, albeit with particular emphases”12.
The state of Romanian monasticism had been evident since the first half of the 18th century, through the highly significant phenomenon that of the Russian-Ukrainian monastic emigration, with the arrival on Romanian soil of Abbot Vasile of Poiana Mărului and, after him, of Saint Paisie Velicikovski.
Abbot Vasile’s work was not an isolated one, confined to a limited area and having only minor effects. Rather, thanks to him, there was a veritable migration of Russian and Ukrainian monks to Romanian monasteries. Here, ‘they all contributed to making Romanian monasticism in the 18th century the most vibrant, the most fruitful and the most spiritually elevated of all Orthodox monastic communities of that time’13).
In 1742, the monk Paisie arrived in Moldavia; he was to combine Athonite Hesychasm with Romanian Hesychasm, and was to continue the work of Abbot Vasile, whilst also establishing, here, on Romanian soil, an unbroken tradition of scholarship, cultural institutions of pan-Eastern significance, such as the Princely Academies of Bucharest and Iași, and numerous spiritual figures.
Archimandrite Ciprian Zaharia notes that ‘at that time there was a felt need for a genius—that is, a skilled organiser not only from an administrative but also a spiritual perspective—who could give everyone the power of a phenomenon of universal influence. He soon became a remarkable figure in 18th-century Orthodox spirituality and Moldavian culture, making a valuable contribution to the renewal of Hesychasm both in the region of Moldavia and throughout the Romanian lands – ‘The Venerable Paisie Velicicovski’14.
In addition to his work in spiritual guidance and mentoring, Abbot Paisie was also highly prolific as a writer, a fact shaped by his very life.
Abbot Paisie’s accounts of his early years in the spiritual life show that he was driven by a great desire to receive guidance in the study of patristic writings, yet no mentors were to be found. It is in this context, then, that we might understand the remark made by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, at the time when he was Metropolitan of Moldavia, who stated the following: “The Reverend Paisie strove very hard to ensure that every abbot, every prior and every spiritual father should have a thorough knowledge of Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers, for this knowledge is the true guidance on the path to salvation”15).
A keen scholar of both ancient and more recent patristic works, Abbot Paisie played a fundamental role in the publication and translation into Church Slavonic of the Greek Philokalia, compiled by Metropolitan Macarius and the hieromonk Nicodemus.
Thus, after compiling all these translations, he submitted them to Moscow for approval, where, following a rigorous philological and theological review by professors at the Kiev Theological Academy, the first edition of the Philokalia, ‘the crown of labours’16—titled in Russian ‘Dobrotoliube’—was published by the Synodal Press in Moscow in 1793, during Paisius’s lifetime. The second edition was published in 1822. Other ascetic writings were included in the 1848 collection 17.
All of this led to the widespread dissemination throughout the Christian East of the achievements of the Neamț community, guided by Abbot Paisie. ‘Thus, through the efforts of Abbot Paisie, Neamț Monastery became the most significant centre of theological and ascetic culture in the Romanian lands’18 [The Neamț Monastery and its Monks].
The term ‘Philokalia’, meaning ‘love of beauty’, was the name given by Saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian to an anthology of Origen’s writings on the theme of ‘Love of Divine Beauty’, places the purification of the heart at the centre of the spiritual life, through the practice of the ‘Jesus Prayer’ and the virtues 19.
‘The Prayer of the Heart’, according to the writings of Saint Gregory Palamas as well as those of the Romanian Hesychasts, is the central discipline of Hesychasm, representing the path by which the consciousness is kept in a state of vigilance or ‘wakefulness’. Only when the mind is guarded against all thoughts through pure prayer (καθαρή προσευχή) does divine love pour into the heart to purify, enlighten and perfect it.
The literary output of the Paisian community was particularly prolific. Thus, the number of manuscripts preserved from Paisios’s time amounts to nearly 300, of which approximately 40 were written by him personally.
In addition to all this, there is a marked interest in work of the highest quality. For this reason, many monks from the Neamț Monastery community were sent to the ‘Saint Sava’ Academy in Bucharest to study the Greek language, so that one can speak of a veritable school of translators, in accordance with all the rules. Translations were made into Romanian and Church Slavonic, almost entirely based on Greek manuscripts 20.
We find translations of the writings of the following saints: Basil the Great, John of Damascus, Gregory of Sinai, Diadochus of Photice, Dorotheus of Gaza, Isaac the Syrian, John Climacus, Macarius the Egyptian, Mark the Ascetic, Nicetas Stethatus, Peter Damascene, Symeon the New Theologian and others, as well as numerous anthologies on the subject of the ‘Jesus Prayer’ and on various dogmatic themes 21.
Neamț Monastery, together with the disciples of Saint Paisius, was renowned for its numerous and beautiful printed works from the nineteenth century; this monastic settlement contributed to the cultivation of the principles of the Paisian community within Moldavian monasticism 22.
Throughout his entire life’s work—both cultural and literary, but above all spiritual—the Venerable Paisie of Neamț worked, drawing on his experience of the Romanian monasteries he had encountered in his youth, as well as the experience he had gained from the monks of Mount Athos, thereby transforming Neamț Monastery into a veritable ‘lavra’ of Moldavia. And the most evident feature of the Paisian tradition is that it did not remain unknown, but was, above all, clearly carried on by later generations. That is why, after the death of the Venerable Paisius, both through his disciples and perhaps through his writings, the Paisian spirit was later lived out not only by ordinary monks, but also by metropolitans, prominent figures in society and even ordinary laypeople, all of whom were committed to a profound spiritual life.
Thus, among the renowned followers of the Paisian Hesychast tradition, we may mention: ‘Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi of Moldavia (1803–1842), Saint Calinic of Cernica, Bishop of Râmnic (1850–1868), canonised in 1955, the founder of Frăsinei Monastery, where the austere ‘Paisian’ way of life is still observed today, Abbot Neonil of Neamț, Vasian of Pocrov, Visarion of Cocoș, Irinarh Roset and Nectarie Banu, the founders of a church on Mount Tabor (the only Orthodox church still standing there today), the hieromonks Nifon and Nectarie, founders of the Romanian Prodromu Skete on Mount Athos; Antipa Luchian, who lived on Athos and later at the Valaam Monastery in northern Russia (†1882), canonised as a saint on Athos—the only Romanian to have been canonised there—and a number of nuns, particularly from Agapia, Văratec, Agafton and Hurezi”23.
We may thus conclude that Abbot Paisie’s work gave rise to a genuine movement of renewal within Romanian monasticism and, consequently, throughout the Orthodox Church—a movement which was not of a new nature, contrary to what certain views and opinions have suggested. Rather, it existed in some form and had been cultivated within a smaller circle by Abbot Vasile of Poiana Mărului, but it was only during Paisie’s time that it spread, both through intense cultural activity and, above all, through the Hesychast practice of monastic life within a very large community.
Ioan Moldoveanu also expresses this view, seeing the main merit of the Venerable Paisie not in ‘the practice of ascetic virtues. Monasticism has always done this. What is specific to Paisianism is its social dimension, its orientation towards the world. The great work of patristic translations was not undertaken exclusively for monks, but was an attempt to popularise the power of prayer and the spiritual power of monasticism in an age called—perhaps not coincidentally—the Age of Enlightenment (of reason)’24
The emergence of Paisianism coincided with that of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and manifested itself as a movement opposed to the anthropocentric ideas characteristic of these currents, whilst also drawing upon what was valuable and useful in them. Father Moldoveanu expresses this as follows: ‘At a time when secularisation was beginning in the West, in the East Paisian Neo-Hesychasm continued, as in the time of Palamas, to insist that reason does not bring you closer to God. Or, reason alone does not bring one closer to God, without spiritual internalisation. And this is not by denying the power of science and culture—as some today try to attribute to Orthodoxy—but rather by affirming the power of experiencing God through prayer. That is why it is no coincidence that the whole process of translating those authors was set in motion; they continued the supreme example for this Paisianist endeavour, namely that of the Holy Fathers, as those who had succeeded in perfectly harmonising science with faith’25
And as noted above, ‘The Venerable Paisie achieved three remarkable things at Neamț Monastery: he built upon what he found in the spiritual experience and life of the Romanian monks; he gathered what still needed to be gathered, namely Greek manuscripts that needed to be translated into Church Slavonic and Romanian; he bestowed upon those who did not have it the Hesychast spirituality, which had been shaped, multiplied and intensified here at Neamț’26.
Abbot Paisie placed the ‘Prayer of the Mind’ at the foundation of monastic life, a fact evident from the ‘Monastic Rule’ which he issued with the approval of the Synod of Moldavia in 1764, when he was installed as abbot at Dragomirna 27. Here, Paisie remained for more than ten years, improving ‘the conduct of the monks’, ensuring they led a chaste life, and teaching them to copy, translate and adapt the ecclesiastical books for which there was a great need in Moldova 28.
Conclusions
The theology of Abbot Paisie of Neamț is, following the model of his spiritual father, linked to the ‘Jesus Prayer’. However, his expressions are, on this occasion, much more visibly rooted in the tradition of the Church in general, and in the theology of Saint Gregory Palamas in particular.
The references that Saint Paisie makes both to the works of Saint Gregory Palamas and to his life and personality demonstrate the respect and esteem he held for the theology and confession of faith that Saint Gregory manifested throughout his life, often referring to him as the ‘divine father’.
Abbot Paisie became a leading exponent of what the Philocalic movement represented within the Romanian tradition, and his work—which was so fruitful not only from a theological and spiritual perspective, but also from a cultural one—is known as Paisianism.
- 1
Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Vol. I, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 2003, p. 12.
- 2
Rev. Prof. N. Chițescu, Rev. Prof. Isidor Todoran, Rev. Prof. I. Petreuță, Dogmatic and Symbolic Theology, a textbook for theological faculties, vol. 2, Renașterea Publishers, Cluj-Napoca, 2005, p. 75.
- 3
Vladimir Lossky, An Introduction to Orthodox Theology, trans. Lidia and Remus Rus, Ed. Enciclopedică, Bucharest, 1993, p. 163.
- 4
Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. 2, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 2003, p. 312.
- 5
Rev. Prof. Dr Ion Bria, Dictionary of Orthodox Theology, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 1994, p. 213.
- 6
Ibid., p. 213.
- 7
Constantin Marin, Hesychasm in the Monasteries of the Romanian ‘Mioritic’ Region – From Palamism to Paisism, Lumen Publishing, Iași, 2009, p. 10.
- 8
Rev. Dr Ciprian Marius Cloșcă, De docta ignorantia. On the Apophatic Theognosis of Saint Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Lumen Publishers, Iași, 2009, p. 277.
- 9
Constantin Marin, Op. cit., p. 11.
- 10
†Chrysostomos, Archbishop of Athens, Obedience in the Patristic Tradition, Vremea, Bucharest, 2004, p. 200.
- 11
†Metropolitan Serafim, Hesychasm: Romanian Tradition and Culture, trans. Iuliana Iordăchescu, Anastasia Publishers, 1994, p. 109.
- 12
Ibid., p. 110.
- 13
Archimandrite Ciprian Zaharia, ‘The Romanian contribution to the Paisian synthesis. Paisianism and Cernica spirituality’ in Paisianism – a Romanian moment in the history of European spirituality, Roza Vânturilor, Bucharest, 1996, p. 68.
- 14
Ibid., p. 69.
- 15
†His Eminence Daniel, Metropolitan of Moldova and Bukovina, ‘Great and Holy: the Faithful Voivode Stephen the Great’, in Christ in Moldova, vol. 1, Trinitas Publishers, 2001, pp. 195–197.
- 16
Nicolae M. Popescu, ‘Commemorations: 160 years since the death of Abbot Paisie Velicicovschi’, in Mitropolia Olteniei, 1955, no. 1–2, p. 46.
- 17
Gheorghe Drăgulin, ‘The Philokalia: from Saint Basil the Great to the present day’, in Theological Studies, 1980, no. 1–2, pp. 66–80.
- 18
Rev. Prof. Dr Mircea Păcurariu, History of the Romanian Orthodox Church, vol. II, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 1994, p. 596.
- 19
Fr Prof. Ioan Bria, op. cit., p. 177.
- 20
Rev. Prof. Ion Vicovan, History of the Romanian Orthodox Church, vol. II. Trinitas, Iași, 2002, p. 110.
- 21
Ibid., p. 112.
- 22
Fr. Paul Mihail, ‘Abbot Paisie of Neamț, the renewer of monasticism’, in Mitropolia Moldovei și Sucevei, 1962, no. 5–6, p. 414.
- 23
*** The Romanian Orthodox Church. Monograph and Album, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 1987, p. 272.
- 24
Lecturer Dr Ioan Moldoveanu, ‘A Bibliography of Romanian Hesychasm: A Brief and General History of Romanian Hesychasm’, in the Yearbook of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Bucharest, 2004, p. 443.
- 25
Ibid., p. 444.
- 26
†His Eminence Daniel, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, ‘Philocalic Vocation and Destiny among Romanians’, in Romanians in the Hesychast Renewal, Trinitas Publishers, Iași, 1997, p. 10.
- 27
Corneliu Zăvoianu, PhD candidate, ‘The Jesus Prayer in the Byzantine Empire. Its Spread throughout the Balkan Peninsula and the Romanian Lands’, in Glasul Bisericii, 1981, nos. 11–12, p. 130.
- 28
Nicolae Iorga, The Neamț Monastery: Monastic Life and Cultural Endeavours. Published by the Neamț Monastery Press, 1925, p. 64.