Sophrony (Sakharov)

would help him to dierentiate between human intellectual light and Gods Uncreated Light.
It was around the time of his study at the Moscow School
that Sergei would see Christianity's focus on personal love
as being necessarily nite; he falls from the Orthodoxy of
his youth and delves into Indian mystical religions based
on the impersonal Absolute.
In 1921, Sergei left Russia: partly to continue his artistic
career in Western Europe, and partly because he was not
a Marxist. After rst going to Italy, he went to Berlin,
and then settled in Paris in 1922.

1.2 Paris
1922: Arrived in Paris. Artistic exhibitions attracted attention of French media.
Frustrated by inability of art to express purity.

Archimandrite Sophrony

Saw rational knowledge as unable to provide

answer to the biggest question, the problem of
death.

Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) (23 September

1896 in Moscow 11 July 1993 in Tolleshunt Knights),
also Elder Sophrony, was best known as the disciple
and biographer of St Silouan the Athonite and compiler of St Silouans works, and as the founder of the
Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist
in Tolleshunt Knights, Maldon, Essex, England.[1]

1
1.1

1924: Due to Sergeis realisation that Christs precept to love God totally was not psychological but
ontological, and the only way to relate to God, and
the necessity of love being personal, Sergei returns
to Christianity on Great Saturday. Experiences Uncreated Light (in a strength unmatched to the end of
his life), distances himself from his art.
St.
Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute begins. Sergei
among rst students. Was lectured by Fr Sergius Bulgakov
and Nicholas Berdyaev; however,
while both inuenced Sergei,
problems with each (sophiology
and anti-asceticism, respectively),
meant that inuence on Sergei was
limited.

Timeline
Early life

On September 23, 1896, Sergei Symeonovich Sakharov

(Russian: ) was born to Orthodox parents in Russia. As a child, Sergei would pray
daily, later recalling that he would pray for 45 minutes
without stress. Even as a child, Sergei claimed to have
experienced the Uncreated Light. He read widely, including such Russian greats as Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy,
Dostoyevsky and Pushkin.

1925: Finding formal theological study to be unfullling, Sergei leaves the Institute and Paris for
Mount Athos.

Due to great artistic talent, Sergei studied at the Academy

of Arts between 1915 and 1917, and then at the Moscow
School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture between 1.3 Mt Athos
1920 and 1921. Sergei used art as a quasi-mystical
1926: Fr Sophrony arrived at Mt Athos, entering the
means to discover eternal beauty, breaking through
Monastery of St Panteleimon, desiring to learn how
present reality...into new horizons of being. Later, this
1

1 TIMELINE
to pray and have the right attitude toward God.
1930: Fr Sophrony ordained to the diaconate by St
Nicolai (Velimirovic) of Zicha. Becomes disciple of
St Silouan the Athonite, Fr Sophronys greatest inuence. While St Silouan had no formal system of
theology, his living of theology taught Fr Sophrony
volumes, which Fr Sophrony would later systematise.
1932-46: Fr Sophrony exchanges letters with Fr
David Balfour, a Catholic who converted to Orthodoxy. These letters reveal Fr Sophronys knowledge of many Fathers of the Church, and forces
Fr Sophrony to articulate his theological thought,
and to demonstrate the dierences between Western and Eastern thought. Many of Fr Sophronys
later thoughts would arise out of the same topics addressed in this correspondence.

(prayer for the whole world, God-forsakenness and

the idea of all humanity being connected).
1950: Elder Sophrony works with Vladimir Lossky
on the Messager de lExarchat du Patriarche Russe
en Europe Occidentale until 1957. Lossky inuences Elder Sophronys thought on many contemporary issues and compliments Elder Sophronys
work on Trinitarian thought and its application to
the Church and humanity; however, Lossky would
not talk about a deied human nature, nor about the
idea of God-forsakenness in a positive view, as Elder Sophrony did.
1952: Elder Sophrony produces a professional
second edition of Staretz Silouan. This book
brought much fame to both St Silouan and Elder
Sophrony, and included a theological introduction
to St Silouans works, based on Lossky nding no
theological value in the Saints works.

1938: St Silouan reposes (September 24). Following St Silouans instructions, Elder Sophrony left
the monastery grounds to reside in the Athonite
desert; rst at Karoulia, then at a cave near St Pauls
1.5
Monastery.
The Second World War was a time of such intense prayer that Fr Sophronys health was affected, teaching him the interdependence of all
mankind.
1941: Fr Sophrony ordained to the priesthood, and
becomes a spiritual father to many Athonite monks.

1.4

Paris revisited

1947: Circumstances (possibly to publish St

Silouans works, possibly to complete his theological education, possibly due to deteriorating health,
possibly due to diculties of being non-Greek after WW2) forced Elder Sophrony to move to Paris.
Balfour helps him gain a passport.
The faculty of St Sergius allow Elder Sophrony
to sit the examinations of the whole course,
providing for his needs; however, upon arrival,
this is blocked by faculty insistence on Elder
Sophrony denying by silence the grace of the
Moscow Patriarchate, which he refused to do.
Elder Sophrony settles in Russian House, an
old-age home, in St Genevieve-des-Bois, assisting the priest and acting as father confessor.
He has a major operation on a stomach ulcer.
1948: Elder Sophrony produces rst mimeographed
edition of Staretz Silouan on hand-roneo. In it,
Elder Sophrony outlines St Silouans principles of
theology, and explains many fundamental concepts

Essex, England

1958: Elder Sophrony had many people living near

him and seeking the monastic life. A property at
Tolleshunt Knights, Maldon, Essex, England was inspected.
1959: Community of St John the Baptist formed
at Tolleshunt Knights under Metropolitan Anthony
(Bloom) of Sourozh. Monastery has both monks
and nuns, and numbers six.
1965: Monastery of St John the Baptist, with blessing of Patriarch Alexy, moved under the Ecumenical
Patriarchate's omophorion. Later, the Ecumenical Patriarchate would upgrade the Monastery to
Stavropegic.
1973: Publication of a more complete translation of
Monk of Mt Athos (the life of St Silouan).
1975: Publication of Wisdom of Mt Athos (the writings of St Silouan).
1977: His Life is Mine published.
1985: We Shall See Him As He Is published, to
mixed reviews: the West generally enjoyed the
book, the Russians generally criticised the book.
Some criticism was so stinging that it, along with
illness, discouraged Elder Sophrony from writing
again.
1987: Ecumenical Patriarchate glories St Silouan
the Athonite.

1.6

Events of and after his death

The monastery had been informed that the only way that
it could bury people on its property was to build an underground crypt, which it proceeded to build, and in which
Elder Sophrony said that he would not die until the crypt
was ready. Then, having been told of the expected completion date of 12 July 1993, Elder Sophrony stated that
he would be ready. On 11 July 1993, Elder Sophrony
died, and on the 14th was his funeral and burial, attended by monastics from around the world. At the time
of Fr Sophronys death, there were 25 monastics in the
monastery, a number that has grown since then.
Mother Elizabeth, the eldest nun, died soon after, on
the 24th. This was in accordance with Elder Sophronys
words that he would die rst, and she would die soon after.
On Prayer, a book containing Elder Sophronys writings
on prayer - particularly the Jesus Prayer - was published
posthumously.

Books

I Know a Man in Christ: Elder Sophrony the

Hesychast and Theologian by Hierotheos (Vlachos).
Holy Monastery of the Birth of the Theotokos, 2015
(ISBN 9-60707-089-5).

3 Quotes
No one on this earth can avoid aiction; and although
the aictions which the Lord sends are not great men
imagine them beyond their strength and are crushed by
them. This is because they will not humble their souls
and commit themselves to the will of God. But the Lord
Himself guides with His grace those who are given over to
Gods will, and they bear all things with fortitude for the
sake of God Whom they have so loved and with Whom
they are gloried for ever. It is impossible to escape tribulation in this world but the man who is given over to the
will of God bears tribulation easily, seeing it but putting
his trust in the Lord, and so his tribulations pass.
There are three things I cannot take in: nondogmatic
faith, nonecclesiological Christianity and nonascetic
Christianity. These three - the church, dogma, and asceticism - constitute one single life for me. - Letter to D.
Balfour, August 21, 1945.

The Undistorted Image: Staretz Silouan, 18661938, 1948, 1952. Faith Press, 1958 (ISBN
If one rejects the Orthodox creed and the eastern asB0007IXVB0).
cetic experience of life in Christ, which has been acquired
The Monk of Mount Athos: Staretz Silouan 1866- throughout the centuries, then Orthodox culture would be
1938, Mowbray, 1973 (ISBN 0-264-64618-5). St. left with nothing but the Greek minor [key] and Russian
Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1997 (ISBN 0-913836- tetraphony. - Letter to D. Balfour.
15-X).
There are known instances when Blessed Staretz Silouan
Wisdom from Mount Athos: The Writings of Staretz in prayer beheld something remote as though it were hapSiloan 1866-1938, St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, pening close by; when he saw into someones future, or
when profound secrets of the human soul were revealed
1975 (ISBN 0-913836-17-6).
to him. There are many people still alive who can bear
His Life is Mine, St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, witness to this in their own case but he himself never as1977 (ISBN B000B9E2WW). St. Vladimirs Semi- pired to it and never accorded much signicance to it. His
nary Press, 1997 (ISBN 0-913836-33-8).
soul was totally engulfed in compassion for the world. He
We Shall See Him As He Is, 1985. Essex, Eng- concentrated himself utterly on prayer for the world, and
land: Stravropegic Monastery of St. John the Bap- in his spiritual life prized this love above all else. -- St
Silouan the Athonite, p. 228.
tist, 1988.

Saint Silouan, the Athonite, St. Vladimirs Seminary In my young days ... I had been attracted to the idea of
Press; reprint edition, 1999 (ISBN 0-88141-195-7). pure creativity, taking the form of abstract art. ... I derived ideas for my abstract studies from life around me.
On Prayer, St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1998 I would look at a man, a house, a plant, at intricate ma(ISBN 0-88141-194-9).
chinery, extravagant shadowscapes on walls or ceilings, at
quivering bonre ames, and would compose them into
abstract pictures, creating in my imagination visions that
2.1 Biographical
were not like actual reality. ... Fortunately I soon realised
that it was not given to me, a human being, to create from
Christ, Our Way and Our Life by Archimandrite
'nothing', in the way only God can create. I realised that
Zacharias. A Presentation of the theology of
everything that I created was conditioned by what was alArchimandrite Sophrony. (ISBN 1-878997-74-2).
ready in existence. I could not invent a new colour or
I Love Therefore I Am by Nicholas V. Sakharov. St. line that had never existed anywhere before. An abstract
Vladimirs Seminary Press, 2003 (ISBN 0-88141- picture is like a string of words, beautiful and sonorous
236-8).
in themselves, perhaps, but never expressing a complete

thought...Preface to St Silouan the Athonite

See also
Theoria

Notes

[1] Orthodoxwiki

Online sources
http://sophrony.narod.ru/indexe.html
http://sophrony.narod.ru/texts/necrolog1.htm
http://sophrony.narod.ru/texts/chapt1.htm

External links
Interview with Archimandrite Hierotheos on Elder
Sophrony, excerpt from Divine Ascent.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Sophrony (Sakharov) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophrony_(Sakharov)?oldid=680279357 Contributors: RodC, Kusunose,

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8.2

Images

File:Eldersophrony.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Eldersophrony.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Jack1956

8.3

Content license

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