The Northern Thebaid: Monastic Saints of the Russian North

Publication Data: Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2004
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 301
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.3 cm × 15.3 cm × 1.6 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 0‒938635‒37‒9

   
Compiled and Translated by Fr. Seraphim (Rose) and Fr. Herman (Podmoshensky)
with an Introduction by I. M. Kontzevitch

“Every Orthodox Christian should know the Lives of the Fathers of the desert, which together with the Lives of the Martyrs give us the model for our own life of Christian struggle. Even so, every Orthodox Christian should know of Valaam, of Solovki, of Svir, of Siya and Obnora and White Lake, of the Skete of Sora, and of the Angel-like men who dwelled there before being translated to heaven, living the Orthodox spiritual life to which every Orthodox Christian is called, according to his strength and the conditions of his life. Every Orthodox Christian should be inspired by their life of struggle far from the world. There is no ‘romanticism’ here. [...]The spiritual life of the true monastic tradition is the norm of our Christian life[...]. If we do not live like these Saints, then let us at least increase our far-too-feeble struggles for God, and offer our fervent tears of repentance and our constant self-reproach at falling so short of the standard of perfection which God has shown us in His wondrous Saints.”
—“Preface”

CONTENTS

Preface to the Third Edition
Preface
Introduction
   by Prof. I. M. Kontzevitch
I. The Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh (†1392)
   Abba of the Northern Thebaid
II. The Life of St. Paul of Obnora (†1429)
   in the Komel Forests of Vologda
III. The Life of St. Cyril of Belozersk (†1429)
   or White Lake, in the Heart of the Northern Thebaid
IV. The Life of St. Sabbatius of Solovki (†1435)
   in the Arctic Waters of the White Sea
V. The Life of St. Nilus of Sora (†1508)
   and His Skete Tradition
VI. The Life of St. Alexander of Svir (†1533),
   Blessed Seer of the Holy Trinity
VII. The Life of St. Anthony of Siya (†1566),
   Desert-Dweller of the Northern Dvina
VIII. The Life of St. Euphrosynus (†1612),
   Martyr-Confessor of Blue-Jay Lake
IX. The Life of St. Diodorus of George-Hill (†1633)
   and the Desert-Dwellers of the Utmost North
X. The Life of St. Dorothy of Kashin (†1629)
   and the Righteous Women of Holy Russia
XI. The Life of St. Nicodemus of Kozha Lake (†1640)
   Anchorite of the Arctic Tundra
XII. The Life of St. Dalmatus of Siberia (†1697)
   and the Monastic Exodus into the Siberian Taiga
Epilogue: The Eighteenth Century
Appendix to the Third Edition: The Second Uncovering of the Holy Relics of St. Alexander of Svir