2022 Service Schedule:
- Friday, September 23, 7:00am - Akathist to St Silouan
- Download and print the Akathist here
The Way of St. Silouan
"There once lived a person of great spiritual strength whose name was Siluan. He prayed long with tearful cries of "Lord have mercy on me," but God would not hear him. Many months went by in such prayer, and the strength of his soul was dissipated; he lost heart and cried, "You are unresponsive to prayer!" And suddenly, with these words on his lips and his soul drained of strength, for a moment he saw the Living Christ. His heart and entire body were filled with such flame that had the apparition continued another second, he would have died.
"Later he was unable to forget the inexpressibly meek, limitlessly loving, joyful and peaceful look of Christ; from that point forward he witnessed untiringly that God is love, love without measure or frontiers..."
Continue reading this brief but grace-filled Life of St Silouan by Bishop Alexander (Mileant). Included also are Teachings and Sermons of Elder Silouan, and a Final Word by Bishop Alexander.
Articles & Resources:
St. Silouan Resource Page, with dozens of links, at the Mystagogy Resource Center.
Special photo essay on the Life of St Silouan by St. Elisabeth Convent in Minsk.
A brief intro to St. Silouan on OrthodoxWiki, with photo and icon.
Suggested Books:
Titles by St Sophrony of Essex, spiritual son of St Silouan:
Saint Silouan the Athonite — The classic, authorized life of the saint by his disciple, Elder Sophrony.
The Monk of Mount Athos — A convenient, slim volume published before the glorification of Staretz Silouan.
Wisdom from Mount Athos, The Writings of Staretz Silouan — The companion volume to The Monk of Mount Athos.
By Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou of Essex, spiritual son of St Sophrony:
Fr. Zacharias presents the spiritual and pastoral way of St. Silouan and Elder Sophrony in a very readable style. The text is adapted from several talks given by Fr. Zacharias at a clergy retreat in the early 2000s. (Archimandrite Zacharias is a disciple of Elder Sophrony and a member of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, England, the monastery founded by Elder Sophrony)
Videos:
Fr. Zacharias Zacharou gives a talk on the way of St Silouan and Elder Sophrony
(1:29:47) Presented at St Tikhon's Monastery, Feb. 2014. Several other talks by Fr Zacharias are available on YouTube.
St Silouan the Athonite (Documentary) - 2018, Russian, with English subtitles (40:04) - Also embedded below.
YouTube Lecture Series: Guided Book Study, St. Silouan the Athonite Series by St. Sophrony, led by Isaac Lampart (13 videos, ranging from 34 min. to 1 hr. 10 min., with most being about an hour, and one short video of 12 min.)
Services:
Akathist to St Silouan the Athonite
Supplicatory Canon to St Silouan
2018, Russian, with English subtitles. 40 minutes. — Monks of Mount Athos give a tour of the Saint's monastery (St. Panteleimon) and many of the key sites where he lived and prayed, with many excerpts from his writings.
