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John Haun
17-11-2002, 08:35 PM
Hello,

I am currently reading the book The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia, by I.M. Kontzevitch. (St.Herman of Alaska Brotherhood 1988) In Chapter Two of the book, there is a detailed discussion of the struggle with passions. The author uses Russian terms such as prilog for provocation, sochetanie for conjunction, and slozhenie for joining with passionate thoughts. Furthermore, the author specificies that such terms are discussed more thoroughly in writings by St. Nilius of Sora and in a series of books entitled Asceticism by a Professor Zarin. My questions are: Can anyone reccomend a book or books that discuss the teachings of St. Nilius in an in-depth manner (especially the above concepts)? After conducting a search, I cannot seem to find any published writings of the Saint. Are there any secondary works which give a good description of his teachings? Finally, is there an English translation of Asceticism by Professor Zarin? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

sinjin smithe
18-11-2002, 02:04 AM
John I don't know how much I can help you but St. Nilius is a saint from northern Russia. His life is told in the book by Father Seraphim Rose, The Northern Thebaid: Monastic Saints of the Russian North. That is all I have for you. You may want to try and contact the St. Herman of Alaska brotherhood as they may be able to have some information for you. Another good way is try the ROCOR sites as the may have something about St. Nilius of Sora

John Wehling
18-11-2002, 06:44 AM
John,

Paulist Press has been promising to publish a translation of at least a selection of the writings of St Nilus, but I don't know if it is out yet. If you look at Amazon and enter either Nil Sorsky or Nilus of Sora you might get a hit.

Concerning secondaary literature, I can suggest Nicholas Zernov's The Russians and their Church, Kovalesky's Saint Sergius and Russian Spirituality (both from SVS Press), and Bolshakoff's Russian Mystics, which devotes a lenghty chapter to St Nilus. The latter I read before my conversion, but as I recall it is was a good introduction. It is available from Cistercian Publications.

Hope this helps,
John

John Wehling
18-11-2002, 06:50 AM
John,

I decided to look at Amazon myself, and you can see what I found here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0809104970/qid=1037598312/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5099977-5012622?v=glance&s=books). Looks like George Maloney (a Roman Catholic priest long interested in Orthodox saints and spirituality) is behind this work. I await its arrival with anticipation, as do you I imagine. Amazon says it is due January of next year. Here's hopin'...

Peace,
John