Solly
May 13th 2003, 03:54 AM
Father Arseny: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father
Published by St Vladimir's Seminary Press ISBN 0-88141-180-9
US price unknown.
I purchased this book yesterday, as it is a biographical account, and I wanted a new biography to read. I read half of it last night.
The book is a record of the life of Father Arseny, a former Russian Art Historian, converted to Orthodoxy and priested. He suffered under Stalin's regime, as did so many. He was sent to the camps in 1933, and then again in 1939, to a death camp in Siberia. Though it was imprisonment, death through cold, deprivation, brutality and overwork was the intention of all who went there.
The camp was comprised of criminals and "politicals" with the latter coming off the worse due to the fact that most of them were middle class intellectuals like scientists, economists, priests, etc. Some of you may have read Solzhenitsyn on the Gulags; this is the Gulags from a Christian point of view.
Arseny was strong in his faith, and grew stronger during his time there. In fact, against all the odds, he survived for years, down to 1957 and his release. Life expectancy for most was two to three years.
Like Therese of Lisieux, he discovered the Little Way of service to God and others in humble trust to God in the face of seemingly insurmountable problems. He tended the sick at risk to himself. He was beaten by staff and inmtate alike, yet always came back with faith and love. He was not deluded about people, he knew what they were like; his faith in God overcame it.
Orthodoxy can be bamboozling to Westerners, with all its Byzantian special effects, but here, in this life and record, is Orthodoxy stripped to its bare essentials: no vestments, no liturgy (except that which he remembered), no church, no icons, etc.
There is an incredible account of how he and a new inmate of 23, who had been beaten badly, where thrown into an external punishment cell - a metal box basically. It was -30 of cold outside. Death was to be expected within four hours though exposure. Arseny stood to pray out loud despite the cold...
...48 hours later, the cell was opened, and both men walked out warm and healthy.
More significantly, are the accounts of the conversions of hardened criminals through his witness, and the encouragement he gave to believers who found the burden too great.
I look forward to reading the rest of the book, which consists of an account of his time after his release, and accounts by his spiritual children.
i commend this book to you.
Edit: I have just seen from the St Vlad's website that there is now a companion volume of further accounts from his spiritual children.
Published by St Vladimir's Seminary Press ISBN 0-88141-180-9
US price unknown.
I purchased this book yesterday, as it is a biographical account, and I wanted a new biography to read. I read half of it last night.
The book is a record of the life of Father Arseny, a former Russian Art Historian, converted to Orthodoxy and priested. He suffered under Stalin's regime, as did so many. He was sent to the camps in 1933, and then again in 1939, to a death camp in Siberia. Though it was imprisonment, death through cold, deprivation, brutality and overwork was the intention of all who went there.
The camp was comprised of criminals and "politicals" with the latter coming off the worse due to the fact that most of them were middle class intellectuals like scientists, economists, priests, etc. Some of you may have read Solzhenitsyn on the Gulags; this is the Gulags from a Christian point of view.
Arseny was strong in his faith, and grew stronger during his time there. In fact, against all the odds, he survived for years, down to 1957 and his release. Life expectancy for most was two to three years.
Like Therese of Lisieux, he discovered the Little Way of service to God and others in humble trust to God in the face of seemingly insurmountable problems. He tended the sick at risk to himself. He was beaten by staff and inmtate alike, yet always came back with faith and love. He was not deluded about people, he knew what they were like; his faith in God overcame it.
Orthodoxy can be bamboozling to Westerners, with all its Byzantian special effects, but here, in this life and record, is Orthodoxy stripped to its bare essentials: no vestments, no liturgy (except that which he remembered), no church, no icons, etc.
There is an incredible account of how he and a new inmate of 23, who had been beaten badly, where thrown into an external punishment cell - a metal box basically. It was -30 of cold outside. Death was to be expected within four hours though exposure. Arseny stood to pray out loud despite the cold...
...48 hours later, the cell was opened, and both men walked out warm and healthy.
More significantly, are the accounts of the conversions of hardened criminals through his witness, and the encouragement he gave to believers who found the burden too great.
I look forward to reading the rest of the book, which consists of an account of his time after his release, and accounts by his spiritual children.
i commend this book to you.
Edit: I have just seen from the St Vlad's website that there is now a companion volume of further accounts from his spiritual children.